The New Year Brings Tax Chaos

WSJ ^ | 1/7/10 | STEPHEN MOORE

[FromLori]

Happy New Year. Your tax bill just went way up.

When the clock hit midnight on Jan. 1, some 70 new taxes on the middle class and small businesses went into effect, thanks to Congress's failure to prevent the expiration of popular and economically vital tax breaks on time. So some 25 million middle class Americans are now slated to get hit with the alternative minimum tax (AMT) this year. Remember: This is the tax that was originally supposed to only hit the richest 100 Americans.

This year, the alternative minimum tax will gather $63 billion from American families with an income of as little as $75,000, according to the Senate Finance Committee. The AMT may now hit tax filers who are school teachers, construction workers and bus drivers. Call them the new rich.

The middle class will get soaked other ways, too. The new homebuyer tax credit goes away. That will hit working families with a $10.8 billion tab. The tax deduction for state and local taxes also disappears, so shoppers of all incomes will cough up $1.85 billion more.

Got a kid in college? The federal tax deduction for college tuition and fees has disappeared. That's another $1.5 billion tax hike on the nonrich.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Yeah. I know. *SIGH*

I just want to keep what *I* work for; I loathe how trapped we are when our Government can JAIL us for not forking over OUR money! Government produces NOTHING, yet is a gaping black hole that consumes so much.

Obviously, CongressCritters can afford fancier accountants than I can, if they’re not worried about the amount of confiscatory taxes they, too, have to pay. I find it to be an amazing disconnect in their little pea-brains.

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“There is no possible way for this program to work, since the entire problem originally - what began this recession - was people that were unable to make their debt payments in the first place!”

Yep. The past two decades of ‘living high on the hog’ has come ‘round to bite us in the arse but good!

[Quiller]

Fair Tax has a lot to recommend it, but will never happen.

Congressthings know that if it passe, it would practically eliminate their ability to hide favors for business and corporate contributors in the tax code.

[FromLori]

Agree look oh oh

Court rules Duluth free to change city retiree benefits

http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/10/13/duluth-retiree-benefits/

All the people who keep telling us their state and federal pensions are safe maybe NOT!

[I am Richard Brandon]

"When the clock hit midnight on Jan. 1, some 70 new taxes on the middle class and small businesses went into effect"

Most people will not reakise until tax prep day 2011 - long after the mid terms!

[FromLori]

Which is exactly why everyone should send this article around and try to get it coverage :)

[Diana in Wisconsin]

As goes MN or MI, so (eventually) goes Wisconsin. Our CongressRats take EVERY bad idea either state has and tries to implement it here. *SIGH*

Our state is BROKE to the tune of a few BILLION dollars. It’s going to get ugly, fast.

[FromLori]

Shadowstats shows December unemployment at 22%. That's only 3% from what it was in the Depression! Guess what? It went up in January! Link Here: http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts *Blue Line Is Accurate*

[EVO X]

Oh I agree makes me furious we didn’t get a darn thing when we bought homes!

And/or cars..

[Diana in Wisconsin]

Blam likes that site. Good info there. :)

[Man50D]

Fair Tax has a lot to recommend it, but will never happen.

Congressthings know that if it passe, it would practically eliminate their ability to hide favors for business and corporate contributors in the tax code.

Congress isn't the government. The people are the government. More people have been demanding Congress pass the Fair Tax since it was first introduced in the 1999 session resulting in more cosponsors with each session.

[jiggyboy]

sign a contract before end of May, close before end of June.

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=204671,00.html

http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=206293,00.html

[The Comedian]

Let's not be too hasty to condem these tax increases.

After all, state funerals are costly affairs.

And there's going to be a lot more of them.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.

[GailA]

Hubby's retirement took a $10.80 hit...NO COLA for his Navy retirement, NO COLA for his SS. Just less money in his check.

You can bet a dime that congress will NOT refuse their automatic pay raises and more perks this year, but they are making the retired Military and senior citizens take CUTS!

[Neidermeyer]

The telephone tax funding the Spanish American War was ended n 2006. Hey it WAS temporary ,, just 108 years and it only hit those rich 1%ers that have a telephone.

[Quiller]

Congress isn't the government. The people are the government. More people have been demanding Congress pass the Fair Tax since it was first introduced in the 1999 session resulting in more cosponsors with each session.

I so want to agree with you.

Tell me again what percentage of Americans are against congress's healthcare monstrosity.

Please refresh my memory about 'emminent domain'. . . that means your property is secure, unless it is needed for public use, right? (Snydley Whiplash didn't have to tie Nell to the railroad track in Canada to steal property -- he just needed to come to the U.S., and go to the U.S. Supreme Court!)

Let's talk about immigration reform and border security. Part of protecting our nation is securing our borders, right?

We have gotten so far from the concept that government serves the people that I vomit in my mouth when someone suggests it. Come to think of it, the same thing happens when I see Reid or Pelosi.

[RayChuang88]

Why do I have this feeling that one Sarah Palin is seriously considering supporting some form of MASSIVE income tax reform? If she declares for the Presidency and announces that it's time to slay that economy-sapping monster called the income tax, she would win in a GIGANTIC landslide.

[MarkL]

The telephone tax funding the Spanish American War was ended n 2006.

I guess I didn't realize it because I had my land line disconnected back in 2004 or so. I did it because I needed a cell phone for work, and the only phone calls I received were from telemarketers. Oh, that and the fact that roughly 1/3 of the bill was made up of taxes and fees.

Mark