Cyprus Rejects Controversial Tax on Deposits
The parliament of Cyprus rejected a controversial bank deposit levy earlier this week, a precondition for receiving a very pricey bailout. This quickly tore up the four day old loan deal the country already negotiated with European and international creditors that is need badly to break off default and a meltdown in its financial sector.
Many people believe that the stock market’s reaction to the Cyprus banking crisis was a case of willful denial, according to Mark Hulbert’s discussion on Markets Hub.
Coming in after days of political talks in the Cypriot capital, the vote means that a new deal, if it’s possible to even make one, will have to be done in days or Cyprus might face a total collapse of its banks. Many analysts believe that if that is to happen, it will send the tiny nation flailing out of the Eurozone.
After a long two hour debate on the divisive federal tax, there were 19 lawmakers from Cyprus’ Democratic Rally party, led by President Nicos Anastasiades that were abstained from the vote; this decision made sure that the plan would be rejected. The rest of the lawmakers in Cyrpus’ 56 seats of parliament had voted against the plan.
The rejection of this particular bill will only leave Cyprus with a few options. They could renegotiate the deal on the tax deposits with the European creditors, but they are also forming a Plan B that involves support for its banks from Russia.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax Tags: avoiding taxes, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, tax law
Oregon’s budget increased because of federal tax hike on wealthy
Oregon lawmakers delivered some great financial news this past Friday, allowing some room to breathe with the budget.
The state’s economists have said that the state revenues are supposed to come in at $162 million higher in the latest biennium because of the tax increases on the wealthy that was implemented by Congress. The tax increases will have an effect on filers in 2013, which influenced a sell-off of assets at the end of 2012. This gave a sudden increase to state tax receipts.
The sell-off will eventually lead to a reduction of $75 million in the revenue outlook for the next two years. Adding it up, the lawmakers will have about $88 million more to use for Oregon as they start to develop a budget for the 2013-2015 biennium. This is not a bailout, but rather a difficult choice that had to be made. Oregon has experienced some bad news in its finances in the past four years, and it’s nice to have this good financial news drop on them.
Senate President Peter Courtney mentioned that this forecast is a positive net gain because every single penny will help Oregon, parting the clouds a little to help the sun shine enter.
Overall, Oregon’s state general fund is supposed to hit around $16.6 billion for 2013 through 2015. That’s about a 9% increase from the current budget of $15.2 billion. There’s expected to be larger tax collections in the new few months because of higher earners pushing more of their income into 2012.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax, Tax Law Tags: corporate tax, federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, oregon tax, tax code
Federal Income tax offset and State tax advantages
Different States have told that change in federal income tax will affect the tax changes for all tax payers of different income groups. State lawmakers ignores the point that tax reform proposals for State citizens also vary with federal income tax rates and applies individually for the States. The high income groups and wealthy taxpayers offset the federal income tax payment with their property taxes and local income. It is important to know about federal offset and change of State taxes for their citizens. The federal offset policy explains those forgotten links between federal income taxes and state changes.
Federal income tax has facilitated the individuals to claim for personal expenditure of itemized deductions when they pay the federal imposed taxes. So an individual can offset the cost of property tax payments, local income, interest payment for homes and charity contributions. Such deductions will make it affordable to pay to the charitable institutions, payment of loan for home or payment of mortgage. It means some of the federal taxes are optimized and lowered down through your itemized deductions or federal offsets.
So who benefit from federal offset? When you itemize the federal income tax and write off your local and state taxes, then your property tax bills and income tax will never be as much as you are paying today. But it is important to know that lower income tax payers who itemize the federal income tax will not be able to get the benefit of federal offset.
Categories: Federal Tax, Income Tax, State Tax Tags: federal income tax, federal tax, income tax, state tax, tax law