ADMINISTRATOR ENLISTS IN THE FREE SH*T ARMY

I finally finished my tax return today. I’ve done my own taxes for 25 years. I’ve used Turbo Tax for 20 years. I’m able to upload all of my Quicken data directly into Turbo Tax. And still I felt like this guy this morning as I worked on my complicated return.

We have W-2 income, I sold a bunch of stocks and mutual funds, dividends, capital gains, option losses, K-1 for my money losing Wildwood condo, and a Schedule C for this huge money making machine of a website. There are so many pieces of paper to labor through. Turbo Tax asks you questions about passive income, alternative minimum tax, deductions, and credits. I can understand why most people pay someone else to do their taxes.

When it was all said and done, we are getting a refund. My effective tax rate for 2010 was 7%. I have Obama and the Congressional redistributors of wealth to thank for my relatively low tax burden. As I noted back in the Fall, my house is 16 years old and the builder put cheap windows in the house. The seals were breaking on multiple windows allowing moisture in, with some cracking when the temperature would change. I needed to replace my windows. It just so happened that Obama was implementing another useless economic stimulation tax credit with your money in 2010. Anyone who did a home improvement that saved energy could get a $1,500 tax credit. I took advantage of Obama’s generosity with your money today. I got a $1,500 tax credit for my window purchase. I’m now a corporal in the Free Shit Army.

The government already rewards me for having three kids, with exemptions and tax credits. It rewards me for owning a house with deductions for mortgage interest and property taxes. These facts prove how worthless our tax code has become.

I would have bought windows this year whether there was a credit or not. I bought a house in 1995 because I wanted a place to live. The mortgage interest and property tax deductions had no impact on my buying decision. I didn;t decide to have kids because I would get a credit. My marginal rate of 7% on a fairly high level of income seems low. It is low unless you compare me to General Electric.

General Electric made $14.2 billion in 2010. Their effective tax rate was -22.5%. They not only paid no taxes, but received a $3.2 billion tax refund. When middle class working Americans pay more in taxes than one of the biggest corporations in the world, then the system is broken and corrupt. GE spent $200 million in the last decade on lobbying. It looks like they got a nice return on their bribes (investment).

The corporate share of the nation’s tax receipts went from 30% in the 1950s to 6.6% in 2009. Crony capitalism is alive and well. This needs to change before it is too late.

If the politicians in this country could ever do the right thing and put the country ahead of their own interests, we could fix the revenue side of the budget. I would gladly give up my mortgage deduction, property tax deduction and credits for having kids if I knew that the wealthy and corporations were also paying their fair share. Eliminate all deductions, all loopholes, and all credits, for everyone. I’m not tied to a flat tax or fair tax or a particular rate.

As a country we need to decide what we really want. How big of a military are we willing to fund? If we want Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SNAP, Unemployment Compensation, Welfare, and an oil based society, then we have to pay for it. The borrowing has to end. If we want something, we have to pay for it. If we want all of the social programs that exist today, then taxes will have to go up dramatically. If we don’t want taxes to go up dramatically, then we need to cut spending across the board.

The fools in Washington DC think they can borrow and spend to infinity. Sadly, they are wrong. I see no chance that the corrupt politicians will change our path. The Free Shit Army (we are all members) will keep marching until it meets its Waterloo.

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Steve Hogan
Steve Hogan

My effective marginal tax rate for the feds and the crooks in Sacramento: just under 43%. Forty three fucking percent. Throw in property taxes, gas and sales tax (9.25% in California), DMV renewal fees, and a thousand other nickel and dime charges, not to mention the hidden taxes from regulations and the Fed’s criminal money printing, and it’s safe to say that I’m forking over 60 cents on every dollar. Land of the free? More like Land of the Fee.

To rub salt into the wound, I had to pay $1100 to my CPA so he could tell me how far I needed to bend over for Obama and Co. and not have them come after me for more. And what do I get for my “contributions”? Zippo – unless you count the gate rape I get to undergo to keep me safe from terrorists our government seems determined to generate by the thousands with their retarded foreign policies.

