Taxes

Reporting from San Diego -- Gov. Jerry Brown began a public push for his tax initiative Thursday, getting mixed results in campaign-style appearances before business and community leaders in Orange County and San Diego. He received encouragement, if not formal endorsements, after a closed-door morning meeting with about 50 business leaders in Irvine but found little enthusiasm in a civic group farther south. Gaining support, or at least neutralizing opposition, from business groups will be vital for Brown, whose proxies are gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would temporarily raise taxes on sales and upper incomes.

SACRAMENTO -- Senate leader Darrell Steinberg wants to slam the brakes on any talk of tinkering with local tax rules. Democratic lawmakers have floated the possibility of making it easier for school districts to raise parcel taxes and change the way property taxes are calculated for commercial buildings. The proposals involve modifying Proposition 13, the landmark constitutional amendment that limited taxes in 1978. Steinberg (D-Sacramento) told reporters Wednesday that he doesn't want to hear about it, at least not in 2013.

For years tobacco companies have successfully fought off attempts by California lawmakers and health groups to increase the cigarette tax. But next month, as the state grapples with the worst financial crisis in recent history, that may change. Lawmakers will consider a proposal to hike cigarette taxes by $1.50 per pack and raise $1.2 billion annually. During the last decade, cigarette makers have spent tens of millions of dollars to kill 14 straight attempts to make smokers pay more.

Question: I recently booked a trip through a tour company, with the flights on Air France. We were hit with a $437 surcharge for a flight that originally cost $800. I won't cancel the trip, but I certainly will never book another for which Air France is the carrier. Is this legal? Peggy Brutsche Long Beach Answer: When I receive letters like this, I often go from zero to outrage in 2.2 seconds. But in this case, my ire, which I so savor, was unwarranted.

California officials are on the prowl for thousands of limited liability companies that have failed to file required forms or pay fees and taxes. Under a new state program, those LLCs face suspension if they didn't file state income returns, pay income fees owed, pay the $800 annual LLC tax or make an information filing that is required every two years.

Democratic congressional leaders are considering a new strategy to help finance their ambitious healthcare plan -- applying the Medicare payroll tax not just to wages but to capital gains, dividends and other forms of unearned income. The idea, discussed Wednesday in a marathon meeting at the White House, could placate labor leaders who bitterly oppose President Obama's plan to tax high-end insurance policies that cover many union members. It could also help shore up Medicare's shaky finances, and the burden of the new tax would fall primarily on affluent Americans, not the beleaguered middle class.

Citing concerns over skin cancer, Senate Democrats inserted a last-minute provision into their healthcare overhaul that would tax the use of tanning beds. The 10% sales tax would be imposed on individuals who purchase tanning services, but would not apply to what the bill called "phototherapy by a licensed medical professional." Most tanning salons are not staffed by medical personnel. The tanning tax would help pay for the massive overhaul by raising an estimated $2.7 billion over 10 years.

Wealthy U.S. taxpayers, concerned about an Internal Revenue Service crackdown on the use of secret overseas bank accounts as tax havens, are rushing to meet a Thursday deadline to disclose those accounts or face possible criminal prosecution. The concern was triggered this summer when Switzerland's largest bank, caught up in an international tax evasion dispute, said it would disclose the names of more than 4,000 of its U.S. account holders. The decision shattered a long-held belief that Swiss banks would guard the identities of its American customers as carefully as they did their money, and it raised concern that other international tax havens might be next.

President Obama's plan to crack down on what he called abuse of overseas tax loopholes was met Monday with quick and unusually sharp opposition from big business, threatening to produce the administration's first major confrontation with a broad segment of corporate America.