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WASHINGTON ? Gov. Chris Christie is urging political ally Mitt Romney to immediately release his tax returns rather than waiting until April.

The New Jersey governor tells NBC’s “Today” show Romney should “put them out sooner than later because it’s always better to have full disclosure.”

Romney’s taxes have emerged as an issue days before the South Carolina primary. He agreed in Monday night’s debate to consider making his tax returns public, and then committed to releasing them on Tuesday. But the multi-millionaire candidate now is on the defensive after acknowledging that his effective tax rate is 15 percent, saying most of his income came from investments and speeches rather than earned income. Christie says he wants to remain as governor, but he wouldn’t rule out joining a Romney ticket.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/politics/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120118/ap_on_el_ge/us_christie_romney

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TOKYO ? Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda replaced five Cabinet members Friday in a bid to win more cooperation from the opposition and voters to raise the sales tax and rein in the bulging fiscal deficit.

The new Cabinet is meant to create “the best and strongest lineup to steadily tackle the issues that we must achieve without running away or putting off,” Noda told a news conference. “I chose people who can move ahead and make a breakthrough.”

Two of the removed ministers had been censured by the opposition, including former Defense Minister Yasuo Ichikawa, who claimed he was unaware of the details of a 1995 rape of a schoolgirl by three U.S. servicemen on the island of Okinawa ? a crime that continues to deeply impact local support for the large American troop presence there.

The opposition, which controls the less powerful upper house of parliament, had threatened to reject any discussion about key tax legislation unless Ichikawa was fired.

Twelve posts were unchanged, including finance and foreign minister. The 17-member Cabinet was formally installed Friday in a ceremony with the emperor.

Noda, who took office in September, says Japan urgently needs to reduce its debt burden as the nation ages and its labor force shrinks, putting a greater burden on the social security and tax systems. He has promised to submit a bill by the end of March to raise the 5 percent sales tax in two stages, to 8 percent in 2014 and to 10 percent by 2015.

“It’s not time for politics that is only pleasing to your ears. It’s painful for us to ask (for higher taxes), and it may hurt our election results. This is a test of whether we can gain understanding for tough policies in Japan,” Noda said.

The reshuffle will “strengthen our government to tackle the major policy goal of social security and tax reforms,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Osamu Fujimura said in announcing the new lineup.

Noda named Katsuya Okada, a former foreign minister, as deputy prime minister to spearhead those efforts.

Noda’s public approval rating has slid below 40 percent amid resistance to raising the sales tax and a general lack of confidence in political leadership in Japan, which has seen a new prime minister every year for the past six years.

Japan’s divided parliament makes it difficult for Noda to pass legislation. The tax issue has also divided the ruling Democratic party, with powerbroker Ichiro Ozawa and his supporters arguing that raising taxes would hurt the already weak economy.

Noda has said his government’s priorities also include leading reconstruction efforts after last March’s devastating tsunami and bringing “rebirth” to the area around the stricken Fukushima nuclear plant. The government declared a month ago that the plant is essentially stable despite widespread skepticism, with experts warning it remains vulnerable to earthquakes.

The new defense minister, Naoki Tanaka, is a relative of former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, one of Japan’s most powerful politicians who was felled by a corruption scandal. He is replacing Ichikawa, who had boasted that his lack of experience with security issues would allow him to view them with a fresh perspective.

Ichikawa’s claim of ignorance about the Okinawa rape case complicated already-stalled efforts to move an important U.S. Marine base which is a key element in Washington’s plans to restructure its forces in Asia.

Jin Matsubara will replace consumer affairs minister Kenji Yamaoka, who was censured for making comments in support of a pyramid marketing scheme, perceived as shady in Japan. He was also criticized for reportedly comparing the collapse of the euro to the tsunami, which was deemed insensitive to the victims of that disaster.

A Kyodo News agency poll on Jan. 7-8 showed public support for Noda’s Cabinet fell to 35.7 percent from 44.6 percent in December, with three-quarters of respondents citing an insufficient explanation of the tax hike plan. However, some experts say such polls ? and by extension the media ? wield too much influence in determining a prime minister’s longevity.

They say the absolute nature of the polls’ top question ? do you approve of the Cabinet’s performance, yes or no ? makes it very hard for leaders to stay popular. If people are the least bit dissatisfied with the government, it’s easy to respond in the negative, they say.

