HB 1325: Revenue Enhancement Act (Passed)

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Sponsor: fhtagn
House Designation: HB 1325

[fhtagn]

This is an attempt to help with the December budget. These are all ways to increase revenue without affecting income, corporate, payroll, or estate taxes.

Section 2 involves federal excise taxes. The logic being that it is consumption based and so sort of a fairer allocation of tax burden. Excise taxes increased are:
Fuels
Tires
Processing at ports of entry
Alcohol
Tobacco
Machine Guns
Specialty fishing equipment
Gambling winnings
Ozone depleting chemicals being phased out under the Montreal Treaty
Bad behavior by investors

2b eliminates the vaccine tax loophole that exempts a few big pharma vaccine makers from paying into the common fund for settling lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers.

2c creates new federal excise taxes to bring in additional revenue. New items taxed are:
Foreign money transfers
Large bank assets we have to insure where the bank failure would cripple the economy
CEO stock agreements and salaries above $1 Million
Weed (sorry)
Medical cocaine
Untaxed machine guns

2d eliminates a loophole that exempts big oil/coal/logging from aircraft related excise taxes

2e eliminates a tax subsidy handout for some rum producers

2f resolves an annoying estates issue that the Regions must deal with when resolving estates involving a legally registered machine gun. This fix ensures that any purchaser must comply with all NFA registration requirements including paying the tax, fingerprints, application, recorded serial number, disassembly and storage requirements, requirement to carry paperwork.

Section 3 increases a bunch of user fees. I confess, I have no idea how much of a change the specifics are at the moment. This list was largely compiled by me several years ago and I cant account for if any have increased since like 2015. Trump decreased some last year like grazing fees. Hopefully the GM office will assist with budget scoring please. Anyway, user fee increases are:
FDA inspection and testing fees
Ag inspection of animals and meat
Patent and Copyright fees
Hunting and Fishing fees
National Park fees
Import fees
Airplane fees
D.C. metro vendors

3b are new user fees to help fund Capitol area museums

3c increases how much we can collect from an airplane user fee

3d extends a practice currently available to local governments to pay to expedite CWA permit applications.

3e insures DC Metro prices contribute to maintenance

3f pegs all of these user fees to inflation so they automatically grow with inflation.

3g Readjusts cabin fees and also ties increases to inflation.

3h allows the Regions to help fund operations at National Parks if there is a government shutdown so we dont get more unnecessary dickheaded roping off of Monuments or telling people they cant look at a mountain because the mountain is closed.

4 sells some of our excess assets to make some scratch.
4a increases our cut of big oil profits from the people's oil

4b proposes we decrease how much oil we stockpile by 10% over 5 years. And we dont sell it all at once to push down the price we get.

4c and 4d set targets for increasing revenue from asset sales

4f finalizes the closing of the Helium Reserve that was supposed to have closed by 2015.

4g allows us to sell water to more farmers.

4h - k set targets for asset sales and relax rules that slow sales down.

4l caps administrative expenses for payments Atlasia makes to localities where we own a lot of land that they cant tax to generate local revenue.

4m sells off local projects that dont require federal ownership over.

5 is about how we get our money. I do debt collection. Its not easy to get what you are supposed to get sometimes which reduces revenue. These changes will increase total revenue collected.

5a imposes a civil penalty on bad non-profit behavior.

5b increases the minimum civil penalty on bad behavior.

5c - 5e allow us to use debt collection agents earlier in the process.

5f - 5h allow us to deduct money others owe us from money we are giving them

5i gives us more time to investigate and collect against people who lie about a lot of hidden income

5j - 5k tweak what is considered assets we can collect against from our debtors

5l require you to pay your taxes to get a security clearance or passport

[Pericles]

I have several concerns with this bill. First of all, why do we need to be taxing vaccines? The harbor maintenance taxes and tire taxes seem unnecessary, and may impose economic burdens on producers and consumers. The Angler registry fee, the map fee, stamp fees, and several others seem like they will burden people who enjoy their hobbies and have a greater negative impact on people's lives than any positive impact they would have from either revenue increases or other positive flow-on effects for Atlasia. The entry fees seem unnecessary, we should not be excluding people from these museums, and while the fees are small that they exist at all from the museums previously being free will inevitably decrease demand. Section IV seems like the worst one in this bill; we should be shifting towards renewables not ramping up the extraction of fossil fuels and endangering the climate, in particular IVc and IVd are deeply disturbing. IVa and IVb also seem iffy. I have not spotted further questionable areas yet but may do so later, and Representatives should each examine this bill closely individually and see if there are things I may have missed.

[Mr. Reactionary]

We already tax most vaccines. The tax goes into a fund that pays injury claims in a special vaccine court. Without it vaccine supply would tank due to liability concerns.

Weve taxed tires since the 60s due to their wear and tear on public roads. Ditto for harbor maintenance. Ditto for most of these user fees which are not unduly burdensome.

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

This seems like a good idea.

[fhtagn]

Anyone else have anything to add?

[Pericles]

I plan to add an amendment. Since the Senate will probably amend this anyway otherwise I suggest we speed the process up and amend it here.

[Mr. Reactionary]

I plan to add an amendment. Since the Senate will probably amend this anyway otherwise I suggest we speed the process up and amend it here.

Why would they amend it?

[OSR stands with Israel]

I plan to add an amendment. Since the Senate will probably amend this anyway otherwise I suggest we speed the process up and amend it here.

Do you plan to still add an amendment or do you think we should just vote on the bill soon

[Pericles]

Introducing this amendment.

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[fhtagn]

Considering I don't like terrible amendments with proof that no real research was done on the subject, obviously hostile.

[fhtagn]

A vote is now open on the amendment by Pericles. Voting will last for 72 hours. Please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain. 

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[Pericles]

Aye

[fhtagn]

Nay

[P. Clodius Pulcher did nothing wrong]

While I would consider supporting the removal of the taxes on the vaccines, I definitely support the tire and air cargo taxes.

Nay

[OSR stands with Israel]

Nay

[Esteemed Jimmy]

Aye

[Vern]

Nay

[Mr. Reactionary]

I know voting is on-going, but just to provide a bit more on the excise tax on vaccines.

Currently, all vaccines other than those listed in this bill pay a tax of 75 cents per dose of each taxable vaccine. The tax per dose on a vaccine that contains more than one taxable vaccine is 75 cents times the number of taxable vaccines. So as far as actual numbers go, the actual tax rate that the vaccines in this bill will be subject to is 75 cents per vaccine.

[Lechasseur]

Aye

[GM Team Member and Senator WB]

Nay on the amendment

[fhtagn]

The amendment fails 3-6-0-0
Aye: 3 (Pericles, Jimmy, Lechasseur)
Nay: 6 (fhtagn, Young Texan, Razze, OSR, vern, weatherboy)
Abstain: 0
Didn't vote: 0

[Vern]

motion for a final vote

[fhtagn]

motion for a final vote

24 hours for objections

[fhtagn]

A final vote is now open on this bill. Representatives, please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain. Voting ends in 72 hours.