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By Mike Nester For The Prairie Advocate News

The Eastland School board voted last week to drop their appeal process of the countys re-assessment of Freedom Township.

The school district had protested the property tax assessment in a non-quadrennial year and felt property values in Freedom Township should have only been decreased by eight percent, instead of nearly 20 percent.

Eastland Supt. Mark Hanson said during the appeal process that If the appeal was not successful, district revenues will be reduced by approximately $275,000 above and beyond what is already being lost as a result of declining EAV and reductions in state funding.

The issue arose late last year when the county received the Illinois Dept. of Revenues (IDR) sales ratio study, which revealed a 58.48, instead of the required 33.3 for Freedom Township due to property values falling.

On Dec. 7, 2011, County Assessor Annette Gruhn held a teleconference call with IDR employees, Carroll County States Attorney Scott Brinkmeier and Eastland Attorney Tim Zollinger.

In late December the revised assessments were published in The Prairie Advocate News and individual notices were sent to tax payers. Gruhn also sent the abstracts to the IDR.

Gruhn then received a ruling from the IDR on Jan. 19 citing her office was in their legal authority based on Illinois state statue (ILCS 200 9/80).

On January 25, the state certified the median levels for Carroll County, 33.53 for county-wide and 33.91 for Freedom Township.

Two days later, the Eastland School Board filed a protest and appealed the taxes on the Freedom Township property.

Read more from the original source:
Eastland Drops Appeal of Freedom Twp. Re-assessment

By Elizabeth Behrman, Times Staff Writer Elizabeth BehrmanTampa Bay Times In Print: Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Tax season is upon us, not exactly the happiest time of year. If it helps, maybe just a little, many of you will only have to work a couple of more weeks before you hit Tax Freedom Day. That's right, the average Floridian worked until April 11 last year to pay off all federal, state and local taxes. The rest of the year was money in their pocket, at least according to the Tax Foundation. Florida was the 16th state to celebrate tax freedom last year. Mississippi was first (March 26) and Connecticut was last (May 2). How does Florida compare in some other tax measures?

42 Florida's rank on the list for state tax collections with $1,680 per capita. Alaska was highest with $6,395, and South Carolina lowest with $1,475. (2010 data)

5th Florida's rank on the list of most favorable tax climates for business in 2012. Wyoming was most favorable, New Jersey least favorable.

35 cents

Florida's tax on gasoline per gallon, 10th highest. New York was highest, with 49 cents per gallon, and Alaska the lowest with 8 cents.

48 cents

Florida's tax on beer per gallon, eighth highest. Wyoming was the lowest at 2 cents, and Alaska the highest at $1.05 (as of Sept. 1).

16.57 %

Florida's state and local cellphone tax rate, fourth highest. Nebraska was the highest at 18.64 percent, and Oregon the lowest at 1.81 percent (as of July 1, 2010).

Link:
How Florida's taxes compare to other states

WASHINGTON Faced with determining whether the central provision of President Obamas health care law will stand, the nine justices of the U.S. Supreme Court seem to not want to let an archaic tax law get in the way of their decision.

As a cacophonous crowd of on both sides of the health reform issue rallied outside, the justices Monday heard highly technical arguments over whether the time was legally right for them to take up the health care issue.

Conservative justices and liberals were equally critical of the contention that a 19th century law which bars most lawsuits against federal taxes until after theyre collected ought to prevent them from deciding the health care laws fate at this time.

The key issue in this weeks cases the constitutionality of the laws requirement that everyone buy health insurance or pay a penaltywas not at stake as the court began three days of oral arguments. Justices will hear arguments on the laws constitutionality this morning.

At issue Monday were the penalties the law is set to charge starting in 2014 on people who dont

have health insurance.

If those penalties are a tax, the Anti-Injunction Act of 1867 could block the justices from deciding the constitutionality of the health care law until at least 2015, after the first such penalties have been charged.

Based on Mondays arguments, the justices seem to doubt those penalties are taxes.

Congress has nowhere used the word tax in writing the penalty provision, Justice Stephen Breyer said. What it says is penalty.

Justice Sonya Sotomayor agreed, saying: Congress is not denominating it as a tax; its denominating it as a penalty.

Originally posted here:
High court is skeptical of ‘tax’ in health care law

In recent years, hundreds of thousands have fled California due to the high cost of living and its restrictive regulation and taxation. Individuals and firms have relocated to Texas, Nevada, Utah, and Colorado. Unfortunately, New Mexico has not benefited much from this situation. What is the reason for this? What is New Mexico lacking? The answer is economic freedom. While New Mexico's neighbors all have above-average economic freedom, New Mexico ranks below all U.S. states with the exception of West Virginia. In order for New Mexico to be considered a competitive alternative for businesses to locate, it must make reforms that increase economic freedom.