___

Associated Press writers Mari Yamaguchi and Eric Talmadge contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/japan/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120113/ap_on_re_as/as_japan_politics

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BERLIN (Reuters) ? The German and French leaders meet on Monday to discuss ways to boost growth in euro zone states struggling to overcome the sovereign debt crisis and rising unemployment, and finalise a deal to increase fiscal coordination within the currency union.

They may also discuss a financial transaction tax, the “Tobin tax,” being promoted by France but resisted by Britain unless adopted on a global scale, which could split the European Union at a summit at the end of the month.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy, aiming to align the two powerhouse partners that have driven European integration, will also focus on how to boost employment in the current era of austerity.

While Germany’s labour market is thriving, employment is a pressing issue for Sarkozy, who faces an election in less than four months and is trailing in polls while French jobless claims are at their highest level in 12 years.

He may also try to accelerate plans for a tax on financial transactions, which he has set out as a priority ahead of the election, and which on Friday he vowed to implement in France even if EU partners like Germany are not on board.

Paris and Berlin want a “Tobin tax” to be applied across the EU, but Britain is resisting, fearing it will damage London, a global financial centre and mainstay of the British economy where much of the tax would be raised.

On Sunday, British Prime Minister David Cameron said he would veto a European-wide financial transaction tax unless it was imposed globally, deepening the confrontation over the matter with both France and Germany.

German officials expect the EU summit to show satisfying results on stronger budgetary rules they have urged for countries using the euro.

The updated version of the EU’s ‘fiscal compact’, which gives Brussels the right to take states to court if they violate the stricter rules, is nearing approval, relieving pressure on Merkel to take new initiatives at the summit.

“Reaching a functional agreement already by the next (EU) meeting on Thursday is not out of the question,” Elmar Brok, a German member of the European parliament, told Reuters.

Hanging over the meeting will be Europe’s sovereign debt crisis, and questions over what can be done in the near term to relieve pressure on states like Spain and Italy, which are due to pay back a mountain of maturing debt this year.

Both states face crucial bond auctions this week that will test investors’ willingness to fund countries at a time when low growth, weak public finances and the threat of ratings downgrades risk driving borrowing costs to unsustainable levels.

Until now Germany has favoured a crisis-fighting proposal to boost funding for the International Monetary Fund so that it could open larger credit lines to troubled euro zone states if needed, in exchange for strict adjustments.

Italy, which requested IMF monitoring in November to calm market concerns over its reform measures, would prefer to avoid reliance on such a plan; its former economy minister has called IMF aid “the most serious risk for Italy.”

Concern over Italy may have led the French and German leaders to strengthen ties with Prime Minister Mario Monti. He met Sarkozy in Paris last week, and will visit Merkel for talks on Wednesday.

The three meet again in Italy on January 20, before a January 23 EU finance ministers meeting and the January 30 EU summit.

(Writing by Brian Rohan; Editing by Tim Pearce)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/economy/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120109/bs_nm/us_eurozone

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The headlines today are full of political debate over deficit reduction. It seems, however, that the debate should be in two pieces, debt and deficit.

The debt is the total amount owed. The deficit is the annual difference between the government’s revenue and expenditures. The first debate should be about debt reduction. If debt reduction is not addressed, the U.S. will soon face higher borrowing costs. This will quickly make the deficit problems worse. Moreover, nearly everyone agrees that the debt is too high and that something should be done about it. There is really no political party ideology about debt reduction. The U.S. has been borrowing too much for too long. When times are good the government spends every penny of revenues. When times are bad, the government borrows to keep up the boom time spending and borrows even more to “stimulate” the economy back to better times. When this cycle is repeated long enough the total borrowing becomes a bigger and bigger debt.

It seems that there should be a new plan developed to reduce the overall debt. This plan needs to recognize that the numbers are way too big to quibble about who should pay more or receive less. In order to make a serious reduction in U.S. debt, everyone will have to be taxed more and the revenue stream from the plan must not be available to politicians to spend buying votes. A simple approach would be a national sales tax. Canada has a national sales tax (at 7 percent) and their economy is plugging

along better than the U.S. The U.S. would not need a rate nearly that high to make a meaningful start on the debt. A national sales tax can be easily implemented with no new federal bureaucracy. The states would simply collect the tax along with their own sales taxes and send the federal portion to Washington. The critical piece of the plan is to write rules that keep the federal government from spending these funds on anything but debt reduction. Social Security is a great example of how politicians will spend funds if not prevented.