Can we please just be done with the Ponzi scheme economy? It’s too late for reform. Watching the clowns in Washington posture over $38B in “cuts” when we have a $1.7T deficit should be all the evidence one needs to conclude that we are royally screwed. Time to start from scratch. Clean sheet. No more free shit for anybody.

Math Matters

We could have a simple fair tax next week. Bill Bradley had a pretty good tax plan, he is the from NBA player and US Senator. No one liked his plan, it wasn’t sexy, didn’t promise the moon. It would have a one or two page return, it would gather more money for the government, and no one wanted it.

People want to be fooled and dazzled. So we have a tax code of fooling and dazzling complexity.

Instead, people fall for this tripe like the “flat tax” which is as flat as Pike’s peak, as flat as Dolly Parton, as flat as — you get the idea, it’s not flat. It’s not even close.

If we had a true flat tax –the same tax rate on all income — that would be one thing. But the flat tax is the antithisis of that -did I spell that wrong? The opposite. The “flat tax” by Newt, Forbes, and the CATO institute have, literally, NO tax whatsoever on their favored income. Not a dime, not a nickel, not a penny. WHich, of course, is their goal — the whole “flat” canard is to distract you.

And it works. People are so stupid, it works. In a plan that is really goofy in its sharp peaks, they call it flat. And they get away with it.

Then there is the goofy Fairtax – which I fell for — for a while.

Really, it seems to get any push, you have to be totally dishonest and lie about your name. Pick the name MOST opposite of your plan, and tell people that’s what you are after.

Bill Bradley had the right plan, and no one gave him a passing notice.

http://fairtaxfineprint.blogspot.com/

And no one (at least not enough people) will ever pay attention to realistic tax plans, as long as the public is so gullible to think the name has ANYTHING to do with the tax plan.

Pirate Jo
Pirate Jo

Ohferchrissake, we shouldn’t even have a tax on income, flat tax or otherwise.

Resources are scarce. Taxes should be based upon consumption.

I am the treasurer on my condo association board, and have been for two years. Condo associations are a pure form of local government. We have expenses, such as snow removal. You wouldn’t have that if you lived in Florida, but we have it in Iowa. You choose to live in a condo in Iowa, you pay for snow removal on the parking lots and sidewalks. We also have mowing, landscaping, and a pool. Anyone who didn’t like paying for these things could live in a condo with no pool, or buy a house, and do their own mowing and snow removal. But if you live in a condo, you get extra-cheap utilities and don’t have to mess with mowing or shoveling your sidewalk in winter when you are out of town.

The taxes people pay should be based on what they use. We have forgotten what their purpose is, and have come to think they should support things people should be doing on their own.

Goldorack
Goldorack

43% Steve? jesus…

with two children, you would pay less in Sweden or France.
and would be more protected. in those countries, a children is like a half-person rebate on the income declaration (if you don’t have a common form with your wife: separation of belongings)
tough shit.

Math Matters

Oh, I should explain why no one really wants a fair equitable tax. We would have to pay for it.

I get a silly deal on taxes, it’s crazy. Frankly, a fair equitable tax plan would cost me double what I pay now. No thanks.

Who wants to pay? I saw a rather rich guy stuff his seven year old child into a high chair at a buffet restaurant, ,so he could save 6 dollars. People will do ANYTHING to get over.

We all hear how these “top 1/3” pay “90%” of the taxes — or whatever tripe figures are currently in vogue. Utter nonsense. It all depends how you earn your money. If you are foolish enough to be a dentist or brain surgeon, and you have to work your ass off for it, yeah, you are going to pay a lot of taxes on your 500K. If you operate a business, employ others, take big risks day in day out, expect to get hammered.

