12/13/22

Hurry and Reconsider you use of Venmo, PayPal or Other Payment Apps

By: Denise Simon | Founders Code

President Biden said that anyone making less than $400,000 per year would not get a dime more in taxes… now a lie. Apps of all sorts are already asking for your banking information. Note… the banking information is getting reported by payment apps and other online sites such as Etsy, Marketplace, and OfferUp. As you read further, understand what is not being revealed. The IRS is using private corporations to aid them in reporting personal information about you. Getting a 1099 could easily put you in a higher tax bracket just because you collected dues from team members, sold an old umbrella, or work on the side selling a potholder you knitted.

Source

FNC: Americans who made money online this year could be in for a potentially brutal shock when they file their taxes in 2023.

That’s because, beginning next year, taxpayers must report to the IRS transactions of at least $600 that are received through payment apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App.

In an explainer posted online last month, the IRS warned small business owners about the $600 threshold for receiving Form 1099-K for third-party payments exceeding $600.

Third-party payment processors will now be required to report a user’s business transactions to the IRS if they exceed $600 for the year. The payment apps were previously required to send users Form 1099-K if their gross income exceeded $20,000 or they had 200 separate transactions within a calendar year.

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10/4/22

Power to the People

By: Cliff Kincaid

As we approach Halloween, let’s think about unleashing a hungry Vampire on the beast known as Big Government.

On Monday, the big news was that the tax cuts being proposed by the new British Prime Minister Liz Truss were being somewhat scaled back because they might “favor the rich.” This is a Marxist line of attack.

Yet, Stephen K. Bannon was on his “Real America’s Voice” show trashing Truss for proposing tax cuts in the first place. He called her proposal a “ridiculous unfunded massive tax cut.” His guest, Steve Cortes, agreed.

They were echoing the liberal news outlets and the IMF about the “unfunded” nature of those tax cuts.

Look at the headlines:

  • IMF gives damning verdict on Britain’s tax cuts — CNBC.
  • Fiscal fisticuffs: the week the IMF attacked Britain’s tax cuts — Financial Times.
  • IMF openly criticizes UK government tax plans — BBC News.
  • Truss U-turned on tax cuts for the super-rich – now she can axe the rest of her disastrous budget – London Guardian.
  • The UK scraps a proposed tax cut for the wealthy that sparked market turmoil – NPR.

“In a stunning reversal,” declared Fox Business, “Britain’s Conservative government dropped a key part of the tax cuts package that sparked outrage, market turmoil and sent the pound plunging.”

The left-wing Media Matters declared, “British currency has been plummeting due to investor fears that the Truss tax cuts, and the resulting borrowing needed to recover the lost revenue, will worsen inflation in the U.K., which already stands at 10%.

This is a concrete example of the power of the globalists that Bannon and others claim to oppose.

Since when it is supposed to be “unfunded” to return money to the people? It’s the people’s money to begin with. How can money in the hands of the people be “lost” to the government?

The Marxist assumptions in such talk are that the government has a claim to your living standards and that your money belongs to them. That’s the Marxist principle of confiscating and eventually abolishing private property to create an all-powerful state.

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09/8/19

The Pittman-Robertson Act: The Forgotten History of the Celebrated Tax on Firearms and Ammo

Ammo.com

The Pittman-Robertson Act: The Forgotten History of the Celebrated Tax on Firearms and Ammo

It’s unusual to think that Second Amendment proponents and members of the freedom movement would celebrate the day that a tax took effect. But that’s precisely what the Pittman-Robertson Act is – a tax often celebrated by gun enthusiasts, patriots and pro-freedom elements in the United States. Its story is one of the more fascinating in the history of American legislation.

Signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on September 2, 1937, the Pittman-Robertson Act, known officially as the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act of 1937, does not establish a new tax. Instead, it commandeered an existing 11-percent excise tax on rifles, shotguns and ammunition, and a 10-percent tax on pistols. Rather than going into the general fund of the United States Treasury, the Pittman-Robertson Act earmarked this money for the Department of the Interior and its wildlife preservations efforts. The money is then distributed to the states and can be spent how they see fit.

This was a coup for the Second Amendment and liberty movements. Rather than the money going toward a federal government interested in stripping them of their rights, it went to the Department of the Interior, with interests in keeping the American wilderness wild at heart. With this bill, hunters and firearms enthusiasts continued their role as the unsung heroes of the American conservation movement. In fact, Federal Ammunition was instrumental in getting the bill made into law.

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08/6/18

Abdul El-Sayed Exposed!!!

By: Trevor Loudon | New Zeal

Great expose from journalist Laura Loomer and the United West on far-left Islamist Michigan gubernatorial candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

The Michigan primary vote is tomorrow, Tuesday, August 7. Let’s hope that Michiganders vote against this dangerous individual in big numbers.

02/17/17

Compact for America’s Scheme for Pre-ratification of a Massive New Taxes Amendment

By: Publius Huldah

Do you remember the public discussions which went on for years about the proposed equal rights amendment to our federal Constitution?  That’s how it’s supposed to be before an amendment is ratified:  The People get an opportunity to hear the arguments, discuss it among themselves and their state legislators, and reject amendments which are bad.

What if someone found a way to circumvent this pesky public discussion, and get an amendment ratified before The People found about it?  And even before the state legislators who ratified it found out what they had done?  And what if this amendment delegated massive new taxing powers to Congress?

Such a scheme has been developed by Compact for America (CFA). They present their already prepared compact legislation to state legislators as a “balanced budget amendment”; and urge them to get it passed by their state legislature.

The provisions which authorize Congress to impose the new taxes, and which provide for pre-ratification of the new taxes amendment, are buried in some 15 pages of single-spaced excruciatingly convoluted and boring writing.  Rare is the legislator who has the time to wade through the verbiage and figure out what it says. 1

Once three fourths of the States have passed CFA’s compact legislation, the new taxes amendment is thereby ratified.

So that’s how an amendment to our Constitution which delegates massive new taxing powers to Congress can be ratified before The People know what has been done to them; and before the state legislators who did it find out what they have done to the American People.

The scheme has already been passed by state legislators in Alaska, Georgia, Mississippi, and North Dakota; has been filed in Missouri as SB 13; and is now pending in Arizona (HB 2226), where it passed the House on February 9, 2017, 2 and is now before the Senate.

Let’s look at the particulars of the compact legislation.

I
HB 2226 does nothing to control federal spending or “balance the budget”

Section 1 of the Compact [page 2, line 16 of the pdf edition] allows Congress to spend as much as they take from us in taxes or add to the national debt!  But that’s what Congress has been doing!

Sections 2 & 3 [page 2, lines 20-37] permit Congress to raise the debt whenever 26 States agree.

Section 4 [page 2, lines 38 et seq.] is a joke:  Who believes Congress will impeach a President for refusing to “impound” an appropriation made by Congress?

II
CFA’s BBA is an actually a grant of MASSIVE new taxing powers to Congress.

The true purpose of the compact legislation is hidden behind promises such as, “cutting federal spending”, “balancing the budget”, and “scaring Congress”.  The true purpose of the Compact is to delegate to Congress MASSIVE NEW TAXING POWERS.  Specifically, it authorizes Congress to impose a national sales tax and a national value added tax (VAT).

This is where the grant to Congress of the new taxing powers is set forth:

  • Section 5 [page 3, lines 4-6] permits Congress, by a 2/3 vote of each House, to impose a new or increased “general revenue tax”.

 

  • Section 6 [page 3, lines 24-26] defines “general revenue tax” as “any income tax, sales tax, or value-added tax levied by the government of the United States…”

There it is!  All Congress needs to impose a national sales tax and/or a national VAT tax (in addition to the income tax) is a 2/3 vote in each House!