The second piece of the debate is annual deficits. If the overall goal is to reduce the debt, the annual federal budget will need to become balanced on average. Instead of spending every penny in good times, the government will need to save during good times so that there is a cushion of funds for bad times. The government of Chile has had some success with this approach. It is fairly clear that an absolute requirement to balance the federal budget each year is not practical. Normal business cycles are always going to be part of life, so the government must have some flexibility.

The taxpayers cannot, however, rely on politicians to show good judgment as long as the primary election system keeps sending radicals from both the right and left to Washington.

For now, there will need to be better rules on taxing and spending growth. Perhaps some rules that tie spending growth to economic growth would work. If a national sales tax is attacking the debt as a separate issue, it may become more obvious how the revenue and expense of the federal government can be balanced. Economists can surely help develop some rules as to taxing/spending as a percentage of GDP.

It is pretty clear that a percentage which is too small will underfund basic government services. A percentage that is too high will stifle economic growth. In any case, having a regulated amount to spend should force a more practical debate as to what gets funded. The debate about who should pay what tax rates is mostly a political and emotional sideshow. Everyone should pay some, and the better off should pay more. Starting with silly subsidies and loop holes will help clarify the tax picture. They are what keep Warren Buffet’s tax rate so low.

Such rules may be a hardship to many federal programs, but they may also help root out waste as agencies are forced to do more with less.

Adjusting to such rules will be a political battle, but forcing the battle into a sensible framework is a must. The average annual budget deficits will never get to zero, let alone slightly positive, if there isn’t a frame work which keeps politicians from running deficits to buy votes. The government cannot be all things to all people. The American people are smart enough to see that tough decisions are necessary to stabilize the debt, the economy, and the economic future of the U.S. The trick now is to make a real start that has real support. A national sales tax that must be spent on debt reduction might be a place to start. Overall limits on taxing and spending should follow quickly.

Mike McKeown is a Las Cruces resident. He is a recently retired software developer and small business CEO.

Source: http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-opinion/ci_19695351?source=rss

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Dundee City West MSP Joe FitzPatrick today responded to a reply he has received from the Treasury which shows that the UK Coalition?s main plan to stimulate industry including computer games industry is based almost exclusively on lowering the rate of corporation tax.

?Joe FitzPatrick said: ?It plans to have the main rate reduced to 23% by 2014, which it claims will be the lowest rate in the G7 and will therefore, it claims, keep the UK internationally competitive for business.

??I?m certainly in favour of using varying of corporation tax to stimulate growth ? in fact we want Scotland to have those very powers, similar to what Northern Ireland is to be granted, and if Scotland did have those powers we would certainly use them to provide incentives for business investment.

??We would look into setting up a Creative Content Fund to finance new development and enhance access to finance and marketing.

??But the problem with the answer I have received from the Treasury Minister is it continues to reject the idea of any specific targeted tax relief for the computer games industry alongside the ?blunt instrument? measure of corporation tax.

??We should be doing both. Why can?t the Treasury use all the levers at its disposal, continue lowering the corporation main rate but also introduce specific tax relief now? That would pay off with a greater tax take as the industry expands to fill the opportunities of the expanding market.

??The increasing number of countries offering specific tax support to their computer games sector is providing evidence that the increasing growth in the sector worldwide will be taken up by competitors like the United States of America, Canada and South Korea on the back of funding and support by their governments.

??What we?re calling for is not about giving away tax money to the computer games industry, it is an investment decision and as such it makes clear sense. It would be highly targeted and would offer best value for money.

??TIGA, the games industry body, has been able to demonstrate with strong research and data that any specific tax relief given would more than pay for itself in a short time span. The Treasury would get back more than it invested.

??It?s a measure that has had the apparent support of a number of leading figures within the three main UK parties. Tories and Lib Dems pledged to introduce it if elected but have reneged on their promise.

??This is not just an obscure financial wrangle. The creative industries and digital publishing sector employs up to 3,000 in Dundee and it is vital that we do not lose out on increasing our market share as the market expands ? or fail to benefit from creative work done in Dundee when new products are brought to the global market.?

Source: http://www.digitaldundee.com/2011/07/uk-coalition-missing-a-trick-over-games-investment-claims-dundee-msp/

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