5 dumb tax proposals in Obama’s budget

President Obama’s fiscal 2016 budget would “raise government revenues as a share of gross domestic product steadily over the next decade, and make the tax code far more complex.” It would increase capital gains and foreign earnings tax rates and place “limits on individual itemized deductions together with a 30% tax rate for millionaires.” As if that’s not destructive enough, it would also implement five really stupid taxes no one is really talking about. The Fiscal Times,

1. Forget deductions for charitable contributions linked to college sports ticket purchases.Few provisions will cause more of an uproar than this: a contribution to the alma mater is not counted as a charitable contribution if it entitles donors to buy advance tickets for sporting events.
2. Stop saving, stupid.Many say that Social Security is going broke, people are living longer, and that we are not saving enough for retirement. But the president thinks Americans are saving too much.
3. Force independent contractors to become employees… unions, a key part of the administration’s base, want to count independent contractors as employees whenever possible… An independent contractor is not a potential member of [a union].
4. Return of a repealed Obamacare provision.In a blast from the past, businesses that purchase more than $600 worth of goods or services from a contractor would have to get that contractor’s Taxpayer Identification Number and check that TIN with the Internal Revenue Service. If the IRS does not certify the TIN as valid, the business is required to withhold a portion of the payments, either 15 percent, 25 percent, 30 percent or 35 percent, and presumably send the amount to the IRS.
5. Expand electric-car tax credits to more worthy vehicles.President Obama wanted a million electric cars by 2015, but, according to the Electric Drive Transportation Association, there were only 174,000 battery-powered and hybrid plug-in vehicles on the nation’s roads in 2013…The administration now wants to replace the electric-vehicle credit with credits worth $3.3 billion over 10 years for “advanced technology vehicles.”