Section 5 also permits Congress, by a simple majority of each House, to impose a “new end user sales tax” which would replace the federal income tax.  But nothing requires Congress to impose a “new end user sales tax” to replace the income tax.

It will be up to Congress to decide whether to impose a new national sales tax and/or VAT tax on top of the existing income tax (if they get 2/3 vote of each House); or whether to impose a new end user sales tax to replace the income tax (if they get only a simple majority in each House).

So! CFA’s version of a BBA is not about “balancing the budget”, or “scaring Congress”, or “reducing federal spending”.  It’s about giving the federal government massive new taxing powers!

A value-added tax is a “turbo-charged national sales tax on goods and services that is applied at each stage of production, not merely on retail transactions” and raises a “gusher of revenue for spendthrift governments worldwide.”

III
When State Legislatures pass compact legislation such as HB 2226, they are actually pre-ratifying the new Amendment to the US Constitution which grants these massive new taxing powers to Congress.

Please note:  If Arizona passes HB 2226, Arizona IS RIGHT THEN AND THERE RATIFYING THE AMENDMENT.  I’ll show you:

HB 2226 says in Article IV, Section 7 (e) of the Compact [page 6, line 43, et seq.]:

When any Article of this Compact prospectively ratifying the Balanced Budget Amendment is effective in any Member State, notice of the same shall be given together with a statement declaring such ratification and further requesting cooperation in ensuring that the official record confirms and reflects the effective corresponding amendment to the Constitution of the United States…”  [boldface mine]

Article IX, Section 1, of the Compact [page 11, line 41 et seq.] says:

Each Member State, by and through its respective Legislature [passage of HB 2226], hereby adopts and ratifies the Balanced Budget Amendment.”

There it is:  If Arizona passes HB 2226, Arizona is thereby ratifying an amendment to the US Constitution which delegates massive new taxing powers to Congress.

When 38 States have passed legislation like HB 2226 – and when Congress approves it, 3 our Constitution is thereby AMENDED and Congress now has constitutional authority to impose a new national sales tax and a national VAT tax – even while keeping and increasing the income tax.

The provisions of the compact which deal with a convention – Articles V through VIII – are a smokescreen which obscures from state legislators the fact that when they pass legislation like HB 2226, they are pre-ratifying the amendment to our federal Constitution.

The convention is a formality – a free trip at taxpayers’ expense.

IV
What’s the Solution?

Don’t feed the beast by giving it massive new taxing powers.  The solution is to downsize the federal government to its enumerated powers.

Our Constitution already limits federal spending to the enumerated powers – learn what those powers are, and enforce the Constitution we already have.  

And use your heads!  You who foolishly believe that a BBA [whether CFA’s version or another version] will force Congress to reduce spending, know this:  a BBA is a mandate for Congress to increase taxes, among other horrors. 4

Endnotes:

[1] Legislators don’t have time to read the bills they vote on. That’s why they have bill summaries. The Compact legislation filed in Arizona has two bill summaries: HERE and HERE.  Can you find where Arizona Legislators are informed they are pre-ratifying a new taxes amendment to the US Constitution if they pass the compact legislation?

2 Click on this link: see the sponsors and the votes.  Do they know what they have done?

3 Pursuant to Article I, §10, last clause, US Constitution, CFA’s Compact is not effective unless Congress approves it.  Will Congress approve a Compact Amendment which delegates massive new taxing powers to them?

4 The Arizona House also passed on Feb 9, 2017, HCR 2013 an application for an Article V convention which purports to be limited to proposing a “balanced budget” amendment (BBA).  Do the sponsors and those who voted for it not know that a BBA does the opposite of what they have been told – that it removes the enumerated powers limitation on federal spending and creates a completely new constitutional authority to spend on whatever the feds want?   See THIS short article.

