Word: taxed
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...part of the Federal Government, unlike quasi-government bailout beneficiaries Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac - it will be in large part because of the role the agency has played in stabilizing the housing market. Last spring, as first-time home buyers rushed to take advantage of the $8,000 tax credit designed to lure them into the market, the FHA insured a full 49% of their mortgages. In October, Congress renewed a higher limit on the size of FHA loans (now up to $729,750), first put in place last year, to allow the agency to expand into pricier markets...
...million last year, annual overseas visits by foreigners to the United States have ticked down, from 26 million in 2000 to 25.3 million in 2008. The absolute drop-off seems small, until you consider that it has cost the country an estimated $27 billion in lost tax revenue over the past decade. With unemployment levels now topping 10% in the U.S., the economic benefits of foreign travel have never been more urgent, yet visitors have never been scarcer. "We're welcoming fewer and fewer visitors every year," laments Geoff Freeman, senior vice president of public affairs at U.S Travel...
Although the fee will likely be "hidden" within airfares, Harteveldt is concerned that it could ultimately work against TPA initiatives and "come back to haunt us." But Senator Dorgan counters that $10 is far lower than similar fees - ranging from Ireland's $14 entry tax to the U.K.'s whopping $100 - paid by Americans when they travel abroad. And with a mere 35 countries that would be required to pay the fee, fewer than 30% of foreign travelers will be affected...
...those looking to such a tax to protect against future calamities, there's even more disappointment. Squeezing the volume of financial trading wouldn't have done much to tackle the eye-watering debts and shoddy risk assessment at the oversize banks that got us into the current pickle. That job falls to regulators. Moreover, evidence of the impact of transaction charges on the volatility of assets is mixed: buyers in Britain's housing market - which, like many others around the world, cratered in 2007 - have been required to pay a transaction tax on their purchases for years. (Read...
...which leaves the tax as a basic means of raising funds. And in that respect, there may be simpler methods. Because of the lukewarm response from other countries to Brown's suggestion, the British government was quick to reduce the levy to one of several ideas the Prime Minister had for recouping taxpayers' billions. Another idea - that banks themselves pay into a central rescue fund, with contributions determined by a lender's size or risk exposure - could yet prove more popular...