Taxation

Leaning Against the Privileged Place of Investments

By Justin Katz | September 3, 2012 |

Readers shouldn’t be surprised to hear that I’m largely in agreement with Peter Ferrara’s “Obama’s Accelerating Downward Spiral for America,” but he happens to voice one bit of center-right common wisdom with which I have growing disagreement: There is no secret or magic as to how to turn around these declining incomes.  Increased investment in business…

Note To GoLocalProv: RI “Rich Pay Less In Income Tax” = Third Highest Income Tax Rate In Country

By Monique Chartier | August 27, 2012 |

GoLocalProv’s Dan Lawlor has a column today in which he attempts to causatively link Rhode Island’s top income tax rate to our unemployment rate. In 1997, during a boom economy in RI- remember the Renaissance? – the top income earners had a 27.5% income tax rate. Our jobless rate was 5.3%. Ah, but then, in…

When I Grow Up, I Wanna Be a Crony

By Marc Comtois | August 24, 2012 |

I can’t confirm if this was filmed in Rhode Island or not (h/t): “I’m gonna fight for MY piece of the taxpayer pie.” “What’s a crony?” “It’s like having a best friend who gives you other people’s stuff.” “We take care of our friends.” “We get to spend taxpayer money any way we want.” “Why…

Legislative Votes For and Against Tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge

By Justin Katz | August 10, 2012 |

Rhode Islanders, mainly from the East Bay, have organized a protest at Clements Market in Portsmouth, this afternoon, against tolls on the Sakonnet River Bridge. The hope is that the language that the General Assembly passed into law, this session, as Article 20 of the budget bill (7323Aaa) can be reversed. That article and the…

Rhode Island To Offer Tax Amnesty

By Monique Chartier | July 19, 2012 |

Governor Chafee’s spokeswoman, Christine Hunsinger, confirmed this morning that one of the items in the FY2013 budget was a tax amnesty program. It will run from September 2 to November 15, 2012 and will apply to state taxes including income, sales, use, and unemployment insurance. Note that while monetary penalties and prosecution will be waived…

A Decade of Moving Next Door

By Justin Katz | July 17, 2012 |

I’ve been following taxpayer migration data for years, but in a haphazard way. A new study that I’ve coauthored for the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity finally gave me the opportunity to review all fifteen years of available data from the IRS. The picture — from the 2003 beginning of what can only be…

Small Business Getting the Screws

By Marc Comtois | July 10, 2012 |

While President Obama attempts to frame the lapse of the “Bush tax cuts” in 2013 as a supposed return to the norm–with plenty of help from the media, who have accepted the premise that the extension of current tax rates are actually revenue “losses” should they be “extended”–he also recognizes that it would be political…

Rhode Island Is Not Delaware – Why Not?

By Patrick Laverty | July 10, 2012 |

I’ve been sitting on this article for a few days because I couldn’t think of the best way to write about it. I guess in many ways, it’s just so obvious that there isn’t a whole lot to say. I’ll just throw it out there. On June 30, the NY Times published the article: How…

It’s a Tax on Your Body

By Justin Katz | June 29, 2012 |

Unless I missed some language, the Supreme Court’s ruling on ObamaCare shirks the responsibility of explicitly defining exactly what sort of tax Congress has imposed and how similar taxes might be structured in the future. Still, a thread can be followed. Having just read through the tax-related sections of the ruling, and although the logic…

Residential Property Tax Burdens in Rhode Island Municipalities

By Carroll Andrew Morse | June 27, 2012 |

For reference from an upcoming post, but also interesting in its own right… This table shows the residential property tax levy in each Rhode Island municipality, as a percentage of aggregate income in that municipality, as reported by the census bureau. The details of residential property tax levy, involving the separation of residential from commercial…