the prez and taxes
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Unless the law has recently changed, be aware that if you start a business and write off any equipment/office or a home office, you must be using that equipment at least 50% of the time for your business(es). A small business and home office will very likely trigger an audit so be aware of that.
True, and any deduction taken for a Sec. 179 expense must be recaptured if business use drops below 50% before the depreciable life of the property ends - 5 years for computers and peripherals. But while the home office deduction may trigger an audit, the depreciation of equipment rarely does. The home office deduction is one of the least understood of all, and is often abused. I have so little space that there is no place I can set aside for office use exclusively, so I never make that claim. But my PC is used at least 90% for business purposes, mostly for doing research to solve a customer problem or to stay current in my field, so I claim no more than 80% as a safety margin. "Please don't put cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light" - Sign in a Bullhead City, AZ Restroom
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Jason Henderson wrote: You know, if I made $1,000,000, I'd be pretty ticked off that I had to give the government 300,000 of it! i'm in the 29% federal bracket. add the 6.5% state tax, 14% FICA/FUTA (self employed), various payroll, unemployment insurance and other taxes, i'm paying... that's right, close to 50% before i spend a cent of it. when i spend it, i pay 7.5% sales tax. then there's state property tax on cars and house. so, less than half of what i make goes to the people i buy stuff from. and for this i get no health insurance. yeah, bush has it rough. -c
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Well I'm in the 33% tax bracket, live in Texas so there is no state income tax, am self employed so I get the FICA/FUTA hit, and all the other goodies. Just averaging here but on say 150000.00 income I pay 46000.00 in Federal Income tax, about 4500 a year on property tax, another 600 on my vehicles, 12000.00 a year on health insurance for my wife and myself, and the 7.5+ in state and local sales tax. makes you mad doesn't it. Aren't you glad that president Bush is trying his best to get us a tax cut. Chris Losinger wrote: yeah, bush has it rough. Class envy is an ugly thing to see. hey - you can always go to work for a dot com and make the big bucks - drive a Beemer - wear a suit - and contribute the big bucks to Hillary For President. All you have to do is give up you independance and work for someone else. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
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I have always wondered how people get away with paying high taxes. I use Turbo Tax to do my taxes and at the end it gives me a national average report. people at my income level pay significantly less taxes than I. I somehow can never figure out how. I own a house and my taxes have drastically dropped after the interest deduction. However, others still seem to pay less than I do. Making charitable donations may reduce your tax amount but it also reduces the amount of money you own. So it does not make much sense. Of course I would much rather pay for a worthy cause than for building nukes so that others can be denied the ability to build nukes....lol I have heard from a lot of folks as to how one can deduct a whole bunch of expenses as business and professional expenses. What the hell do you deduct? I did try that, based on techie books and software I purchased. But only the amount that exceeds 2% of your income is deductible. Thats a lot of books........ So in short, I find that I just pay a whole lot of taxes. :(
Dump Turbo tax and get an accountant. It will save you bucks. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
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Chris Losinger wrote: do DC residents pay state tax ? is GWB a DC resident ? Probably Texas. Chris Losinger wrote: i'm happy knowing that all the federal taxes my wife and i paid last year was only enough to buy two JDAMs. the same site estimates we used approx 5000 of these on Afghanistan alone. :omg:
Jason Henderson
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - GandhiAnd Texas has NO STATE INCOME TAX. Richard :) In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
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"So my question is: is this not a little low?" Actually, most people pay a lot less (in percentage) than that. The more your report the more you will have to pay, note that it is not the same as the more you earn the more you will have to pay. How to earn a lot money without paying for taxes is the million dollar question. Some rich and not so rish people would say they paid more than their fair share of taxes. They believe or trying to make you believe that your income is your money and you are giving it away to support the government and the poor. But think about it, it is not and will never be your money, because you never have a choice on whether to pay it or not and you don't decide how much you are going to pay either, nor do you get more voting power in elections if you pay extra taxes. It's all politics driven by economics (greed).
abc wrote: It's all politics driven by economics (greed). Hmmm. That makes about as much sense as green eggs and ham. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
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Chris Losinger wrote: so, less than half of what i make goes to the people i buy stuff from. and for this i get no health insurance. yeah, bush has it rough. I'm sure he's paying about that much if not more than 50%. That figure is probably just fed. income tax. Its highway robbery if you ask me.
