Taxes

... Hawaii is present in the top ten of both lists, showing large unfunded liabilities compared to their populations and economic output ....

Hawaii has the broadest sales tax in the United States, taxing many products multiple times and, by one estimate, ultimately taxing 99.21% of the state's personal income. This base is far wider than the national median, where the sales tax base applies to 34.46%....

...enthusiastic supporters of some very specific causes pushed lawmakers to allow taxpayers to designate a portion of their state tax refund for their specific cause....

Once they establish principles for reform, legislators can choose from a menu of options. Tinkering with existing plans is the most obvious, and sometimes the easiest....

Wednesday August 21, 2013 9AM....

For many years it was difficult for policymakers and administrators to conceive that services, like goods, could be purchased for resale....

...final judgment in favor of the State of Hawaii and against nine Online Travel Companies selling Hawaii hotel rooms over the Internet....

...taxes are rising faster now under Obama than they have under any other president since WWII....

...it is not the cost of the tax that adds to the price of locally grown products as much as it is the external factors such as the cost of land, labor, and regulatory compliance....

Last year, Hawaii spent more than $175 per person — $244 million in all — just to fund its interest payments, the third highest rate per person in the country....

Detroit’s demise was the result of big-government, liberal policies promoted by self-interested politicians and coercive public employee unions....

A number of questions about Hawaii’s general excise tax seem to resurface....

In addition to the fees and charges levied for these required permits and licenses, there is the time that it takes to secure many of these permits and licenses....

"...the budget includes new spending on program enhancements that could eventually result in fiscal pressure...."

A local reporter attempted to pin the Foundation down on whether or not it supported the handful of measures that had been thrown into the Honolulu City Council hopper ....

On July 10, 2013, Mayor Kirk Caldwell proposed ten property tax bills. All ten bills passed the first reading at the Honolulu City Council....

Businesses should see this as a warning, as they are a convenient target for politicians ....

News of the very generous pay increases granted to police officers sent shock waves through the ranks of city and county officials across the state generating calls for “revenue enhancements” or tax increases....

...some of the ways the highway user is tapped to fund what is obliquely related to the construction, repair and maintenance of state and county roads....

Honolulu’s Mayor was rebuffed by the City Council earlier this year when he submitted a proposal to raise the county gas tax by five cents a gallon....

The reaction to last week’s commentary could only be described as shrill....

Nearly a year and a half ago, a commission appointed by the Honolulu City Council to study some of the inequities in the real property tax ordinance dropped its findings on the desks of Council members....

Sen. Sam Slom was the guest speaker at the Tea Party Maui meeting Thursday where Jim Wagoner was elected president of the organization....

Recently the Chair of the House Finance Committee announced that she will be reviewing the practice of setting up special funds....

Nearly 1,100 pastors nationwide registered to speak out on marriage as part of annual Alliance Defending Freedom event....

...out of $668.1 million in tax credits claimed in tax year 2011, the Service disallowed only $11 million, and failed to find a single case of fraud....

Hi, I’m Catesby Jones....

One issue that has irritated lawmakers for the past few years is the ability to transfer ownership of companies or organizations that have substantial holdings of real estate without having to pay the conveyance tax....

...many people are exempt from the mandate, and so the IRS has to know a lot about you in order to decide whether you are in compliance....

A Senate subcommittee accused the company of “shifting” profits from the U.S. to other countries and avoiding paying taxes....

...the IRS leaked National Organization for Marriage's confidential financial documents to the rival Human Rights Campaign. Those NOM documents were published on the Huffington Post on March 30, 2012....

Heritage sounded the alarm on the Obama Administration’s hit list nearly a year ago....

...many workers will soon discover that when they earn more money, they end up with less take-home pay....

The Internet sales tax passed the Senate, but a growing chorus is pointing out that it would hurt many to help the tax man....

When Obamacare’s individual mandate takes effect in 2014, all Americans who file income tax returns must complete an additional IRS tax form....