Members’ Area

Welcome to the WTA Members Blog. Here is where members update one another with their latest news and campaigns. All members can send their submissions to http://worldtaxpayers.org/members-update/

Letter from the Chairman, No. 13

Section: Letter from the Chairman
30 September 2015 | Letter from the Chairman, No. 13

Letter from the Chairman – September 2015

Read the full letter

Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance: 3rd Australian Libertarian Society Friedman Conference

Section: Members Highlights
24 September 2015 | Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance / Australia

On 2-3 May 2015 – The Australian Libertarian Society and the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance worked together to throw their 3rd annual conference in honor of the late, great Nobel-winning economist, Milton Friedman. This is a great idea to have an event around and to educate people on free market economics.

National Taxpayers Union (USA) – Congress Keep the 2011 Budget Control Act

The U.S. Budget Control Act Caps Saved Nearly $9,000 Per Household

by Michael Tasselmyer

As Congress faces a looming deadline on funding for the federal government, some legislators are calling for a repeal of the spending caps imposed under the Budget Control Act of 2011.

Undoing those restrictions on discretionary spending would almost certainly result in larger deficits and deeper debt. For some perspective, the table below compares actual federal spending since 2011 alongside the levels proposed by the White House just before the caps were put in place. (Note: dollar amounts are in billions and figures for the President’s budget reflect CBO’s March 2011 analysis.)

Year	Total Outlays	President’s March 2011 Budget	Savings
2011	$3,603	$3,655	-$52
2012	$3,537	$3,708	-$171
2013	$3,455	$3,800	-$345
2014	$3,506	$3,976	-$470
Total			-$1,308

That means that federal spending was reduced by over $1.3 trillion compared to what the Administration had proposed just before the caps were enacted.

To put it another way, spending was reduced by $3,256 per person and $8,980 per household. Federal deficits have been lower than they’d otherwise be by over $703 billion, roughly $2,206 per person and $6,083 per household.

That not only represents a very significant spending cut, but one that has been sustained over time.

Deceptive Temperature Record Claims

Section: Members Highlights
28 August 2015 | Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) / Canada

http://s3.amazonaws.com/wuaala/page/5663998322147328/washingtontimes.jpg

Deceptive temperature record claims

Warmest month announcements have no scientific basis

The Washington Times, 15-08-23. By Tom Harris.

The U.S. government is at it again, hyping meaningless records in a parameter that does not exist in order to frighten us about something that doesn’t matter.

NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced this week that according to their calculations, July 2015 was the hottest month since instrumental records began in 1880. NOAA says that the record was set by eight one-hundredths of a degree Celsius over that set in July 1998. NASA calculates that July 2015 beat what they assert was the previous warmest month (July 2011) by two one-hundredths of a degree.

But government spokespeople rarely mention the inconvenient fact that these records are being set by less than the uncertainty in the statistics. NOAA claims an uncertainty of 14 one-hundredths of a degree in its temperature averages, or near twice the amount by which they say the record was set. NASA says that their data is typically accurate to one tenth of a degree, five times the amount by which their new record was set.

So, the new temperature records are meaningless. Neither agency knows whether a record was set.

Such misrepresentations are now commonplace in NOAA and NASA announcements. They are regularly proclaiming monthly and yearly records set by less than the uncertainties in the measurements. Scientists within the agencies know that this is dishonest.

They also know that calculating so-called global average temperatures to hundredths of a degree is irrational. After all, there is very little data for the 70 percent of Earth’s surface that is ocean. There is also little data for mountainous and desert regions, not to mention the Antarctic.

Much of the coverage is so sparse that NASA is forced to make the ridiculous claim that regions are adequately covered if there is a temperature-sensing station within nearly 750 miles. This is the distance between Ottawa, Canada, and Myrtle Beach, S.C. cities with very different climates. Yet, according to NASA, only one temperature sensing station is necessary for the two cities and the vast area between them to be adequately represented in their network.

In the final analysis, it is no more meaningful to calculate an average temperature for a whole planet than it is to calculate the average telephone number in the Washington D.C. phone book. Temperature, like viscosity and density, and of course phone numbers, is not something that can be meaningfully averaged. “Global temperature” does not exist.

In their award winning book, “Taken By Storm” (2007), Canadian researchers Christopher Essex and Ross McKitrick explain: “Temperature is not an amount of something [like height or weight]. It is a number that represents the condition of a physical system. In thermodynamics it is known as an intensive quantity, in contrast to quantities like energy, which have an additive property, which we call extensive in thermodynamics.”

Even if enough accurate surface temperature measurements existed to ensure reasonable planetary coverage (it doesn’t) and to calculate some sort of global temperature statistic, interpreting its significance would be challenging. What averaging rule would you use to handle the data from thousands of temperature-sensing stations? Mean, mode, median, root mean square?

Science does not tell us. For some groups of close temperature measures (and NASA and NOAA are dealing with thousands of very close temperatures), one method of calculating an average can lead to a determination of warming while another can lead to a conclusion of cooling.

Even if you could calculate some sort of meaningful global temperature statistic, the figure would be unimportant. No one and nothing would experience it directly since we all live in regions, not the globe. There is no super-sized being straddling the planet, feeling global averages in temperature. Global warming does not matter.

