Taxes

Friends of Wells Fargo Typo Victim Larry Delassus Suing For Wrongful Death

Attorney Anthony Trujillo sits at his desk overlooking the Pacific Ocean, clicking through hundreds of files on his computer. Each relates to his late friend and client, Larry Delassus, who died of heart failure in a Torrance courtroom in December as he sat in a wheelchair watching Trujillo argue a ... More >>

Proposition A Los Angeles Sales Tax Election Results: Voters Rejecting Tax Hike by Eight Points

Update, Wednesday morning: In a huge embarrassment for City Council President Herb Wesson and the City Hall establishment, voters resoundingly rejected the citywide sales tax hike, 55.17 percent to 44.82 percent. See details on next page. With additional reporting by Jill Stewart. Update, 12:40 PM: ... More >>

Proposition A Los Angeles Sales Tax: Absentee Ballot Results Show Villaraigosa's Latest Tax Hike Losing By Ten Points

See: L.A. Sales Tax Hike: Will $211 Million Increase Fix City's Problems? The early absentee ballots are in, and while it's still early on, it's begining to look like your taxes are not going up. With around six percent of votes counted, Proposition A is losing by ten points, 45 to 55 percent. Th ... More >>

L.A. Sales Tax Hike: Will $211 Million Increase Fix City's Problems?

Do people trust the City Council?

Villaraigosa Endorses Half-Cent Sales Tax You'll Vote On In March

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has been on the fence, or at least noticeably quiet, about a proposed sales-tax hike that will come before L.A. city voters March 5. Today the Yes on A campaign revealed that our leader is giving Proposition A his support. According to a statement from the camp Villaraig ... More >>

Sandra Fluke Headlines L.A. City Hall Rally For Increasing Taxes On Rich

Sandra Fluke, the activist Rush Limbaugh once called a prostitute because she said her Catholic law school, Georgetown, should offer free birth control for women, is in L.A. today. She's the headliner at a City Hall rally organized by a group called the Action. What do they want? An end to tax brea ... More >>

California Voter Guide for Nov. 6, 2012, Los Angeles Weekly

Confused about the measures and races on Tuesday's ballot? This California Voter Guide for November 6, 2012 contains a summary of all state measures and several key races. It does not take a position but does touch on controversies, polls and analysis. Proposition 30: Jerry Brown's Tax Hike Governo ... More >>

Molly Munger's Prop. 38 Is Spoiling Jerry Brown's Prop. 30. She's Not Sorry.

Her husband Steve English and the Advancement Project fuel her toughness

Beverly Hills City Council Refuses to Join Rainbow Coalition to Defeat Measure J

Last night, four members of the Beverly Hills City Council blew a golden public relations opportunity -- and refused to approve a strong anti-Measure J resolution. The initiative seeks to extend a recent half-cent L.A. County sales tax hike for another 30 years to 2069. Instead, the Beverly Hills C ... More >>

Mitt Romney's La Jolla Beach House Site of Tax Protest Tomorrow

Updated at the bottom with photos of the action. First posted at 12:19 p.m. Friday. It was only a matter of time before Southern California Democrats descended on Mitt Romney's beach home in La Jolla: It's so close and yet so close. An L.A. labor coalition is planning a protest there Saturday to m ... More >>

Proposition 29 Cigarette Tax

Why it may fail in liberal California

The Scandal Roiling the L.A. County Assessor's Office Suggests Your Tax Bill Is All About Who You Know, and How Much You've Donated to Assessor John Noguez

Appraiser Scott Schenter Accused Of Wrongfully Cutting Property Roll By $108 Million; Many Breaks Went To Tax Agent Ramin Salari's Clients

​Monday, 2, p.m. Updated below with Schenter's termination notice, which details some of the allegations against the former appraiser.Former appraiser Scott Schenter wrongfully lowered property values on 156 parcels, according to a spreadsheet prepared by the L.A. County Assessor's Office.Schenter ... More >>

Mark Cuban, Would-be Dodgers Owner, Says Idea of Higher Corporate Taxes Hindering Hiring is 'Nonsense'

Mark Cuban.​Mark Cuban, one of the billionaires named as a possible Dodgers' bidder (he has said the price was too high), is spoiling the trickle-down tax-break arguments of Republican lawmakers again. The Dallas Mavericks owner had previously sided with billionaire Warren Buffet in declaring ... More >>

