When They Say "We've Lowered Taxes," This Is What They're Hiding

• New tax hikes passed by the Republican General Assembly and approved by Gov. McCrory:
  • Doubling the electricity tax
  • Eliminating the Earned Income Tax Credit
  • Eliminating the medical expenses deduction
  • Sales tax hike on mobile homes
  • Sales tax hike on entertainment
  • Sales tax hike on auto repair contracts
  • Eliminating the small business deduction
  • Eliminating the back-to-school sales tax holiday
  • Increasing the gas tax by $1.2 Billion
  • Eliminating the student tuition deduction
  • Eliminating the mortgage forgiveness deduction
  • New tax on college meal plans
  • Eliminating child care tax credits
  • Eliminating the deduction for college savings plans
  • Reducing tax credits for farm machinery
    
    

Other sales tax hikes passed by the Republican General Assembly and approved by Gov. McCrory:

• Household appliances
• Doors, windows, cabinets, flooring, roofing, fences, etc.
• Cars, motorcycles, bicycles, modular homes
• Office Equipment
• Clothing and shoe repair
• Watch and jewelry repair
• Electronics
• Furniture
• Video programming
• Tire repairs and oil changes
• Reloading bullets and shells

New or increased “fees” passed by the Republican General Assembly and approved by Gov. McCrory:

• Doubled annual inspection fee for ice cream shop owners
• Increasing the fee for the newborn screening program
• Increased criminal court costs
• Allowed for more toll road projects
• Increased drivers license restoration fee
• Raised learner’s permit fee
• Raised fee for obtaining a duplicate license
• Increased fee for driver improvement clinics
• Increased fees for obtaining copies of license records.
• Increased fee for initial driver’s license application
• Raised taxes on car and truck rentals
• Raised fees for private passenger vehicles
• Increased fee on private passenger motorcycles
• Increased fee on house trailers
• Increased fee for plug-in electric vehicles
• New fees for late vehicle registration
• Raised fees on “wreckers”
• Raised fees for semitrailers and trailers
• Increased fees on motor carriers
  
  

It's March 1: Do You Know Where Your Taxes Are?

New taxes on sales&services go into effect in North Carolina today, all enacted by the Republican General Assembly and signed by Governor Squishy to make up for the loss of revenue that was given  away to the rich in big tax breaks.

The taxes land heaviest on the middle and working classes who have to spend a greater part of their income on the very sales&services that the Republicans are now taxing.

For example, it will now cost you more to get your old car repaired, to get alterations done to your old clothing, to get a new appliance installed, and, because the Republicans like to meddle in everything we do, from having sex to dying, even tombstone engraving is now taxed. They're taxing the very labor required to do those jobs.

But figuring out the exceptions takes a graduate degree (and it sure looks like some special-interest lobbying got carve-outs for some businesses).  Veterinary services, pet care, and advertising are all exempt from the new taxes. According to the News&Observer,

Whether a service is taxed will largely depend on whether the firm performing the service is also selling materials – and therefore already collecting sales taxes.

“Thus far, it’s been a bit difficult to truly understand it,” said Jim Pendergrass, executive director of the Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors Association of North Carolina. “There seems to be a lot of exemptions and a lack of clarifications.”

Sales tax requirements will be based on whether the majority of a business’ sales come from parts or equipment. That means a service – unclogging a toilet, for example – would be subject to sales tax with a company whose business is mostly sales but exempt if a customer hires someone whose business is just to provide the service.

In other words ... we get something else the Republicans specialize in: an unlevel playing field.

