In this Week in Insights, I looked at San Francisco's new vacant residential property tax (Proposition M).
“The taxes raised by Proposition M will be earmarked for a “housing activation fund” that will provide rent subsidies for seniors and low-income households, as well as a program to acquire and renovate unoccupied buildings to create affordable housing."
This week I wrote about the "worst EV policy in the world," which seems to have breathed its last in #Australia.
"The High Court has struck down a Victoria law that imposed a road-user charge on EVs. The tax was A$2.6 cents to $2.8 cents per kilometer per year and intended to make up for the gas taxes not paid by EV drivers. Drivers were required to submit annual photos of their odometers to the tax authority.”
If it can't be done simply by income tax (rather than usage) then a mileage tax is the next best thing no?
In the US, we also have a fuel tax...which approximates miles driven and modified by vehicle weight (with the basic physics being bigger vehicles get lower mileage, use more gas and pay more tax).
In VA they've made EVs and hybrids pay a flat fee. But you can opt for mileage driven by enrolling in some 3rd party OBD port tracking system and they'll bill you for miles driven up to the flat fee amount. And if you don't want active tracking you can submit photos of odometer readings. Said 3rd party is apparently a privacy nightmare so I haven't enrolled as yet.
Odometer tracking is to me just the no brainer for calculating actual usage tax (with rate modified by vehicle type/registration)
I think a road usage tax is widely accepted as the best policy for internalizing externalities associated with wear and tear on roads, but it is poor at doing the same for things like congestion or the associated carbon load from the electricity used.
For the latter you'd want info about the source of the electricity used to charge the battery (or at least peak vs. off-peak) etc.
Realized a lot of people think of Minimum Competence primarily as a newsletter, I think. It is also a #podcast. If you like #legal and #law#news, give it a shot. Episodes are daily (M-F) and usually in the vicinity of 10 minutes.
Hosted by me and @gina. We're proud of it and hope you enjoy it.
Hey #lawfedi folks, haven't sent out the bat-stodon signal in a bit. We're over here at esq.social, an instance open to any #law or #legal-adjacent professionals, or those that maintain an interest.
If you're on a general-interest instance and have any designs on moving to a Local Timeline that speaks your language, give us a look. We'd be excited to have you.
Any questions or help required, shoot me a message. We have about 500 users, ~120 of which are regularly active.
Weds 9/27 - O'Hagan Meyer Grows, SCOTUS tells Alabama to Redraw District, Trump Liable for Fraud in NY and SCOTUS Prepares for New Term
O’Hagan Meyer eating the meat from the bones of Daugherty Lordan, SCOTUS upholds a ruling requiring Alabama to redraw a district, Trump and co. liable for fraud, and SCOTUS gears up for a new term.
Here is an interesting piece about some possible impacts that AI might have on online communities.
Shown here is one that I feel has been a problem for many years:
"... everything new posted online is created by a machine or by someone looking to turn a profit."
Although I do occasionally find other voices online, big social media has been very effective in silencing too many of them. Their algorithms-tuned-for-profit and use of dark patterns has made it increasingly difficult to hear the helpful voices over the ugliness and nonsense.
And we've allowed them to improperly use Section 230 as a shield to protect them from responsibility for the harms they have knowingly created.
Generally, since there is no duty to host all voices, I don't thinknthere will be a solution to this within the constraints of 1A. Being able to be selective and even biased about removing people from one's service is generally 1A protected.
🤯 Law firm Morgan & Morgan convinces USPTO to revive '#LAW' trademark bid
"[Morgan & Morgan] said that the relevant public perceives #LAW as 'both a mnemonic / vanity telephone number ... and as the source of legal services and legal referral services provided by Morgan & Morgan.'"
⭐ This last article includes a quote from Chris Messina, the originator of hashtags for social media:
"... trademarks don’t belong on hashtags. Hashtags are a kind of conversational commons, and should be owned by no one but the crowd.”
