Paul L. Caron
Dean
Pepperdine Caruso
School of Law
Political News
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Intersection of Tax, Religion & Politics
With a week to go before the Presidential election, we return to the intersection of tax, religion, and politics with two items: • A follow up on the IRS’s warning that it “will take whatever actions are necessary to stem abusive behavior” by churches that directly or indirectly participate in the campaigns on behalf of…
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FactCheck.org Debunks Bush Claims About Kerry’s Tax Record
The nonpartisan Factcheck.org has debunked two of the Bush campaign’s new ads about Senator Kerry’s tax record: • Ad #1: A Bush ad called “Thinking Mom” ran at saturation levels last week in 42 cities at an estimated cost of $2.5 million: • Announcer: And we’ll be checking traffic on . . . • Woman:…
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FactCheck.org Debunks Kerry Claims About Bush’s Tax Record
The nonpartisan Factcheck.org has debunked two of the Kerry campaign’s new ads about President Bush’s tax record: • Ad #1: • Sen. Kerry: “Here’s the truth about taxes. After nearly four years under George Bush, the middle class is paying the bigger share of America’s tax burden and the wealthiest are paying less. It’s wrong.…
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FactCheck.org Debunks Bush Claims About Kerry’s Tax Record
The nonpartisan Factcheck.org has debunked two of the Bush campaign’s claims about Sen. Kerry’s tax record: • The Claim: Sen. Kerry voted 350 times “for higher taxes.” FactCheck.org: Kerry has not voted 350 times for tax increases, something Bush campaign officials have falsely accused Kerry of on several occasions. On close examination, the Bush campaign’s…
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Political Tax News Roundup
Recent tax stories on the political campaign trail: • No Tax Breaks (Slate) • Millionaires for Bush, Billionaires for Kerry (Slate) • Tax Tacks a Priority in Presidential Race (Washington Times)
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One More Batch of 527 Disclosure Forms Before Election
The IRS on Friday, in IR-2004-126, reminded 527 Groups that they must file one more disclosure form (Form 8872) listing their contributions received and expenditures prior to the November 2 election. These forms will be available to the public on the IRS web site and on other sites like OpenSecrets.org. For prior TaxProf Blog coverage,…
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FactCheck.org Assails Bush’s Tax Claims in Last Night’s Debate
In last night’s debate, President Bush stated: He talks about middle-class tax cuts. That’s exactly where the tax cuts went. Most of the tax cuts went to low- and middle-income Americans. And now the tax code is more fair. 20% of the upper-income people pay about 80% of the taxes in America today because of…
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FactCheck.org Assails Latest Kerry Tax Ad
The Kerry campaign released a new tax ad on Monday. To view the ad, see here. Here is the text of the ad: John Kerry: Here’s the truth about taxes. After nearly four years under George Bush, the middle class is paying the bigger share of the America’s tax burden and the wealthiest are paying…
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The Other Moore Says Kerry’s Effective Tax Rate Makes Him a “Wild and Crazy Guy”
As anticipation builds toward’s Thursday’s scheduled release of at least part of Teresa Heinz Kerry’s tax returns (see prior TaxProf Blog coverage here, here, here, and here), Stephen (not Michael) Moore of the Club for Growth examines the currently available information in a Wall Street Journal op-ed and computes the effective tax rate paid by…
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Bush’s Timber Company
The following exchange drew laughs at Friday night’s Presidential debate: • Sen. Kerry: The president got $84 from a timber company that owns, and he’s counted as a small business. Dick Cheney’s counted as a small business. That’s how they do things. That’s just not right. • Pres. Bush: I own a timber company? That’s…
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Maule “Unimpressed” with Debate Performance of Both Bush & Kerry on Tax Issues
Jim Maule (Villanova) offers a tax perspective on Friday night’s Presidential debate. His conclusion: Listening to these two candidates spar over taxes was unpleasant. They toss about sound-bite phrases but I would be shocked if they really understood the underlying issues. Though each candidate tried to paint the other’s tax philosophy as bringing a significantly…
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Tax Primer for Tonight’s Presidential Debate
In anticipation of tonight’s Presidential debate: Offical tax policy position papers of the candidates: • George Bush • John Kerry The candidates’ statements about taxes: • George Bush • John Kerry • Dick Cheney • John Edwards Additional reading on the Bush and Kerry tax positions: • The Heritage Foundation, The Candidates’ Tax Plans: Comparing…
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169 Business School Profs Criticize Bush Tax Policies
Wednesday, October 6, 2004 169 business school professors have published an open letter criticizing what they call “the drastic failure of President Bush’s economic and tax policies”: • “The data make clear that your policy of slashing taxes — primarily for those at the upper reaches of the income distribution — has not worked. The…
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Kerry Flip-Flop Olympics: Tax Event
Wednesday, October 6, 2004 Check out the “Tax Event” in “Round 3” of the Kerry Flip-Flop Olympics.
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Financial Data on 527 Groups
Tuesday, October 5, 2004 Section 527 political organization must file Form 8872 quarterly with the IRS listing their contributions received and expenditures. OpenSecrets.org has mined these IRS filings and produced a wonderful web site with helpful lists, including: • Top 50 527 Groups by Amount of Contributions and Expenditures • Top 20 Organizational Contributors to…
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Tax License Plates, Presidential Edition
Monday, October 4, 2004 Following up on last week’s posts about tax license plates (here and here), in the spirit of the season we offer up a presidential edition:
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Red State, Blue State Update
Thursday, September 30, 2004 A follow up to Monday’s post, Red States Feed at Federal Trough, Blue States Supply the Feed, which linked to a new Tax Foundation study showing that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are “winners” — receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes…
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Slate Blasts Bush Tax Record
Thursday, September 30, 2004 Slate has a withering attack on George Bush’s tax record, Catastrophic Success. Here is the opening: In 1999, George W. Bush said we needed to cut taxes because the economy was doing so well that the U.S. Treasury was taking in too much money, and we could afford to give some…
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NY Times: Tax Increases Coming, No Matter Who Wins Election
Monday, September 27, 2004 The NY Times article, Whoever Wins, More Taxes May Be the Only Way Out, argues that “the pressure to raise taxes is likely to increase for whoever wins the next election.” (Thanks to reader Steven Sholk for the tip.)
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Bush Says Tax Code Is “A Million Pages Long”; Overshoots By 983,000 Pages
Monday, September 27, 2004 Sunday’s Washington Post reports that president Bush recently misspoke about the length of the tax code: Looks as though President Bush is due for an audit of his tax code facts. “The tax code is a complicated mess,” he said in Bangor, Maine, on Thursday. “You realize, it’s a million pages…