Toma nota.../Take note...

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) just announced a new US Tax Form, simplified and much smaller in size, intended to replace not only the current form 1040 but also forms 1040A and 1040EZ. These changes relate to the new and simplified tax rates already in effect in the United States since January 1, 2018. The two-page draft form is smaller than the current two-page form, but that's because many line items have been consolidated and/or shifted to other forms and schedules. Tax payers will note that the new schedules use numbers for identification purposes instead of letters (A, B, etc). That's because the schedules which use letters, like Schedule C, are still in play.  

IRS Announces They Are Working on a New 1040 Tax Form

Washington DC, Aug.6 DP.net).– Today the IRS announced they are working on changes to the 1040 tax forms. The IRS said that “this new approach will simplify the 1040 so that all 150 million taxpayers can use the same form. The new form consolidates the three versions of the 1040 into one simple form.” In addition to shortening Form 1040 to a postcard-sized return, the changes eliminate Forms 1040EZ and 1040A and increase the number of tax schedules supporting Form 1040 by six additional forms.

The 1040 forms (1040, 1040A, 1040EZ) are the most common tax forms. The announcement today is the first major change to 1040 tax forms in decades.

Tax time is one time of the year many US residents and citizens get a full snapshot of their financial picture. Taxpayers’ active participation in tax preparation is the backbone of the American tax system, giving them a better understanding of their true financial picture.

Who will be able to file with the new Form 1040?

Hasta la llegada al trono de Alfonso II de Aragón en 1163 no había existido diferencia entre Corona y Reino de Aragón. La diferencia entre ambos se produce con el surgimiento de territorios autónomos, administrativa y legalmente bajo la tutela de la nobleza, pero dentro de la Corona, como sería el caso de los reinos de Valencia y Mallorca, que estaban unidos y eran súbditos del reino de Aragón. Entre los territorios autónomos, había varios condados, uno de ellos el Condado de Barcelona.

Al final de este reportaje vea un video sobre la realidad actual en la región de Cataluña.

Barcelona, Jul.30 (DP.net).– El fin de las guerras de la Reconquista trajo consigo una consecuencia inesperada: la nobleza había podido consolidar su poder e independencia en cuestiones legislativas y fiscales. Además, la corona se había visto obligada a apoyarse en los diversos condados catalanes. Pese a todo, y con un desarrollo asimétrico de sus regiones, Aragón consolidaba un entramado político común que mantenía unido gracias a la religión, la moneda y la legislación. 

Las primeras referencias a un Principado de Cataluña las encontramos en el siglo XI, con un propósito descriptivo destinado a definir el territorio de los condados de Barcelona, Girona y Osona que controlaba Ramón Berenguer, luego se trataba de limites territoriales que no identificaban a un Principado reconocido. Incluía también otros territorios, como los condados de Lerida o Urgel, pero desde Jaime I y su Real Pragmática de 1243, los limites se reducían al condado de Barcelona, derogándose el título de marqueses, que habían tomado sin consentimiento regio, aprovechando la minoría de edad del monarca aragonés.

Además, el término de "Condados Catalanes" es una invención de la historiografía moderna que ha tratado de ofrecer una unidad a los territorios que hoy componen Cataluña, un nombre que no tiene antecedentes históricos en la época de la Reconquista. Lo que hoy se denomina "Cataluña" era un territorio compuesto por diversos condados bajo la corona de Aragón que se habían consolidado a partir de la Marca Hispánica del Imperio Carolingio.

The Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949 maintaining its de facto, if not de jure, independence, but Beijing has consistently refused formally to abandon the idea of reunifying Taiwan with China. As well as growing military pressure, the Peoples Republica of China (PRC) irredentist policy is premised on encouraging cross-Strait economic integration. Responding to preferential measures, Taiwanese industrialists have invested massively in the PRC, often relocating their businesses there. Fragments of a nation torn apart by contradictory claims, these entrepreneurs are vectors of a new form of unification imposed by the Chinese Communist Party, promoted but postponed on the island by the Nationalist Party, and rejected by a majority of the Taiwanese population.Within what can be described as an unfinished civil war, socio-economic dynamics remain embedded in conflicts over sovereignty.

Taiwan and Neutrality

A way forward for Asia’s direct democratic tiger

by Bruno Kaufmann

Neutrality, combined with participatory democracy, is not a guaranteed recipe for a country’s lasting stability. But history suggests it is better insurance than the most sophisticated weapons systems.

Taipei, Jul.3.– How can a small country like Taiwan best defend its democracy against the explicit threats of its stronger neighbours? How can it withstand the pressures of geopolitical aggression between great powers?

Neutrality might be the answer.

Contrary to what is usually reflected in the mass media, Christian thought has been highly relevant in the evolution from absolutism to democracy and its eventual struggle against totalitarianism. Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th Century and Jacques Maritain in the 20th Century, through Leo XIII from the Holy See and the resulting Church Social Doctrine are notable exponents of the relevance of Christian teachings and their influence on democratic ideas. The following article offers an excellent analysis of this topic. 

Frenchmen in America: How Alexis de Tocqueville and Jacques Maritain Discovered America

Introduction
(...)

At first glance, Alexis de Tocqueville and Jacques Maritain would appear to have little in common. An aristocrat from one of France’s oldest families, Tocqueville had many doubts about the truth claims of Christianity, though we have good reason to believe that he returned to the Catholic faith on his deathbed. Tocqueville also wrote very much as what we would call political sociologist, even a type of political scientist. Though obviously familiar with Christian sources and thought – indeed, he never stopped attending Mass – it’s clear that he was as much influenced by reading Rousseau, Voltaire, and especially Montesquieu as he was by reading Augustine.

By contrast, our second figure, Jacques Maritain, was raised as a Protestant. For a time, he was an agnostic before converting to Catholicism in 1906. Aristotle and Aquinas were Maritain’s lodestones, and his thought forms part of that great revival of Thomas Aquinas’ thought occasioned by Leo XIII’s 1879 encyclical Aeterni Patris. A fierce critic of Voltaire and even more so of Rousseau, Maritain authored over 60 books, which focused on subjects ranging from metaphysics to the nature and role of the state. Maritain was also viewed as a type of representative of 20th century Catholic intellectuals. It was not a coincidence that Pope Paul VI presented his “Message to Men of Thought and of Science” at the end of Vatican II to Maritain.