The Tax Forum » Bush

Any update on the extra tax refund Bush is supposed to give out this summer?

Tax Forum — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 01:43:24 +0000

missildine22 asked:

You all know what I’m talking about. But I haven’t heard anything about it since the beginning of February. Is it still up in the air or has it been shot down? Also, does anyone know the exceptions to the refund (tax brackets and so on).

What’s your opinion about Bush and the tax refund?

Tax Forum — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 10:10:16 +0000

Herbert asked:

I think the purpose of it is to get our minds off the recession. In addition, Bush do not want to go down in history as being the absolute worse president ever. What do you think?

Am I going to recieve a tax refund from Bush?

Tax Forum — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 01:56:13 +0000

Jilli Bean asked:

What are the income cut-offs?

LouTube: the Bush tax refund is crap

Tax Forum — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 11:54:00 +0000

NorthwestCamera asked:

Seattle commentator Lou Guzzo says the Bush tax refund to stimulate the economy is populist crap.

How will you be given your tax relief money?

Tax Blog — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 04:08:58 +0000

angybebe83 asked:

I filed my taxes on friday however turbo tax told me they were waiting to process until feb 11th due to this tax relief….does this mean my add’l 600.00 from bush will be added to my tax money I am already getting back by direct deposit??? Or are they going to be mailed???
I dont care to hear what people think about this whole tax relief thing I just want to know if anyone knows how it is going to be sent.
Thanks!

Will the IRS Stimulus check be refunded every year?

Tax Blog — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 03:44:43 +0000

bkhoelscher asked:

Was the Stimulus check only offered for this year, or did Bush sign a bill that it is to offered every year??

Energy Taxation: Principles and Interests

Tax Blog — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:55:30 +0000

Energy policy is an important subject these days, as Americans become increasingly aware of the costs of what President Bush has called “our addiction to oil” and the environmental costs of growing world consumption of fossil fuels. Although some foreign oil comes from friendly and politically stable countries, the world price of oil depends heavily on output in potentially hostile, war-torn, and politically unstable regions. Policy changes can help us adjust over time to an economy that uses less oil and generates less greenhouse gas emissions. This article discusses some tax policies, including energy taxes and energy tax incentives, that can be crucial components of an energy policy that addresses global warming and energy security concerns.

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How Far Would $50 Billion in Taxes on the Rich Go? : The Government We Deserve

Tax Blog — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:55:30 +0000

Democrats at Congress’s helm are discovering what Republicans learned by the end of President Bush’s first term: they have little leeway to do anything. But, you say, isn’t Congress going to try to rescind some of the Bush tax cuts? Most likely, yes, but not enough to make much headway against many problems that each entail annual shortfalls of hundreds of billions of dollars. By contrast, the tax changes being considered might, at best, add $50 billion a year in increased revenues.

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Some Ignored Costs of Bonus Depreciation

Tax Blog — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:55:30 +0000

As part of the recent stimulus bill, Congress and President Bush decided to try to grant businesses bonus depreciation allowances for new purchases of equipment. For each $100 spent in 2008 on equipment expected to last at least five years, businesses would be able to deduct the vast majority of costs in the first year $600, versus $240 under the old law. At a 35 percent corporate tax rate, for instance, corporations can get checks from the IRS for $210 instead of $84 in the first year for each $1,000 invested. There is one catch: They must have $210 of taxes already due to get $210 back, or $600 of profit against which to take a $600 deduction. Otherwise they will have to delay taking the deduction which is the world they were already in.

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CBO’s Rosy Scenario

Tax Blog — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 03:53:20 +0000

CBO just posted its latest budget update. The headline number is a $1.2 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2009. That’s indeed alarming—especially considering that it excludes the $750 billion or so in additional stimulus that president-elect Obama promises.

But beyond the next couple of years, things don’t look that bad. The economy recovers, the Bush tax cuts expire, and by 2018, the budget deficit weighs in at a svelte $188 billion. Admittedly, this is still a big reversal from previous forecasts, which held out the promise of surpluses (not to mention the actual, real surplus on the books when President Bush took office). But a sub-$200 billion deficit doesn’t look too scary compared with the current situation.

The only problem with this sort of good news is that the projection is based on the wildly implausible assumption that nothing changes. The Bush tax cuts expire as scheduled at the end of 2010. The AMT consumes the middle class. The dozens of perpetually extended expiring provisions, like the hugely popular research and experimentation tax credit, are allowed to disappear. And the trillions in tax cuts and new spending that president-elect Obama promised just fade into memory.

CBO is not cooking the books. It’s required to assume current law actually plays out as written. But it also provides a very useful supplemental table (Table 7) that shows alternative scenarios. Suppose the Bush tax cuts, the AMT patch, and all the other expiring provisions are extended. Under these assumptions, the rosy scenario turns into a harbinger of doom. By 2019, we’re running trillion dollar deficits again, despite a healthy economy, and the deficits are growing fast.

President-elect Obama understands this parlous arithmetic and has said all the right things about wanting to avoid this dismal fiscal future. However, his campaign insisted that “current policy” (something like the red line in the figure) was the more relevant policy benchmark, and its claims of fiscal responsibility measure up only in comparison to that reckless yardstick.

Let’s hope that while his economic SWAT team attends to the current crisis, it’s also plotting a plausible strategy to avoid the long-term fiscal calamity. A good place to start would be to forget most of his campaign promises.

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