Tag: taxation

Republicans Plan Debt Crisis to Force Cuts to Medicare, Social Security

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The November elections will likely give Republicans control of the House of Representatives as a platform from which to oppose the Democratic-controlled White House. And one thing Republicans will do with this power, in all probability, will be to try to provoke a crisis in order to extort Democrats into accepting spending cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.

Republicans Plan Debt Crisis to Force Cuts to Medicare, Social Security

How family friendly!? Just throw Granny to the street! /s

Apple is sticking taxpayers with part of the bill for rollout of tech giant’s digital ID card

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Apple is sticking taxpayers with part of the bill for rollout of tech giant’s digital ID card

The agreement, obtained through public record requests from CNBC and other sources, mostly portrays Apple as having a high degree of control over the government agencies responsible for issuing identification cards.

…

Apple has “sole discretion” for key aspects of the program, including what types of devices will be compatible with the digital IDs, how states are required to report on the performance of the effort, and when the program is launched, according to the documents. Apple even gets to review and approve the marketing that states are required to do.

Stimulus Bill Has This Hidden Student Loan Tax Benefit

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Stimulus Bill Has This Hidden Student Loan Tax Benefit

The provision of the stimulus bill, if enacted, would change this, at least temporarily. It would exempt all student debt cancellation — whether complete or partial — from federal taxation. And the provision’s language is broad in that it appears to cover all types of student loans including Direct federal loans, federally guaranteed FFEL loans, and private student loans as well.

Perhaps most importantly, the window of coverage to January 1, 2026 means that it also, in theory, would cover any broad student debt cancellation enacted by President Biden or by Congress in the next four years, and would exempt any such cancellation of student debt from taxation. State taxing authorities, however, could still potentially consider student loan forgiveness as taxable.

Related:

17 Million Won’t Get Stimulus Checks—Expect The Same For Student Loan Cancellation

According to the Washington Post, this means that 17 million fewer Americans — including 12 million adults and 5 million children — will get a stimulus payment. As a result, individuals who earn between $80,000 and $100,000 as well as married or joint filers who earn between $160,000 and $200,000 will not get any stimulus check.

UK: New Bill Threatens Future of Free Expression and Civil Liberty

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Big Brother Watch has warned that the recently proposed Online Harms Bill is yet another piece of legislation designed to deceive us into thinking the government is protecting us all when something more sinister is likely. Free expression and civil liberty are at stake. The result is a piece of proposed legislation which is as BBW says is “blunt in its force and will have severe unintended consequences”. Think back to the Regulatory Investigations Powers Act 2000, designed to catch terrorists and high level wanted criminals – eventually used by the BBC to catch licence fee dodgers and local authorities to catch underage sunbed use. There are many laws that the government have brought in since the late 1990s now being used against civil liberty and basic human rights.

UK – New Bill Threatens Future of Free Expression and Civil Liberty