First, New Mexico needs to give more freedom to workers and employers to negotiate wages that are mutually beneficial without government interference. New Mexico has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, with average wages well below the national average. To combat this condition, New Mexico has imposed the most restrictive minimum wage in the region, which is currently set above the federal level. It has a higher minimum wage than Utah, Texas, and Oklahoma. It is true that Arizona and Colorado have slightly higher minimum wages, but the minimum wage is still more restrictive in New Mexico given its relatively lower market wages.

Additionally, the city of Santa Fe has set its own local minimum wage to $10.29 an hour, the highest rate of any city in the nation. This is astounding economic malpractice in such

Policymakers favoring a higher minimum wage have the mistaken notion that legislating higher wages leads to higher labor productivity. Economic research has demonstrated that it just does not work out that way. Higher wages are the result of policies that lead to higher productivity. The minimum wage only hurts the very group that it intends to benefit by reducing employment opportunities for the least well off. Why would firms choose to locate in New Mexico rather than Texas and Utah which already having thriving private sectors to work with? It makes no sense to artificially introduce policies that put New Mexico at a further disadvantage.

Second, New Mexico's economy is too dependent on the public sector as measured by government consumption, transfers and subsidies, and government employment. This must be reversed. New Mexico government has recently cut spending, but much more needs to be done in the coming years. A prosperous economy cannot be too dependent on the government sector, at least not in the long run.

As governments are forced to make necessary cuts due to unsustainable government spending that has taken place in recent decades, New Mexico will suffer disproportionately to states that are less dependent on the public sector. If the size and scope of government were reduced in New Mexico, more businesses would be willing to locate within its borders and new businesses, which add value to society, will be more likely to succeed. A good start would be to reform public pensions, which are significantly underfunded.

Finally, New Mexico has a tax burden higher than the national average. In terms of the income tax, New Mexico is comparable to neighboring states with the exception of Texas, which has no income tax. New Mexico could improve its economic freedom by eliminating the gross receipts tax and replacing it with a less complicated sales tax and reducing the corporate income tax rate, which is one of the highest in the region.

New Mexico has lagged behind the rest of the country for too long. It's time to make the reforms that will allow New Mexico to thrive. Excessive government involvement in the economy has not been effective in improving economic opportunities for the majority of New Mexicans.

Policymakers will do better by returning to individuals the ability to determine their own economic paths through lowering restrictions that currently limit economic freedom.

Nathan J. Ashby holds the Western Hemispheric Trade Research Professorship at the University of Texas at El Paso and is co-author of Economic Freedom of North America published by the Fraser Institute. He will be speaking at an event hosted by Rio Grande Foundation from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at St. Paul's United Methodist Church.

Read more here:
Their View: New Mexico needs more economic freedom

The MP for Warrington South raised the issue in the House of Commons on Wednesday during a debate on the budget.

He highlighted the broadcaster's admission that it had 318 people earning more than 50,000 without paying tax at source, saying: "That is not acceptable.

Mr Mowat, a member of the Commons public accounts committee (PAC), added: "The review that is being conducted across government ... explicitly excludes the BBC. I ask ministers to reconsider that."

The BBC disclosed that it has 20,000 salaried staff and "typically" 12,000 freelancers in any year.

Its response said: "Around 3,000 of these choose to provide their services via a limited company." It added that 1,363 workers paid through limited companies earn above 26,000 a year.

Stephen Barclay, another Tory MP on the PAC, said: "This reply shows that there is a need for much greater transparency at the BBC because the figures do not include so many people from BBC's talent which covers its main presenters and its commercial operations.

"There is also a duty on the BBC Trust over accountability to check whether people who are employed through these companies do not have rolling contracts running every year and are working exclusively for the BBC."

A BBC spokesman said:"We have written to Mr Mowat to correct him explaining that these individuals are not permanent members of BBC staff so do not have their tax deducted at source in the way a the vast majority of employees do.

"In the main they are hired to do specific jobs for a fixed period of time such as directing, editing and other craft skills. When a person is contracted in this way it is their responsibility to organise their tax arrangements directly with the HMRC.

"This is entirely in keeping with HMRC regulations and is standard practice across the broadcasting and many other industries."

View original post here:
Thousands of BBC workers paid through limited companies