Dennis Gilbert, Top Dodger Suitor, Got Rich Selling Tax Avoidance Schemes To The Super-Wealthy

Dennis Gilbert, insurance salesman​Now that Frank McCourt has agreed to sell the Dodgers, we can turn our attention to potential new owners for the team.The top contender is probably Dennis J. Gilbert. He's got a great story. He's a local guy, went to Gardena High School and L.A. City College. He ... More >>

Richest Americans Saw 400 Percent Increase in Income, 40 Percent Decrease in Tax Rates, According to Calif. Sen. Boxer (It's Almost True)

yunguyen666​This whole class warfare thing is kind of cool. We haven't seen this much bloodlust among the masses since Apple introduced the iPhone 4. After President Obama proposed that millionaires and billionaires pay the same tax rate as working-class folks (sparking charges by the right t ... More >>

Millionaires Don't Pay Taxes? 1,470 of America's Richest Didn't, According to IRS

MatMA free ride for some millionaires?​Southern California has more millionaires than just about anywhere else in the nation, with L.A. coming in at No. 1, Orange County at No. 4, and San Diego ranking No. 6 in cities with the most seven-figure-plus households in 2008. So maybe we should feel ... More >>

NFL Stadium Downtown Could Generate $41 Million a Year in Tax Revenue: LA Neighbors United Wants Cash Guarantee For Citizens

Go, tax revenue.​Are you ready for some ... tax revenue. Yeah, we're talkin' Monday night tax revenue, Sunday afternoon tax revenue, tax revenue all year 'round. That according to Anschutz Entertainment Group, the people who run Staples Center and who want to install an NFL stadium atop cit ... More >>

Sales Tax in California Goes Down 1 Percentage Point This Weekend

Indeed.​Yes, we've seen the t-shirts: 2010 sucked. It's true. And so far, 2011 isn't exactly sparking the turnaround of the new century. Not yet. But there's hope. Thanks to the often sedentary ways of the California legislature, a 2009, one-percentage point sales tax increase will expire t ... More >>

California Sales Tax Set to Go Down 1 Percentage Point This Summer: L.A. City Could See 8.75 Percent Rate

​California's massive budget deficit has shrunk by more than a third -- to Tom Cruise-size, about $10 billion -- thanks to unexpected income tax revenues. But the taxpayer giveth and she also taketh away. A 1 percentage point sales tax increase that went into effect in 2009 is set to expire ... More >>

Illegal Immigrants Paid $2.7 Billion in Taxes in California Last Year

Banksy's 'Caution' warns of a taxpayer invasion.​As you nurse your tax-day hangover, we bring you news from the flip side. Despite what Lou Dobbs might have told you, turns out illegal immigrants do pay taxes. Lots of them. The Immigration Policy Center, citing the Institute for Taxation and ... More >>

Tax Day Blues: Super Rich Pay Low Tax Rate; Some, Like the Dodgers' McCourts, Don't Pay at All

Frank McCourt is poorer than you (on paper).​Ah, tax day. Don't let the complicated line items and nonsensical deductions get you down. That's all gravy compared to this fact: Nearly half of U.S. households don't even pay income taxes. And the super rich are paying less than they did a few y ... More >>

California 'Governor' Jerry Brown Will Call Special 2011 Election To Raise Taxes, Says Gloom Meister Gray Davis

Via OC Register​Via the mayorsam blog via the Fresno Bee, that super-upbeat, super-flashy guy, gloomy Gray Davis, is saying that California Governor Jerry Brown, um, probable governor, will immediately set a Special Election to ask Californians to raise taxes. God, which is worse? Another spe ... More >>

Bill Clinton Rallies College Students For Jerry Brown At UCLA

Ted SoquiJerry Brown addresses a rally at UCLA, flanked by Gavin Newsom and Bill Clinton​Not long ago, Jerry Brown listened to an old presidential debate between himself and Bill Clinton."It was very acrimonious," Brown said on Thursday. "I landed some very good punches and so did he."Brown said t ... More >>

Los Angeles County Cities Have Highest Sales Taxes In The State, Including 10.75 Percent In Pico Rivera And South Gate

Slices of Light via Flickr​Updated after the jump with comments from the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce's CEO, who says high sales taxes could hurt car sales. Originally posted at 1:38 p.m. Eleven cents on the dollar in sales tax? Believe that. As five California cities, including two in Sou ... More >>

Bell City Council Agrees To Roll Back Property Taxes After $3 Million In Overcharges Revealed

John Chiang.​The Bell City Council early Tuesday voted to roll-back its property tax rate after state controller John Chiang discovered that the municipality had overcharged residents by $3 million over the last three years. The vote came in the a.m. after the council met for a marathon Monda ... More >>

Feds, State Bust Up Massive Alleged L.A. ... Tobacco Ring? Yep, Tobacco.

