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AARP Complains Not Enough of Stimulus Goes to Seniors

Sat, 26 Jan 2008 00:00:00 CST | Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog

You knew it was coming. It was only a matter of time before one of the biggest interest groups in the country weighed in on the fiscal stimulus agreement reached between the White House and the House leadership. The AARP is pressuring senators to expand the fiscal stimulus so that more money can go to senior citizens who don't pay income taxes. The stimulus already includes money for those who work yet pay no income taxes. Now we are being told that it needs to be expanded to those who don't work and pay no income taxes yet earn some sort of retirement income.

Should these seniors be included? Who knows? Maybe. When dealing with a policy that is designed primarily to stimulate the economy, any arbitrary policy can almost be justified to some degree. But what this shows is that there is a problem in trying to use the tax code as the main vehicle for fiscal stimulus and/or social policy. Everyone is always going to complain that they are being shortchanged, despite the fact that getting money to everyone is difficult.

On second thought...maybe we should just send helicopters over every major city in the country and drop out $20 bills. And we can even make AARP happy by putting double the money in the helicopters that fly over golf courses in Florida and Arizona.

Retirement income products confuse consumers, study shows

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 06:01:00 EST | InvestmentNews Current Issue

Although consumers are interested in retirement, few know exactly how they are going to obtain retirement income, and they lack knowledge about the strategies used to create such income, according to a survey by Spectrem Group.

Brazil: Bank?s Lending and Profit Rise

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:25:26 GMT | New York Times

Banco Bradesco, the Brazilian bank, reported a 29 percent increase in fourth-quarter net income on higher lending and one-time gains. Net income climbed to 2.19 billion reais ($1.23 billion) from 1.7 billion reais a year earlier, Bradesco said. Recurring profit, similar to profit from continuing operations, advanced 14 percent to 1.85 billion reais from a year ago, it said. Bank lending in Brazil has increased every month since February 2004 as interest rates fell to record lows and employment rose. The total loan portfolio, including receivables from credit cards, grew 39 percent to 161.4 billion reais, from 116.2 billion in December 2006. Net income was helped by a one-time 227-million-reais gain from the sale of a stake in Bolsa de Mercadorias & Futuros, Latin America?s largest derivatives market, and 178 million reais of profit from the sale of shares in Bovespa Holding, owner of S?o Paulo?s stock exchange.

Travelers' Q4 earnings fall 11 per cent on lower premiums, investment income

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:16:00 -0500 | CANOE Money

SAINT PAUL, Minn. - Travelers Cos. said Tuesday its fourth-quarter profit fell 11 per cent on lower premiums and investment income, but still beat Wall Street expectations.

Valero net income falls 48% on higher crude costs (at MarketWatch)

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:35:00 Etc/GMT | Yahoo! Finance

Valero Energy Corp. on Tuesday said fourth-quarter net income fell 48% as rising crude oil and other expenses bit into its refining margins.

Suzlon Energy boosted by results, income

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:20:00 GMT | Business Standard

Suzlon Energy rose 8.34 per cent to Rs 341.15 on the BSE after posting a 91.89 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 338.18 crore in the third quarter ended December 2007 on a y-o-y basis. Total income

What Are We Missing in Georgia?

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:00 CST | Tax Foundation's Tax Policy Blog

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Rep. Chuck Martin (R-Alpharetta) is pushing legislation co-sponsored by leaders of both parties to make sure Georgians don't have to pay state income taxes on the stimulus checks they might be receiving from the federal government.
The final stimulus plan hasn't been approved by Congress, but President Bush and congressional leaders have supported putting $150 billion into the package. Under the plan, most individuals would get up to $600, couples would get $1,200 and each dependent child would bring families an extra $300.[...]
Without his bill, Martin said recipients would have to pay the 6 percent state income tax on those stimulus checks.

We're not so sure about that. Some states allow residents to deduct federal taxes from their state taxes, so reducing federal taxes would increase state taxes. That's why Missouri enacted a bill similar to Georgia's back in 2001. But Georgia does not allow federal deductibility like Missouri does, so that's not the reason.

We've read the text of the bill (which just adds a one-year income exclusion, without changing any other laws) and the relevant statute, and we can't figure this out. When filing taxes, Georgia instructs filers to start with federal adjusted gross income and then subtract state deductions. The stimulus rebate check, as an advance on the 2008 tax refund, would not increase or decrease federal adjusted gross income, so why would it affect state taxes?

It may well be that Georgia legislators want to give taxpayers a one-year cut in their income tax. But if they're doing that, they might want to get rid of the bottom five income tax rates which apply to income earned under $7,000.

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