newsobserver.com projects - N.C. Department of Revenue - Comments

Contrition is overrated

GiggleBox — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 08:25:37 -0400

The state investigator who helped put an innocent man on death row had no regrets about his investigation.

Dwight Ransome sounds like he needs a talk show on Fox News. It could be called "I'm not sorry either" and he could interview people like Madoff and Hitler.

Nevermind the $72 grand a year this guy still makes, or the three quarters of a million you and I paid to defend his screw ups punishing the innocent but the $4 million my grandkids will be paying for this idiot is starting to stick in my craw.

Have a nice day Dwight Ransome. I, along with everyone you meet on the street, paid for every minute of it and then some.

Way to go D’Onofrio!

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

rpkt06 — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:15:27 -0400

Actually sir, The cause of the Great Depression…. Hoover signed the Revenue Act – largest tax increase in peacetime history – doubling the income tax. The top bracket went from 24 to 63 percent. Then congress passed the Smoot Hawley tariff act of 1930. In addition to this, the discount rate to banks was increased four times, 3.5 percent to 6 percent from 1928-30/slashing the money supply by 30%. 1932 FDR ran on platform of radically cutting taxes, but did no such thing. FDR raised the corporate tax rate from 79 to 90 percent and instituted National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA), which forced manufacturing industries into government mandated cartels and empowered massive Federal bureaucracy to dictate pricing standards.

Entrepreneurs are among America's greatest resources. These individuals try to change the status quo because they expect to use resources to create higher value than those resources are currently pro¬ducing. This takes investments, and investments are risky. The return to these investments is the economic growth that they create, which is profit.
Corporations are often per¬sonified and demonized, but a corporation is a legal entity, not an actual person. Because a corporation is made up of a group of individuals but is not actually an individual, corporate taxes are really taxes on the stakeholders in the corporation. In a U.S. Treasury report, William Gentry pointed out that empirical studies show that employees and consumers really bear the cost of corporate and investment taxes.
Eliminating the corporate tax would also encour¬age owners to hire and train people and to invest in their workforces because a more competitive tax structure would give corporations a greater incen¬tive to domicile in the U.S. Further, higher levels of investment would require new skills of employees. As these investments paid off, economic growth would occur.
Employees bear much of the tax burden through lower wages. Tax¬ing something will reduce the supply of that item or activity. Taxing businesses reduces business opera¬tions, which means that businesses pay less in wages to employees or hire fewer employees. Con¬versely, eliminating the corporate income tax would encourage more businesses to form, which would increase competition for labor and apply upward pressure on wages, as the simulation results show.
The modern conveniences of the American stan¬dard of living required business investments in the past. The jobs that people hold today were created through past successful investments by entrepre¬neurs. Conversely, most people do not realize that they perhaps lost job opportunities because the U.S. corporate tax is higher than the corporate tax rates of almost all other developed countries.[17]
Repealing the corporate income tax is a relatively low-cost way to implement the President's stated goals. At a time when U.S. employees are seeing jobs leave the country, a tax plan that increases the competitiveness of the U.S. business environment and encourages saving and investment by individu¬als would allow entrepreneurs to implement their ideas for dealing with the challenges of the 21st cen¬tury. It would also encourage job-creating busi¬nesses to locate in the U.S. It is important that this country's leaders signal that the United States is still the land of opportunity.

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

greenswamp — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 08:39:23 -0400

This cutting taxes for the businesses and wealthy is such a failed concept. Rich people tend to hoard money, not spend it and certainly not pass it down to the less rich. This same type of tax structure was part and party to the Great Depression because the rich would only by so many radios and cars but yet had all of the county's expendable money at that time. All trickle down does is stagnate the currency flow. It's complete failure showed up at the ends of both Reagan and G W Bush terms. I think it has had a fair shot.

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

PaulTerrell — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 20:21:19 -0400

The solution is two fold to correct our economy. 1) is to provide businesses with tax relief to create jobs. Not like the Apple deal where $2 to $12 million only creates 50 jobs. But tax relief ot those that hire. 2) is to reduce taxes to consumers but rich and not. these consumers buy items that inturn gets the factories going again. This is all very simple yet the Democratic Party has continually gone the rote of pay to play to their donors.
Why hasn't the people involved with Easley's and the Mary Eas;ey NC State fiasco been indicted yet?

