BRUTAL: Cain Struggles To Defend 9-9-9 Plan, Admits Some Poor People Will Pay More Taxes

GOP front-runner Herman Cain struggled to defend his 9-9-9 tax plan on NBC's Meet The Press, admitting for the first time that some people with lower incomes would pay more under the plan.

"Some people will pay more," he told David Gregory. "But most people will pay less... The people who spend more on new goods will spend more."

Cain's plan would establish a 9 percent flat tax and sales tax — drawing criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Cain said you can't consider state taxes when evaluating his plan because "these are replacement taxes."

"There are invisible taxes built into everything we buy. The price of goods goes down [under 9-9-9]," he said.

Cain said his tax plan would pass because its simplicity resonates with the American people — and that even those who see their taxes increase will see benefits under the 9-9-9 plan.

On foreign policy, Cain said he is informed by the writings of former UN ambassador John Bolton and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger — but insisted he was not a neo-conservative. "I'm not familiar with the neo-conservative movement," he admitted.

Cain added that he opposes abortion is all instances — including rape and incest — unless the life of the mother is at risk, in which case "it is up for the family to decide."

Watch the video below:

On Foreign Policy:

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Now If You Ditch Your State Taxes, You'll Lose Your California Driver's License

California Gov. Jerry Brown is sick of celebrities flaking out on their state tax returns.

Brown signed a bill on Oct. 4 requiring the motor vehicle department to suspend the driver's licenses of its worst delinquents, many of whom you already know, reports the Journal.

Now they'll be publicly outed:

"The California driver's license suspensions will affect the state's top 1,000 tax debtors, whose names will be published online in two lists of 500 each. One list will be drawn from the income-tax rolls, with those on the second drawn from sales and other tax rolls. The new law expands an existing program by doubling the number of names on the published lists and adding the license suspensions."

The bill also applies to medical, beautician, physician's nurses, and other licenses, and follows the path of "at least 19 states, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, New York, Florida, Montana, Connecticut, Kentucky and New Jersey ... according to data from CCH, a unit of WoltersKluwer."

Pamela Anderson is on the books for $607,000, while Halsey Minor, a founder of CNET, is said to owe $14.2 million in income taxes, according to the paper.

What would you do if your license was suspended? Have you skipped your state taxes before?

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These Are The Toughest Taxes For Europe's High Earners

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The way that countries tax their highest earners has become a controversial issue recently, with calls for a so-called "Buffet Tax" to hit the richest.

If you earn a larger salary the unfortunate reality in most cases is you're going to have to pay more taxes.

We've collected the data from all the EU countries to show you which ones have the meanest personal income tax on top earners.

To calculate this, we've taken the minimum amount you need to earn in order to be described as a top earner for tax purposes in each country. Then, we've deducted personal income tax. The lower the net amount, the tougher the tax.

What you see is that while tax rates may vary, the very definition of what is a "high earner" may have an even larger affect.

Maybe it's time to start brushing up on your Slovakian...

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China Is About To Slash Income Taxes For 60 Million People

Some 60 million Chinese will wake up newly exempt from income tax tomorrow morning, as the government tries to boost poorer peoples’ spending power and fuel sustainable economic growth.

Though a few top earners will pay more, almost everyone else will get a break, according to Finance Ministry calculations.

“This is good news for most people, especially low- and middle-income employees,” says Yi Xianrong, a finance expert at the China Academy of Social Sciences think tank.

The tax break offers consumers some relief in the face of high inflation, which was running at an annual rate of 6.5 percent last month and eating into family budgets.

The biggest beneficiaries will be those at the bottom of the tax scale. The lowest rung of the income-tax ladder has been raised from 2,000 renminbi ($313) per month to 3,500 RMB ($547). The average Chinese wage is around 3,000 RMB a month.

The tax reform, made more generous after a wave of online protest against earlier government proposals for stingier changes, means that only about 8 percent of Chinese will pay any income tax at all, according to Wang Jianfan, deputy director of the Finance Ministry’s tax policy department.

Like many developing countries, China relies very little on hard-to-collect income tax for its revenue. Last year it raised only 6.6 percent of its taxes from personal income. Instead, the government goes after the business sector, which is easier to monitor.

Raising the income tax threshold will cost the government 160 billion RMB ($25 billion) in lost revenue, according to the Finance Ministry, but this is “no big deal” for Chinese public finances, according to Arthur Kroeber, head of the Beijing-based Dragonomics economic consultancy.

“Fundamentally, China’s fiscal conditions are very strong”, Mr. Kroeber says, pointing to government estimates of a budget deficit below 2 percent this year.

What the government gets for its $25 billion, says Dr. Yi, is goodwill at a time when ordinary people are grumbling increasingly loudly about rocketing food prices. “If people’s purchasing power goes up, that is good for social stability,” Yi says.

Household income has been falling as a share of GDP, relative to corporate and government revenues, for several years, but the new tax breaks are unlikely to reverse that trend because income tax plays such a minor role in China’s economy.

“If the government wants to redistribute income from the corporate to the household sector, tax policy is not going to do the trick,” warns Kroeber.

This post originally appeared at The Christian Science Monitor.

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"Les Super-Riches" French Pull A Buffett And Ask For More Taxes

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Sixteen of France's wealthiest individuals have mimicked Warren Buffett's call for an "exceptional tax levy" on the wealthy to help their country manage its debt burden.

The announcement—published on the website of magazine Le Nouvel Observateur this week—surfaces just ahead a planned announcement by French President Nicolas Sarkozy on new austerity measures meant keep budget deficits under control.

Tension has been high ever since rumors circulated that France could lose its treasured AAA rating. Austerity measures are already expected to cut taxes on the rich.

According to WSJ, a public call for such a levy may be intended to paint a more positive picture of "les riches." Billionaires—in particular, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt—have recently come under fire for attempting to evade tax collection.

Here's the English translation of their public appeal (via WSJ):

We, chairmen of companies and business leaders, business men and women, finance professionals or wealthy citizens, call for an exceptional levy that would target France's richest taxpayers.

This exceptional tax should be calculated in a reasonable way and designed so as to avoid undesirable effects, such as capital outflows and an increase in tax evasion.

We are aware of the fact that we have benefited from a French model and a European environment which we are attached to and which we want to help preserve. This tax is not a solution in itself: it must be part of a wider reform of the tax system, encompassing spending as well as tax receipts.

At a time when rising public debt and deficits are threatening France's and Europe's future, and when the government is asking everyone to show solidarity, we feel we must contribute.

A full list of signers is available here.

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