Tuesday, May 7, 2013

1:30 PM 5/7/2013 - CARIBBEAN BUSINESS: Puig surges into top 100 for first time.


Puig surges into top 100 for first time. Read: http://goo.gl/35e8k
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Puig surges into top 100 for first time. Read: http://goo.gl/35e8k

Federal Taxes Would Benefit More Than Burden Most Puerto Ricans
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An article in a major Puerto Rico newspaper yesterday reported that a 1996 study by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) calculated Puerto Ricans would pay about $1.197 billion more in Federal taxes annually if the Federal tax code were applied to Puerto Rico as it is to the States.
The article misreported the 1996 findings. It also did not note the findings in a similar 1998 report by the GAO, Congress’ investigative agency.
The 1996 study estimated that individuals in Puerto Rico as a whole would have received $15 million more back from the Federal income tax system in 1995 than they would have paid into it if Puerto Rico were taxed equally with the States.
The 1998 study projected that Puerto Ricans would have received somewhat under $200 million more back from the Federal income tax system than they would have paid into it that year.
The Federal tax system makes payments to low-income workers as well as collects payments from upper-income individuals.
The 1998 report explained regarding the 1996 study, “We determined that the taxes paid by some residents would have been completely offset by the earned income credit refunds received by other residents.” It went on to note that, “We assume that, if Puerto Rico were a state in 1998, the aggregate federal individual income tax payments and tax credits of Puerto Rican residents would still roughly offset each other, before taking the new child tax credit into account. We estimate that the potential cost of that credit in Puerto Rico likely would be less than $200 million in 1998.”
Both reports assumed increased Federal income tax revenue from businesses, however, primarily from Puerto Rico operations of companies headquartered in the States. The 1998 study reported that the amount “could be as little as a $1 billion gain or as large as a $4.6 billion gain” each year for the Federal treasury.
The 1996 study did not attempt to estimate the increased tax payments from businesses but included various calculations from the Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation and the U.S. Treasury Department in the range of a few billion dollars a year in increased Federal revenue.
The 1996 study estimated that fewer than half of the households in Puerto Rico with incomes high enough to potentially owe Federal income taxes — greater than $25,000 in 1992 — would have actually owed tax.  (The majority of Puerto Ricans not owing tax would be larger when households earning too little to have a Federal tax liability are added.)
More than half of individuals and families earning enough to potentially owe Federal income tax tax would have received payments from the Federal government instead.  This is because refundable tax credits to which they would have been entitled would have been larger in amount than their tax due.
The 1998 study was more precise. It estimated that only 41% of Puerto Ricans with incomes high enough to trigger Federal tax filing that year would have had a net tax liability.
Fifty-three percent would have received payments from the Federal government.
And six percent would have neither owed tax nor been entitled to a tax credit payment.
In local campaigns on Puerto Rico’s political status, ‘commonwealthers’ have used Federal income taxes as a major argument against statehood for the territory. A primary contention is that it would be an additional financial burden for most Puerto Ricans.
The 1996 and 1998 GAO studies make clear that the truth is just the opposite: Federal income taxes on local income would put money in the pockets of most Puerto Ricans.
The situation is not unique to Puerto Rico.  According to the Congress’ Joint Taxation Committee, in 2009, only 49% of  residents of the States and the District of Columbia had a Federal income tax liability.
‘Commonwealthers’ also assert that the islands have ‘fiscal autonomy,’ suggesting that the Federal government cannot tax Puerto Ricans under the current territory status misleadingly called “commonwealth” without the insular government’s consent.
In fact, the Federal government can extend whatever taxes it wants to the territory but has chosen to not tax local income.  It does, however, tax income of Puerto Ricans from the States and has extended employment taxes to residents of the territory.  Puerto Rico’s fiscal autonomy is merely similar to the local tax authority of the States and the other territories.
The newspaper article that misreported on the 1996 GAO study accurately reported that a GAO study underway on the possible Federal budgetary impacts of statehood is taking longer than expected.  It is now projected to be completed late this year.  Statehood would require application of tax laws to Puerto Rico equally with application to the other States.
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Puerto Rico Marathon 2013 Start Sights and Sounds
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This is the start of the Puerto Rico Marathon and Half Marathon clip.
From: Dave Downey
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International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival - Withoutabox
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The mission of the International Puerto Rican Heritage Film Festival (IPRHFF) is to recognize the Puerto Rican community's place in the history of New York City as the first and largest Spanish speaking group to migrate & settle here and who ...
The state of statehoods for Puerto Rico, DC - Hernando Today
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The state of statehoods for Puerto Rico, DC
Hernando Today
The solution was to tie both territories together as a package in one bill. Now that Puerto Rico has arguably voted for statehood, he wants D.C. to ally itself with Puerto Rico to give both sidespolitical cover. All political solutions are grand ...

Opinion: Seriously? Jersey City mayor blames “Hispanic girls” for his nude photo - NBC Latino
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Opinion: Seriously? Jersey City mayor blames “Hispanic girls” for his nude photo
NBC Latino
Well, we're coming around 12 o'clock with some Puerto Rican girls that's just dyyyyyyyyiiiinnnnnng to meet YA! ... Yet how naïve can you be to believe that Healy did not know that his administration basically fulfilled every stereotype about Jersey ...

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DominicanRepublic, Puerto Rico to buy natural gas jointly to cut costs - Dominican Today
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DominicanRepublic, Puerto Rico to buy natural gas jointly to cut costs
Dominican Today
Santo Domingo.- Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico plan to buy natural gas jointly to reduce costs, Puerto Rico Secretary of State David Bernier Rivera announced Tuesday. "We decided to purchase fuel together, specifically natural gas, ensuring ...

Puerto Rico must seize historic chance to end discrimination - Amnesty International
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Puerto Rico must seize historic chance to end discrimination
Amnesty International
Puerto Rico's lawmakers have a historic opportunity to end discrimination against the island's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) people. © Hans Kirkendoll. “ The approval of these two laws would be a big step for justice and ...

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Timeline PhotosThe number of suicides among middle-aged Americans rose by 28 per...
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Timeline Photos
The number of suicides among middle-aged Americans rose by 28 percent this past decade, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The rate among whites is even more startling: A 40 percent increase in suicides from 1999 to 2010 among the age group 35 to 64. One theory blames the long economic recession. However, in the same period, suicide rates for younger and older people did not change, and there was little change in the rate among middle-aged blacks and Hispanics. (Suicide was the 10th leading cause of death nationwide among people 10 and over in 2009, accounting for 36,891 deaths, the CDC says, making it a greater health risk than hypertension, liver disease, HIV, Parkinson's, and homicide). At the same time, some are saying depression, a key cause, is mis-diagnosed or over-diagnosed. Why are more middle-aged Americans killing themselves?

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