​Retro: State and federal authorities up and down California and over to Vegas have busted up a big non-cigarette tobacco ring that allegedly avoided paying taxes -- $35 million in California excise taxes. A bevy of state and federal agencies were involved in the three-year investigation, rac ... More >>

Luis Rodriguez Ortega Files For Tax Refunds In The Names Of Several Puerto Ricans, Gets 57 Months Behind Bars

​A man who filed tax returns under the names of several Puerto Ricans in order to reap $5 million in refunds was sentenced this week to 57 months in federal prison, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Downey resident Luis Rodriguez Ortega, 35, was also ordered to pay more than $780, ... More >>

Culver City Hotel Tax Might Go Up; Hoteliers Not Happy

​In an effort to raise nearly $500,000 annually, Culver City officials are seeking to raise the hotel tax from 12 percent to 14 percent, according to the Los Angeles Wave. If approved by voters, the proposed tax would be phased in, with the rate raising one percent over each of the next two ye ... More >>

Bill Would End Tax Loopholes Under Prop. 13 For California Businesses

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.​Liberal San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, the man behind a legislative proposal to legalize marijuana, wants to close some of the loopholes in state tax law that have allowed some businesses to change hands without being reassessed for rising property values and c ... More >>

WTF: IRS Agent Indicted For Allegedly Filing False Tax Returns

​An U.S. Internal Revenue Service agent was indicted by a federal grand jury this week on charges that he allegedly filed false tax returns and helped others do so as well. He was already under indictment on suspicion of threatening federal agents who served a search warrant on his home in San ... More >>

Jerry Brown Issues Warning About Shady Tax-Relief Schemes

​State Attorney General Jerry Brown on Tuesday warned Californians to avoid tax-relief firms that ask for up-front fees to wipe out back taxes owed to the IRS. He said many of the outfits -- which charge up to $3,000 for their services -- are "phony" and "provide no actual relief." "Every tax ... More >>

L.A. Country Club Pays Ultra Low Property Tax Rate; Faces Possible Review

​The Los Angeles Country Club, protected under Prop. 13 limits and loopholes, pays an ultra-low rate of about $200,000 a year in property taxes based on 313 acres of prime Westside property that could be worth nearly $20 billion or even more if it were developed, according to the Garment & Cit ... More >>

New CA Budget Cuts Williamson Act Funding, May Affect Local Farmers

As you probably know by now, last week, after a long political stalemate, the Governor finally signed a new California budget, but not before slashing another $489 million to create what we home budgeters might call "a cushion." Along with more cuts to K-12 and higher education, child welfare servic ... More >>

Why Arnold's May 19 Bailout Is Failing

Pissed off voters primed to torpedo Schwarzenegger's ballot measures

Property Tax Fraud: Offer of Free Money Wasn't Sincere!

Looks like some very clever property tax scamsters are still active in L.A. -- but are only now spreading out to Northern California. Just before their spring property taxes were due, many Angelenos received an official-looking mailing from something called Property Tax Reassessment, based in Los An ... More >>

Voter Guide: the Pros and Cons of the Initiatives, February 5 Ballot

Making sense of the issues

Better Than Phone Tax

Villaraigosa makes a Lazarus play to keep alive a pricey, illegal tax on residents

Reversing Brain Waves

That’s all Phil Angelides has to do to unseat Arnold

No New Tax Cuts

Bush Wins the Air War

Big Media gets rewards for good behavior

No New Taxes

Except on students

Calculating Moves

Latino Caucus can’t come up with alternative budget

Desperately Seeking Balance

Legislators stumble in their search for budget solutions

Doomsday Plans

Latino legislators ready to take on Gray Davis and his proposed social-service cuts

Where’s the Rest of It?

The Democrats’ curiously incomplete election-year program

One-Trick Party

In war and peace, Republicans replenish the rich

The Big Heist

Bush plan taxes decency, candor and virtue — but lays off the rich

Crash and Burn

Tobacconists report rise in heists to match price hikes

Letters