Tag: taxes

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Trump Rolls Out His first 100 Days of Historic Accomplishments

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April 27,2017
the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Washington DC, GETTING GOVERNMENT OUT OF THE WAY: President Donald J. Trump has done more to stop the Government from interfering in the lives of Americans in his first 100 days than any other President in history.

President Trump has signed 13 Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions in his first 100 days, more than any other President. These resolutions nullified unnecessary regulations and block agencies from reissuing them.

Since CRA resolutions were introduced under President Clinton, they’ve been used only once, under President George W. Bush.

The Wall Street Journal editorial: “So far the Trump Administration is a welcome improvement, rolling back more regulations than any President in history.”

TAKING EXECUTIVE ACTION: In office, President Trump has accomplished more in his first 100 days than any other President since Franklin Roosevelt.

President Trump will have signed 30 executive orders during his first 100 days.

President Obama signed 19 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President George W. Bush signed 11 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Clinton signed 13 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President George H.W. Bush signed 11 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Reagan signed 18 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Carter signed 16 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Nixon signed 15 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Johnson signed 26 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Kennedy signed 23 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Eisenhower signed 20 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Truman signed 25 executive orders during his first 100 days.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed 9 executive orders during his first 100 days.

A SLEW OF LEGISLATION SIGNED: Despite historic Democrat obstructionism, President Trump has worked with Congress to pass more legislation in his first 100 days than any President since Truman.

President Trump has worked with Congress to enact 28 laws during the first 100 days of his Administration.

President Obama enacted 11 laws during his first 100 days.
President George W. Bush enacted 7 laws during his first 100 days.
President Clinton enacted 24 laws during his first 100 days.
President George H.W. Bush enacted 18 laws during his first 100 days.
President Reagan enacted 9 laws during his first 100 days.
President Carter enacted 22 laws during his first 100 days.
President Nixon enacted 9 laws during his first 100 days.
President Johnson enacted 10 laws during his first 100 days.
President Kennedy enacted 26 laws during his first 100 days.
President Eisenhower enacted 22 laws during his first 100 days.
President Truman enacted 55 bills laws during his first 100 days.

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Reader talks NJ Pension Fix

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…this has been a problem for almost 4 decades. I wish there was a magic solution. Sen Moynihan was trying to figure this out and commented how convoluted and arcane the process was. I would think holding our washington reps accountable and stop re-electing them unless they work to divert more money home would be a start. Our current congressman mentioned this in his campaign and is working to get some more money home…. the other part is home rule, which is our problem to fix. No one wants to regionalize so we have 500 plus municipalities of overlapping services. Yes the pension system needs to be fixed but people have to make our reps accountable, which except in rare instances like our district, is not happening today.

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Taxes atop the agenda as New Jersey picks a new governor

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BY MICHAEL CATALINI Associated Press

TRENTON, N.J.

New Jersey taxpayers will be filing their taxes this year in the midst of pitched primary fights to succeed Republican Gov. Chris Christie.

Tax Day on Tuesday comes just as voters are expected to get a closer look at the personal financial information of the Democratic and Republican candidates who are vying to become one of the country’s most powerful chief executives, with the power to appoint prosecutors, judges, Cabinet officers and a host of other officials. New Jersey and Virginia are the only two states with governor’s races this year.

New Jersey election officials are scheduled to release the candidates’ personal financial information Monday.

Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/business/article144813394.html#storylink=cpy

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Hey, retirees: Stick around and see what N.J. has to offer

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Editors note :lets see if begging people to stay works 

April 16, 2017 at 3:00 AM

New Jersey has a reputation as a lousy place to retire. That’s unfortunate.

First of all, one of the things the state does best is manufacture well-heeled retirees (think former teachers, cops, firefighters and other public employees). It would be nice to see more of that public pension money stay in the state that gave it to these folks. Instead, New Jersey exports many of these retirees and their money to states like Florida and South Carolina, where the weather and fishing are better and the politicians not quite as rapacious.

And, of course, it would be nice to import more retired people from other states. Retirees can be a valuable economic resource (even if you’d rather not get stuck behind one on the Turnpike). The state could point out that Social Security is not taxed in New Jersey, that the fishing can be better than you’d expect and that there are lots of golf courses. A retiree could do worse. (Maybe that’s what the state’s slogan should be: “New Jersey: You could do worse.”)