But if you invest in Chinese phone stocks (my favorite for years) and make the same 500K, relax. You are good to go. You won’t get hammered, and if you get a good accountant, or have some balls, you might not pay any.

Everyone who is getting a good deal wants to keep that good deal. And those that are getting screwed, usually don’t know they are getting screwed.

I feel especially sorry for my hard working neighbors. Man, they work their asp off, almost every day. They struggle. They foolishly work for their money. Big mistake.

Try to tell the truth about taxes, and your political life is near it’s end. Bill Bradley wrote this book AFTER he retired. He wasn’t going to push for a real tax plan when in office.

The Tea Party folks sure aren’t going to be honest about it. Ryan’s figures of magic growth are based on a real estate boom that is bigger than the crazy boom that just went bust. He actually figures in, another boom, a BIGGER boom. All by the magic of cutting taxes.It’s goofy, but it sells.

So the reason we don’t have a fair tax code, we don’t really want one. We want illusions.

Goldorack
Goldorack

admin:

I also change my windows because they need it and because it qualifies for a tax credit.
but given my number of years in the FSA, I’m already Chief master sergeant.

sorry for your ego. you will have to admit that I’m superior in free shit pumping

Hope
Hope

When I was about 15 years old, my parents bought an electronic calculator from Sears. It had the basic 4 functions, maybe it had a memory function or did square roots, can’t exactly recall. Although it was about the size of a loaf of bread, it was the wonder of our neighborhood in So Cal. My mom got it to replace the handle-drvien paper tape adding machine she had used since the Ice Ages ended.

That year my dad thought he would give it a whirl with the tax stuff spread out over the kitchen table. He dutifully entered in all the numbers and immediately began swearing like the sailor he was in Korea. From the other room, my mom, knowing with what distrust and ineptitude my dad usually met most new tech, told him to just use the old adding machine and stop being such a Luddite.

So he crunched the numbers again, literally cranking them out of that old machine. I roused myself from my 100th reading of The Lord of The Rings and asked him what he got. Fuming, he said that he and my mom paid 57% of their takehome pay in one tax or another.

Oooh, I said, in the ignorance of someone who had never examined a pay stub, that sounds bad, dad.

He looked at me with that special look parents have when they just cannot believe their offspring could say something so incredibly stupid, shook his head and pushed the whole mess to the center of the table.

To the best of my knowledge, he never used that electronic calculator again, nor participated in any financiall doings of our household until the day he died.

Now I am at the top of the fucking tax table, all my Schedule A deductions are limited, I have K1, etc, blah blah, have to pay somebody $1500 to sort it out, and I pay about 47% of my takehome pay for taxes. Thank God in Texas I don’t have a fucking income tax on top of it. Too bad all my tax money is going to finance my personal destruction – like Obamacare.

Fuckity Fuck Fuck Fuck.

MuckAbout

I keep telling all of you how to avoid paying taxes (a legal endeavor!).

Export yourself to a foreign country, stay a year and – presto! No income taxes (if you’re smart enough to export yourself to a country without any – like Switzerland…

MA

FRED FLINTSTONE
FRED FLINTSTONE

If the stupid government shut down happened as promised I would have delayed my payment, but Nooooooh the IRS gets a midnight reprieve.

underfire
underfire

So you want to beat taxes? Become a farmer or rancher. Admin. and you all are featherweights compared to us. We have the means, the motivation and the justification to go entire careers without paying income taxes. Ending up bankrupt and destitute isn’t to be feared nearly as much as having to pay income taxes.

Personally, I’ll lose a hundred before I pay ten. If you’re thinking “dumb farmer” you’re right, but that’s beside the point.

ragman
ragman

7%? WTF? You are not only an ossifer in the FSA, you qualify for quarters on the 30 blocks. Shaquanda, the KFC girl, will be yo new next do neighbor. I just gave those fuckers 23% of my hard earned cash. I got absolutely nothing for my investment. In addition, I get abused by you 7% fuckers because I’m a boomer. WTF?

