As Vice Chair of the California State Board of Equalization (BOE), I regularly hear from small business owners who are caught off guard by tax liabilities. This isn’t surprising given the complexity of California’s tax laws. Even the most well-meaning, knowledgeable business owner can run into problems.

Because of this, I regularly host free small business and nonprofit tax seminars throughout my district to help business owners avoid these “tax traps.” (In fact, we’re hosting a series of events in the coming months designed to help small business owners be successful. Learn more at www.boe.ca.gov/events.)

For those of you unable to attend one of these free seminars, here are the top five tax traps to avoid:

1. Getting Stuck with a Prior Owner’s Tax Bill

Buying a business or stock of goods? You could become responsible for the seller’s unpaid tax, interest and penalties up to the purchase price of the business or stock of goods. Before buying a business, protect yourself from this liability by requesting a certificate of tax clearance by… Read More

[Publisher’s Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, we are pleased to present this column from Don Giottonini.]

As co-authors of Assembly Bill 96, Republican Assemblymembers Brain Maienschein (R-San Diego) and Marie Waldron (R-Escondido) need to answer why they would support a new law that promotes asset forfeiture by devaluing property now legally owned and deprives individuals of their property without compensation or due process.

In 1977, California banned the sale of ivory and with the multiple layers of state, federal and international laws. That law is part of a vast and complex web of state, federal and international laws already in place to protect elephants by drying up the black market ivory trade.

In this legislative session, under the direction of Assembly Speaker Toni Akins (D-San Diego) and State Senator Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), Maienschein and Waldron’s AB 96 would go back 100 years from 2016 and make it illegal to own, possess or transfer ivory even if that ivory was legally purchased or… Read More

California embarked on a “grand experiment” in 2011 with a massive prison downsizing. Responding to a 2009 order by a federal three-judge panel, California had to reduce its overpopulated prisons by 25 percent within two years. This amounted to a reduction of nearly 46,000 prisoners, within a very short time period. The state appealed but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate in May 2011, in a 5-4 decision. In a dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said it was “perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation’s history.”

… Read More

This is the first in a series of stories about the Japanese forced in to labor camps in Siberia immediately following the end of WWll.

Seventy years have passed since World War II ended, but for many Japanese soldiers captured and deported toSoviet detention camps in Siberia, the story needs to be told.

At the time of Japan’s surrender to Allied forces on August 15, 1945, most of the rest of the world thought it was the end of World War ll. However, another horror was just beginning for more than 600,000 soldiers of Japan’s army; they were deported to Soviet labor camps in Siberia known as Shiberia yokuryū, the Siberian Internment. Most were held for years, and forced into labor and reeducation campaigns. More than 60,000 of the captured Japanese soldiers died.

Most Americans are unaware that the Soviet Red Army imprisoned more than a half-a million Japanese soldiers and civilians immediately following the end of World War II in 1945. The Red Army deported the Japanese to labor camps in Siberia, where many remained imprisoned until 1956, despite Japan’s efforts to gain their release.

And it’s been a little-discussed topic even in… Read More

Back in February 2014 the California Policy Center publicly announced the Transparent California website, developed in partnership with the Nevada Policy Research Institute. An article covering this announcement was posted on the Forbes Magazine website, entitled “Hundreds Of California Government Employees Are Paid Over $400,000 A Year,” which a review of2013 Transparent California data(2014 data is still being assembled) easily confirms. As a matter of fact, in 2013, total compensation in excess of $400,000 was paid to 1,292 public servants in California. A staggering 2,818 of California’s public employees collected total compensation in excess of $300,000 in 2013.

Some have argued that it is misleading to claim people are making, for example, over $400,000 per year, when in fact the $400,000 being referenced is total compensation, not regular earnings. We reject this argument categorically. It is incumbent on anyone who assesses compensation to treat total… Read More

In America, we have a double standard when it comes to tax issue groups. The press and the Left labels any group that opposes tax increases as “anti-tax.” Yet I’ve NEVER heard the left wing groups pushing higher taxes defined as “pro-tax.” Why is that?

Okay, okay — the Left controls the MSM and academia — we all get that. But “anti-tax” is a labeling double standard that too many conservative pundits routinely employ when describing the position of taxpayer advocate groups.

Moreover, an “anti-tax” group is periodically accused to being opposed to taxes, PERIOD. ALL taxes.

Of course, such a zero-tax group is a nonexistent straw man — outside of anarchist groups (is not an “anarchist group” in itself an oxymoron?). Logically speaking, should not that labeling standard mean that any group favoring tax increases therefore favors 100% taxes?

I think it’s important to bring this labeling inconsistency up in the debates over taxes. I use this as a response to the “anti-tax” stereotype the progressives love to use to smear any opponent of higher… Read More

The ugly truth about the business side of the abortion culture in America recently became even more gruesome. The undercover operation of the Center for Medical Progressrevealed Planned Parenthood’s government subsidized abortion and political business has also been raising funds by harvesting and selling fetal body parts. Nothing is off the table – brain matter, eyes, hands, livers, hearts, lungs, and assorted tissue from aborted infants in various stages of development.

The accompanying videos show Planned Parenthood abortion doctors talking about their work as if its just another day at the office, and they are negotiating bulk sales of wheat instead of the prices for baby body parts.

… Read More

In 2009 I wrote a controversial piece about privatizing library services. Well, it was controversial for public employee librarians and their fans. But it’s not just some unproven theory — it’s been done, and done well.

Riverside County has a 35 branch system. In 1996 the county contracted out the OPERATION of the libraries to Library Systems and Services, LLC(LSSI), a private company that provides this service nationwide to public libraries. The county retained title to the buildings and grounds. At that time, the county was in financial difficulties, so it sought an alternative to its problem-plagued library system.

The county paid LSSI the same operating budget it was paying for the government run library system. The result was substantially more library hours, more programs, bigger book budgets and FAR fewer customer complaints.

While LSSI guaranteed to hire the same staff at the same salaries, it reduced the benefits package to private sector standards. Moreover, the employees were then “at will”… Read More