Entries Tagged 'Taxes' ↓

For a couple months now, people have been telling me that Obama’s tax plans will benefit middle class Americans and also people have been showing me this graph where the middle class gets a bigger tax cut, but I am a skeptic of this because I’ve never heard Obama talk about the Alternative Minimum Tax. McCain on the other hand wants to index the Alternative Minimum Tax with inflation. This is actually an important issue that most people do not think about, and here are my thoughts about it.

I have written about the AMT before and pointed out that it is no longer a tax for the rich even though it was designed to be a system to make “the rich” pay taxes. The main problem with the AMT is that it was never indexed for inflation, so what was rich in the 60s is now middle class. Every year congress spends a bunch of money and time to argue about the issue and patch the problem, but noone makes a permanent stand. So how does this relate to Obama’s tax plan? Well, a family pays AMT when their AMT amount is more than their regular income tax. So here is a simple example. Suppose a middle class family has a regular income tax liability of $7000, and an AMT liability of $6500, then they would pay the $7000 regular taxes. Now if Obama gives them a $3000 tax cut and doesn’t change the AMT liability, then their regular tax liability would be $4000, and their AMT liability would be $6500. So they’d still have to pay $6500 under the AMT and the effective tax cut is only $500. McCain originally wanted to repeal the AMT all together, but now says he wants to do a phase out because the AMT is really a revenue machine for the government that is hard to get rid of. So even though McCain’s plan seem to give less tax cuts to middle income families, I think he could save a lot of middle class families money on the AMT by indexing it appropriately. On the other hand, I don’t think Obama’s plan really gives that much tax cuts to middle income families because he does not address the AMT.

How many people will the AMT affect? Well,without any change it is supposed to hit 30 million mostly middle-class taxpayers by 2010. According to this article, The Tax Policy Center estimates that by 2010, 89 percent of married couples with two or more kids and adjusted gross incomes between $75,000 and $100,000 will be subject to the AMT if nothing is done. So even if Obama cuts the regular income tax on these people, it would not matter at all because they will already be paying the AMT.

Finally, I think Obama’s plan to make “donut holes” and tax the rich sounds awfully like creating another AMT system, and I’m very wary of this need to punish the rich with more taxes. Obviously, every new attempt to make the rich pay more just creates more complexity in the tax system and create problems down the road and hurt the middle class. So yes, it looks like Obama will give the middle class a bigger tax break and tax the rich more right now on paper, but I highly doubt that is what will actually happen.

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Today I read an article in BusinessWeek titled Taxing the “Not So Rich” Rich. Basically, it talked about how Senator Obama is proposing raising taxes for “rich” families with incomes of $250,000 or more, and how some families feel that they are just middle class with that kind of income.

As the article pointed out, it really depends on where you live since the cost of living varies wildly around the world. My husband and I don’t make anywhere near $250k a year, but we would be considered extremely well off if we lived in China. We may be upper middle class in a lower cost state like Texas since we could afford a house there and send our future kids to private school. However, in the Silicon Valley, there is no way anyone would considered us to be rich. Personally I feel that “rich” in the Valley is probably someone with assets in the hundred-million to billion range, and I am realistic enough to say that I probably will never be rich here.

I think a lot of the angst in the article comes from people who have good incomes that live in expensive areas of the country. The fact is, the tax system doesn’t adjust for cost of living. So even though people in high cost areas like the Bay Area are compensated well, our real capability in saving money is vastly diminished. It is tough to equalize this situation, and adding more taxes to high income families will probably just make it tougher for families with children who need that income.

Personally, one thing that really annoys me about all of this isn’t even about taxes.  I feel that with every speech about raising taxes on the rich, the politicians are implying that there is something wrong with having good incomes.  It is as if it is a sin for a family to make over $250,000 so that they need to be punished.   Most people I know here in California who have good incomes are hard working and honest people who did nothing to deserve the ire of people who have less than them.  They are professionals who contribute quite a bit to the society just through their work.  Why is there a need to take away more from them?

