House GOP Would Have Taxpayers Pay for Cleanup When Fracking Boom Goes Bust

A House committee is considering legislation introduced by Colorado Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert that could leave taxpayers on the hook for up to $17.7 billion in costs associated with cleaning up oil and gas wells abandoned on public lands by fracking companies and other polluters, according to a new report from the watchdog group Public Citizen.

Oil and gas industry lobbyists and their allies on Capitol Hill are working to defeat a Biden administration proposal that would strengthen federal requirements designed to force fossil fuel companies to plug wells and clean up drilling sites on federal lands after extraction. Boebert’s bill would direct the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to withdraw its proposal, and the House Natural Resources Committee considered the bill for markup on Wednesday.

Elon Musk Wants Me Fired. The People of San Francisco Want Him Taxed

There’s a narrative about San Francisco that is as persistent as it is incorrect: The city’s post-pandemic struggles are the result of progressive policies run amok.

This was certainly the sentiment behind billionaire Elon Musk, who reportedly lives in Texas, calling for me, a democratically elected representative in San Francisco, to be “fired.” His post on X, formerly Twitter, alleged that I was arguably the person “most responsible for the destruction of San Francisco.” In late September, he wrote that I “should go to prison.”

Businesses want to make it harder to raise California taxes. Democrats are pushing back

A tussle over tax hikes in California is intensifying. California Democrats have answered a tax-reform push by business groups with their own proposal to undercut it.

The escalating dispute over voters’ roles in approving or rejecting tax increases is a reflection of ballot initiatives’ outsize role in Sacramento and the game of cat and mouse that often plays out between opposing interests.

Canadian residents hit by Trump tax dealt a new blow

Thousands of Canadian residents hit hard by a retroactive tax signed into law by U.S. President Donald Trump have been dealt another blow, CBC News has learned.

Newly proposed regulations issued by the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service threaten to increase their tax hit.

Why the Opponents of BC’s New Tax on Homes Over $3 Million Are Wrong

British Columbia’s new surtax on high-value homes has elicited outcry by many affected homeowners, calling it “radical,” “punitive,” “confiscatory,” and simply “unfair.” In contrast, opinion polls of the general public find wide support for this addition to the provincial “school tax.”

What would taxation policy analysts say about the charge that the property surtax is unfair? To begin, they would ask whether it meets the four criteria of good tax policy enunciated first by Adam Smith: simplicity, certainty, efficiency and equity. Let’s see if it does.

How Amazon Is Holding Seattle Hostage

SEATTLE ― The 9:30 a.m. meeting of the Seattle City Council’s Finance and Neighborhoods Committee ― the most boring name imaginable ― was overflowing. People in the crowd held up signs: “Don’t vote our jobs away” or “Tax the rich.”

The committee was taking public comment on the proposed Progressive Tax on Business, a fee on Seattle’s largest corporations to support homeless services. Last week, Amazon — the employer of more than 45,000 Seattleites that is on the hook for an estimated $20 million under the tax — announced it was pausing construction planning on a tower downtown and would consider renting some of its office space to other companies if the fee goes through.

Fastest Way to More Rental Housing? Tax Changes

People keep asking “Why is there so little new rental housing built?”

The real question should be “Why are investors not interested in building new rental housing?”

The answer is that Canadian tax policy since 1972 has made new rental construction a very poor investment. It’s that simple.

I'm an American living in Sweden. Here's why I came to embrace the higher taxes.

I was visiting the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, a 23-island archipelago in Lake Superior, when suddenly I found myself pining for Stockholm. Why? Because standing on the boat dock in Bayfield, Wisconsin, I realized that the 23,000-island Stockholm archipelago is more accessible to me, an American, than my own 23-island national park.

These wilderness islands with haunting sea caves are accessible only by tour boat at a cost of $151 for a family of two adults and three children. There is no free 15-minute ride across the strait to Basswood Island closest to the mainland, nor a $10 shuttle between the islands, as there would be in Sweden where a heavily subsidized ferry system makes the Stockholm archipelago available to all citizens — as well as to American tourists.

This City Just Came Up With a Novel Way to Fight Inequality: Taxing Corporations With Extreme Pay Gaps

Portland has just opened up a new front in the struggle against inequality. On December 7, local officials voted to slap a surtax on corporations that pay their chief executive officers more than 100 times what they pay their typical workers.

The Portland move will be the nation’s first tax penalty on corporations with extreme CEO-worker pay gaps. But it’s unlikely to be the last. Much like the Fight for $15, this bold reform could well spread like wildfire.

Trump Won’t Release His Taxes, Says Top Aide

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump will not be releasing his tax returns, his top aide said Wednesday on “CBS This Morning.”