PARTIAL LIST OF NEWLY TAXABLE SERVICES:

• Automotive fluid exchanges, including oil, engine coolant/antifreeze, refrigerant, brake, power steering, windshield washer, transmission, differential.
• Automotive fuel system repairs including cleaning or inspecting fuel injectors, visual inspection of fuel lines, adjust throttle, fuel treatment.
• Automotive electrical repairs including battery tests, charge, or jump services; applying protective coat to battery terminals; visually inspecting wiring and wiring components; testing fuse; cleaning battery terminals or receptacles.
• Automotive tire maintenance and repairs including rotations, mount, balance, alignment, patch or plug; measure and adjust pressure.
• Automotive suspension maintenance and repairs including steering and suspension inspection; grease joints or bearings; pack bearings.
• Automotive inspections including preventative maintenance, multi-points, brake system, visual (belts, hoses, wiring, brakes, engine components, air conditioning components, lines, windshield wipers, etc.)
• Automotive adjustments or calibrations including belt tension, speedometer, tachometer, throttle, and set or adjust spark plug gap.
• Automotive maintenance including exterior washing, wax, or detail services; paint; removing scratches, dents, or dings; applying protective coating (spray on bed liners, clear cots, waxes, moisture/rain protection), window tinting.
• Automotive maintenance including interior reupholstering, cleaning (upholstery, carpet, windows), and applying protective coatings.
• Automotive repairs including troubleshooting a fluid leak or attempting to “diagnose an unusual noise coming from a motor vehicle, whether or not the source of the leak or noise is found or remedied.”
• Automotive restoration of headlights, moldings, trims, etc.
• Automotive roadside service fees “where the intent of the service call is to troubleshoot.”
• Performing a service or tune-up of a motor vehicle, lawnmower, trimmer, edger, leaf blower, pressure washer, generator, chainsaw, tiller, auger, “or other similar small engine;” boat; aircraft; ATV or dirt bike; moped; golf cart; or bicycle
• Calibrating watches, scales, guns or scopes
• Calibrating medical equipment including Lasik surgery equipment, thermometers
• Calibrating instruments “musical or otherwise;”
• Camera repairs
• Cleaning jewelry, copy machines, printers, “or other tangible property” including motor vehicles.
• Removing dents, dings, and scratches from “tangible personal property” including motor vehicles.
• Restoring or reupholstering furniture.
• Patching or mending clothes, tires, or any type of inflatable.
• Sharpening blades
• Polishing shoes, jewelry, or silver.
• Troubleshooting fluid leaks or attempting to identify an unusual noise coming from “other tangible personal property, whether or not the source of the leak or noise is located, determined, or resolved.”
• Troubleshooting prewritten computer software “to determine how to restore to proper working order.”
• Reupholstering boats
• Re-string or re-grip tennis rackets, golf clubs, or musical instruments.
• Tune pianos or other musical instruments
• Repairing laptops, cell phones, removing viruses/malware, conducting diagnostic tests, or adjusting computer settings.
• “Tangible personal property may include: clothing alterations; painting tangible personal property; embroidery; screen-printing; window tinting for motor vehicles.”
  
  
  
  

We Perceive That We've Been Screwed

Kevin Siers, Charlotte Observer

The Republican overlords in the North Carolina General Assembly promised that everyone's taxes were going down when they passed their flat-tax revision. We were in a crowd of 25-30 people this week, and someone thought to poll everyone in the room: Did your taxes go down?

There was a resounding "NO!" from a majority of people in that room. Some said their state taxes had remained about even with last year, and a few weren't sure.

The overwhelming opinion was that the Republicans in the General Assembly had not delivered on their promise. Many tax deductions were gone, along with tax credits for child care, disability, property taxes on farm machinery, as well as deductions for college savings plans. If you own a yacht, however, or a private jet, you've still got your tax credit for those "necessaries," though no one in that room owned a yacht or a private jet.

The "Carolina Comeback" that Governor Squishy used to tout has been a mirage for most taxpayers. Unless you're making $900,000 a year, and up, you didn't see much in the way of economic benefit. In the meantime, the state's budget has fallen into an ever deepening black hole of deficit, and the decline in basic services threaten to turn North Carolina into a third-world society, or worse, Mississippi.

A recent PPP survey commissioned by the NC Justice Center’s Budget & Tax Center found that 60 percent of North Carolinians, including half of Republicans, say their taxes went up in the last year. Only 8 percent believe they went down.

