Economies across the board are roaring back from the pandemic. But few have roared back faster than Ireland. The Emerald Isle is projected to grow by 2.5% this year and 3% next year. The Wall Street Journal reports the government is stashing cash in two sovereign wealth funds and regulators are warning they’re spending so fast they may overheat the economy. Still, there’s enough left over to start work on a €2.2 billion children’s hospital and spend €10 million on keeping the kids off their phones at school. (If you figure out an answer, could you maybe send it our way?)
wealth tax
Taxing “Climate Criminals”
Last week, we discussed how the 2017 tax cuts are scheduled to expire at the end of 2025—and how the election results make it likelier that Washington will extend them. Here’s the problem: it won’t be cheap. The Congressional Budget Office estimates extending the current rules will blow a $4 billion hole in the budget over the next 10 years, along with an unknown amount of higher interest payments on the new debt. That’s making life difficult for a new administration that also wants to eliminate tax on tips, overtime pay, and Social Security benefits, along with other giveaways.
Gaze Into Our Crystal Ball
As President Donald Trump’s first year in office drew to a close, Washington gave us the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. That legislation reformed the system in conventional Republican fashion by broadening the base (subjecting more income to tax) and lowering rates. On the corporate side, they did this mainly by closing avenues to avoid tax on international income. On the individual side, they did it by raising standard deductions and eliminating or limiting personal deductions such as mortgage interest and state and local taxes.
Good News Bad News
Dying without a will is a great way for a celebrity to waste money on unnecessary taxes. It also means their assets can wind up with someone they never would have chosen. When Doors frontman Jim Morrison died at age 27, his estate passed to his wife, Pamela Courson. Just a few weeks after a court finalized her inheritance, she OD’d, with no will—and Morrison’s estate passed to her parents. Morrison’s mom and dad had to spend six years fighting in court for 50% of the Lizard King’s royalties.
There’s Gold in Them Thar . . . Hills?
It’s morning on January 24, 1848, and a sawmill operator notices some shiny flecks in the American River just downstream of his mill. The Gold Rush is on, and San Francisco explodes from a village of 200 to a boomtown of 36,000.
Nearly 200 years later, a new breed of San Francisco-area companies are mining a new form of gold. Except, instead of yellow metal, they’re digging for personal data. And state governments are still struggling to tax the boom. Two law school professors have just released a paper in the Notre Dame Law Review advocating one possible solution.
Their answer: a digital service tax like the one recently adopted in Maryland.
Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together
U.S. Olympians who medal in Paris will also bring home cash, specifically, $37,500 for gold, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. And here’s an extra patriotic bonus—in 2016, Washington passed a law that says Olympians and Paralympians don’t have to pay tax on any of those winnings!