White House Takes Aim at Offshore Tax Dodges

Corporations account for just 8% of tax breaks

(NEWSER) - Tax loopholes and write-offs for corporate jets and special interests may fill political talking points, but tax breaks for families—particularly the middle-class families that President Obama says he wants to protect—far exceed corporate giveaways, reports the Washington Post . In fact, corporations accounted for just 8% of $1.08 trillion in federal tax breaks last year (and corporate jets accounted for just 0.03%), while the middle class scarfed up the majority of the rest, in tax breaks that have doubled over the past 25 years. “The big money is in the middle-class subsidies,” says one economist. “You’re not going to balance the budget by eliminating ethanol credits. You have to go after things that really matter to a lot of people.” More»

New book says Obama's team routinely undermined him

(NEWSER) - In March 2009, in the throes of the financial crisis, Barack Obama told Tim Geithner to focus on a proposal to dissolve Citigroup—but the Treasury Secretary ignored him and never developed a plan, according to former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind’s new book Confidence Men. In the book, which was obtained early by the AP and the New York Times , Suskind writes that Obama’s “authority was being systematically undermined or hedged by his seasoned advisers.” More»

Agency pulls in $2.7 billion

(NEWSER) - Tax evaders are rushing to the IRS, cash in hand, thanks to a partial amnesty program aimed at recovering money in offshore bank accounts. In all 12,000 tax cheats came forward, the agency announced yesterday, bringing in a total of $2.7 billion. “The results we’re seeing today were unthinkable just a few short years ago,” IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman tells Bloomberg , chalking it up to stepped-up enforcement efforts. More»

But today's the absolute last one—right?

(NEWSER) - Today is, supposedly, the absolute last day for debt limit legislation to be introduced in the House if the US wants to avoid defaulting on Aug. 2. As we wait to see if lawmakers make the deadline, Uri Friedman, writing in in the Atlantic Wire, looks at all the deadlines they've missed so far:

1. May 16: Timothy Geithner originally named this as the date the US would risk default, but when it passed without Congress raising the debt ceiling, the Treasury shuffled some clamshells to postpone the default date to Aug. 2—at which point "the borrowing authority of the United States will be exhausted."
2. June 31: On June 1, John Boehner said that a deal must be made in the next month in order to avoid "rattling investors."

Calls for huge tax cut for wealthy in speech

(NEWSER) - Tim Pawlenty delivered a combative speech today in which he called for massive changes in the tax code and accused Barack Obama of being a “champion practitioner of class warfare.” Pawlenty proposed a system with just two tax brackets, taxing the first $50,000 of income ($100,000 for married couples) at 10%, and all income above it at 25%, while eliminating the capital gains and estate taxes entirely, the Wall Street Journal reports. He also advocated a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget, saying, “It will force decision makers to finally make decisions.” More»