Jason

Michigan, Taxes

Michigan Business Owners! The Clock Is Ticking.

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Yes, you still have to fill out the form every single year.

PPT-2015Recall that 14-1 didn’t do away with the PPT entirely.

Michigan business with $80,000 or less in fixtures, desks, computers etc., are STILL required to fill out the form to get their exemption. You must fill out the MI Treasury Form 5076 with your local assessing offices by Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2015. You can use the link to the affidavit form here.

Fill it out and for best results deliver by hand to your assessing office ASAP.

And remember, give em no more than is absolutely necessary.

 

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All the Other Stuff, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Proposal 15-1

Arrogance Of The Aristocracy

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Having no one to tell them "NO" previously, our leadership brazenly assumes immunity from the law.

Watching Obama the other night was something many of my friends could not do.

As he quite literally leaned on the podium and gave an in-your-face ‘I don’t give a damn about your efforts’ speech to the congress, he further provoked with the threat of veto for anything that did not meet his agenda. The soft sneer of disrespect to the people’s house and its ‘opposition’ inhabitants was palpable.  But it was not unexpected.

How else might a top executive act when he is given every thing that he wants? In what other way would he comport himself when weak threats are buttressed by inaction and outright political cowardice?  The Republican controlled House of Representatives has hardly put its foot down each time the president has acted in an unconstitutional manner, and there is little indication it might in the future.

So the law does not matter to this president, and for many of the same reasons, it does not matter to Michigan’s governor.  When people seek power, they are sometimes willing to overlook the blatant disregard for checks and balances, and pretend the emperor is indeed fully clothed.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Rent Seeking

A Letter To Amazon

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An open letter to Amazon.com Owner Jeff Bezos on the Main Street Tyranny tax.

Regulars have seen the attempts here to correct the misinformation about the main street fairness act.

Michigan lawmakers were snookered by Kowall and Verheulen into passing their tyranny in the lame duck; a time when there would seem to be no voter backlash.  We call that cowardice, and reprehensible.   This morning I penned (typed) a letter to Jeff Bezos, owner of Amazon.com:

Jeff,

I am an online retailer.  I have been fighting the mainstreet fairness taxes for several years now.  Recently, Michigan legislators in a lame-duck session voted to address nexus issues in the state in an attempt to collect use taxes from out of state vendors such as Amazon and other drop shippers.

Clearly you have been arguing that the commerce clause is the remedy to what the states are trying, and frankly you are right.  Quill v North Dakota settled the matter, and if there was EVER a reason for Article 1, Section 8, Clause 3, this is it.  The states cannot use tariffs or taxes to discourage (or encourage) trade with other states.  It is one of the enumerated powers of the congress, and the states have little business attempting to work around it.

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Conservative News, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy

Lt. General William G Boykin At The Tea Party Powwow

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Retired Special Ops General Speaks to conservatives in annual forum

The 2015 Powwow has ended, and even with threatening weather and bad roads and a misplaced tone of indignation, it went well.

The reality on the ground is that along with the Patriot voices radio hitting 5000+ listeners to the live stream of the event, we had nearly 400 on hand attending or participating in some way.  Some good folks were on hand (I will have photos out at some point) and some good information sharing to be had.

Boykin3For me, the highlight of Saturday’s activity was the speech by Lt. General William G Boykin which was as entertaining as it was inspirational.  An outstanding orator, he spoke on his service, the sacrifices made around him, and his thoughts on where we are as a nation.

The video is a little over an hour, but is well worth every single minute.  Forgive the weak camera work.  It was hard to keep up with it while thoroughly enjoying the presentation at the same time.

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Conservative News, Cronyism, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Puppy Training

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Why the Mackinac Center decided to weigh in this way is somewhat of a mystery, but we learned from them ...

Mr Lehman, (with whom I have had little argument in the past) premises a decision made to be based on politics, though policy is really their game.