AKAnon
AKAnon

Eat Shit, Bitchezzz. My effective rate was -4% this year, on a gross of a hair over $100K. Adopt a Special Needs kid, have another in college & another one eligible for Child Tax Credit, and you too can be one of the nearly 50% of taxpayers who pay no taxes. That and installing an “EPA approved biomass heating system”. That’s what Alaskans call a wood stove, at least in 2010. Do I deserve any of these credits & kick-backs? Hell no, but I still took ’em. I guess that makes me upper echelon peon in the FSA.

Pirate Jo
Pirate Jo

Just work less. It’s not that hard.

underfire
underfire

Speaking of free shit, has anyone noticed the decline of the dollar lately? It appears the world hasn’t been paying attention lately, or has taken it’s eye off the ball. We in the US, despite what has happened in the past, really do deserve the status of reserve world currency.

cv51
cv51

Michael Moore says “Eat the Rich”

MuckAbout

Admin: Ask your boss if you can work in Switzerland. Tell him you’ll take a voluntary pay cut of whatever your marginal tax rate is to do it. All they have to do is pay your airfare back and forth when they need you in the flesh for some odd reason.

Of course, in this respect, you’ve got a small problem because the cost of living is about 1/3 more in Swiss Land than it is here and the Franc is appreciating rapidly against the dollar so the longer you work over there, the poorer you’re going to get.

Maybe you and Avalon should foster parent a half dozen or so wee little cheeren from the 30 blocks. That’ll get you an additional $8,000 a month tax free and you can keep them caged in the back yard so they won’t bother you too much..

Think happy thoughts…

MA

SSS

“and a Schedule C for this huge money making machine of a website.”

I’m positive you’re being dead serious, Admin. This site is knocking down 6, 7 figures minimum. Admit it. And it’s all because I”ve ordered 2 mugs, a T-shirt, and am a clicking fool on the Google ads. I personally jacked your marginal tax from 6.993% to 7%. Snicker.

I’ll personally see to it that your tax rate will hit double figures next year. Click. Click. Click.

Reverse Engineer

I paid ZERO Tax on Inheriting more money than I could have made working for minimum wage starting around the Cretaceous period 🙂

RE

King David
King David

Here in Toronto, I paid 46% tax on my income. Criminal waste of money considering no let up in inflation (more tax).

Govt run Health Care is a farce. HST is a scam – corporates just pass it on to consumers.
We have elections every two years with unstable & clueless governments.

Compared to Canadians, Americans seem to have a good thing or two.

MuckAbout

King David: One comment.. Holy (tongue in cheek) Shit!!

MA

llpoh
llpoh

Admin – I know you hate GE. And they are well deserving of scorn for what they are doing. But it is totally false and has been entirely misrepresented that “They not only paid no taxes, but received a $3.2 billion tax refund”. They are receiving no such refund. It is an MSM ploy by the NYT that put this out there couched in such termsso as to suggest that is the case, but it is not so. It – the so called refund – is an accounting issue, too complex for my feeble mind – but is in fact not a refund.

GE has largely minimized their taxes (avoidance is illegal so I won’t accuse them of that!”) by shifting profits offshore. This is a common loophole that costs the country bilions in tax revenue, and needs to be addressed immediately. Fat chance of that. GE is taking advantage of the current laws, and of course lobbies incessantly for changes to help them continue to minimize taxes. They hire huge numbers of lawyers and ex-tax office employees (esp. auditors) to help them find every possible loophole. They are horrid citizens. If they didn’t lobby so hard, I wouldn’t despise them so much. It is the lobbying that makes them such scum.

