Editorial: Key ingredients missing in tax-cut deal
The Dec. 6 deal that extends unemployment benefits and the Bush-era tax breaks erases a lot of uncertainty.
UCSB economist warns of future tax hikes
Higher taxes are an inevitable consequence of ad-hoc policymaking, according to UC Santa Barbara economics professor Peter Rupert. Rupert, who heads the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, told a breakfast audience of Santa Barbara-area business leaders on Dec. 8 that temporary subsidies such as “cash for clunkers” and payments to first-time homebuyers were largely useless. He Read More →
Suddenly, deficit is talk of the town
WASHINGTON, D.C. — All of a sudden, deficit reduction is the name of the game. It is as though someone flipped a switch on Nov. 2 and suddenly the one-trick pony that is politics in the nation’s capital is obsessed with the idea of balancing the federal budget. Not that I am complaining. As I Read More →
Deductions digitized: Software keeps tabs on your donations
It’s getting close to tax time, and as you start to organize your receipts to itemize your deductions, you run across notes of the thrift store donations you’ve made throughout the year: two bags of clothing, a box of books, a children’s bike, several kitchen appliances and your old couch. You know they’re worth something Read More →
Editorial: Bidding good riddance to the awful 1099 rule
The so-called “1099 rule” was a disaster waiting to happen. Happily, it is a disaster that looks like it will be averted. News shortly before Thanksgiving that the U.S. Small Business Administration was publicly opposing the rule seems to be the last nail in the coffin for this ill-conceived tax on entrepreneurship. As the Business Read More →
Fox tells VCEDA group state must improve business climate
The pain of the status quo will determine the pace of California’s reform effort. That’s the view of Joel Fox, head of the Los Angeles-based Small Business Action Committee. In a keynote presentation on Oct. 15 at the 40th annual Ventura County Economic Development Association business outlook conference, Fox said reforms take place in waves Read More →