One thing is for sure, taxes will go up after the Bush tax cuts expire in two years. I highly doubt that the tax cuts will stay with a Democratic majority in the government. The sting will be especially painful for dual income couples like us because the marriage penalty will probably go back in full force again and our tax rate will rise dramatically. It will probably cut into our savings rate, but we are socking away as much as we could now before that happens. Ultimately, I think the government should find more ways to cut spending rather than squeezing more out of married couples and the “rich”.   I also don’t believe for a second that they will draw the line at $250k.  So brace yourself for more taxes everyone!

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Welcome to the 55th edition of The Carnival of Money Stories. It’s that time of the year again. In Vietnam they are celebrating the national holiday of Gio to Hung Vuong, but here in the United States it is time for all of us to hand in our tax forms. I just begrudgingly mailed out my tax forms with payment, but today’s carnival certainly cheered me up. We have nearly 30 great stories about life and money. Enjoy!

Editor’s Choice

Praveen writes that The IRS Are Humans, Too… at My Simple Trading System. Apparently you don’t have to be freaked out when you receive a letter from the IRS.

Will presents Rogue Debt Collectors Illegally Freeze Debtors’ Accounts posted at Your Finish Rich Plan. This is a scary story of debt collectors who would freeze pension statements.

Silicon Valley Blogger tells us I’ve Left My Job! Tying Up The Loose Ends posted at The Digerati Life. I am so jealous!

Booze Tax

Kyle from Amateur Asset Collector gives us Top 4 Money Wasters in Your 20s. It seems like Kyle paid a bit too much taxes on alcohol when he was in his twenties.

Mr. Cheap presents Cross Border Shopping posted at Quest For Four Pillars. This is Mr. Cheap’s story about the tariffs he had to pay on hard liquor. That will teach him to be a cheap boozehound.

Gas Tax

The rising cost of gas is really cutting into many of our pocketbooks. Here are some stories. about how gas affects people.

MoneyKing presents Ditch That Huge SUV! Blah. Blah ,

Financial Learn presents The Frustration of High Gas Prices posted at Financial Learn.

Business

Mark Butler presents My Big Fat Learning Experience: Vending Machines posted at The Butler Project. We can all learn quite a bit from this story of entrepreneurship.

Career

FFB presents Four Ways I Upgraded Out Of My Raises posted at Free From Broke. More money means more taxes, but it doesn’t have to mean more expenses.

Life. Money. Development. presents The 7 Attributes of Leadership posted at Life. Money. Development.

Credit Cards

FIRE Finance presents UAL Visa Story! posted at FIRE Finance.

Ryan Taylor presents How Much I Make in Cash Back Credit Card Rewards posted at Millionaire Money Habits.

Hank presents The age old question: How many credit cards should I have? posted at My Investing Blog.

Debt

Here are two stories about snowflaking! You can get rid of debt one flake at a time and these two stories illustrate how you can do it, too.

NtJS presents What is: Debt-Snowflaking? posted at not the jet set.

paidtwice presents How I Started Snowflaking at I’ve Paid For This Twice Already….

Investing

Passive Income Investor presents Cheney Betting Against The Dollar posted at LIVING OFF DIVIDENDS & PASSIVE INCOME.

MoneyNing presents Financial Cost of Being Careless posted at Personal Finance Blog by Money Ning.

The Dough Roller presents Reader Question: Should $15,000 be invested in P2P Lending or in a Better Mortgage? posted at The Dough Roller.

Net Worth

Want to retire early? These stories of people who managed to accumulate a huge net worth at a relatively young age.

PT presents Where Are They Now? Podcast Interview with a Millionaire in the Making: Todd French posted at Prime Time Money.

GBlogger presents Success Stories: $800,000 Net Worth By His Early 40s? posted at CAN I GET RICH ON A SALARY.

Real Estate

Dorian Wales presents How to Successfully Navigate Your Way through Home Renovations: 10 Practical Tips posted at Personal Financier.

Retirement

Amy presents Yale’s Investment Wizard posted at My Daily Dollars.

