Tag: taxes

Mexicans in US can avoid remittance tax with government Finabien cards, Sheinbaum says

President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday promoted a government bank card that can help Mexicans living in the United States avoid the new remittance tax.

Sheinbaum recommended the new services available with the Finabien bank card, originally created in 2024 by the federal government’s Financial Institution for Well-being (Finabien), brandishing a card for the cameras during her morning press conference.

“It’s a very simple way to send remittances electronically and avoid making cash transfers,” Sheinbaum said.

The newest service offers direct deposit operations, allowing cardholders’ wages to be sent directly to the card by employers or transferred using authorized institutions. Additionally, remittances can be made more economically and will allow cardholders to circumvent the U.S. remittance tax, the president said.

The new tax — which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026 — is a federal excise tax applied directly to outbound money transfers. Essentially, it is a fee charged across the board to each person who sends funds out of the U.S.

The Finabien card can be acquired at 53 consulates in the U.S., by mail or via digital application at miconsulado.sre.gob.mx. And accounts can be accessed at 1,700 sites in Mexico.

Keep reading

U.S. to Charge Travelers $250 ‘Visa Integrity’ Fee — Experts Say It Could Raise $30 Billion Over Next Decade

The United States will soon begin charging travelers a $250 “visa integrity fee” in order to enter the country.

The rule, which was included in the recent budget reconciliation package, will apply to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas to enter and cannot be waived.

However, some travelers eventually may be able to get the fee reimbursed.

CNBC provides more details:

The fee will be at least $250 during the U.S. fiscal year 2025, which runs from Oct. 1, 2024, to Sept. 30, 2025. However, the secretary of Homeland Security is free to set the fee higher, according to the provision.

Thereafter, the visa integrity fee will be adjusted for inflation.

The “visa integrity fee” applies to all visitors who need nonimmigrant visas, which includes tourists, business travelers and international students.

Some visitors, including those from Australia, Japan and many nations in Europe, may not need visas to enter under the Visa Waiver Program.

The fee is paid when the visa is issued, according to the provision. Thus, visitors whose visa requests are denied will not be charged.

To be eligible for a refund, visa holders must meet the conditions outlined in the visa, including not engaging in unauthorized employment and not overstaying the visa’s expiration date by more than five days.

While illegal immigrants are largely the result of people crossing the southern border, many also enter the U.S. on tourist visas and then disappear indefinitely after securing cash in hand employment.

According to some experts, the fee may raise as much as $30 billion over the next decade, which could be used to pay down the national debt.

Keep reading

Congressional Cuts To PBS, NPR Could Unravel Leftist Propaganda Nodes Nationwide 

The Republican-controlled House delivered the final blow with a 216-213 vote on Thursday night to eliminate $1.1 billion in funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports leftist propaganda networks such as NPR, PBS, and affiliated stations nationwide. Attached to the bill was also an $8 billion cut targeting the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has been accused of corruption.

The New York Times penned an article for its readers, offering multiple graphics that paint a grim picture of areas nationwide at risk of losing access to public radio and television. What the NYT fails to acknowledge is that the $1.1 billion in funding cuts to NPR, PBS, and affiliated stations represent a major blow to the leftist propaganda matrix—in other words, the information war of misinformation and disinformation waged by the left is about to crack a whole lot more.

“Failing stations will create a cascade effect in this highly connected and interdependent system, impacting content producers and leading to the potential collapse of additional distressed stations in other areas of the country,” Tim Isgitt, CEO of advisory firm Public Media Company, told the NYT.

Let the dominoes fall—this development could trigger a mass unraveling of the government-funded propaganda nodes nationwide that have brainwashed millions of Americans with toxic wokeism.  

Keep reading

Air Force DOGEs $10 Billion in Wasteful Spending

Donald Trump’s Air Force Secretary collaborated with the Department of Government Efficiency to slash a staggering $10 billion in wasteful and unnecessary spending.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth praised Air Force Secretary Troy Meink in a video revealing the DOGE results. Meink and DOGE “secured more than $10 billion in savings. They’re cutting waste and working with vendors to reduce contract spending,” Hegseth said. “So I want to commend you, Mr. Secretary, and the entire Air Force team for being relentless in rooting out excess.”

The $10 billion in cuts make the Air Force exceptional among the branches for saving taxpayers money, Hegseth emphasized. “The Air Force can now claim the top two spots on the DOGE savings podium,” he joked. “I don’t know where this podium is. I’m told that [it’s] somewhere, maybe the basement in the Pentagon, but we’re going to dust it off.” 

