A Modest Proposal: The Thread Hijack Drinking Game [vanity]

Still me. | Today | Me

[null and void]

I have solar on my house in California.

PG&E HATES, HATES, HATES people having solar, so they developed a system to punish them.

If you generate more power than you use, the "excess is a GIFT to PG&E (by law, a law sponsored by and paid for by PG&E).

If you use more power than you generate, they bill you for an entire year's worth of power in one lump. Mind you, they could bill you every month, they know to a fraction of a cent how much it is, but they'd rather punish you with a huge annual bill.

After the first year of THE BIG SURPRISE, I started paying 1/12 of the expected lump every month. The microsecond I get ahead on my PG&E bill, I start getting a THIS IS NOT A BILL DO NOT PAY notice mailed to me detailing my gas expense, the fee for having an electric meter and every charge except the actual electricity, and a notice of the positive balance.

No return envelope, of course.

I cut them a check, enclose the notice and mail it in a non-standard sized envelope...

[Tax-chick]

That all sounds like a raging pain.

[null and void]

Stoughtonhyde®

[Monkey Face]

Yes, that would be my daughter. Yes indeedy.

[null and void]

Is today the beginning of Channuka?

I think so.

I have one calendar that says it is, and one that says tomorrow is.

[null and void]

Lint starts on Ash Wednesday...

[Monkey Face]

The talking heads on the alphabet news said it started tonight, so I guess it’s just a preference...maybe.

[Covenantor]

starts at sundown today, which is tomorrow by Jewish practice. Sometimes as confuzalting as metric and regular weights and measures.

[null and void]

It’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere, I’m all alone, more or less...

[null and void]

Yup. Now that I’m charging enough rent to cover the mortgage, I’m somewhat more ambiguous about selling it.

[Tax-chick]

We have lint year-round, here.

[Tax-chick]

Depends on how much it has appreciated, I guess, and what you think the market will do next, and whether you’d have to pay tax on the capital gain.

[null and void]

I don’t think it’s still underwater.

Given that I never actually bought it, I don’t know what basis should be used to calculate capital gains, and given that I would use any proceedings there to buy a house here (1031 swap?) it’s going to need an army of tax specialists to sort it out.

[Tax-chick]

If you inherited it, except from a spouse, the basis would be the value at the time of inheritance. However, if it’s not your primary residence, you might not get the capital gains shelter from turning it over into another house.

Turbo-Tax probably has a calculator that will figure it out for you.

[null and void]

It was the booby prize in a divorce.

[Tax-chick]

My gut reaction is that this event would not reset the basis because it’s not a taxable transfer. An inheritance is a taxable transfer even if no tax is assessed because the total estate is below the exclusion level.

[Monkey Face]

Gee. I wish my brain worked that well.
I can’t even calculate the mpg in my truck, properly.

[Monkey Face]

Coming in from outside, I seem to have walked into a conversation that has left me...

[Monkey Face]

in the dark...

[Monkey Face]

again.