In fact, according to the most recent ranking by Bankrate.com, 12 states — Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, California, Oklahoma, Nevada, Kentucky, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, West Virginia and Alaska — are actually worse places to retire than New Jersey.

https://www.njbiz.com/article/20170416/NJBIZ01/170419880/editorial-hey-retirees-stick-around-and-see-what-nj-has-to-offer

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5 last-minute tax tips you need to know now

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by Dan Caplinger for The Motley Fool   @CNNMoneyApril 13, 2017: 2:10 PM ET
Your video will play in 00:07

The tax filing deadline is just days away, and if you haven’t yet filed your 2016 tax return, the finish line is looming just ahead.

As you crank through the things you need to do to get your returns prepared and filed, it’s essential not to lose sight of some key ideas that smart taxpayers always keep in mind.

By being aware of these simple rules, you can do your best to pay as little tax as necessary and avoid unnecessary audit or other risks.

https://money.cnn.com/2017/04/13/pf/taxes/tax-tips/

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New Jersey Makes the Top 10 of States with Highest Tax Burden

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file photo by Boyd Loving

April 14th 2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, with Tax Day fast approaching and Republicans planning the first major overhaul of the U.S. tax code in three decades, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its 2017 Tax Burden by State report.

In order to determine which states tax their residents most aggressively, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states based on the three components of state tax burden — property taxes, individual income taxes, and sales and excise taxes — as a share of total personal income.

States with Highest Tax Burdens (%) States with Lowest Tax Burdens (%)
1 New York (12.94%) 41 Montana (7.51%)
2 Hawaii (11.27%) 42 Wyoming (7.29%)
3 Vermont (10.75%) 43 Alabama (7.19%)
4 Maine (10.73%) 44 South Dakota (7.12%)
5 Minnesota (10.24%) 45 Florida (6.79%)
6 Connecticut (10.23%) 46 New Hampshire (6.70%)
7 New Jersey (10.14%) 47 Oklahoma (6.61%)
8 Rhode Island (10.09%) 48 Tennessee (6.45%)
9 Illinois (10.00%) 49 Alaska (6.27%)
10 California (9.52%) 50 Delaware (5.59%)

Key Stats

  • Red states have a lower overall tax burden, with an average rank of 30.27, than Blue states, which have an average rank of 18.30 (lower rank = higher tax burden).
  • New Hampshire has the highest property tax as a share of personal income, 5.33 percent, which is 3.9 times higher than in Oklahoma, the state with the lowest at 1.38 percent.
  • New York has the highest individual income taxes as a share of personal income, 4.76 percent, whereas Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming do not levy such a tax on their residents.
  • Hawaii has the highest total sales and excise tax as a share of personal income, 6.52 percent, which is 5.7 times higher than in Oregon, the state with the lowest at 1.14 percent.

To view the full report and your state’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-highest-lowest-tax-burden/20494/

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How the estate tax exemption works

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By Karin Price Mueller | NJMoneyHelp.com for NJ.com
on April 11, 2017 at 8:49 AM, updated April 11, 2017 at 10:58 AM

Q. If one has an estate that exceeds the exemption limit, is the tax on the amount above the limit or on the entire estate? I’m confused.
— Trying to get it

A. The estate tax can certainly be confusing.

A federal estate tax is imposed only on that portion of the estate’s value that exceeds the exemption amount, said Shirley Whitenack, an estate planning attorney with Schenck, Price, Smith & King in Florham Park.

For 2017, the federal amount exempted from death taxes is $5.49 million, and the top federal estate tax rate is 40 percent, she said.

The answer is more complicated for New Jersey’s estate tax.

https://www.nj.com/business/index.ssf/2017/04/how_the_estate_tax_exemption_works_biz_brain.html#incart_river_home

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FINE PRINT: LONG-SOUGHT COMPROMISE WILL INCREASE NJ PROPERTY-TAX TRANSPARENCY

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file photo by Boyd Loving

JOHN REITMEYER | MARCH 31, 2017

An investigation originally undertaken by NJ Spotlight pays off as new property tax data will be posted on state’s governmental services website

What is going on: High property taxes have long been a top complaint of New Jersey homeowners, and a new law enacted by Gov. Chris Christie earlier this month following a compromise with lawmakers aims to help residents gain a better understanding of how their bills come together — and how state property-tax relief programs may help to offset them.

Thanks to the compromise, information about the state’s most popular property-tax relief program, as well as others, will be added to the comparative property-tax figures that are published each year on the website of the state Division of Local Government Services.

How we got here: The origins of the bill that was signed into law by Christie following an initial conditional veto go back to 2014, when lawmakers grew upset that Christie’s administration decided to remove a column from the DLGS website that depicted “average net-property taxes” being paid by homeowners in every town in New Jersey. The change was made as Christie, a second-term Republican, was preparing to run for president, and as he faced criticism for not doing enough to combat the property-tax burden, especially for low-income homeowners and seniors and the disabled.

