Eideard

The people at Miracle-Gro are going to start marketing to marijuana farmers, reasoning that they need fertilizer, too.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting:

In an unlikely move for the head of a major company, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. Chief Executive Jim Hagedorn said he is exploring targeting medical marijuana as well as other niches to help boost sales at his lawn and garden company.

“I want to target the pot market,” Mr. Hagedorn said in an interview. “There’s no good reason we haven’t.”

Sales at Scotts rose 5% last year to $2.9 billion. But the Marysville, Ohio, company relies on sales at three key retailers—Home Depot Inc., Lowe’s Cos. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.—for nearly two-thirds of its revenue. With consumers still cautious about spending, the retailers aren’t building new stores as quickly as they used to, making growth for suppliers like Scotts harder to come by. Against that backdrop, Mr. Hagedorn has pushed his regional sales presidents to look for smaller pockets of growth, such as the marijuana market, that together could produce a noticeable bump in sales.

NPR is reporting:

The medical marijuana market will reach $1.7 billion in sales this year, the story says. Scotts-Miracle Gro’s annual sales are $2.9 billion.

So on the face of it, marijuana growers can’t add much to the company’s revenues. Of course, there’s clearly a very large non-medical-marijuana industry in this country that the company could also sell into.

Overdue. Get the fracking politicians out of the simplest of homegrown relaxation therapies. Tax it. Regulate it – as little as possible. Let’s get on with the real world, please.

A new University of Maryland study finds that when average Americans are presented the federal budget in some detail, most are able to reduce the budget deficit dramatically and resolve the Social Security shortfall.

Through a combination of spending cuts and tax increases, on average, respondents cut the discretionary budget deficit projected for 2015 by seventy percent. Six in ten solved the problem of the projected Social Security shortfall through adjustments in payroll taxes, premiums, and benefits. The projected Medicare shortfall was also dramatically reduced…

Unlike conventional polls [Program for Public Consultation] PPC consults with the public by first presenting respondents with information on policy issues and a range of options for addressing them. “When given information and a chance to sort through their options, most Americans do a pretty good job of dealing with America’s budget problems – better than most politicians,” says…Steven Kull, who directs PPC…

On average respondents made net spending cuts of $145.7 billion. The largest cuts included those to defense ($109.4 billion), intelligence ($13.1 billion), military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq ($12.8 billion) and the federal highway system ($4.6 billion) – all of which were cut by majorities.

On average respondents increased revenues by $291.6 billion. The largest portion was from income taxes which were raised by an average of $154.8 billion above the levels currently in place. Majorities increased taxes on incomes over $100,000 by five percent or more, and increased them by 10 percent or more for incomes over $500,000.

Majorities also increased corporate and alcohol taxes, and turned to new sources of revenue, including a tax on sugary drinks, treating ‘carried interest’ income as taxable (also known as the hedge fund managers’ tax), and charging a crisis fee to large banks. A plurality (49 percent) favored a tax on carbon dioxide emissions. But a sales tax was rejected by 58 percent of respondents…

Most respondents also successfully dealt with the problem of Social Security. Respondents were presented eight possible steps for dealing with the Social Security shortfall that will occur as the baby boom generation retires.

Six in ten respondents selected enough steps to resolve the problem. This was the case even though many of them also chose to make the problem more difficult by increasing benefits to low income retirees.

This parallels the study done by readers of the NY TIMES a little while ago. Time after time, when Americans are presented with simple objective information about taxes and policies they come up with common sense solutions that escape the petty analyses of our payola politicians.

The Americans surveyed suggested increased spending on education and social security. The total deficit reduction was over $437 billion.

As a 64-year-old woman with a grandchild, state Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle, says she’s not the type of person you would normally associate with marijuana. And yet Dickerson has again introduced legislation that would legalize, regulate and tax marijuana in Washington state.

“I believe that it’s a smart way to raise badly needed revenue,” said Dickerson, who chairs the House Health and Human Services Appropriations and Oversight Committee. “It also would at the same time mean that we can focus our law-enforcement efforts on more important things.”

House Bill 1550, filed Tuesday, would regulate marijuana much like alcohol. It proposes that pot be sold through state liquor stores to adults age 21 and older, that the sales be taxed and that the state Liquor Control Board issue licenses to commercial growers. Most of the revenue would go to health care, and substance-abuse treatment and prevention.

The bill would also classify as felonies interstate transportation of marijuana and unauthorized transportation of marijuana within Washington above a certain amount.

Dickerson proposed a similar bill last year, but it failed in a House committee. New provisions in this year’s bill include authorizing the production of industrial hemp and allowing limited growing of marijuana at home for personal use.

Amazing. Someone in Washington state with a brain has been elected to state office.

Good thing we needn’t worry about that happening in New Mexico. Or Congress.

HM Revenue & Customs was at the centre of fresh controversy after it emerged that its computer system was telling people they were owed five-figure tax refunds.