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

BitterEXdemocrat — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 07:23:15 -0400

Re: Status Quo Bev's jetride around NC this week...um, who invited whom?
Isnt it odd how these 'rallies' came to be so synchronized with the Governess charming the zombies into more TAXATION and ridiculous OVERSPENDING!!! Remember folks, SHE has been in the state house for 21+ years, SHE is a party to all the recent inside corruption as much as she HATEs for you to realize it! SHE is the one who, UNConstitutionally, hired
an education 'czar' to outrank the ELECTED WOMAN who heads the schools, and seems to be a very fine person trying to do the job the CITIZENS hired her to do. If the school people had REAL brains, they would fight to get the government OUT of their systems and restore local school control. Ditto FEDs. Government screwls are OUT of CONTROL, and MORE MONEY is NOT the answer!

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

greenswamp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 22:33:02 -0400

I can see what you're saying about cuts. But the truth is, she has made across the board cuts combined with raised taxes and has ended up making state employees and everybody else mad at her. She will probably lose, but I still think she is showing good leadership. The next governor will take over in a much better situation, be able to cut taxes and start the cycle all over again.

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

domewatcher — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:41:30 -0400

From the previous post:

"But the spending was in place before she got there...."

Yes, the spending was in place before she got there. But on the flip side, she could say something like: "Hey, you know what? We can no longer afford this spending. We just don't have the money to continue spending this much money. We are going to have to do the same thing the average working family is doing.......make some cuts!"

As for being "unaware and uninformed"......I know enough to complain about out-of-control spending and tax increases. And I know enough to know that "that's how we have always done it" does not mean there isn't a better way to do it now. Looks like to me the "short-sighted" approach is to say that since ole Joe voted this spending in back in '68 we've gotta keep doing it. Things might have been different when old Joe was in office.

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

greenswamp — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:02:27 -0400

Bev Purdue is not a populist, she has had to make tough decisions in a terrible environment. I am so glad that Pat McCrory is not leading our state right now. We will be back fiscally strong in three years and Purdue may still get voted out of office for raising taxes. But the spending was in place before she got there and the short-sighted critics who are blasting her at every turn are, just to put it nicely, unaware and uninformed. I won't agree with everything she does, but that would be true with anyone.

Kenneth Lewis just launched his website for Senate

jjsmith2 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:46:15 -0400

http://www.kennethlewisforsenate.com

Re: Dome Memo: Polls, attacks and taxes

TarHeel2011 — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:43:10 -0400

The Democrats in Raleigh are raising taxes and another good ole boy is caught up in an ethics scandal not to mention Perdue has incredibly low approval ratings, even among Democrats. Meanwhile, the Republicans have elected a new chairman who has already taken a public shot at the Democrats. If this keeps up into 2010, there could be some surprising results.

Re: Revenue wants proof from big families

factsversefallacy — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:17:10 -0400

Old News!

Was in the Carolina Journal two weeks ago...

I already miss Ryan

Re: State budget won't move until April 20

jesmyopinion — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:49:33 -0400

"The state has to have a balanced budget."

Too bad our federal government does not have to...

Re: State tax refunds lag, on purpose

beachbum474 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:07:46 -0400

Owe the state money? And do that to my self intentionally? No thanks...I'll wait for the state to pay me before I ever intentionally set my self up for a tax liability at the end of the year. Although I do think it is rediculous that the state is holding on to the money so long. Isn't there a limit before they have to start paying interest on the tax payer money they are holding? I know they won't pay it but 30 day's past due and I'm adding a late fee and penalties and will start accruing compound interest on the full balance until my tax refund is paid to me in full.

Re: State tax refunds lag, on purpose

bobbucy — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:17:37 -0400

People should be furious about this and it's incredible that they aren't. This isn't some "trust fund" - this is money that legally belongs to the taxpayers waiting for their refund. It is typical of a liberal administration who believes that everything actually belongs to them. For those of you waiting for the state of NC to give you back your own money, my advice is to do what I have done. Take a hard look at the exemptions that you have claimed for tax withholding from your paycheck and adjust to be sure that this doesn't happen. There are worksheets for this purpose or you can use a tax program like Turbotax. Make sure that come tax time, you owe the state of NC instead of the other way around.

Re: Bill would withhold taxes

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:11:08 -0400

No, that's freedom of the press. Free speech is a separate clause in the First Amendment.

— RTB