I generally make a first pass at #fedi folks when looking to make a referral, and the individual profile pages are great contact points to send folks looking for someone in a particular jurisdiction/practice.
If you haven't already added yourself or claimed a profile, feel free to do so. I've worked through the backlog of applications and will get to new ones quickly.
In this week's column I call for a streamlined process for low income households to obtain energy tax credits. TLDR: Don't require them to install solar on their roof or build a solar farm in their community, let them invest in community projects that are situated where they'll generate the most electricity.
Ultimately, engage with the communities you seek to aid and ask them what they need and how to facilitate it.
This speaks to the need for 1) refundable credits and 2) a streamlined filing regime. Right now, if filing meant you could receive a refund for your energy bills for the year, I understand that wouldn't necessarily be a winning proposition--filing taxes is a minefield.
That said, I'm advocating for using the tax regime to facilitate these payments/relief efforts because it has the lowest barrier to (political) entry). Direct payments would be preferable.
Pretty simple and straightforward proposition in this week's column: The federal student lunch program that existed during the COVID emergency worked. Bring it back.
"It’s a national problem, and the solution must come at the national level. While programs such as the one in Massachusetts are short-term wins, the risk of politicizing the issue outweighs the benefits.”
All that's true, however, maybe the taking point of "wealth redistribution" could be countered by the fact that these people became wealthy due to wealth redistribution in the first place...it's blatantly ignored that people awarding themselves a wage 400x that of a regular worker takes meals off workers AND THEIR KIDS.
Redistribution also was instituted in other states and the top% never ran to Texas to avoid it.
This week I wrote about the latest craze on #TikTok ... tax fraud.
"But most of the blame falls on the ATO for its lack of oversight. The scheme was so simple that many claimants were unaware their actions amounted to fraud. Such situations also make taxpayers vulnerable to identity thieves who can use their information for a quick payday, leaving the taxpayer to explain themselves when they seek their own income tax refund.”
Yep, the funds are tracked -- quite easily, actually -- as it just goes to the account they've tied to the portal for paying taxes. It seems they could request a check as well, but it would still only be sent to the confirmed address of the taxpayer.
It seems most of the money can be recovered, which is the one upside to an otherwise pretty "ugh" story.
@andrew@law so it sounds like it would end up being a pretty ineffective scam for identity thieves. Not to remove blame from the ATO at all but there do seem like perhaps more successful ways to illicitly obtain funds. But oof this story about people not realizing they are participating in fraud is rough. Yet another example of why people really shouldn’t take financial advice from randos on the internet!
We're all still reeling from the bombshell news that Thomas accepted expensive vacations.
Fri 9/1 - Justice Thomas Discloses Crow Gifts, Proud Boys Sentenced, Apple and USPTO Settle in "Smart Keyboard" Trademark Dispute
In today’s episode we have Justice Thomas disclosing vacations paid for by Harlan Crow, a couple of Proud Boys sentenced, and #Apple and #USPTO settle in Smart Keyboard #trademark dispute.
@andrew@law not enough emojis to fully express my disgust at how effortlessly he gives himself a pass. He is not one of the little people, can’t you see?
@ianbradbury@gulovsen@paninid@law in my experience this also occurs at very large institutions where the workforce is tech literate. Typically when the IT is so restrictive as to interfere with work. People stop asking permission.
@jsjoshua@gulovsen@nikhileshde@paninid@law Also, when your corporation gets large enough, various business units/departments/whatever want to do things that require ”IT” but they either don’t know how to properly interface with corporate IT or can’t be bothered (which is frequently totally justified due to unresponsiveness, etc.), so they just fund “IT” stuff themselves.
Source: I was a long-time consultant at numerous F500.
Among the advisors to the #ABA#AI task force is Michael Chertoff -- co-author of the PATRIOT Act. I think this is going to work out beautifully:
"The task force aims to assess how AI will affect the practice of law, probe ethical questions, and focus on issues like risk management, AI governance, and AI in legal education.
...
The average age among the team is about 70, they’re all lawyers, and none of them have any evident technical expertise.”