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A few noteworthy quotes ...
Worried about an IRS audit? Avoid what's called a red flag. That's something the IRS always looks for. For example, say you have some money left in your bank account after paying taxes. That's a red flag.
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Daily Policy Digest
http://www.ncpa.org
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Rating Housing Affordability
- 27 Jan 2012 07:00:58 CDTpThe 8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey compares prices across seven countries: Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.nbsp; While data of this kind has only recently been released and effectively compiled, its uses in assessing nations' housing policies and land use regulations are substantial, say Wendell Cox, an adjunct scholar with the National Center for Policy Analysis, and Hugh Pavletich, editor of Performance Urban Planning./p pThe data is presented using the metric of the median multiplier: the ratio of the median house price divided by gross annual median household income.nbsp; This scale provides a decently accurate and easily understood means of comparison.nbsp; Figures typically range from 3.0 to 5.0 and are divided into four categories: quot;affordablequot; (below 3.0), quot;moderately unaffordablequot; (3.0-4.0), quot;seriously unaffordablequot; (4.0-5.0), and quot;severely unaffordablequot; (above 5.0)./p ul liWithin the seven surveyed countries, 325 markets were analyzed./li liOf the 128 quot;affordablequot; markets, 117 of them were located in the United States and another 9 were in Canada./li liOf the 87 quot;moderately unaffordablequot; markets, 64 of them were located in the United States./li liOf the 211 American markets that were analyzed, only 16 and 14 were found to be quot;seriously unaffordablequot; and quot;severely unaffordable,quot; respectively./li liThe United States also had the lowest national median of 3.0, compared with 3.5 for Canada, 5.1 for the United Kingdom and 12.6 for Hong Kong (the highest of the seven)./li /ul pThese results were even more starkly in America's favor when isolated to major markets (more than 1 million inhabitants), in which all 24 of the quot;affordablequot; markets were in the United States./p pIn analyzing the enormous amount of data made available by the survey, researchers built on a body of evidence that suggests strongly that restrictive land use regulations artificially drive up prices.nbsp; One literature review compiled 25 studies of housing prices over the course of 30 years and further supported this argument.nbsp; Administrators of that study found that more restrictive regulation had been associated with up to nearly 87 percent of house price increases and a 61 percent hike in new house prices./p pLand use regulations drive up prices by limiting the amount of land that is zoned for residential uses.nbsp; This creates an artificial scarcity that, by limiting supply, leads to the aforementioned price increases./p pSource: Wendell Cox and Hugh Pavletich, quot;Rating Housing Affordability,quot; Demographia, January 2012./p pFor text:/p pa href="http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf"http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf/a/ppFor more on Economic Issues: /ppa href="http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=17"http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=17/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?a=QFu1P4T2jMg:ND_ft4lt7GM:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?a=QFu1P4T2jMg:ND_ft4lt7GM:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ncpadpd/~4/cvqImgOxnoc" height="1" width="1"/
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Some Possible Consequences of a U.S. Government Default
- 27 Jan 2012 07:00:57 CDTpFew now doubt that the U.S. government is rushing headlong toward a major fiscal crisis.nbsp; Promised future outlays, mainly for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, far exceed projected future revenue, and the total federal debt continues to grow beyond previous boundaries, says Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, an associate economics professor at San Jose State University./p ul liThe latest estimate by Laurence J. Kotlikoff puts the gap's present value at the bone-crushing level of $211 trillion, while a more modest estimate from Jagadeesh Gokhale and Kent A. Smetters estimates the gap as of 2010 at $79.4 trillion./li liThe Congressional Budget Office's most recent long-term outlook has federal expenditures (without interest payments) accounting for 35 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), while revenues account for only 20 percent./li liMarc Joffe, a former employee of Moody's Analytics, projects that by 2040 the national debt will have already reached more than 180 percent of GDP./li /ul pCritics are quick to point out that these projections are just that, and ignore the possibility of changes in public policy that would avert such drastic fiscal scenarios.nbsp; However, these critics place too much trust in the agents of political change./p ul liAs many researchers have acknowledged, federal tax revenue will never consistently rise much above 20 percent of GDP./li liPoliticians have little personal incentive to come up with the requisite expenditure cuts in time./li liMonetary expansion and its accompanying inflation will prove ineffective at closing the gap./li /ul pIt is in this situation that a real discussion needs to take place about the costs and benefits of a U.S. government debt default, as such a situation is likely to occur within the next two decades.nbsp; In the short run, the costs will likely be substantial as there would be an enormous loss of wealth within the United States./p ul liOf the $10,127,031 million held by the public, approximately 40 percent is held domestically./li liIf a total repudiation took place today, initial direct losses to the U.S. private sector would total about $4 trillion -- roughly equivalent to the fall in real estate value between 2007 and 2009./li liSecondary effects will also be numerous as the default reverberates throughout credit markets./li /ul pHowever, in the long run, a default could have benefits.nbsp; It would likely encourage greater fiscal discipline among politicians, and would also alleviate burdensome taxes for maintaining a high debt level.nbsp; The United States would also benefit from the elimination of liabilities to foreign lenders./p pSource: Jeffrey Rogers Hummel, quot;Some Possible Consequences of a U.S. Government Default,quot; Econ Journal Watch, January 2012./p pFor text:/p pa href="http://econjwatch.org/articles/some-possible-consequences-of-a-us-government-default"http://econjwatch.org/articles/some-possible-consequences-of-a-us-government-default/a/ppFor more on Tax and Spending Issues: /ppa href="http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=25"http://www.ncpa.org/sub/dpd/?Article_Category=25/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?a=c2Fu3CCUrf4:VriQ_MOhwvI:yIl2AUoC8zA"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?d=yIl2AUoC8zA" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?a=c2Fu3CCUrf4:VriQ_MOhwvI:qj6IDK7rITs"img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/ncpadpd?d=qj6IDK7rITs" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/ncpadpd/~4/9Z_rAXkfXF0" height="1" width="1"/
Tax Policy Center: Nonprofits and Taxes
http://www.taxpolicycenter.org
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A Method for Measuring and Partially Testing "Charitability", 3 of 3 parts : Some Complexities
- Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:00 ESTIn this series so far, I have suggested that it is possible to test "charitability" at least in terms of transfers of resources from some class of donors to some class of recipients by using a balance sheet approach to identifying how those donors and recipients match up. After all, they should be equal in size. Now I will examine two additional complications past charitable contributions and transfers from governmentand then conclude by reexamining some of the objections to the approach I have suggested.
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A Method for Measuring and Partially Testing "Charitability", Second of Three Parts : Applying the Tool
- Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:00 ESTAll charities claim to be performing some good for others or for society. These "outputs" require inputs of charitable resources. Nongovernmental sources can be divided broadly into two major categories: financial or real capital, and volunteer labor. These contributions of money or property and time are typically tax favored. This article examines how the balance sheet exercise matching uses and sources of charitable "resources" can serve as a cross-check for how charitable an organization is.