“Mr. Trump has said that his taxes are under audit and he will not be releasing them,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, said.

Addressing questions about whether Trump has financial ties to Russia, Manafort said Trump’s decision to break with tradition and not release his taxes “has nothing to do with Russia, it has nothing to do with any country other than the United States and his normal tax auditing process.”

Taxman gouges car buyers for money never spent

Federal tax authorities are "respectfully declining" to discuss just how deeply they are thrusting the grasping hand of government into the pockets of new car buyers, and no wonder.

New car sales are up nearly 10 per cent this year over last year, and last year broke sales records. Canadians are spending tens of billions, and federal and provincial governments are raking in a healthy chunk of every dollar spent — 13 per cent, for example, in Ontario.

This Study Shows How Low Corporate America’s Taxes Really Are

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) requested the Government Accountability Office study.
The presidential hopeful said the findings reveal that “there is something profoundly wrong in America.”

The report comes amid a rise in “corporate inversion” deals aimed at avoiding U.S. corporate taxes.

A new government report shows just how easy corporate America has it.

How Christy Clark Talks to Kids about Taxes

By her own account, Premier Christy Clark tells children that if it weren't for logging British Columbia's forests, their parents would face higher taxes and require government handouts.

But an observer says Clark does a disservice to children when she oversimplifies the choices governments make.

"There's always one child, no matter where I talk to kids from in the province, who when I ask them what they'd like to do, what their wish would be if they could be Premier, is they say, 'We should stop cutting down trees,'" Clark said in an April 8 speech to the Council of Forest Industries convention in Kelowna.

Wall Street Should Pay a Sales Tax, Too

In case there was any doubt, the presidential election fight has confirmed that blasting Wall Street, even eight years after the financial crisis, is still a vote-getter.

Hillary Clinton has said she'd like to jail more bankers. Donald Trump has skewered the hedge fund managers who are "getting away with murder." And Bernie Sanders has made Wall Street accountability a centerpiece of his campaign.

Discriminatory Tax Goes Beyond Women's Tampons

While the rally cries of 'don't tax my vagina' are confronting and provocative, there is far less understanding concerning the gendered implications of how governments tax income, savings and wealth, and redistributes this using the transfer system.

While women clearly face a wide variety of circumstances that may affect their savings balances, decision to seek work, and superannuation payouts -- no single issue appears to affect the female experience as directly as the marginal costs of tax, welfare and childcare. As a result, tax and transfer policies (i.e. the money the government taxes its citizens and uses to transfer to the public interest) are a far larger concern than the media tends to make out.

Work until you're 75 - or even 81 - under Government review of state pension age

Millions of people could be forced to work until they are 75, the Government has hinted as details of a review into the state pension age were published.

Ministers have announced a radical review of the pensions regime amid concerns that he current system is not "affordable in the long-term".

Tax Loopholes For Rich Cost Canada $16 Billion A Year: Study

Closing five tax loopholes that mostly benefit the wealthy would raise nearly $16 billion annually for Canada’s federal and provincial governments, according to a study from a prominent economist.

Toby Sanger says these tax loopholes — which have grown more generous since the late 1990s — have increased inequality and led to greater financial instability.

Poor BC Families Pay Twice the Tax as Alberta, Quebec 'For the Moment,' Minister Says

Even though low-income families in British Columbia pay more than double the total tax they would in Alberta or Quebec, their taxes are lower than they would be in many other provinces, said Finance Minister Michael de Jong.

"We're in third place, I think, in that particular wage bracket," de Jong said Thursday. "In every single wage bracket identified, a comparison across the board puts us in either third, second or first place. In that case, it's third place in the country."

BC Best Province for Low Taxes? Uh, Not for Poor Families

A low-income family in British Columbia pays more than twice as much tax as a similar family in Alberta or Quebec, according to a comparison included in B.C.'s budget documents this week.

The fact stands in stark contrast to a claim Finance Minister Michael de Jong made while presenting the budget on Tuesday.

Singling out a Belgian-born Radio Canada reporter, de Jong said in French, "For me, it's important to understand, the same person if he lives in Montreal, Trois Rivieres or Quebec, he's going to pay $8,000 -- $8,000 Sophie! -- more than the same person in British Columbia. It's incredible."

Millions face 'retirement crisis' over pensions tax raid

Millions of middle-class workers will face a "retirement crisis" if George Osborne pushes ahead with a multi-billion pound raid on pensions, a new analysis has found.

The Chancellor is considering plans to end more generous rebates for higher rate taxpayers on pension contributions and replace them with a flat rate of relief which could be as low as 20 per cent.