The Washington Post clearly states the reality re this so called tax refund here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-truth-about-ges-tax-bill/2011/04/05/AFZm0L9C_story.html

Salient points are as follows:

“GE’s 2010 financial statements reported a $3.25 billion U.S. “current tax benefit,” which is where the Times, which declined to comment, got its $3.2 billion “tax benefit” number. But a company’s “current tax” number has nothing to do with what it actually pays in taxes for a given year. “Current tax benefit” and “current tax expense” are financial reporting numbers used to calculate the profit a company reports to shareholders.

They have nothing to do with what a company sends to — or receives from — the IRS. “Any correlation between the ‘current tax expense’ and the current tax payable is likely coincidental,” says a leading tax authority, Ed Outslay, the Deloitte/Michael Licata professor of accounting at Michigan State University’s business school.

GE’s response

After repeated conversations with GE, we can finally give you reasonably definitive answers.

The company says it’s not getting any refund for 2010 — validating Outslay’s analysis. Its 2010 tax situation? “We expect to have a small U.S. income tax liability for 2010,” said Gary Sheffer, GE’s chief spokesman. How big is small? GE declined to say. The number is unlikely to be disclosed unless GE goes public with it or is forced to do so.”

SSS

Admin

I’ve done my own taxes for 45 years. Estimated savings: $22,500. Enough for a nice car, like the RAV 4 I’m driving.

Tax hint for everyone. I play golf with a really diverse and successful group of guys on Tuesdays and Thursdays, one of whom is a retired IRS lawyer who prosecuted major tax fraud cases in the Midwest.

First time I played with him, I said, “You know, Jim, I have a motto about the IRS.”

“What’s that?” he asked.

“If you’re not cheating, you’re not trying,” was my answer.

The two other guys in my foursome cracked up. Jim was not amused.

Reverse Engineer

“The two other guys in my foursome cracked up. Jim was not amused”-SSS

Sounds a lot like when I make CIA Jokes 😉 For some reason you never seem to find them funny. LOL.

RE

Reverse Engineer

“Compared to Canadians, Americans seem to have a good thing or two.”-KD

So, are you saying Yanks should cross the Great White North off the short list of Ex-Pat Doomstead locations?

RE

Dave
Dave

“Michael Moore says “Eat the Rich””

Huh? It looks to me like that fucking bloated pig has already done that!

SSS

RE

My apologies. Sometimes my CIA sarcasm radar malfunctions. If you get particularly biting, a “sarcasm off” would help. So much to deal with. Malfunctioning radar. Alzheimer’s. Naps. Golf. You get the picture.

llpoh
llpoh

Admin – I acknowledge their scumminess. Totally. (Your article did a good job of swaying me.) Their wanton lobbying and offshoring of profits are testament to that. But they are not getting a refund, and it is not a tax return term, and for the most part the “tax benefit” has nothing to due with their tax returns, and hasn’t been substantiated nor commented on further by the NYT since their article, as in fact it is not a refund. You rightfully pride yourself on facts, and the fact is they are not getting any such return. And it is not from some GE maggot – it is analysts at the Post, which I consider have a much higher value than the scum at the NYT’s who intentionally, in my opinion, put this mis-leading info out there.

I have no problem attacking GE – but what say we attack them with fact. There is more than enough to crucify them with without inventing stuff.

llpoh
llpoh

Admin – One of the things I most admire about you is that you are a stubborn bastard. Me too, or so I am told. It saved me from many a whipping as a young child – my mother said she almost never gave me a smack as it would turn into an all day job, as I would never give in. Seems I shouldn’t bother giving you a smack, as it turns into an all day job, and there are those that actually deserve my attention, as opposed to you, who I just like to nudge now and then as I have long ago figured out your hot buttons. GE is in the top row of those buttons, and I can’t resist the odd press now and then. Kind of like a kid in an elevator.

Robmu1
Robmu1

Admin – even as an partial FSA member, you will have to put up $5 for Donuts with Dad this week. At least you get 3-6 months before they cash the check.

