Infinite Unknown

But money doesn’t matter to our impartial, public interest serving politicians, so don’t worry!

- Between 2008 And 2010, 30 Big Corporations Spent More Lobbying Washington Than They Paid In Income Taxes (Think Progress, Dec. 7, 2011):

Today, thousands of 99 Percenters will march on K Street in Washington, D.C. as a part of an action called “Take Back The Capitol,” taking aim at the lobbying firms that corporate interests use to influence the federal government.

A report released this month by Public Campaign demonstrates just how important it is for Americans to battle corporate special interests and reclaim our democracy. The group’s research finds that thirty big corporations actually spent more money lobbying the federal government between 2008 and 2010 than they spent in taxes. For example, General Electric — one of the top 10 most profitable companies in the world — got a net tax rebate of $4.7 billion during this period. Meanwhile, it spent $84 million lobbying the federal government.

Here’s the full list of the 30 corporations identified and what they paid in federal taxes as opposed to lobbying:

To follow today’s actions, check out Take Back The Capitol’s website, and find instant updates about the protest through the hashtag #99indc. ThinkProgress will be covering today’s events at our 99 Percent Movement special topics page.

Tags: Corporations, Economy, Global News, Government, Lobbyists, Politics, Taxes, U.S.

- GE Filed 57,000-Page Tax Return, Paid No Taxes on $14 Billion in Profits (The Weekly Standard, Nov 17, 2011):

General Electric, one of the largest corporations in America, filed a whopping 57,000-page federal tax return earlier this year but didn’t pay taxes on $14 billion in profits. The return, which was filed electronically, would have been 19 feet high if printed out and stacked.

The fact that GE paid no taxes in 2010 was widely reported earlier this year, but the size of its tax return first came to light when House budget committee chairman Paul Ryan (R, Wisc.) made the case for corporate tax reform at a recent townhall meeting. ”GE was able to utilize all of these various loopholes, all of these various deductions–it’s legal,” Ryan said. Nine billion dollars of GE’s profits came overseas, outside the jurisdiction of U.S. tax law. GE wasn’t taxed on $5 billion in U.S. profits because it utilized numerous deductions and tax credits, including tax breaks for investments in low-income housing, green energy, research and development, as well as depreciation of property.

“I asked the GE tax officer, ‘How long was your tax form?’” Ryan said. “He said, ‘Well, we file electronically, we don’t measure in pages.’” Ryan asked for an estimate, which came back at a stunning 57,000 pages. When Ryan relayed the story at the townhall meeting in Janesville, there were audible gasps from the crowd.

Ken Kies, a tax lawyer who represents GE, confirmed to THE WEEKLY STANDARD the tax return would have been 57,000 pages had it been filed on paper. The size of GE’s tax return has more than doubled in the last five years.

Tags: Economy, General Electric, Global News, Society, Taxes

You can’t make this stuff up!

- Crony Capitalism, Christmas Trees, and the Stupidest Tax of All Time(US Senator Jim De Mint, Nov. 9, 2011):

Mr. Grinch, Mr. Scrooge, meet Mr. Obama.

No, it’s not a joke. President Obama really is imposing a special new tax on Christmas trees.

And while the policy seems a ludicrous political misstep – and possibly an unconstitutional one at that – in truth, the Obama Christmas Tree Tax is much worse than that.

The $2 million the Obama Administration expects the tax to raise will not reduce the deficit or cover needed government services.  Instead, it will serve as a marketing slush fund for the Christmas tree industry.

The money will set up a brand new government agency called (no, seriously) the Christmas Tree Promotion Board.  The CTPB will use the $2 million to hire a staff – most likely the industry lobbyists who cooked up this scheme –  and then run advertisements to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry of the United States.”

Don’t the Christmas tree growers and retailers already do that?  Yes.  Isn’t marketing something that all companies should do with their profits, to grow their business and attract new customers?  Yes.

And while we’re asking questions, does anyone in America – anyone? – believe that Christmas trees have a bad image that needs taxpayer-subsidized improvement?

So why should the government-funded Christmas Tree Promotion Board tax us to fund a marketing campaign?  So the Christmas tree industry can pocket the $2 million they now won’t have to spend marketing their trees.

That’s it.  That’s the whole purpose of the Obama Christmas Tree Tax: to take money from hard-working families celebrating Christmas and give it to clever lobbyists and businessmen running a crony-capitalist subsidy scam.

And while this policy will, by design, help one group of people, it will hurt others: businesses that sell artificial Christmas trees, people who work at your local stores that sell them, and, don’t forget, the consumers who are out 15 cents a tree.

