Search results

This paper examines the optimal use of tax incentives relating to the Hawaii sales, use and excise tax. While many states offer exemptions to these taxes, Hawaii is the only known state that ties its excise tax credit to the depreciation method used on the state income tax return. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to use the Hawaii business tax context to illustrate the complex trade-offs and year-by-year analyses that small businesses often must employ in the presence of shifting federal tax policy that indirectly influences state tax structures because of tax coupling. Federal and Hawaii taxpayers can elect to expense depreciable property using the 179 expensing provision or to depreciate using the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS). We develop a model that will help non-corporate small businesses in Hawaii determine their optimal tax cost recovery strategy: (1) Utilize Hawaii Section 179 immediate expensing on purchases of tangible personal property, or alternatively (2) Employ MACRS depreciation on these purchases combined with the Hawaii Capital Goods Excise Credit. Our modeling separately considers the possibility that the proprietor jointly makes the federal and Hawaii cost recovery decision, as well as the alternative possibility that these cost recovery decisions are made independently.

The study illustrates that the interaction of federal and state law differences exacerbated by frequent tax changes may cause significant tax compliance complexity and resulting confusion for small non-corporate business taxpayers who are generally not equipped to wrestle with such issues. From a policy perspective, states may wish to minimize complexity using coupling efforts with federal law or otherwise routinely revisit outdated state tax statutes that indirectly cause unintended tax consequences. States must be cognizant, however, that their own budget constraints may worsen if they fully couple with recent generous federal Section 179 expensing limits.

A tax based on land value is in many ways ideal, but many economists dismiss it by assuming it could not raise enough revenue. Standard sources of data omit much of the potential tax base, and undervalue what they do measure. The purpose of this paper is to present more comprehensive and accurate measures of land rents and values, and several modes of raising revenues from them besides the conventional property tax.

The paper identifies 16 elements of land's taxable capacity that received authorities either trivialize or omit. These 16 elements come in four groups.

In Group A, Elements 1‐4 correct for the downward bias in standard sources. In Group B, Elements 5‐10 broaden the concepts of land and rent beyond the conventional narrow perception, while Elements 11‐12 estimate rents to be gained by abating other kinds of taxes. In Group C, Elements 13‐14 explain how using the land tax, since it has no excess burden, uncaps feasible tax rates. In Group D, Elements 15‐16 define some moot possibilities that may warrant further exploration.

This paper shows how previous estimates of rent and land values have been narrowly limited to a fraction of the whole, thus giving a false impression that the tax capacity is low. The paper adds 14 elements to the traditional narrow “single tax” base, plus two moot elements advanced for future consideration. Any one of these 16 elements indicates a much higher land tax base than economists commonly recognize today. Taken together they are overwhelming, and cast an entirely new light on this subject.

This is the twelfth article on business and law (BSL) databases in a continuing series of articles summarizing and commenting on new database products. Two companion articles, one covering science, technology, and medicine (STM) appeared in Online & CD‐ROM Review vol. 22, no.4 and the other covering social science, humanities, news, and general (SSH) appeared in Online & CD‐ROM Review vol. 22, no. 5. The articles are based on the newly appearing database products in the Gale Directory of Databases. The Gale Directory of Databases (GDD) was created in January 1993 by merging Computer‐Readable Databases: A Directory and Data Sourcebook (CRD) together with the Directory of Online Databases (DOD) and the Directory of Portable Databases (DPD).

Although the federal gasoline tax played multiple roles in financing surface transportation infrastructure in the United States, experts did not agree on the tax's purpose. Some argued that it was essentially a fee for users of the nation's federally supported highways. Others suggested that it should play a more prominent role in environmental, energy, and transportation policy by correcting for driving-related externalities. Still others suggested that it should be used to reduce the federal budget deficit. Finally, the tax itself had remained at the same level since 1993, and with the Highway Trust Fund virtually insolvent, many experts believed it was time for an increase. The case presents a background on the U.S. federal gasoline tax, an overview of the market for gasoline in the United States, and survey of gasoline taxes in U.S. states as well as several other countries around the world.

The case can be used to discuss the incidence of the gasoline tax, as well as its role as a Pigouvian tax to deal with negative externalities related to gasoline consumption and driving. There is sufficient data in the case to enable students to analyze the incidence of the federal gasoline tax and to determine the socially efficient level of the tax in light of externalities related to gasoline consumption and driving.

