Lauren Weinstein <lauren@vortex.com> (10/01/90)
Greetings. On Sunday, September 30, agreement was reached by the federal budget negotiators on a proposed new budget, including a variety of program cuts and new/increased taxes. Ignoring the other taxes for the moment (e.g. increases in gasoline tax, energy tax, social security taxes, etc.) there is one brand new tax in the agreement that might be of particular importance to readers of this forum. This is a new "luxury" tax of 10%. Details are sketchy, but it apparently is proposed that this tax will apply on items such as "luxury cars", furs, jewelry, and *electronic equipment*. As this message is written, it is unclear what that latter category would include. Would it include telecommunications and computer equipment, or "only" televisions, VCR's, stereos, etc. above a certain selling price? Would it apply only to individuals, or to business use of such equipment as well? Would this tax simply be added on to existing state and local taxes at the consumer level? It might be worthwhile for everyone who is involved in the purchase of "electronic equipment" to carefully track the details of this significant new proposed tax as they come forth, and make their opinions known to their House/Senate members (opinions phoned in *do* get counted by their offices). At this stage, the budget agreement has not yet been approved by Congress, and while the leadership will no doubt wish to have the entire package accepted in one piece, it is not necessarily the case that changes won't be made. It is important that our representatives be informed about the feelings of the technical community concerning these specific proposals. --Lauren--
lmg@mtqub.att.com (Lawrence M Geary) (10/02/90)
In article <12847@accuvax.nwu.edu>, lauren@vortex.com (Lauren Weinstein) writes: (Paraphrased): > On Sunday, September 30, agreement was reached by the federal budget > negotiators on a proposed new budget, including a variety of program > cuts and new/increased taxes. There is one brand new tax in the > agreement that might be of particular importance to readers of this > forum. This is a new "luxury" tax of 10% ... [that] will apply on > items such as "luxury cars", furs, jewelry, and *electronic equipment*. "Electronic equipment" over $1000. This has the perverse effect of taxing some basic items like an $1100 stereo receiver while exempting some "high end" items like $900 phono cartridges. I suppose systems could be decomposed into individual parts < $1000 each to get around the tax. God help us if Congress starts to add exemptions and qualifications to this one. > It might be worthwhile for everyone who is involved in the purchase of > "electronic equipment" to carefully track the details of this > significant new proposed tax as they come forth, and make their > opinions known to their House/Senate members. This budget agreement bears all the marks of an unstoppable freight train. Congress takes a hatchet to the tax code and federal programs with no eye toward fairness, consistency or good sense, but with one goal in mind: squeeze as much additional money out of the taxpayers as possible. They then brand anyone who objects to these wholesale random changes as "nit pickers and naysayers". (And that was the Republicans!) They aren't interested in logical arguments, and they are braced for the onslaught of protests from every affected group. Make those electronic purchases you've been putting off *now*. Larry Geary: 74017.3065@compuserve.com | Turn out a light for Astronomy lmg@mtqub.att.com |