Taxes

Often I’m asked whether California could levy a wealth tax on individuals. My answer is that, absent persistent political pressure by taxpayer advocates, the political door in California is always open to all forms of tax increases, including a wealth tax.

Second quarter income tax estimates are due Monday, though the amount required in California is more than a quarter’s worth of estimated tax. That’s because during a past budget crisis the state imposed a requirement that taxpayers pay more than a quarter’s worth of estimated taxes for each of the first two quarters of the year. That budget crisis went away, but not the imposition on taxpayers.

Yesterday the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) released its Multiyear Budget Outlook through fiscal year 2026-27, forecasting $52 billion of deficits over that period.

A crypto billionaire who shelters his company from US taxes by housing it in the Bahamas is financing tax increase legislation in California.

We scratched our heads Friday when — despite a steep fall-off in the stock market and a first quarter contraction of the US economy — we learned the May Revision of the Governor’s Proposed Budget expects rosy tax revenues for the 2022-23 fiscal year commencing July 1. After reading the document, we learned how that happened:

Two social media and crypto executives are behind an initiative on the November ballot that would jeopardize steady funding for services financed by the General Fund and force state taxpayers to use after-tax dollars to fund what the sponsors and others like them could fund with pre-tax dollars.

Imagine you are responsible for projecting state tax revenues for the 2022-23 fiscal year commencing July 1. Here are some things you know:

Believe it or not, the ride-sharing company Lyft is sponsoring an initiative that would have taxpayers finance its fleets. Masquerading as a measure to address climate change and forest fires through additional taxpayer financing of electric vehicles, charging stations and fire suppression, the measure would add 1.75 percentage points to the state income tax rate — ie, a 13 percent increase in the top tax rate, already at 13.3 percent — applied to incomes of over $2 million per year.

Last year, California dramatically increased fire suppression spending to $1.5 billion.