Thursday, May 15, 2003

Utah with 808 Millionaires The Children's Defense Fund, recently released a series of state comparisons to promote their position that President Bush's tax cuts would hurt children at the expense of huge tax cuts for millionaires. According to their figures Utah has 808 people who filed their taxes with an adjusted gross income of over a million dollars. That's more millionaires than Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, D.C., Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming. [Children's Defense Fund] 9:17:09 AM

	Thursday, May 01, 2003

Utah's Congressional Delegation - May 1 2003 Sen. Orrin Hatch accused fellow senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) of asking inappropriate questions at a hearing to confirm John Roberts to the Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. These are dumbass questions, said Hatch. Schumer asked if Sen. Hatch wished to revise and extend his remarks (a euphemism for alter your remarks in the transcript) Hatch replied No, I am going to keep it exactly the way it is. I mean, I hate to say it. I mean, I feel badly saying it between you and me. But I do know dumbass questions when I see dumbass questions. [Roll Call] $$ Sen. Robert Bennett expressed support for Pres. Bush's tax cut proposals: Pass the president's exactly as he proposed it, as high a dollar figure as we can possibly get through. [Fox News] 9:44:26 AM

	Monday, April 21, 2003

States, including Utah, turning to taxes on Satellite Dishes Utah has instituted taxes on cable and DBS (Digital Broadcast Satellites). A number of other states are looking at such options, and, according to a DBS group, cable companies are lobbying strongly for taxes on satellite dishes. Cable companies says that exempting cable from sales taxation is fair because cable customers already pay franchise taxes. DBS providers do not, but do pay spectrum allocation fees to the FCC. Twenty-three states currently tax one or both. Utah faced lobbyng from cable companies for an exemption, but in the end, both were taxed. In Ohio, however, the cable lobby was successful in exempting cable from sales tax. [Ohio Cable Telecommunication Association] 10:05:37 AM

	Thursday, April 17, 2003

Utah and Delaware Havens for Tax-Avoiding Limited Partnerships Texas is attempting to close loopholes which allow companies to avoid the state's franchise tax by incorporating as limited partnerships in states with more favorable tax laws (including Delaware and Utah). Legislatures estimate that closing the franchise tax loopholes would generate more than $400 million per year. The legislation is opposed by such large corporations as SBC and Dell Computer. [San Antonio Express] 9:59:36 AM

	Tuesday, April 15, 2003

Utah ranks high in tax burden Utah ranks 9th in the nation in combined state and local tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation. The top ten: 1) Maine - 12.2%, 2) New York - 12%, 3) Minnesota - 11%, 4) Rhode Island - 11%, 5) Connecticut - 10.9%, 6) Hawaii - 10.7%, 7) Wisconsin - 10.7%, 8) California - 10.6%, 9) Utah - 10.6%, 10) Ohio - 10.3%. [Tax Foundation] 12:35:28 PM

	Friday, April 04, 2003

Beer Tax Redux It appears that Utah's current status as one of the 5 states with the highest beer taxes may be short-lived. Other states are looking at the beer tax as a source of increased revenue in cash-strapped times. [Boston Globe] 10:09:01 AM

	Thursday, April 03, 2003

Utah among states moving conform to Internet Sales Tax Laws Kentucky, South Dakota, West Virginia, and Utah haved moved to conform their tax laws to the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA). SSUTA, which basically means state internet sales tax, must be adopted in 10 states with 20% of the population of all sales-tax-collecting states before it takes effect. [Ecommercetax.com] [SSUTA] 10:57:46 AM

	Wednesday, April 02, 2003

Internet Access Tax Moratorium Likely To Be Made Permanent House Judiciary Commercial & Administrative Law Subcommittee Chairman Chris Cannon is pushing a bill that would make the current internet access sales tax moratorium permanent. There is a similar bill in the Senate. The Moratorium extension has in the past been caught up in the parallel but different controversy over internet taxation. [Eweek] [HR49] 10:05:10 AM

	Monday, March 31, 2003

Utah's Beer Tax State Legislation has catapulted Utah's beer taxes to among the highest in the nation. It now stands at 41 cents per gallon. Only Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and South Carolina are higher. [State Beer Taxes] 9:42:46 AM