Jason Henderson
"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - GandhiJason Henderson wrote: That figure is probably just fed. income tax Yeah, probably, but why is it so low? Even for Federal, I think I pay more than he does (percentage wise). ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
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There are a number of ways to lower your taxes. One of the best is to start a business. Fix a few computers or write a couple of custom programs for resale each year - as long as it turns a profit in 2 out of each 5 years it is a business, not a hobby, and the expenses are deductible. The business can then buy your technical books, provide your computer and it's software, send you to training meetings, etc. Self-employed people who do not have medical insurance provided by an employer can also deduct 50% of any insurance premiums they pay for themselves. Charitable contributions are direct writeoffs, but what isn't widely known is that if you volunteer for charities, the miles you drive for that purpose are deductible. The miles you drive to go to the doctor, dentist, or simply to pick up prescriptions are all valid medical deductions. You can also deduct the cost of tools that you use at work if your employer requires them, but doesn't pay for them. If you have any self-employment income you can also start a Keogh plan for savings that are tax-free. IF you don't have a retirement plan at work, start an IRA and deduct up to $3000 a year from taxable income. Even without an IRA, investments in certain government securities are tax free. Buy a house, live in it two years out of five, and the capital gain on it when you sell is excluded from taxation. If you're paying off a student loan, the interest is deductible. Got kids you want to educate, or do you need a degree? The Hope Scholarship Credit gives a non-refundable credit of $1500 a year, per student in your household for the first two years of a degree program. Plus, the Lifetime Learning Credit gives up to $1000 per tax return forever. If you pay any daycare expenses for your kids, they're deductible up to a limit of about $2500 per kid. There's lots of ways to reduce taxes, but most of them are obscure, and all require record keeping that most people are too lazy to bother with. Rich people can afford to pay accountants to keep track of all the trivia, and are more likely to claim these credits. But if you're willing to keep a shoebox for receipts for everything and sort through it once a year you can do amazing things. Buy yourself a copy of J.K. Lasser's "Your Income Tax" Professional edition each year and read it. It's a great reference, though an incredibly boring read, and contains not just the laws but the court cases that have challenged the laws to help interpret them. Plus, it's deductible!:-D "Please don't p
Roger Wright wrote: If you're paying off a student loan, the interest is deductible Not quite right. It depends on what you make. I make 80,000 in NYC and I can't deduct it the interest because I make too much. ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
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Jim Crafton wrote: OK, first I am goning to admit to knowing very little about the ways you can hide money you earn to prevent paying taxes Wake up and smell the coffee. You are not 'hiding' anything when you structure your finances to avoid taxation. This is the national sport. There are many ways to do this. Actually a lot depends on where the money comes from because there are different tax tables for capitol gains vs regular income. You can have income from tax free munis, you could also be offsetting business losses from previous years. Its a jungle. If you make over 50000.00 a years and don't have a good accountant then you are throwing money away. Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
How is paying taxes for things we all use like streets, parks, schools, infrastructure, support for arts, and sports a waste ? Sure there's corruption - but there always will be. No matter what we do the system will always have leaks, loopholes, and people who take advantage of it, both from outside and inside the system. ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
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How is paying taxes for things we all use like streets, parks, schools, infrastructure, support for arts, and sports a waste ? Sure there's corruption - but there always will be. No matter what we do the system will always have leaks, loopholes, and people who take advantage of it, both from outside and inside the system. ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
Streets,schools, parks,art,sports are local concerns- not federal. Why am I paying for the Big Dig when I live in Texas and will not ever get any use from it. Federal taxes should be used for the military and the coast guard and other items that fall under the Federal purvue. The interstate highway is suppposed to be paid for by the Federal gasoline tax - not income tax revenue. Airport construction and maintainance is supposed to be paid for by the federal tax on airline tickets - not the income tax revenue. Liberals ( read what you want into that label ) want the Income tax to be a income re- distribution program. Examine the Earned Income Credit for a perfect example of this in action. This is not a suitable use of tax dollars. The Arts should not be funded by tax dollars on a federal level - and this includes PBS and NEA. We need a leaner - meaner- streamlined Gov. Now I know we aren't gonna get it but at least the Rebublicans are making a little effort and giving it lip service while the Dems are all for a bigger , more intrusive Gov - the cradle to the grave type thing - that I just feel is wrong and punishes the more productive elements of our society. Jim Crafton wrote: El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Don't you mean El poco diablo ? :) Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
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Streets,schools, parks,art,sports are local concerns- not federal. Why am I paying for the Big Dig when I live in Texas and will not ever get any use from it. Federal taxes should be used for the military and the coast guard and other items that fall under the Federal purvue. The interstate highway is suppposed to be paid for by the Federal gasoline tax - not income tax revenue. Airport construction and maintainance is supposed to be paid for by the federal tax on airline tickets - not the income tax revenue. Liberals ( read what you want into that label ) want the Income tax to be a income re- distribution program. Examine the Earned Income Credit for a perfect example of this in action. This is not a suitable use of tax dollars. The Arts should not be funded by tax dollars on a federal level - and this includes PBS and NEA. We need a leaner - meaner- streamlined Gov. Now I know we aren't gonna get it but at least the Rebublicans are making a little effort and giving it lip service while the Dems are all for a bigger , more intrusive Gov - the cradle to the grave type thing - that I just feel is wrong and punishes the more productive elements of our society. Jim Crafton wrote: El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Don't you mean El poco diablo ? :) Richard In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love; they had five hundred years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. Orson Welles
Richard Stringer wrote: Don't you mean El poco diablo ? OK that's just asking for a bitch slap.... :) That's just below the belt That's right folks I'm here all week... ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
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Roger Wright wrote: If you're paying off a student loan, the interest is deductible Not quite right. It depends on what you make. I make 80,000 in NYC and I can't deduct it the interest because I make too much. ¡El diablo está en mis pantalones! ¡Mire, mire! Real Mentats use only 100% pure, unfooled around with Sapho Juice(tm)!
Everything depends on what you make, but it's been so long since I've had a real job it hasn't been an issue...:( "Please don't put cigarette butts in the urinal. It makes them soggy and hard to light" - Sign in a Bullhead City, AZ Restroom