The error was uncovered by chartered accountants Blick Rothenberg which noticed a note on the self-assessment account of one of its clients stating that a refund was due. The group then checked the accounts of all of its clients and found that in every case HMRC was saying it owed them sums of between a few pounds and £24,000.

Frank Nash, tax partner at Blick Rothenberg, said: “HMRC’s online system for self-assessment was down a couple of days ago. It was resurrected and when we went on to it to look at our clients’ statements of account to tell them what their current tax situation was, we noticed that everybody was due a repayment.”

He said that it was not an isolated incident, as the group had spoken to other tax firms, and all of their clients were told that they were due a refund too. He added that the firm knew it was an error as they knew what their clients were due to pay, and they were not owed refunds…

He also said the error might mean that people who were genuinely owed money by HMRC could have to wait for longer before they received their refund. The situation is also likely to cause confusion among self-assessment taxpayers who do not have an accountant…

The problem came to light as it was disclosed that HMRC more than tripled the pay of a key architect of its controversial new PAYE system to stop him walking out at a crucial moment.

A package worth £600,000 a year pro rata was agreed to keep Deepak Singh as acting chief information officer (CIO) for an extra three months after he failed to land the post permanently.

To further sweeten the deal keeping him on for the three months, the government paid £19,200 to help him find a new job after the temporary cover had finished.

Har!

Refrigerator magnets
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

Anticipating California voters will back a November ballot measure to legalize casual marijuana use, officials in Oakland have approved two tax rates on pot sales in their city, already a hub of the state’s medicinal marijuana scene.

Oakland’s city council…approved the rates — a 5 percent gross receipts tax on licensed marijuana growers and on businesses selling marijuana for medical purposes, and a 10 percent rate on sales of marijuana used for recreational purposes.

California voters in 1996 approved a measure allowing marijuana use for medical purposes and would legalize its recreational use if they approve Proposition 19 in November.

The measure would allow marijuana possession for personal use and would authorize local governments to issue permits for pot production and sales and to tax it under state law. Selling marijuana would remain illegal under federal law…

Federal authorities have not aggressively interfered with sales of medicinal marijuana sales in California.

Cripes. I’ll bet that even bible-thumper/stoners living in Oakland will vote for Prop 19. Sooner or later, enlightened self-interest has to overcome hypocrisy.

Only the “saved” who want to stick with alcohol for their highs and resent anyone having alternatives will fight to jail people for possession.

Even in an economic downturn, preachers in the “prosperity gospel” movement are drawing sizable, adoring audiences. Their message — that if you have sufficient faith in God and the Bible and donate generously, God will multiply your offerings a hundredfold — is reassuring to many in hard times…

Many in this flock do not trust banks, the news media or Washington, where the Senate Finance Committee is investigating whether the Copelands and other prosperity evangelists used donations to enrich themselves and abused their tax-exempt status. But they trust the Copelands, the movement’s current patriarch and matriarch, who seem to embody prosperity with their robust health and abundance of children and grandchildren who have followed them into the ministry…

A large contingent came in wheelchairs, hoping for miraculous healings…

A call center at the ministry’s 481-employee headquarters in Newark, Tex., takes in 60,000 prayer requests a month, a publicist said. The Copelands’ broadcast reaches 134 countries, and the ministry’s income is about $100 million annually…

At the convention, the preachers…sprinkled their sermons with put-downs of the government, an overhaul of health care, public schools, the news media and other churches, many of which condemn prosperity preaching.

But mostly the preachers were working mightily to remind the crowd that they are God’s elect. “While everybody else is having a famine,” said Jerry Savelle, a Texas televangelist, “his covenant people will be having the best of times.”

“Any time a worried thought about money pops up in your mind,” Mr. Savelle continued, “the next thing you do is sow”: drop money, like seeds, in “good ground” like the preachers’ ministries. “Stop worrying, start sowing,” he added, his voice rising. “That’s God’s stimulus package for you.”

At that, hundreds streamed down the aisles to the stage, laying envelopes, cash and coins on the carpeted steps.

Remember folks – these hustlers get to do all this tax free. Being an organized religion is just about the best corporate hustle in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Gullible and Ignorant.

Of course, they have to oppose improvements in healthcare. If folks lived better and stayed healthy, these creeps would lose an important part of their audience.

Marvin Berkowitz in a Tel Aviv courtroom – between Israeli coppers in casual dress
Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

An American-Israeli crime ring conspired to defraud United States tax authorities of tens of millions of dollars for at least five years, according to Israeli and American court documents.

The suspects filed thousands of fraudulent requests for tax refunds in the names of prisoners in federal penitentiaries, without the prisoners’ knowledge, according to an indictment filed in Chicago. They then laundered the money through Israeli bank accounts, the authorities said.

Two Americans and seven Israelis went to a Tel Aviv court for a hearing on Monday in connection with the case. Other Americans have been arrested in Chicago and other parts of the United States.