Humor aside, Hegseth repeated that the Air Force “claims the top two spots, symbolizing their commitment to leadership and to you the taxpayer. So thank you, Mr. Secretary, for being an example of stewardship, and we appreciate your dedication to President Trump’s mission of peace through strength, outstanding work.”

Meink returned Hegseth’s compliments and agreed that ensuring wise use of taxpayer dollars “is critical to national security and maintaining your lethality.” What an unusual perspective from a federal official. Usually, bureaucrats can’t wait to find more reasons to spend money they don’t really have. “Over the past six months, we’ve looked at 500 contracts, 50 business systems realizing more than $10 billion in savings,” he added.

Keep reading

“Settlement tsunami”: Chicago spends more than double city budget on police misconduct settlements

The City of Chicago is searching for financial solutions amidst hundreds of pending police misconduct cases, spending more than double the $82 million budget.

Eight years ago, police burst down the door of the Mendez family home unannounced, pointing guns at Hester and Gilbert Mendez, and their sons Peter and Jack (who were 9 and 5 at the time) – only to find they’d raided the wrong apartment.

After years stuck in the legal pipeline, between COVID delays and multiple changes in the judge presiding over the case, Mendez et al. v. City of Chicago finally began on Monday, April 21, 2025 in Courtroom 1941 at the Everett McKinley Dirksen United States Courthouse in Chicago. 

The Mendez family was seeking financial compensation for their rights being violated and the trauma their children endured. 

The city of Chicago has already spent more than $164 million in taxpayer money this year on police misconduct settlements and judgments – more than double its $82 million budget. With hundreds of cases pending, including from people alleging torture by notorious former officers, the Mendez case illustrates how these situations often play out: the city launches into a costly trial, putting families through trauma and stress, only to settle for a large sum at taxpayer expense. Officials say there’s a better way to do it – offering substantial settlements earlier – not the unfairly small settlements that the city often uses to avoid trial, as lawyers see it; or ideally avoiding police misconduct in the first place. 

During the Mendez family’s trial, a now 17-year-old Peter Mendez described on the stand how he was traumatized on the evening of November 7, 2017. “My life flashed before my eyes, my heart was pounding, and I thought maybe I could die.”

To this day, the event has left Jack, the youngest child, with the same recurring nightmare of police shooting his mother, cuffing and taking his father away to jail, and separating him and his brother as they get taken to different orphanages. 

Keep reading

Canada’s COVID jab injury payouts triple in two years, reaching $18 million

Payments to COVID jab-injured Canadians have tripled in the past three years.

According to information recently published by Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP), payments to COVID-injured Canadians have totaled $18,140,998, nearly triple the $6,695,716 paid in 2023.

The statistics, which reflect numbers from when the program was launched in 2020 until June 1, 2024, showed that only 234 out of 3317 claims have been approved.

However, the claims do not represent the total number of Canadians injured by the allegedly “safe and effective” COVID shots, as inside memos have revealed that the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) officials neglected to report all adverse effects from COVID shots and even went as far as telling staff not to report all events.

The PHAC’s downplaying of jab injuries is of little surprise to Canadians, as a 2023 secret memo revealed that the federal government purposefully hid adverse effect so as not to alarm Canadians.

Canada’s VISP was launched in December 2020 after the Canadian government gave vaccine makers a shield from liability regarding COVID-19 jab-related injuries.

To date, the health department does not have an estimate on how many compensation claims will be filed.  Officially, in Canada, there have been 442 deaths linked to the COVID shot, and Canada’s Public Health Agency data claims that 98.2 million jab doses have been administered.

Earlier this week, Conservatives demanded an official investigation into the Liberal-run vaccine injury program, which has given more to VISP administrators than injured Canadians. Notably, there have been no press releases regarding the contracts on the Government of Canada website nor from Carney’s official office.

An explosive Global News report found that Oxaro Inc., the company contracted for $50 million to run the program, misallocated taxpayer funds and disregarded many jab-injured Canadians.

Of the $50.6 million that Oxaro Inc., has received, $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, compared to only $18.1 million going to jab-injured Canadians.

Keep reading

85 Minnesota Autism Clinics Under Investigation for Millions in Medicaid Fraud

About 85 autism clinics in Minnesota are under investigation for tens of millions in Medicaid billing fraud.

The state’s Department of Human Services (DHS) is under a microscope for paying out outrageous amounts for services supposedly delivered by the state’s burgeoning autism treatment sector, according to KSTP-TV.

The records show that DHS paid out claims totally about $700 million since the state’s autism program began in 2014. But millions of that seems to be paying for services that were never rendered. And investigators say that some $20 million has been fraud.

Now, DHS is reportedly visiting every one of the state’s locations after data shows that at least 85 of them fraudulently billed the program.