In a very sensible blog post, Thomas Mills suggests that Republicans -- particularly our woebegone governor, who isn't gerrymandered into a safe seat -- are going to pay the electoral price next year for promising the moon and delivering a swamp.

Has It Sunk in Yet That Your NC Income Taxes Went Up Under This Republican Regime?

His Holiness

Plenty of people are talking about how their NC income taxes have gone up under the management of those rosy-cheeked fake "tax-cutters" down in Raleigh, and now the talk is beginning to get into local newspapers. ProgressNC has begun to compile some of those explosions of anger.

Over at the WataugaConservative, Dickson commented:

"If you're in the middle-class in NC, the GOP have done nothing for you. Well... nothing good anyway, nothing to truly better your life. You've likely noticed that your State taxes went up this year... yours went up, not because of GOP changes to the tax rate, but because they hacked off many, many deductions... including the earned income tax credit."

Did they notice? Have they done their state taxes yet? Not that the masturbatory crowd at Watauga Conservative would ever admit it if they did notice.

McCrory Raised Taxes and Shrunk the Workforce ... Yay?

Gov. Pat McCrory has been doing what he apparently does best ... bragging about stuff he doesn't understand and/or had nothing to do with. He trotted out a new campaign meme -- "Carolina Comeback" -- in front of his best buds, a bunch of fat cats gathered together in a ballroom by the NC Bankers Assn.

Bankers? Did McCrory also have his hands full of a cigar and a 12-year-old brandy?

McCrory bragged that Art Pope's his economic policies had given a big tax break to everybody and that unemployment had dropped, as if on command.

The actual facts are a bit less rosy. The General Assembly’s own Fiscal Research staff showed the blindly ideological Republicans they work for that a married couple with two children that earns $20,000 a year will pay $262 more in taxes, once the “reform” McCrory is touting goes into effect. That's because the "tax break" was actually a "tax transfer." The rich pay less; the poor and middle class pay more in sales taxes at every turn.

Unemployment? UNC Chapel Hill Economics Professor Patrick Conway pointed out that the unemployment rate is down because the labor force has shrunk in the state some 2.5% in 2013.

Statistics, damn statistics, and lies. As Chris Fitzsimon wrote, "Workers who are no longer seeking employment are not eligible for unemployment benefits and they are not considered part of the labor force when calculating the state unemployment rate. Fewer workers looking for jobs means a lower unemployment rate even if no jobs have been created. McCrory is essentially boasting about an unemployment rate that is masking the state’s economic problems, not reflecting any successes in rebuilding the economy."

The bankers, incidentally, gave The Guv a standing ovation.

Going to the Movies Is Going to Cost More. Thank the Republicans

The new republican majority in the NC General Assembly gave rich people and corporations a big tax break, but you people who enjoy an occasional evening out at the movies are going to have to make it up. Sales taxes on entertainment are going up.

Yeah. Raised taxes on the middle class.

Economic Fail

You think the Republicans in Raleigh really understand anything about the state's economy? Rob Christensen's column this morning in the News&Observer might open your eyes, unless you've got them taped shut.

Opposing the Republican Tax-Hike Plan

100 New Taxes Proposed by the Republican NC Senate

Phil Berger's "Tax Fairness Act" (HEE-HA!) would add 100 new services subject to sales taxes, putting the burden on working-class North Carolinians, while lifting the tax burden on the wealthy and on corporations.

"Tax Fairness"? As if.

John Cole, for NC Policy Watch

Raleigh's "Food Tax Republicans"

A little historical perspective, along with a little economic reality, on the NC GOP's plan to eliminate income taxes on the rich while quadrupling sales taxes on groceries, from the Greensboro News&Record (hattip: Clayton Henkel):

In the early 1960s, Democratic Gov. Terry Sanford pushed for a sales tax on food to raise money for schools. His critics called him “Food Tax Terry,” or something like it, for the rest of his life. 

Today’s Republican legislative leaders should take care they won’t be remembered as “Food Tax Phil” or “Food Tax Thom.” They could be if they take tax reform in the wrong direction.... 