Colma Rising
Colma Rising

I think I got a credit for having a job.

llpoh
llpoh

I will now have to go searching the net for something nice to say about IKEA for future use – when I simply will not be able to resist a quick button push.

howard in nyc

@Novista–here is a snip from that article:

“Put another way, the company that owns The Washington Post is almost entirely at the mercy of the Federal Government and the Obama administration — the entities which its newspaper ostensibly checks and holds accountable.”

and somewhere, Richard Nixon says, “you can do that?”

Nonanonymous
Nonanonymous

“Eliminate all deductions, all loopholes, and all credits, for everyone. I’m not tied to a flat tax or fair tax or a particular rate.” Absolutely, no question about it, but it won’t happen.

Pass a balanced budget amendment and require a super majority before raising taxes, it won’t happen.

End the income tax, instead of adding wealth and value added taxes, still won’t happen.

All of these things need to happen but won’t. What will happen is the logical conclusion to a game of buying votes with borrowed money, and when there’s no more $$, we’ll print more, bidding up the cost of votes. The FSA marches on!

Nonanonymous
Nonanonymous

“Eliminate all deductions, all loopholes, and all credits, for everyone. I’m not tied to a flat tax or fair tax or a particular rate.” Absolutely, no question about it, but it won’t happen.

Pass a balanced budget amendment and require a super majority before raising taxes, it won’t happen.

End the income tax, instead of adding wealth and value added taxes, still won’t happen.

All of these things need to happen but won’t. What will happen is the logical conclusion to a game of buying votes with borrowed money, and when there’s no more $$, we’ll print more, bidding up the cost of votes. The FSA marches on!

Oh, forgot to mention, this only works for the Feds, the states have to balance their budgets, and have their hands out, too. Better crank up the presses!

Can WWIII be far behind, or will the world capitulate to dollar denominated rule? Stay tuned!

Viet Vet-70
Viet Vet-70

Admin:
Paying only 7% tax, I think you should be promoted to at least “Top Dog” E-8, three stripes up and down with the ‘diamond’ in the middle and of course that picture of you sitting in your boat in the middle of the diamond.

Alex
Alex

I graduated last May and didn’t get a job until November. All of the income tax I paid for 2010 was refunded back to me (still had to pay for doctor welfare, Medicare, and the ponzi unsocial insecurity). However, so far this year I have had 15% withheld. I make $12 an hour (I don’t have student loan debt though thank god), GE makes a few billion a year. I understand the business tax eventually gets passed onto the consumer, but the playing field should be level. Fuck the hypocritical red, white, and blue.

TeresaE
TeresaE

I am cutting checks totally over $25k to the state and fed today.

AND we received the full boat $1500 credit too.

Our accountant told us we should have bought a tax-supported car and knocked another few thousand off. Apparently the fact that we would also be taking on tens of thousands in new debt shouldn’t matter to us.

I hate this week. And I have deeply hated this week since 1992 and my first tax season in the accounting office.

As for paying someone to tell you to bend over, that is one of the compelling reasons I decided accounting was not for me. Telling small business owners I cared for, that even though they have $200 in their bank account they owe $12,000 in taxes, killed me a little every time I had to do it. That added to my specialty of “problem resolution” with the IRS. The day my ulcer was burning (at 22) and I had to excuse myself to keep from punching an IRS agent in the freakin’ head was the day I woke up to reality and knew I had to get out.

As for the “mortgage” deduction. We owe more than our home is (will ever) be worth, and our property taxes are fucking outrageous, yet we are within a couple years of paying the mortgages down to the point where the standard deduction will be more than our tax/interest “deduction.”

Which means if we want to claim anything else, we have to take LESS deduction than all the renters in the world get.

Seems the only truth left in the FSofA is that the harder you try, the more the government feels entitled to take it away from you. Unless, of course, you are Warren Buffett, Timothy Geithner, Bill Gates or Donald Trump. THEN they bend over backwards to make sure you aren’t paying “too much.”

FUBAR. Our tax system is yet one more way we are doomed.

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