| Fosterville assistant fire chief indicted on tax fraud | | Posted Saturday, November 11, 2006 2:46:03 PM by Blog57 Team | | An assistant chief at the Fosterville Volunteer Fire Department has been indicted for sales tax fraud for allegedly using the department's tax-exemption certificate to purchase more than $11,000 in personal items. Kirk Andrew Fonte Sr. surrendered to authorities Thursday at the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office after he was indicted by the grand jury. He posted a $3,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in Circuit Court Nov. 20. .... | |
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| | | Cadwalader Names Special Counsel Across Practices and Offices | | Posted Thursday, November 09, 2006 12:46:19 PM by Blog57 Team | | NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP, one of the world's leading international law firms, today announced the promotion of 24 attorneys to the position of Special Counsel. "Cadwalader has long recognized the need to develop and retain its most valuable asset – our attorneys. The position of Special Counsel supports this effort and provides recognition and incentive for our experienced attorneys who have demonstrated excellent legal and management skills and expertise in their area of practice. Above and beyond that, these attorneys have worked very hard, have excellent working relationships with clients, train and mentor junior staff, and have made significant contributions to our pro bono, diversity, recruiting and marketing efforts," stated Robert O.... | |
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| | | Quit whining, and paws off my tax break | | Posted Friday, November 03, 2006 2:46:07 AM by Blog57 Team | | Did you read our series on the Save Our Homes amendment? It is unfair, irresponsible and a fiscal disaster waiting to happen. I don't care. I saved $2,000 in property taxes last year. Avoiding taxes is the American way. That is why we have deductions, dodges, shelters, accountants and defense attorneys. Where is the word fair located in any tax code? You could put a dozen Americans on a raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and they'd dutifully divide up the last piece of crusty bread. But tax them to buy a sail and they'd look for a loophole to make the women and children pay first. Save Our Homes never was intended as a tax cut. We don't cut taxes because we don't cut spending. What we call tax cuts actually are tax shifts.... | |
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| | | Lawyers want to keep license, even if they owe taxes | | Posted Wednesday, October 25, 2006 2:45:59 PM by Blog57 Team | | MADISON, Wis. Wisconsin attorneys say they should be able to keep their law license even if they've failed to pay state taxes. State Bar president Steve Levine is urging the state Supreme Court not to give the Department of Revenue the power to suspend law licenses for tax delinquents. Levine says the Office of Lawyer Regulation already has authority to discipline attorneys who owe taxes. The office investigates complaints against lawyers and recommends discipline to the Supreme Court. Revenue Department attorney Dana Erlandsen says people in 500 other professions licensed by the state can lose their licenses if they don't pay state income, sale and withholding taxes. Erlandsen says lawyers shouldn't be treated differently. The court didn't immediately make a decision.... | |
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| | | Corzine seeks smaller property tax hikes | | Posted Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:45:40 AM by Blog57 Team | | Gov. Jon S. Corzine this morning said he hopes to hold property tax increases to no more than 3 percent annually and give local governments authority to implement their own taxes. Speaking on New Jersey 101.5 FM, Corzine said he would like cut the state's highest-in-the-nation property taxes as part of an ongoing tax reform effort, but said keeping annual hikes in check seems more realistic. Property taxes have increased about 7 percent annually in recent years, helping boost average property taxes to $6,000, twice the national average. "Hopefully we'll get it down to 3 percent or less," Corzine said. New Jersey relies on property taxes to pay for most county, municipal and school operations. Those local governments raise money only through property taxes.... | |
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| | | South Africa: Tax Renegades Flee Rather Than Pay | | Posted Sunday, October 08, 2006 6:45:43 PM by Blog57 Team | | THE take-up of the Small Business Tax Amnesty has been slow, with the South African Revenue Service (SARS) receiving only 832 applications in the two months since it began. SARS has embarked on a series of countrywide road shows to create awareness about the amnesty but the response has been mixed -- with some business owners keen to find out what the amnesty is all about, and others shutting their shops and running away. Tax analysts are sceptical about the success of the Small Business Tax Amnesty, saying it is difficult for the receiver to reach out to an audience that is not "sophisticated" and where there is much distrust on the part of some (taxi owners and other small businesses). They add that the tax amnesty is not all that it seems. By contrast, the Foreign Exchange Control Amnesty of 2003 to 2004 received 3000 applications between June and October 2003, about 10000 applications for November 2003, 19000 in February 2004, and eventually more than 43000.... | |
