• California,  Government,  Law,  Taxes

    California Hybrid Automobile Watch: Tax Breaks Add Incentive

    December 31, 2005 /

    Mitchell Rose holds the yellow stickers that hybrid owners must use to access carpool lanes. The decals, which are 7 by 3 inches and 5 by 2 inches in size, go on panels behind the rear wheels and on the bumpers.

    The ASSociated Press has Hybrid Car Buyers to Receive Tax Breaks

    Hybrid cars are a good bet for tax breaks in 2006. The new year will bring more savings for buyers of at least 13 gas-electric vehicles, with those showing the most improvement in fuel efficiency securing bigger tax breaks for their new owners.

    The breaks will come in the form of tax credits, and they range from $3,150 for buyers of the Toyota Prius to $250 for Chevrolet’s Silverado pickup truck, according to an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

    The credits give buyers of American hybrids incentives similar to those now enjoyed mostly by Honda and Toyota owners.

    Official figures on the hybrid tax credits weren’t available Friday from the Internal Revenue Service.

    Still, some car-shoppers already have figured out they would do better to hold off on buying a hybrid until after Jan. 1, when the new credits kick in.

    Well, only one day to wait……..about those ugly stickers……….

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  • California,  Health,  Politics,  Taxes

    California Taxes Watch: Smokers Will Pay More

    December 14, 2005 /

    An unidentified man smokes a cigarette in Sacramento, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005. A coalition of health organizations wants to increase the tax on a pack of cigarettes by 300 percent in California to boost funding for hospital emergency care, nursing education, cancer research and a variety of other health programs. The per-pack tax would jump by $2.60 under an initiative the coalition hopes to have on the November 2006 ballot, supporters said Tuesday, Dec. 13, 2005.

    Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star has Smokers might pay more

    Proposed tax measure would impose $2.60-per-pack increase

    Hospitals and healthcare advocacy groups in California, which had been headed toward an intramural fight over dueling tobacco-tax initiatives, on Tuesday united behind a single, massive tax measure they hope to put before voters in November.

    The measure would seek a $2.60-per-pack tax increase on cigarettes, which would raise the price of a pack of cigarettes by about 65 percent and give California by far the highest tobacco taxes in America. The increase alone is higher than the current top state tax rate of $2.46 in Rhode Island. Along Tobacco Road in North Carolina, the tax is just a nickel a pack.

    When added to the existing 87 cents per pack in California, it would bring the state taxes on a single pack of cigarettes to $3.47.

    The only jurisdiction that comes close is New York City, where the city and state each impose a $1.50 tax for a combined tax of $3 per pack.

    Less Smoking is GOOD.

    A Black Market in Tobacco Products is BAD

    Can you imagine the hijacking of 18 wheelers full of Cigs?

    And how about our native American folks on their soverign territory (Indian Casinos)? How will they cash in?

    And…..redistribution of wealth for government programs through addiction taxation smells……..

    And…..the amount?……..

    It may pass but will cost too much to enforce……

    Stay tuned……..