Business groups using government connections to enrich themselves by hurting everyone else.  Makes you just want to break into “O Holy Night,” doesn’t it?

Hopefully, the Crony Capitalists in the Obama Administration have gone too far this time, and public backlash will force Congress to shut down the Christmas Tree Promotion Board and repeal the single stupidest tax of all time. I will soon offer an amendment on the Senate floor to do just that.

All I want for Christmas is a free market.

- Obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax (The Foundry, Nov. 8, 2011):

President Obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing David R. Shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board.  The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)).  And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52).  And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Christmas Tree Promotion Board, Economy, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

YouTube Added: 18.10.2011

These are your ‘alternatives’:

- Presidential Candidate Jon Huntsman Wants Preemptive Iran Strike: ‘I Cannot Live With A Nuclear-Armed Iran. If You Want An Example Of When I Would Use American Force, It Would Be That’

- Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney Argues For Increase In Military Spending To Ensure US Military Dominance Over Other Nations

- Presidential Candidate Herman Cain: ‘There’s No Reason To Audit The Federal Reserve’

- Presidential Candidate Rick Perry Open To Send US Military To Kill Drug Cartels IN MEXICO

Ron Paul is correct on Guantanamo:

- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld ‘Knew Guantánamo Prisoners Were Innocent’:

George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld covered up that hundreds of innocent men were sent to the Guantánamo Bay prison camp because they feared that releasing them would harm the push for war in Iraq and the broader War on Terror, according to a new document obtained by The Times.

See also:

- Change: Obama Creates INDEFINITE DETENTION system for prisoners at Guantanamo Bay

- Obama Administration Abandons Guantánamo Closure Plan

Tags: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Debt, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Government, Guantánamo, Immigration, Israel, Keynesianism, Military, Obama administration, Ron Paul, Society, Taxes, U.S.

- IRS Auditing How Google Shifted Profits (Bloomberg, Oct 13, 2011):

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is auditing how Google Inc. (GOOG) avoided federal income taxes by shifting profit into offshore subsidiaries, according to a person with knowledge of the matter.

The agency is bringing more than typical scrutiny to how the company valued software rights and other intellectual property it licensed abroad, said the person, who requested anonymity because the audit isn’t public. The IRS has requested information from Google about its offshore deals after three acquisitions, including its $1.65 billion purchase of YouTube, the person said. The transfer overseas of these kinds of rights has enabled Google to attribute earnings to foreign units that pay lower taxes, Bloomberg News reported a year ago.

While Google’s potential liability isn’t clear, similar deals between companies and offshore arms are often the subject of disputes over hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes, said Daniel Frisch, an economist at Horst Frisch Inc. which advises businesses on transfer pricing — the allocation of income between units in different countries. In 2006, the IRS settled a case with drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) for $3.4 billion.

“The very biggest transfer-pricing tax disputes are over transfers of intangibles to offshore subsidiaries,” said Frisch, whose firm is based in Washington.

Google, owner of the world’s most popular search engine, has cut its worldwide tax bill by about $1 billion a year using a pair of strategies called the “Double Irish” and “Dutch Sandwich,” which move profits through units in Ireland, the Netherlands and Bermuda. Google reported an effective tax rate of 18.8 percent in the second quarter, less than half the average combined U.S. and state statutory rate of 39.2 percent. Continue reading »

Tags: Economy, Global News, Google, Government, IRS, Taxes

- Comprehensive List of All 14 Tax Hikes in Obama’s “Stimulus 2.0″ Plan (Americans For Tax Reform, Sep. 14, 2011):

There are fourteen new or higher taxes in President Obama’s “Stimulus 2.0″ plan he wants Congress to pass. Permanent tax hikes for new spending.

President Obama has asked Congress to pass his “American Jobs Act,” a bill which is a series of permanent tax increases funding temporary tax relief and new spending programs.  The overall act is a net tax increase (score pending).  All tax hikes are scheduled to take effect in 2013.   Below is a comprehensive list of the 14 tax hikes in the bill (in order of appearance in Stimulus 2.0):

Spectrum Tax (Sec. 278): A new $4.8 billion hidden tax on wireless consumers. Levied on users of licensed spectrum, the tax will hit consumers who use mobile phones, tablets, and other wireless devices. Worst of all, the Federal Communications Commission could raise or punitively-target this Spectrum Tax at whim from this $4.8 billion floor. Continue reading »

Tags: Barack Obama, Global News, Government, Obama administration, Politics, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

- U.S. incomes fell sharply in 2009: IRS data (Reuters, Aug 4, 2011):

U.S. incomes plummeted again in 2009, with total income down 15.2 percent in real terms since 2007, new tax data showed on Wednesday.