One expert says that the state ignored the warning signs.

Dr. Eric Larsson with the Lovaas Institute Midwest says that some of the bills were obviously suspicious. “No apparent email address, no website. Nobody is answering the phone,” he said. “They’re certainly not trying to deliver services.”

The problem first came to light last December when the FBI raided two Minnesota autism clinics under suspicions of fraudulent billing, KROC radio reported at the time.

State DHS officials are now scrambling to make sure that the hundreds of autism centers in the state are submitting legitimate bills.

Two of the clinics under investigation are Smart Therapy Center, LLC in Minneapolis and Star Autism Center LLC in St. Cloud, which also had ties to the Feeding Our Future child meal fraud case.

Keep reading

US To Fund and Build a Fast Boat Base for the Philippines on the South China Sea

The US will fund and construct a base for fast boats for the Philippine military on the South China Sea amid heightened tensions between Manila and Beijing over disputed rocks and reefs in the area.

The base will be built on the west coast of the Philippine island province of Palawan and is expected to be completed by the first quarter of the 2026 fiscal year. According to USNI News, the base will house five boats, including both “assault boats” and rigid-hulled inflatable boats, which will be constructed by the US-based company ReconCraft.

The USNI report said that the base will be situated approximately 160 miles east of Second Thomas Shoal, a major source of tensions in the maritime dispute and the site of collisions and encounters between Chinese and Philippine vessels. Despite the distance, the Philippine military frequently deploys small boats to the disputed reefs, and the US project will give them a more effective way to do that.

It’s unclear how much the project will cost the US, but it’s the latest in a series of US-funded military construction projects in the Philippines. In 2023, Washington and Manila signed a deal to expand the US military presence in the country, and the US has also been increasing military aid to the Southeast Asian nation.

Keep reading

NPR CEO Lies About ‘Real Risk to Public Safety’ with Taxpayer Funding Cut

NPR CEO and welfare queen Katherine Maher has come up with a brand-new lie to protect her taxpayer-funded slush fund to spread left-wing lies. Get a load of the latest from this shameless broad…

“Public media, public radio, public television, are a critical part of the emergency response plans of nearly half of the states in this nation,” Maher told the far-left CBS News, which just settled an election interference lawsuit with President Trump.

She added, “If these types of emergency alerting go away, you will have fewer outlets to be able to respond in real time” to natural disasters.

Earlier this week, America’s favorite welfare queen laughably claimed there’s no left-wing bias on NPR.

You know why Maher’s been reduced to this kind of desperate lying? Because in a world where Trump, the GOP, and New Media no longer play by the regime media’s rules, she’s got nothing else.

You see, we can no longer be emotionally blackmailed. We no longer play by the fake rules of debate created by the left to stop us from expressing the truth. And all this bullshit about killing Big Bird is debunked as quickly as it’s launched.

So what is Maher reduced to? Laughably, claiming NPR is not biased in favor of the left…

Bias? What bias? Oh, you mean this bias…

Keep reading

Israel and US to forge $200m tech hub for AI and quantum science development

Israel and the US are advancing a strategic initiative to create a joint science center for artificial intelligence and quantum innovation at an investment of $200 million. The center will serve as a hub to promote technology-driven cooperation and diplomacy with Gulf countries in the realms of AI and quantum science and challenge China in the global race for supremacy of next-generation technologies.

The initiative led by Maj. Gen. (res.) Tamir Hayman, the director of Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), and Dr. Smadar Itzkovich, founder and CEO of AI & Quantum Sovereignty Lab (AIQ-Lab), is expected to be implemented either through a presidential executive order signed by US President Donald Trump or a legislative process.

“This is a strategic initiative that aims to reshape the Middle East through US-Israel scientific and technological collaboration in AI and quantum,” Itzkovich told The Times of Israel. “Israel is a powerhouse for physics and quantum technology, and by using our advantage, we can translate it to unbelievable achievements for economic growth and prosperity and for stability and security to create regional sovereignty in the areas of AI and quantum science.”

As part of the proposed initiative for the science center, each nation will contribute $20 million annually, starting in 2026 and through 2030, to support research and development projects at dual headquarters in Tel Aviv and Arlington, Virginia. The technology collaboration will focus on shared, urgent regional challenges, including cybersecurity, medicine and genetics, and water and food security in arid environments.

The initiative comes at a pivotal point, as concern has been growing that Israel could be missing out on a regional boom of investments into the next wave of technologies. In May, Trump and United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan announced the joint launch of the largest AI campus outside the US. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia aims to become a global center for AI and reportedly has plans to create a $40 billion fund to invest in AI.

Keep reading