Posted on 01/28/2009 5:18:27 PM PST by GOP_Lady
WASHINGTON -- The stimulus bill's tax breaks for individuals will put money in the hands of people likely to spend it quickly, proponents believe -- and fulfill a major campaign promise by President Barack Obama.
One big question: How many of these largely temporary breaks will be allowed to expire in a year or two, and how many will survive and become permanent parts of the tax code?
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“Mr. Obama’s “Making Work Pay” program, a major campaign pledge, is the plan's centerpiece and biggest element by far. It's a tax credit of as much as $500 for individual workers ($1,000 for families). It phases out for taxpayers with adjusted gross income of more than $75,000 (or $150,000 for married couples filing jointly). Taxpayers could get the benefit through reduced withholding from paychecks, or through claiming the credit on tax returns.”
Why do people already getting the EIC need more of our money? These people show up at HR Block about this time of the year to get their $4,000 to $8,000 checks when they don’t pay a dime in tax at all! These are the ones who are getting the loaded Visa cards with their anticipated tax refund. I am mad!
I do not understand how people who already don’t pay taxes should be getting more money in the form of a refund.
This is insane.
Obama and his socialist friends are moving so fast. They are like a tornado that comes and goes and you don’t get a chance to prepare for it. All you get to do is climb out of your rubble and see nothing but devastation. Currently, that may be a bad thing as our response to natural disasters has been poor.
He’s going to take more folks off the tax roles so they can vote to take more of our money. Marxism redux.
You can only loot from the productive just so long. Then atlas shrugs.
So if you’re married, filing jointly, you each get an extra 10 bucks in your paycheck for a year....yeah, that’s going to stimulate the economy for sure! /sarc
I'm thinking an "unstimulus" would be just the thing for my family budget. No DishNet HD (saves $80/month). Stop eating out (~$600/month). No Starbucks (~$200/month). Divert all the savings to zeroing the one credit card bill.
As the weather warms up, some of the savings will find its way to fuel for my motorcycles. More fun when I travel, less gas tax revenue for the socialist bastards.
Hey, hey, where’s the no tax for people making less than $250,000? He promised and I want that money.
You see, my wife and I are not a "working family", though my wife works 50-60 hours a week, and my job required 125,000 miles of air travel to 13 countries in 2008. Apparently, we are not "struggling" and thus can PAY for the deficit-funded stimulus. My reward for many days away from home? Additional public debt that I will have to repay.
My response this year is to immediately decrease my spending by at least $1500 per month (on average). Most of that will be achieved by stopping my ongoing carpet-to-hardwood flooring conversion in my house, as well as postponing a $10k-$15k kitchen remodel on my house.
I have the funds already set aside for the jobs, because my wife and I took no vacation for 11 years, so that we could cut costs and spend those savings on something worthwhile, like our home. But now, these funds will not go to my local flooring store or the Home Depot. I will not pay sales tax or do anything else to aid and abet those who would bury me in the public debt. My charitable contributions will also be cut, I'm now only going to give to veteran's organizations.
I don't know about you, but this Atlas is standing up and dropping the globe that has been on my back for my entire adult life. I'm done playing the game, where my years in college and graduate school (paid for by laboring as a Teamster while attending school), my delayed gratification for vacations and leisure, my relentless saving to avoid costly debt service, all are rewarded with a tax bill that utters the Oliver Twist line "more please, sir....".
I have reduced my 401K savings rate by 5-6%, spending that money on gold coins instead. These coins will be sold for cash, tax free, later in my retirement. I don't care if they are eventually sold at a loss, for so long as the government gets $0, I'm satisfied.
In 2010, when the income limits on a traditional-to-Roth IRA conversion disappear, I will roll all my traditional IRAs to my Roth account. I am also allowed to roll all after-tax contributions and company-match funds, from my active 401K to a traditional IRA, and from there I'll roll those too into my Roth. I'll pay the tax bill in 2010, when the market has devalued my assets, and let them recover tax-free in my Roth account. My end goal? To have virtually no taxable income, via tax-free Roth IRA holdings and gold.
I'm inspired by the quote from Lincoln, "If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide." I'm doing my best to strangle the beast that our government has become.
I was somewhat concerned about watching all the vehicle manufacturing shutting down. I opted to sell some of my stock to purchase a 2007 Yamaha Roadliner. The dealer gave me an outstanding cash deal and made the Stratoliner trim package (windshield, backrest, hard saddlebags) available for $1500. I won't be paying a penny of capital gains tax as I selected stock that was selling for the original basis price. I actually took about a $400 net loss. The bike is mine...free and clear. I'll have fun traveling for years on it and paying less gasoline tax.
I didn't travel as much as you did last year. I have had some years when I traveled more. Multiple round trips to Frankfurt, Germany add up pretty fast.
Another decision at the kitchen meeting was to direct all of the tax refund to zeroing the credit card first, then any remaining gets applied to the outstanding balance on the Piaggio BV500 (my wife's bike). It may well be paid off before I get my tax refund as we have a pending sale of her Vespa LX150. We have clear title to all vehicles except the BV500 right now.
My last vacation was in April 1999. We stopped taking vacations. We do take a drive up to Yellowstone National Park on a frequent basis. Day trips. We pack a lunch, digital cameras, top up the tank and go.
My wife bristles at the huge tax bill we have. Our annual gross looks big, but not after FIT and SIT take a toll. We're supporting a family of 5 including putting my middle son up at our 2nd house. That means no rental income to offset the mortgage expense for a while.
I give directly to the Boy Scouts each year. No pass through the combined "charitable" organizations that take payroll deductions. I help the vets locally and will be doing more of that with the local motorcycle associations. I also make a monthly "fast" offering that assists my bishop in helping folks at church that are having trouble financially.
My company dropped the ESOP contributions to encourage purchase of company stock. I stopped buying stock. The money that went to ESOP was redirected to 100% match of up to 6% of an employee's gross income directed to the 401k. I'm already pushing 6% there, so that's done.
I've pretty much ignored the Roth IRA as I was always shut out by the income limits. I'll check again in 2010 to see if I qualify...unless the RATS act to pull that away in the interim. I want my 2nd house to be a source of passive income when I'm no longer putting my son up. My son has offered to improve the house with a garage and new driveway when he recovers from having his 60 employee real estate firm crashed by the mortgage problems.
Strangle away. The beast is out of control.
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