Today, June 16, the city of brotherly love will take the proposed Philadelphia sugar tax to a final vote. The tax would place a 1.5 cent-per-ounce added tax on sweetened beverages. If the motion is approved, Philadelphia would be only the second city in the United States to impose such a tax in attempt to increase revenue and, thus, help fund the city’s educational programs and employee benefits.

It’s not the first attempt. The Philadelphia city government has tried on multiple occasions to pass this tax. Originally, the tax was touted as a deterrent for unhealthy eating habits. With the focus now shifting to generating revenue for improving schools and building community centers, there is a greater incentive for the city to get this tax passed.

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Annette Nellen

Well, it’s not a carbon tax war yet as neither side of this issue in Congress seems to have it as their number one issue. A carbon tax aims to increase the cost of using one type of fuel that leads to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and climate change. There are other types of GHG emission, but per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), carbon emissions represent 81% of the total.

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Hugo van Zyl

During February 2016 the beleaguered South African Minister of Finance, Minister Pravin Gordhan, made a serious attempt to balance government’s books.

Gordhan was called back after Minister Nene was removed from his position, by President Zuma early December 2015. The true reason for this politically motivated musical chairs, appointing three ministers in less than 4 days, remains a mystery. Point is Nene was removed and Gordhan had to step in and rescue the cash flow and ensure the country did not face junk status.

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Annette Nellen

While we are unlikely to see tax reform this year, there continues to be a lot of work going on in the tax committees on it.  And President Obama updated and released his framework for business tax reform this month (first report was released in Sept. 2012). I think the main impetus for the update was to address inversions to tie to the recent activities of IRS and Treasury. Read More