Obama Tax Plan Proposal

Once again my friend, Diane Kennedy, renowned Tax Strategist, has the news hot-off the presses. Read what she has to say about this new tax proposal. It may not pertain to you personally, but it will affect you ultimately, as all tax bills do.

Watch Out For This Pet Project of Obama Tax Plan

Posted November 12th, 2008 by Diane Kennedy

Pres-Elect Obama has a pet project. Well, he probably has quite a few, but this one could really impact taxpayers, especially business owners and investors. It’s called the Levin-Coleman-Obama Stop Tax Haven Abuse Act. On the surface, that sounds good. But read on if you EVER plan to live or buy or otherwise do business outside of the US.

This Act starts off by stating that there will now be a presumption of GUILT if any American owns part of or sends money to any company within one of the 34 so-called Tax Haven countries. If hope you noticed that sends money to because just wait until you read who the countries are.

Some you’d expect like the Bahamas and the Caymans. But look at the rest on the list: Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Dominica, Gibraltar, Grenada, Guernsey/Sark/ Alderney, Hong Kong, Isle of Man, Jersey, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, Nauru, Netherlands Antilles, Panama, Samoa ,St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Singapore ,Switzerland, Turks and Caicos, and Vanuatu.

If you make any transfer it will be presumed that the amount transferred is unreported income and you will be taxed, penalized and possibly even found guilty of fraud. It’ll be up to you prove they are wrong. (This is a very tough standard.) Banks and other financial institutes will be required to report any suspicious activity to the IRS.

Failure to follow these rules could mean 150% penalty and up to $1 million per incident in fines.

You can read the details of this Act at http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=269479

Are You Going to Vote Tomorrow?

I was truly amazed to hear from a young man today that he wasn't planning to vote tomorrow because his vote "doesn't matter" and "nothing's going to change regardless of who gets elected." I'm saddened that there are still people who feel their vote doesn't matter. I have friends who are married and one is a staunch Democrat and one a staunch Republican and they stopped voting a few years ago saying their votes canceled each other out. Doesn't everyone know by now the difference between the popular vote and the electoral college? And what about all of the other issues on the ballot?

Please, VOTE and try to convince anyone who doesn't plan on voting to go with you...every voice counts in every election. Whether you are voting for McCain or Obama the issue is bigger than that. We normally only get just over half the registered voters to cast their ballots in an election. What might change if we got almost 100% of the voters to the polls? I sure would like to find out in my lifetime.