The data showed an alarming drop in the number of taxpayers reporting any earnings from a job — down by nearly 4.2 million from 2007 — meaning every 33rd household that had work in 2007 had no work in 2009.

Continue reading »

Tags: Economy, Global News, IRS, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

For your information …

There are more than 100 reasons why it is important to own a remote (!) farm in the coming collapse.

This article is mainly focused on investment real estate.

- 30 Reasons To Get Out Of Real Estate And Into REAL Assets (Business Insider, July 8, 2011):

“You can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.”
–Abraham Lincoln

We are in a major paradigm shift that like a tsunami starts slowly and ends with the landscape wiped clean.The paradigm shift is from paper assets to real tangible assets. This shift happens every generation or so,where one asset class dramatically outperforms the other.

The 40′s and 50′s paper assets like stocks and bonds were the place to be. In the 60′s and 70′s real assets like oil,cattle and precious metals were the best performing assets. In the 80′s and 90′s paper assets once again reigned supreme. Since 2000 there has been a real rush from paper assets to real assets once again. This paradigm shift will be much more dramatic than anything we have seen in our life time. This asset shift is going to coincide with a major shifts in demographics,politics,and world power.

The collapse of paper assets will not only include stocks and bonds, it will be the collapse of the entire basis of our society, the dollar. The dollar is the nexus of all commerce and is our way of life. The almighty dollar has terminal cancer and it will not recover to live to see the next paradigm. This shift from paper assets and real assets is driven by money/debt creation. Since our dollar IS debt,it is necessary for more debt to be created every year in excess of the debt AND interest accrued the year before. The majority of this debt was created during boom times when no one feared debt. When the inevitable slow down came,the Elite created more money/debt to keep the system going. This new money/debt creation,relative to the amount of real goods and services in a slowing economy,produces more inflation which naturally boosts the value of real assets.

This cycle has been successfully managed by the Elite in the past with the creation of Bretton Woods, the closing of the gold window,the Petro Dollar, Paul Volker slaying the inflation dragon in the 80′s with 22% interest rates,the banker bailout and QE 1 and 2. This time around,there is no way out except for a default. How that default plays out is still up in the air. I believe that we will get another deflationary shock to scare Congress and us into more money creation and then it is off to the hyper inflationary printing presses. The ONLY way to protect yourself from this mathematically inevitable disaster is to sell all of your paper assets now and buy real tangible assets. (Please read the ground breaking the Silver Bullet and Silver Shield for a better understanding of this concept.)

One of the most common misconceptions of real tangible assets is the thought that Real Estate is a real tangible asset. After all, it is called REAL Estate. Real Estate is much more a paper asset than a real asset and it will suffer tremendously during this dollar collapse. The Real Estate question is the biggest question I get in my Strategy Sessions. Real Estate is such a huge and personal investment,so it is hard for people to think rationally and unemotionally about this. If you can not only grasp the idea,but have enough courage to follow through on your idea,this will prove to be one of your most important decision you will ever make.

I want to lay out as many reasons as I can on why you should divest all of your investment Real Estate portfolio right now. I would have preferred you sell your real estate and buy real tangible assets like I did in 2005,but we are on the verge of another leg down in Real Estate and the name of the game is wealth preservation. Beyond wealth preservation, I believe that those that hold their wealth in real assets will see a massive increase in their real purchasing power.  So here are all of the reasons why you should flee the investment Real Estate market while you still can. Continue reading »

Tags: Agenda 21, Bonds, Debt, Dollar, Economy, Fed, Federal Reserve, Global News, Gold, Government, Politics, Quantitative Easing, Real Estate, Silver, Society, Taxes

Slim hopes: Senator Shane Cultra proposed a ‘fat tax’

Obesity levels have risen sharply in the past 20 years in the U.S. and one Illinois lawmaker thinks he has the solution – force parents of chunky children to lose their tax breaks.

One in four people in a staggering 33 states are obese and State Senator Shane Cultra says that hitting people in their pockets is the way to slim-down the country.

‘It’s the parents responsibility that have obese kids,’ he said yesterday. ‘Take the tax deduction away for parents that have obese kids.’

Continue reading »

Tags: Global News, Government, Illinois, Law, Obesity, Politics, Society, Taxes, Taxpayers, U.S.

Only physical silver is real, everything else is an illusion.

And I’ve told you so many times before.

Added: 26.02.2011

Tags: BlackRock, Economy, Fraud, Global News, Government, iShares Silver Trust, JPMorgan, Politics, Silver, Taxes, U.S., Warren Buffett