Saving

FMF presents Do You Buy Things and Never Use Them? posted at Free Money Finance

Other

Chief Family Officer presents Why I Decided Not To Join Revolution MoneyExchange posted at Chief Family Officer. The loose privacy policy prompted Chief Family Officer to not join the new PayPal clone. I haven’t joined either, because I’m just not really into having another financial account.

First Lady Of Poker presents Women Are Naturals At Poker posted at Shopping and Poker Blog. This is an interesting story about why women can beat men at poker.

The Financial Blogger presents We Are Living In A Good Country.

Raymond presents U-Haul Rental Trucks Suck But They Are The Cheapest Around posted at Money Blue Book.

Jeremy Zongker presents All I Really Needed to Know About Managing Money I Learned From Music posted at Debt Advice.

Madison presents Applying the Five Fundamentals of Financial Success posted at My Dollar Plan.

That is all for this edition of the Carnival of Money Stories. Thank you all for participating and a link back to the carnival is always appreciated. If you have more stories you can always submit it to the next carnival which is being held at Can I Get Rich on a Salary. This is a relatively new blog that is very well written. Now if you haven’t already, go out and file your taxes!

Photo Credit: Paul Keleher 

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There is just one week left to file your taxes, but I have some good news for those of you who haven’t started on your files yet. H&R Block is graciously offering all of you procrastinators a chance to win a free copy of TaxCut here on The Baglady!

Just for fun, I want to know about your worst tax foibles or mistakes in the past. You can either leave a comment or write a post and link here. I will select the best submission on 4/9/2008 3pm Pacific Time so you still have plenty of time to file your taxes with you brand new software and get your return done. Now go at it!

Prize Details:

H&R Block is providing the winner with a keycode for TaxCut Online Premium + State + efile ($59.95 value). It includes a free session with a tax an H&R Block tax advisor and Worry-Free Audit Support®.

No purchase necessary.

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I don’t write much about politics, because I absolutely loathe it. I am also not an American citizen so my opinion doesn’t count in this country anyway. Nevertheless, I have no idea why anyone would want to be the next president of America right now.  With everything that is happening, it truly is a horrible time to be president.  Here are some of my predictions of what would happen regardless of which candidate gets elected.

1. Taxes will increase - How is it possible that America could wage an extremely expensive war for five years and cut taxes?  I’m not sure how the government does its accounting, but it did borrow a crapload of money from the rest of the world to fund this multi-trillion dollar war.  The war is funded on debt, and Americans have not really started paying for it. The interest on the debt will pile on, and we will be paying for it for years to come.  Taxes will increase either because the Bush tax cuts expire in 2010 or because the next president will just have no choice but to raise taxes and pay down some of that debt.

2. The recession will be felt more acutely - This is really anecdotal, but yesterday I walked around downtown San Mateo and at least three shops and restaurants were out of business.  One restaurant just said, “LOST OUR LEASE” on the door. The recession is really just beginning, and usually in an election year the government does whatever it could to prop up the stock market, but once the next president gets up to serve it will come crashing down.

3. The housing market will fall some more - Of course the NAR is calling a bottom now that housing sales went up a measly 2.9% nationally in February. They are not highlighting the fact that this February was a whole day longer than last year, which means that the month was 3.5% longer.  Prices were down 8.2% and housing sales still declined in the west. I am not sure if the bottom will come in the next presidential term, but the housing market will definitely decline a bit more.

4. The war will go on - It is unfortunate, but I don’t think the war in Iraq will be over as soon as the democrats promise.  The Americans are just too entrenched in that country to suddenly pull out.

Whoever the next president is, God help him/her.  I really think that a major problem with American politics is that power changes hands every four years so that every president tend to do short term fixes and make his/her four years look as glorious as possible and leave the seething crapbag to the next person in line.   The entire system fits with the American culture of “I want it right here right now”, and that results in policies that borrow against the future. For example, billions of dollars have been taken out of Social Security in the last couple decades to pay for operating expenses. Unfortunately, I don’t think this prevailing attitude and policy of sealing mortal wounds with bandages would change with new leadership.

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