Gratuitous picture of Dave Agema to 'prove' he is not an insensitive Racist

Gratuitous picture of Dave Agema with ‘black’ tea folk

He makes a brief statement, which essentially claims that fact, and then implies clearly that (We cancelled our sponsorship of the Pow wow because we don’t like Dave Agema) “The reason the Mackinac Center withdrew from the event was Mr. Agema’s prominent role there” And stopping there. Fair enough.  Its not my money, resources, or political ties to the Snyder administration that is going to stop them.

OK, taking a page from the book of Mackinac, I figured it would be appropriate to deal with disagreements in policy or politics in the way they have previously suggested.  For this exercise, I have located two articles from the Mackinac Center.

The first article was written by a guy who once worked for MCPP, and now spends his time stalking a particular retired Air Force Captain hoping to find SOMETHING that can be used to further defame the many time honored veteran.   Ken Braun during his time at the Mackinac Center wrote:  (I have made critical edits to update)

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy

The RightMi.Com Year In Review

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A few items of note from each month in the year 2014.

RightMi.com was the back up site for RightMichigan.com in the event something happened to the WWII servers hosting the original site.

So-far

We started off in January fighting for a good man and ultimately getting booted for saying enough is enough from those who profess to be conservative, but cannot be counted on when it matters.  We argued that some GOP leaders have their priorities off, and when Betsy DeVos attacked one of the most stalwart and responsible Republicans in the state, we said not-no-fast.

Setting The Wrong Table

Of course that resulted in the move from the old site to the new.   Much of January was spent reminding people of the values Republicans are supposed to hold and why attacking our most conservative committeeman was maybe not such a good idea.  RighMi.com as a destination became a reality.  Unapologetic, informed, and collaborative; Michigan’s conservative blogging has a home just like Do Six Figures

OH, and as for the subject of the misplaced attacks?

He is just fine and dandy

February found Michigan legislators beginning the debate for a minimum wage increase, bailing out the big D, and local governments pandering to a dangerous lifestyle..

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Cronyism, Detroit, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Rent Seeking, Republicans

Maybe A little Mis-Read?

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A Traverse City Retailer might well feel the pain of his misplaced good cents.

There will be more than a few legislators regretting their turkey moves of additional regulatory rules during the ‘lame duck’ session.

But its not just the legislators. ‘Exhibit A,’ might well be a story that ‘celebrates’ the “early Christmas present” that Front Street Traverse City business received via SB 569 and SB 658 on Friday Morning. Demonstrating that the lobbying efforts of a few rent seeking business interests are not at all in line with taxpayer interests, the piece on Saturday’s TC Ticker starts with the ‘celebration’ of the “main-street fairness” law:

“It’s been years in the making, but state lawmakers have handed brick-and-mortar retailers like Bill Golden and others throughout Traverse City and Michigan a welcome Christmas present. Starting in October, more online retailers will have to add on Michigan’s sales tax to customer purchases — just like Michigan retailers have always had to do.”

Of course, folks around here (and very likely in all other places) understand that what is sold as fairness is usually anything but fair.

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All the Other Stuff, Michigan

Michigan Stinkchips

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Garlic chips on the cheap. And they taste better than legislative sausage too!

toastedYeah..  I can get domestic once in a while.

And as we all know,  tis the season for Chex mix. And I don’t know about you all out there, but the garlic chips usually used are expensive (usually about $3-4 a bag) and they are too darn thick.  With the upcoming additional taxes on gas, we need to make our economies where we can. (Yeah, I threw politics into a recipe – This ain’t Martha Stewart’s page)

So here is a way to make that particular part of the recipe for your mix, that is tasty, flaky, and costs about a buck to make.  (it makes a great snack too!)  It was surprisingly better tasting for me (seriously, I had my doubts) than the typical chips used for chex mix, and I can see it used as a movie snack, croutons, or whatever.

So lets do this.

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