Lawmakers took action after NJ Spotlight first reported on the change. Earlier reporting also tracked increases in average net-property taxes that occurred during Christie’s tenure.

The issue with average net property taxes: The state for years had calculated average net-property taxes by subtracting the average property-tax rebate provided through the state’s popular Homestead benefit program from the average property-tax bill that was paid on an annual basis by homeowners in every town. The information was released for each year on the DLGS website along with reams of other data, including detailed tax rates and property valuations broken down by county and town.

But Christie’s administration argued that the average net-property tax category was based on faulty math, since not every homeowner in every community qualifies for the Homestead benefit, which was converted from a rebate into a direct credit on property taxes shortly after Christie took office in 2010. The net property-tax bill was also determined using the average property-tax bill for all homeowners in a given town, and not using an “apples-to-apples” comparison of just the average property taxes paid by recipients of the Homestead program.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/03/30/fine-print-long-sought-compromise-will-increase-nj-property-tax-transparency/

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Ask Away: Why Are New Jersey Property Taxes So High?

ridgewood real-estate

3-30-17

By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent

New Jersey is famous for saddling its homeowners with high tax bills. That prompted Paul Waters from Brigantine to ask, “Why are New Jersey property taxes some of the highest in the nation?”

There is not one answer.

Most obvious is that New Jersey has 565 municipalities, down from 567 — that’s 565 mayors, councils, town governments.

New Jersey also has more than 600 school districts, 586 of which are operational, each with its own superintendent and administrative structure.

Then there are the 21 county governments and their bureaucracies.

Public worker salaries and benefits are relatively high in New Jersey thanks to aggressive public sector unions.

Throw in the generally high cost of goods and services in the New York-Philadelphia region and you begin to see why our property taxes have been the highest in the nation for years.

https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/ask-away-new-jersey-property-taxes-high/

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More tax data to go online in N.J.

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Dustin Racioppi , State House Bureau, @dracioppiPublished 1:41 p.m. ET March 22, 2017 | Updated 14 hours ago

Gov. Chris Christie signed a measure into law Wednesday that expands property tax data online, giving taxpayers a broader and more detailed view of their bills and how they compare with others’. But Christie signed the bill on the condition that the new law not include tax relief data that his administration removed three years ago.

The bill, A-312, requires the Department of Community Affairs to post property tax and local government tax data for the past 10 years, as well as information on county, school and fire district tax levies, among other data.

https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/new-jersey/2017/03/22/more-tax-data-go-online-nj/99494890/?utm_campaign=new-jersey-politics&utm_content=2017-23-03-9215348&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=New%20Jersey%20Politics

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EXPLAINER: SORTING THROUGH THE STATE’S PROPERTY-TAX RELIEF PROGRAMS

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file photo by Boyd Loving

JOHN REITMEYER | MARCH 21, 2017

The bad news is that the amount of money available for property-tax relief is shrinking; the good news, there are still a plethora of programs and options available

Once a top priority for government leaders in Trenton, property-tax rebates and other direct-relief programs received nearly $3 billion in funding from the state budget a decade ago.

But this year, with Gov. Chris Christie proposing a $32.5 million reduction in funding for direct property-tax relief in his latest state budget proposal, the total will be just over $1 billion unless lawmakers can convince him to allow for an increase before the next fiscal year begins in July.

The reduction comes as Christie, a second-term Republican, in recent years has instead been using revenue growth to ramp up state contributions to the public-employee pension system, which has been another top priority for Democrats who control the Legislature. Christie has also pointed to his efforts to address property-tax increases at their root, including the 2 percent cap on annual property-tax hikes that he and lawmakers passed on a bipartisan basis in 2010.

Still, data released recently by the state Department of Community Affairs showed the average New Jersey property-tax bill rose to a record high of $8,549 last year, putting new heat on lawmakers to more fully address property taxes as they prepare to run for reelection this year with all 120 legislative seats on the ballot in November.

https://www.njspotlight.com/stories/17/03/20/explainer-sorting-through-the-state-s-property-tax-relief-programs/

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NJ Assembly votes to make it easier for towns to raise property taxes

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By Michael Symons March 16, 2017 8:12 PM

TRENTON — Towns and counties would gain another exemption to the spending limits of the cap on property tax increases if a bill passed Thursday by the Assembly makes it into law.