...how would the burden of paying taxes be redistributed? A sales tax is regressive because people with modest incomes are compelled to spend most of what they earn rather than save or invest it. Their taxes as a share of income would increase without some means of offsetting their obligations. Without income tax exemptions, such as for children, larger families could pay a stiff penalty. After all, they have to purchase more food, clothing and other necessities. Rather than pay less taxes with more children, they’d pay more. 

Raising the tax on groceries could be hurtful and unfair, particularly if it’s meant to help make up for revenue lost by eliminating income taxes on high earners. 

North Carolina must devise a tax system that raises enough revenue to fund critical services and make productive investments, and that also requires those who can best afford it pay the largest shares. A nearly 8 percent tax on groceries for the poor would earn the politicians responsible a bad name.

Kevin Siers, in the Charlotte Observer.

Class Warfare

Rich white men are in control of North Carolina's government now, so you peons better get used to what's coming down the pike: The rich are now fast-tracking a shifting of the tax burden from their pocketbooks to yours.

Don't believe it? They came out and said it yesterday in Raleigh.

We've already highlighted UNCG economist Dave Ribar's analysis of this brilliant Republican plan to make life for the rich a lot freer of the "social contract," but his warning needs repeating: “For this particular proposal, the responsibility would shift from rich households and prosperous corporations to poor households and smaller businesses."

Welcome to the world that Art Pope hath wrought.

The 1% Feathering Their Nest in NC

What great timing!

In the midst of the general and widespread uprising against the complete corporate takeover of America, we learn that the wealthiest 1% have already twisted the Republican majority in the NC General Assembly to make it difficult to shut down "abusive corporate tax shelters," and they are apparently working "behind the scenes," where they work best, to absolve corporations of past tax shelter abuses. Some $400,000 in unpaid taxes are hanging in the balance.

Not that any of that money would do a thing to restore some jobs to the school system or to protect the public infrastructure of North Carolina or even to hire more people at DMV offices so that Pat McCrory wouldn't have to stand in line longer than His Eminence thinks necessary.

Big corporations have been saying it for well over 100 years: "We owe the public NOTHING! Not even our unethically hidden tax liability."

We Hate the Sales Tax

Because sales taxes are not based on the ability to pay. Sales taxes are essentially underhanded. One sees different brands of coffee on the shelf, ranging in price from (very) high to (possibly) affordable. But that's not the price of the coffee, 'cause at the cash register the agents of the state are going to tack on 6 percent or 10 percent or whatever percent, and you've been snookered. Worse, sales taxes are regressive, meaning that as income decreases, tax as a percentage of income increases.

And the Democratic grandees in the state Senate intend for us to pay more of this regressive tax, while they coddle their corporate buddies. N.C. House leaders had wanted, for their part, to reform corporate taxes by instituting "combined reporting," which would have made it harder for mega-corps to hide their profits, which is to say, pay their fair share of state taxes for the privileges of doing business in N.C. But under pressure from the state Senate, the House has abandoned that reform.

A 1-cent sales tax increase (which seems likely) would raise $843 million in the next fiscal year. Legislative analysts predicted requiring combined corporate reporting would have raised $18.5 million this year and $43 million next year. Apparently, our working citizens are much greater money-bags (and softer targets) than big corporations

You don't have a lobbyist down in Raleigh, most likely. The corporations do.

More Foxx Bilge

One of Madam Virginia Foxx's favorite myths is that North Carolina has the highest corporate taxes "in the Southeast." She repeated the lie to the Jefferson Post last week.

Actually, researchers at the Big 8 accounting firm of Ernst & Young reported in February that North Carolina has the LOWEST business tax burden in the U.S. According to the report total state and local taxes paid by businesses in North Carolina consume fully 3.6% of the Gross State Product. That is the LOWEST percentage of any state in the country. (Discussion & links here)

And, oh yeah, there's nothing good about President Obama's economic policies, and nothing he is trying will work.

Sez the woman who's been judged harmful to children.