People of Arizona!  Get with your State Senators and put a stop to these reckless applications for an Article V convention.  And to show that there is no limit to the damage a legislative body can do on one day, your Representatives also passed HCR 2010, the COS application for an Article V convention. The real agenda of the movers and shakers is to put our existing Constitution on the executioner’s block – and you won’t like the new Constitution.

08/9/16

Obama Administration IRS Scandal Back in the News

By: Roger Aronoff | Accuracy in Media

Obama

The mainstream media have gone to great lengths to avoid reporting on controversies with the potential to damage President Obama’s reputation or legacy. The endeavor to politicize the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) became an article of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974. But the actual politicization of the IRS under Barack Obama is treated as a phony scandal ginned up by Fox News, talk radio and the tea party movement. So it’s no surprise that recent news stories about the IRS scandal have been met with nearly complete silence from the mainstream media. The goal is clear: if the media ignore this scandal long enough, it will be treated and dismissed as old news.

There was a major development last Friday, but the media, for the most part, continue to look the other way. As The Washington Times reported, “A federal appeals court slapped the IRS with yet another rebuke Friday, ruling that it did, in fact, discriminate against tea party groups and insisting the tax agency prove that it’s permanently stopped the unconstitutional targeting of groups because of their political leanings.”

The IRS was seeking to get a lawsuit dropped, claiming they had voluntarily stopped such targeting. But a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit—considered the second most powerful court after the U.S. Supreme Court—ruled unanimously that the lawsuit should be sent back to a lower court for a more thorough ruling. In a previous ruling earlier in the year, Judge David Sentelle, one of the members of the three-judge panel, said, “It’s hard to find the IRS to be an agency we can trust,” and suggested that it had infringed on the constitutional rights of some tea party groups.

There were hundreds of conservative groups targeted for intense scrutiny that liberal and leftist groups were not subjected to. Last year the Justice Department announcedthey were ending their criminal investigation of the matter, in what looks more and more like a politically motivated decision, much the same as the decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for her repeated instances of sending and receiving classified material on an unsecured server.

Days before the appeals court rebuked the IRS on August 5, The Hill published an article in which current IRS Commissioner John Koskinen characterized Congress’ push to impeach him as sending a message that people should not take government posts. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) “has said Koskinen did not comply with a subpoena and made false and misleading statements under oath during a congressional investigation into the IRS’s scrutiny of conservative groups’ applications for tax-exempt status,” reports The Hill. The remainder of this article discusses Koskinen’s comments out of context—glossing over the details of the IRS scandal, so that readers are not well informed by the article.

Commissioner Koskinen is no innocent victim. His IRS erased over 400 backup tapes which could have contained Lois Lerner’s missing emails in March 2014, “a month after the IRS realized it was missing some of Lerner’s emails,” reported CNN in 2015.

“The IRS’s strategy was the stuff of banana republics: Organizations that were critical of the president’s signature health-care law were to be targeted, as were those making statements critical of the general direction of government under the Obama administration,” wrote the Editors of National Review in June, calling for Koskinen’s impeachment. “Those with ‘tea party’ or ‘9/12’ in their names (the latter refers to groups associated with conservative broadcaster Glenn Beck) were to be targeted. Hundreds of such organizations were subjected to improper harassment and invasive requests for financial and political information.”

Lerner staged an exchange with a reporter in 2013, in which she apologized for the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups at an American Bar Association conference in Washington, DC. “Lerner, who retired in September, said of the agency’s Cincinnati employees, ‘They didn’t have the appropriate level of sensitivity about how this might appear to others and it was just wrong,’” reported Eliana Johnson for National Review in 2013.

“… [then-IRS Commissioner Steven] Miller and Lerner both initially blamed ‘low-level employees’ for the targeting, FBI documents show,” reports The Daily Caller. “Miller, in fact, called the Cincinnati IRS officials who handled the tax exemption cases ‘maroons’—his humorous way of saying ‘morons.’”

