NC Sales and Services Taxation: Into the Capillaries

Now the Republicans in North Carolina are backing away from radical sales tax base-broadening that would tax all goods and nearly all services. But they want some change.

Soon it will be time for them to list which services get taxed for the first time. So service businesses from tattoo parlors to CPAs will have incentives to (1) hire lobbyists and (2) make campaign contributions to incumbents.

History of Alcohol Taxation in America

Source list for my talk at the UNC Law School on February 9 is at Bibliography Oglesby Alcohol Jan 2013 updated 2014. Here are the most interesting items:

Rabushka, Alvin, Taxation in Colonial America Continue reading “History of Alcohol Taxation in America”

NC polling results on marijuana legalization

There’s a 58-percent majority for medical marijuana; 39 percent yes for full legalization. Here’s the full report from PPP: Jan2013PPPMarijuanaPollResults.

A Way Past The Marijuana Dilemma — Federal Taxation

Posted here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/pat-oglesby/a-way-marijuana-dilemma_b_2490720.html:

Pat Oglesby

Tax lawyer; Founder and president, Center for New Revenue

A Way Past the Marijuana Dilemma Continue reading “A Way Past The Marijuana Dilemma — Federal Taxation”

Economics of Bootlegging in the 1950s — Junior Johnson

“A gallon of whiskey [bore] … $11 tax. You could make it for 75 cents to a dollar and sell it for $3 or $4. . . . It’s the same way today if you beat the government out of taxes. It’s what everyone was trying to do back then.” Junior Johnson, quoted in Peter Golenbock, American Zoom (MacMillan, New York, 1993), page 22.

The federal liquor tax from 1951 to 1985 was $10.50 per proof gallon. It’s $13.50 today, but with inflation, the tax burden is much less now.

Whisky Rebellion of the 1790s — Petition and Remonstrance

Tax protesting is nothing new, as seen here: Petition-and-remonstrance. To complain about the whisky excise tax in the early 1790s, an anonymous North Carolina planter wrote hundreds of lines in verse. Here’s a sample transcription from Scottish dialect:

Some chaps whom freedom’s spirit warms

Are threatening to take up arms,

And headstrong in rebellion rise

‘Fore they’ll submit to that excise. Continue reading “Whisky Rebellion of the 1790s — Petition and Remonstrance”

Colorado’s Marijuana Regulations — Comments Submitted: Tiny Packages

Dear Members of the Amendment 64 Implementation Task Force:

My best wishes to all of you as you undertake a task no one has tried before.

“Tiny packages”: that summarizes this submission. As you work on marijuana rules, you may want to consider a maximum package size less than the one ounce adults may possess legally. (Maybe this suggestion suits the circumstances, maybe not. Continue reading “Colorado’s Marijuana Regulations — Comments Submitted: Tiny Packages”