On Monday, the IRS announced it is raising the automobile mileage rate that self employed individuals and business owners can claim on their tax returns. The agency said the standard rate it allows to calculate deductible operating costs for business vehicles will go up to 58.5 cents from the current 50.5 cents and will be available for use for the last six months of 2008.

Citing rising gas prices as having a major impact on individual and business finances, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said “given the increase in prices, the IRS is adjusting the standard mileage rates to better reflect the real cost of operating an automobile. He also said the agency wanted to get the new guidance early out so that businesses could prepare for doing mid-year adjustments beginning July 1st.

Continue Reading IRS Ups Automobile Mileage Writeoff

Tags: IRS, taxes

I ran across an excellent article today by David Ranson in the Wall Street Journal. It has to do with a review of economic data about the federal tax system written by Kurt Hauser. Published 15 years ago, Mr. Hauser stated “No matter what the tax rates have been in postwar America, tax revenues have remained at about 19.5% of GDP.” Ranson has dubbed it “Hauser’s Law” and laments in his article “What a pity it is that his discovery has not been more widely disseminated.”

With all the political drivel about how the wealthy have to pay their fair share or how those who have been more successful owe a duty to those who have been less so, the wealth redistribution crowd’s demands for higher tax rates just doesn’t hold water when you look at the reality of the numbers.

Continue Reading The Fallacy Behind Higher Tax Rates

Tags: politics, taxes