President Obama later also claimed there wasn’t a “smidgeon of corruption” at the IRS and that news organizations like Fox News were deliberately keeping the controversy alive.

The Cincinnati rogue IRS agent myth that has been perpetuated can now be fully laid to rest. Judicial Watch recently released the 302s, the 2013 summaries of FBI interviews of both IRS personnel and individuals who applied for non-profit status.

In these summaries the Cincinnati IRS employees repeatedly state that they feel they had been thrown under the bus by Lerner.

“When Lois Lerner made her public comments, he believes she threw them under the bus, backed over them, and ran over them again,” states the FBI summary, which communicates that this employee followed the necessary procedures and “elevated questions at the time as they should have.”

In other words, the Cincinnati office sent applications that needed higher-level scrutiny on to the DC-based Exempt Organization (EO) Technical. This black hole of a bureaucracy provided little reply. “Nobody told him directly where the delay was in resolving the Tea Party issue. DC is like a black hole,” states the FBI summary. Whether true or not, Cincinnati employees have blamed Washington for the errors.

We reported in 2013 that the IRS scandal may extend up to the White House, given that Kathryn Ruemmler, White House Chief Counsel, and White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough were aware of the brewing scandal a month before Lerner’s comments.

Now, with the release of the 302s, the lingering question is whether the IRS EO Technical unit, based in Washington, DC, was politicized and deliberately chose not to process conservative group applications.

Statements by Cincinnati workers do raise some suspicions. One summary states that “The Tea Party cases started to backlog since [redacted] was no longer responding.” In fact, “[Redacted] cannot remember having a conversation with [redacted] after August 15, 2010. She saw this backlog as a ‘ticking time bomb.’”

This ticking time bomb is now treated as a phony scandal by the press, which often take their cue from White House elites who believe that the damage caused by targeting conservative groups should be overlooked. But only by investigating and exposing those who decided to target these groups in the first place can we prevent future abuses. As in so many other instances, the press is derelict in its duty to hold the Obama administration accountable.


Roger Aronoff is the Editor of Accuracy in Media, and a member of the Citizens’ Commission on Benghazi. He can be contacted at [email protected]. View the complete archives from Roger Aronoff.

05/5/16

Our Watcher’s Council Nominations – Post-Constitutional Edition

The Watcher’s Council

Donald Trump

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday morning.

Council News:

This week we were sad indeed to say goodbye to long-time Council member Brent Parrish at The Right Planet.

Brent is taking a hiatus from blogging to concentrate on family and business concerns, and all of us wish him the best. And of course, as a plugged in member of the WoW community, we’ll look forward to hearing from him in the future in our Forum, our inter-Council threads and perhaps, even an article as a non-council submission if he gets the bug to write again, which we certainly hope he will.

This means we currently have a vacancy on the Watcher’s Council, the oldest and most established blogging group in the ‘sphere. Any talented, interested parties should contact me directly by leaving a comment on any story on JoshuaPundit, including your name, site name and e-mail info as well as anything else you wish to include. Needless to say, it won’t be published, but I will respond promptly to your inquiry and tell you what’s involved.

So, let’s see what we have for you this week…

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05/1/16

The Council Has Spoken! Our Watcher’s Council Results – 05/01/16

The Watcher’s Council

Study

Crap

Washington

Washington1

Washington2

The Council has spoken, the votes have been cast and the results are in for this week’s Watcher’s Council match-up.

As an American liberal with impeccable credentials, I would like to say that political correctness is going to kill American liberalism if it is not fought to the death by people like me for the dangers it represents to free speech, to the exchange of ideas, to openheartedness, or to the spirit of art itself. – Best selling author Pat Conroy

Those who make conversations impossible, make escalation inevitable. – Stephen Molyneux

The idea that you have to be protected from any kind of uncomfortable emotion is what I absolutely do not subscribe to. – John Cleese

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