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| | | Treasurer fears tax increases if center fails | | Posted Saturday, September 30, 2006 10:45:46 AM by Blog57 Team | | County Treasurer Craig Ebersole said today in court that he worries that a proposed hotel-convention center would eventually fail, burdening future generations of county residents with tax increases or an incredible tug-of-war for local governments to bail it out. Ebersoles concerns dominated early going in Day 2 of testimony in County Court to determine if County Commissioners Dick Shellenberger and Molly Henderson can rescind a county guarantee to pay up to half of $40 million in construction bonds if the project fails. Attorney Howard Kelin, representing Lancaster County, suggested chaos and harm to residents if the project developers are granted their injunction to keep the commissioners from rescinding an earlier bond guarantee. Ebersole cited a study underwritten by County Commissioners and opponents to the project to make a case that the convention center-hotel very well could sustain operating losses that would exceed the debt service that the countys hotel tax covers.... | |
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| | | APOC to hear dispute over reserves tax campaign | | Posted Friday, September 22, 2006 12:45:51 PM by Blog57 Team | | JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Sponsors of an initiative to tax the leaseholders of the state's natural gas reserves want the Alaska Public Offices Commission to force an opposing group to disclose where its money is coming from. The group, Alaska's Future, had spent more than $33,000 by the end of August on advertising against the tax initiative, according to a report filed with APOC. The tax proposal would charge the leaseholders of the North Slope's 35 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves $1 billion for each year a gas pipeline is not in operation. Sponsors say the tax would force construction of a gas pipeline, while Gov. Frank Murkowski and oil industry representatives say the expense of it would kill the project. Voters will decide Nov. 7 whether the tax plan becomes law.... | |
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| | | After guilty plea, state lifts Lynch's law license | | Posted Thursday, September 21, 2006 10:45:36 PM by Blog57 Team | | After pleading guilty to defrauding the state's citizens and tax evasion in federal court last week, former state Sen. John A. Lynch Jr.'s law license was temporarily suspended by the Supreme Court. The suspension, ordered Tuesday, prevents Lynch from functioning in any capacity as an attorney in the state -- neither able to take cases nor provide legal advice. But even before Lynch's plea, any reference to him was removed from the Web site of the law firm his father founded. Several partners from Lynch's original law firm broke off to form their own firm, Martin, Kane, Kuper in North Brunswick. Lynch and several other partners, remained to create Lynch, Keefe, Bartels, with offices in Shrewsbury, Newark and Perth Amboy. Only a few weeks ago, the law firm's Web site detailed its ties to Lynch and his father.... | |
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| | | Groups split over need for paid attorneys in VA claims | | Posted Monday, September 04, 2006 10:45:45 AM by Blog57 Team | | "It's like inviting the wolf into the chicken house," said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Charley Burch of Newport News. He was describing the Senate's Aug. 3 vote to allow paid attorneys - for the first time in more than a century - to represent veterans filing disability claims with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Burch, 74, spent 18 years after he retired from the military helping Virginia vets apply for VA disability benefits. As a veterans claim agent on state salary, Burch's help was free to any Virginia vet. He said he knew the ins and outs of filing a successful disability claim better than any lawyer he knew. Like some of the largest veterans service organizations (VSOs), including Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars, Burch strongly opposes a bill he said "helps lawyers, not veterans." Lawyers groups - particularly legal advocates for veterans - did lobby for the change, along with a few retired appellate court judges and some smaller vets groups.... | |
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