Assemblyman Gary Schaer, D-Passaic, said he has heard from municipalities about having to pass on opportunities to use federal or private grants to hire police or buy fire trucks because of concerns over fitting the required local matching funds under the 2 percent cap.

The Assembly voted 48-26 to exempt matching-funds spending from the cap.

“We cannot hamstring local government from doing necessary things that members of one municipality or another would otherwise want to do but they have their hands tied and vital, vital considerations like police, like fire, like EMS, etc., are being jeopardized right now,” Schaer said.

Republicans opposed the bill.

“Any time we begin to erode away that 2 percent property tax cap level, that’s a problem for taxpayers. There’s no question about it,” said Assemblyman Anthony Bucco, R-Morris.

“We had a property tax cap years ago, but it had a million exemptions,” Bucco said. “We were able to negotiate a new property tax cap and limit the number of exceptions to very few, and I think you have to take very seriously any bill that begins to put exceptions back in.”

Read More: NJ Assembly votes to make it easier for towns to raise property taxes | https://nj1015.com/nj-assembly-votes-to-make-it-easier-for-towns-to-raise-property-taxes/?trackback=tsmclip

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Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno Celebrates Tourism Successes and Improved Revenues

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photo by ArtChick

March 10,2017

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Trenton, NJ ,Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno today attended the New Jersey Conference on Tourism to discuss the New Jersey Tourism Industry’s diverse attractions for all seasons and the improvements the industry has made over the last year.

New Jersey again set a record in 2016, with the tourism industry accounting for $44.1 billion in economic impact – an increase of more than 2.9 percent over the previous year. This was in part due to an increase in visitation to New Jersey, which increased for the seventh straight year. The number of visitors to New Jersey increased by 3.3 percent last year to 98 million.

“Over the last seven years, as the Lt. Governor and Secretary of State, I’ve traveled hundreds of thousands of miles across this great State seeing the amazing and diverse attractions we have to offer,” said Lt. Governor Guadagno. “So, it’s no surprise that the Travel and Tourism Industry had another year of increased growth across all seasons.”

In 2016, the tourism industry directly supported more than 321,231 jobs. When factoring in indirect impacts, more than a half million jobs – or nearly one in 10 of all New Jersey jobs – depended on tourism. The New Jersey Division of Travel and Tourism recently released promising numbers from the past year. In 2016, tourism in New Jersey generated $4.9 billion in state and local tax revenues. Without the tourism industry, New Jersey households would each need to pay $1,525 in order to maintain the current level of state and local government services.

To learn more about New Jersey Tourism, visit www.visitnj.org.

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39.1%: CBO Says U.S. Has Highest Top Statutory Corporate Tax Rate in G20

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By Terence P. Jeffrey | March 9, 2017 | 9:36 AM EST

(CNSNews.com) – The United States has the highest top statutory corporate tax rate—39.1%–of any nation in the G20, according to a study released Wednesday by the Congressional Budget Office.

That rate is nearly twice as high as the 20-percent rate in Russia, which, along with Saudi Arabia and Turkey, has the lowest statutory corporate tax rate in the G20.

The U.S. won the top spot on the statutory-corporate-tax-rate list after Japan and Germany, which formerly ranked first and second, cut their rates.

“The United States made no change in federal corporate tax rates between 2003 and 2012,” said the CBO, “and by 2012, it had the highest top statutory rate in the G20.”

https://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/terence-p-jeffrey/391-cbo-says-us-has-highest-top-statutory-corporate-tax-rate-g20

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NJ lawmakers take step toward taxing Airbnb and home-sharing rentals

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By Michael Symons March 5, 2017 9:00 PM

New Jersey lawmakers are moving ahead with plans to tax and regulate home-sharing operations like Airbnb. And while the company is OK with collecting taxes, it doesn’t like the approach being taken to license or prohibit the short-term rentals it brokers.

Assemblywoman Annette Quijano, D-Union, said New Jersey’s tax laws need to be updated to keep up with technology and the home-sharing portion of the hospitality industry.

“It’s unfair to hotels and motels that have to compete with a new business model that provides essentially the same service but does not have to charge state sales tax, the state hotel/motel fee and a municipal hotel tax, which can total up to 18 percent in some areas,” Quijano said. “That’s a very significant disparity and a significant barrier to overcome.”

Last year, more than 6,000 New Jersey hosts earned over $50 million through 257,000 short-term rentals arranged through Airbnb.

Read More: NJ lawmakers take step toward taxing Airbnb and home-sharing rentals | https://nj1015.com/nj-lawmakers-take-step-toward-taxing-airbnb-and-home-sharing-rentals/?trackback=tsmclip