The man accused of leading the ring, Marvin Berkowitz, 62, fled the United States for Israel in 2003, according to the Israeli authorities, and has been living in Jerusalem…

The American indictment states that the suspects sought to get more than $35 million in federal and state income tax refunds. Israeli investigators say they have found $12 million worth of tax refunds in Israeli bank accounts controlled by Mr. Berkowitz and his accomplices…

Federal officials said the men had sought tax refunds using the identities of about 3,300 federal prisoners. Mr. Berkowitz, who was charged with six counts of identity theft, is suspected of recruiting and paying others to travel to federal courthouses to collect personal information about federal inmates, including Social Security numbers.

I know our government has been inept for years when it comes to communicating between departments; but, I think folks are starting to talk to each other – and especially to the IRS.

Mayhap we’re reaching the point where the only thugs who escape detection for tax fraud are those who own the right Congressman.

Daylife/Getty Images

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said today he welcomes a public debate on proposals to legalize and tax marijuana, which some suggest could provide a lucrative new revenue source for the cash-strapped state.

The Republican governor, whose term in office expires at the end of next year, was asked about the idea of treating pot like alcohol at an appearance in northern California to promote wildfire preparedness.

“No, I don’t think it’s time for that, but I think it’s time for a debate,” he said. “And I think we ought to study very carefully what other countries are doing that have legalized marijuana and other drugs, what affect it had on those countries, and are they happy with that decision…”

He said a decision to legalize marijuana, which has been outlawed in the United States since 1937, should not be made on the basis of raising revenues alone.

Schwarzenegger’s comments come days after a statewide Field Poll found that 56 percent of California voters support the idea of legalizing cannabis for recreational use and taxing its proceeds.

A bill introduced in the state Legislature by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, a Democrat from San Francisco, would do just that — permitting taxed sales of marijuana to adults while barring sales to or possession by anyone under age 21. A similar regulatory structure already exists for alcoholic beverages.

The topic alone is a leading example of how hypocrisy, ignorance and just plain ignorance screws up political decisions – based on “morality”. This nation suffered through Prohibition – and let’s face it, marijuana was made illegal only because it wasn’t being taxed and no one had the backbone to tax it.

Decriminalization does one thing really well. It removes 99% of the opportunity for crooks to make money from so-called vices.

Daylife/AP Photo

Offshore tax havens used by rich Americans in Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and other nations are targeted for shutdown by bills offered by Democrats in both chambers of Congress.

The Senate bill expands on one co-sponsored last year by then-Senator Barack Obama and Senator Carl Levin, who has sought a broad crackdown on tax dodgers estimated to deprive the U.S. government of more than $100 billion a year. A thriving business in tax evasion developed in recent years on Wall Street among consulting firms, hedge funds and other elite financial players. Some purveyors even sought patent protection for their off-the-shelf schemes…

Similar legislation was introduced in the House by Texas Democrat Lloyd Doggett and more than 40 co-sponsors…

Mark Branson, chief financial officer of UBS Global Wealth Management and Swiss Bank, appeared Wednesday before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which is chaired by Levin.

Branson appeared last July before the same panel at a hearing on the same topic. At that time, Branson apologized and announced the bank would stop offering cross-border private banking through its unregulated units to U.S.-domiciled customers. He also said then that UBS was working with the U.S. government to identify U.S. clients who may have engaged in tax fraud…

Branson maintained UBS’ stone wall: “the U.S. is attempting to resolve this diplomatic dispute in a courtroom, which is neither productive nor proper.”

“Productive and proper” according to Swiss law is why UBS is chartered there, of course. That’s what being a hideout for tax dodgers is all about.

Legislators across the United States are looking for new sources of revenue from casinos in Massachusetts to legalizing and taxing pot in California.

State Rep. Martin Walsh, a Boston Democrat, told The New York Times his colleagues, who voted his casino bill down, may be more receptive to it now. The measure would authorize two resort-style casinos in Massachusetts, one of them in Boston.

In Nevada, brothel owners support a bill to tax them.

“I think they figure if they become part of the tax stream, the less vulnerable they will be to some shift in mores,” said the sponsor, state Sen. Bob Coffin.

Hawaii is considering legalizing same-sex marriages to lure gay couples.

In Washington, state Rep. Mark Miloscia was surprised by the resistance to a tax on pornography. He said he did not see anything like this when he raised taxes on cigarettes and liquor. “Apparently porn is right up there with Mom and apple pie.”

California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who represents San Francisco, suggests legalizing marijuana would allow the state to capture some revenue from a major cash crop.

This all not only makes sense, it proves that politically, economically, we’re about a half-century behind the rest of the civilized world.

DirecTV, the FCC and all the fuddy-duddies in Congress won’t let the Red Button on my remote do anything like place a bet. I don’t get to make that choice.