Cities’ reliance on property taxes has declined since the 1970s. This shift has been attributed to state rules enacted in the wake of the tax revolt and intended to curb property taxes. The extent to which state limits on property taxes have affected their cities’ revenues is unclear. This study examines competing explanations for the change in city property tax reliance among states. Pooled cross-sectional time series analysis is used to assess how much state limits or other factors account for changes in property tax reliance over time. The results of this analysis challenge state limitations’ long-term effects.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the development and nature of organized crime in the USA over the past 50 years, emphasizing organized crime's corruption and victimization of legitimate businesses and describing law enforcement's efforts to combat organized crime through specific case studies.

First, the paper analyzes the control over and corruption of legitimate businesses in the USA by the La Cosa Nostra (“LCN,” or the American Mafia), including the following industries: Las Vegas gaming; moving and storage; garment; waste – hauling; and, construction, and the following unions: the International Brotherhood of Teamsters; Laborers International Union of North America; and, the International Longshoreman's Association. The paper also describes law enforcement's successful efforts to combat such corruption through the use of criminal and civil racketeering laws and specific prosecutions. The paper then discusses the emergence in the mid‐1980s of non‐traditional organized crime groups in the USA, including various Asian ethnic groups and large‐scale human trafficking organizations that impact Europe and Asia as well as the USA.

The non‐traditional criminal groups not only prey on the legitimate businesses in ethnic Asian communities in the USA, but they also engage in complex crimes, alien smuggling, drug trafficking, credit‐card frauds, money laundering, and other financial crimes. There has emerged a new era for organized crime that began in the 1990s with the fall of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of transnational organized crime groups emanating from the nations comprising the former Soviet Bloc. These organized crime groups engage in a wide variety of economic crimes including extortion, fraud, illicit appropriation of natural resources, and public corruption. Such extensive corruption threatens the stability of some of these emerging nations.

This paper will be valuable to law enforcement offices and policy makers to assist them to understand the scope and nature of organized crime's adverse effects upon businesses and economic interests and to develop tools to combat such criminal activities.

In October 2004, Mr. Richard Sands, CEO of Constellation Brands, evaluated the potential purchase of The Robert Mondavi Corporation. Sands felt that Mondavi's wine beverage products would fit into the Constellation portfolio of alcohol beverage brands, and the opportunity to purchase Mondavi for a highly favorable price was quite possible due to recent management turmoil at that company. However, should it be purchased, strategic and operational changes would be necessary in order to fully achieve Mondavi's potential value. In making a decision, students need to consider the attractiveness of the wine industry, its changing structure, its share of the overall market for beverages, and rival firms' strategies. As rival bidders may emerge for Mondavi's brands, Constellation must offer a price that demonstrates its serious intent to acquire Mondavi.

“When James Boswell returned from a tour of Corsica in 1765 he wrote: ‘It is indeed amazing that an island so considerable, and in which such noble things have been doing, should be so imperfectly known.’ The same might be said today of Puerto Rico.” Thus began Millard Hansen and Henry Wells in the foreword to their 1953 look at Puerto Rico's democratic development. Four decades later, the same could again be said about the island.

The purpose of this study is to examine the financial and operating performance of Saraswati Sugar Mills Limited and its impact on the society in the employment generation and upliftment of the socio‐economic status. The study also aimed at finding out the factors responsible for low performance (if any). It helped in comparison of changes in static data from years 1995‐1996 to 2010‐2011.

Ratio analysis and quantitative techniques such as discrete and continuous time approach has been used to analyze the data. To do financial appraisal, five financial ratios namely working capital turnover ratio, percentage of net sales to capital employed, percentage of gross profit to capital employed, cost output ratio, and value added per man/month were calculated and analyzed to understand the changes in financial and operating position of the company.

The findings revealed the mixed trends of profit and losses. Net sales and capital employed showed an increasing trend while percentage of net profit to capital employed and cost output ratio declined from 1995‐1996 to 2010‐2011. Working capital was utilised effectively. Value added per man/month also registered an increase of 120.11 percent. In nutshell, the financial and operational performance analysis shows the efficiency of the Saraswati Sugar Mills Private Limited and its contribution towards sustainable development of its immediate society.

The ideal situation could have one if a comparative analysis of both private as well as co‐operative sugar mills can lead to a better analysis and therefore, to a better practical approach.

This study provides a framework for performance evaluation when both discretionary and non‐discretionary variables are to be taken into consideration.