Future generations are bound to ask why America closed its coal-fueled generating stations, its cheapest, most plentiful source of electric power, and wasted billions of dollars trying to stop insignificant changes in imaginary phenomena.

The sad answer will be that it had nothing to do with the realities of science, technology or economics. The tragic blunder is based on satisfying political expedience for a privileged few, egged on by vested financial interests, and supported by largely uninformed activists granted the media platforms needed to sway public opinion. As Jay Lehr, science director of the Chicago-based Heartland Institute said, “It is a scam that dwarfs all others that have come before.”

• Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa, Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition.

Congratulations to Singapore for 50 Years of Independence and Success – from a Fishing Village to the Top of the World

Section: WTA Blog
28 August 2015 | Congratulations to Singapore for 50 Years of Independence and Success – from a Fishing Village to the Top of the World

50 years ago Singapore was a fishing village and today one of the 10 richest countries of the world. Every 10th homeowner in Singapore is a millionaire.

How did this happen?

The success is largely credited to one man, the founder of Singapore, Mr Lee Hsien Loong who died this year.

His major programs were two:

– to create economic growth,

– to eradicate corruption; to get rid of this cancer that destroys economic grown.

Tax fighters all over the world should copy Singapore and intensify the fight against corruption!

Footnote about wealth and taxes for Singapore and other countries:
Singapore´s GDP per person is USD 65.000 per person, in Hong Kong and USA 53.000, Switzerland 46.400, Sweden 41.000, Germany 40.000, UK 37.300, Russia 17.000, China 10.000, Georgia 6.000.

The overall tax burden in Singapore and Hong Kong is only 14% compared with China 19%, USA 24%, Georgia 25%, Switzerland 28%, Russia 29%, UK 35%, Germany 38%, Sweden 43%, France and Finland 44%, France and Belgium 45% and highest in Denmark with 48%.

For many years Sweden had the highest taxes in the world. I dare say Swedish Taxpayers Association has done a good job.Today Sweden has no property tax, no gift tax, no inheritance – death – tax, no wealth tax and practically no tax on capital gains and dividends. Income taxes have been decreased, first down to a maximum of 50% (the Half Left-campaign) and now increased to a maximum of 57%.

Source:
2015 Index of Economic Freedom. By Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal.

– Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg Founder, former Secretary General World Taxpayers Associations Founder and Chairman Asia-Pacific Taxpayers Union

Georgia – World Champion in Taxes?

Section: WTA Blog
28 August 2015 | Georgia – World Champion in Taxes?

Former President of the Swedish Taxpayers Association and founder of the World Taxpayers Associations,
Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg’s piece on the amazing transformation of Georgia’s tax system for the Swedish Daily.

Georgia – World Champion of Taxes By Bjorn Tarras-Wahlberg

The USA’s Taxpayers Protection Alliance & Australian TPA Working Together

Section: Members Highlights
28 August 2015 | Taxpayers Protection Alliance / United States

This collaboration between the US group, Taxpayers Protection Alliance, and the Australian Taxpayers’ Alliance, is a perfect example of how the WTA can be helpful to global taxpayer protection movement. Building relationships, sharing ideas, and helping one another fight against global threats to the taxpayer.

The Taxpayers Protection Alliance (TPA) has been sounding the alarm on various attempts by governments around the globe to institute plain packaging policies for tobacco. Australia was the first country to pass legislation mandating plain packaging of tobacco and after just a few years, the impact has been exactly what TPA warned they would be: greater tobacco consumption, increased illicit trade, and loss of revenue. Last week, the following submission was made to the Australian Parliament for public comments regarding the plain packaging laws. You can also download the full submission by clicking here.

I wanted to thank Tim Andrews for alerting us to this opportunity. In my opinion, this is exactly the type pf coordination groups from around the world need to do more of.

If you submitted comments, please feel free to share with the group.

-David

David Williams

President

Taxpayers Protection Alliance

www.protectingtaxpayers.org

TPA Ghana Protesting an Unnecessary Toll Hike

Section: Members Highlights / WTA Blog
28 August 2015 | Taxpayers’ Alliance Ghana / Ghana

Read here how the Ghanaian government has misused road construction funds, and are now issuing a tax hike in the form of a toll. The TPA Ghana is calling them out on this dishonest practice.

http://news.peacefmonline.com/pages/news/201508/252191.php

The Taxpayers’ Alliance Ghana said they are “opposed to any form of increase in taxes and levies considering the economic hardships that the Ghanaian taxpayer is going through, the high cost of doing business coupled with the current energy crisis.”

Mr. Bekoe charged government to render an account to Parliament on the usage of the road fund before thinking of burdening the taxpayer with increments.

WTA & German Taxpayers Assoc. Meet with the UK’s TPA

Section: Members Highlights / WTA Blog
28 August 2015 | Bund der Steuerzahler Bayern / Germany

This week, Michael Jaeger & Daniel Junker of the German Taxpayers Association met with Sarah Elliott and Staffan Wennberg in London to plan for the upcoming biennial WTA Conference in Berlin on the 18-19th March 2016. It was a productive meeting, as speakers and panels were ironed out and ideas shared. While in London, they met with the UK’s Jonathan Isaby, CEO of the TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA). Michael and Daniel got to see the offices of the TPA, and meet some of the staff too . Should any of you come through London, do please contact Jonathan and check out the TPA!