Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

[LynahFan]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

The Tax Code is way too complex. That is all.

Wait - so are you saying that the mathematics should be simplified?

[joecct]

Wait - so are you saying that the mathematics should be simplified?

If you divide both sides of the equation by 2, you still get the same answer.

However Kepler's Conundrum to the above states that if you divide one side by x and multiply the other side by x, you still get the same answer -- REELECTION!!!!!!

Kep - it rhymed, no other reason for invoking you.

[Priceless]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

If you divide both sides of the equation by 2, you still get the same answer.

However Kepler's Conundrum to the above states that if you divide one side by x and multiply the other side by x, you still jet the same answer -- REELECTION!!!!!!

I was told there would be no math.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

I was told there would be no math.

Last time I checked, this wasn't tLodge. Also, I'm pretty sure I warned about math in the first page.

[unofan]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Pro-Buffett millionaire: Raise my taxes, and the taxes of millionaires and billionaires by raising the capital gains taxes!
Larry Kudlow: But there's a way to give more already, why don't you do that?
Pro-Buffett millionaire: I DON'T WANNA PAY MORE TAXES! NO ONE WANTS TO PAY MORE TAXES!

What. An. Idiot.

Larry Kudlow, for equating donations with taxes? Yes, yes he is.

[dxmnkd316]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Are donations to the IRS tax-deductible?

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Are donations to the IRS tax-deductible?

Actually, yes, they are. If you make the donation to reduce the public debt, you can take it off next year's taxes in your itemised deductions.

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Larry Kudlow, for equating donations with taxes? Yes, yes he is.

He has a point, though. There is a way to reduce the public debt. It's some agency in Parkersburg WV, but there's details in your 1040 booklet.

[WeWantMore]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

He has a point, though. There is a way to reduce the public debt. It's some agency in Parkersburg WV, but there's details in your 1040 booklet.

You can even do it online!

[FreshFish]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Happy Ides of April, Everyone!

If there are others like me slogging to transpose numbers from a line on one schedule to a line on another schedule so I can finish a third schedule......here are some encouraging words from Judge Learned Hand, one of the most notable non-Supreme Court justice in US history.

Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes.

from Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810-11 (2d Cir. 1934).




Best of luck to all. and as my spouse reminds me, all in all it's generally better to be in a position where you are paying taxes, than the alternative.

[amherstblackbear]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Y'alls have my sympathy.

I filed back in January, because for the first time in years I had a refund waiting for me.

The previous few years, though, I waited until the last possible day before making that last payment. I knew that was the right way, economically. Why overpay and let the government earn interest? Psychologically, though, it was a different story. April 15 sucked.

[LynahFan]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Happy Ides of April, Everyone!

OMG. High school Latin *wasn't* complete waste of my time, 'cause now I get to correct someone on a message board! The ides of April is on April 13, not 15th. File that away - you, too, might have a use for it 23 years after you learned it....

[FreshFish]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

OMG. High school Latin *wasn't* complete waste of my time, 'cause now I get to correct someone on a message board! The ides of April is on April 13, not 15th. File that away - you, too, might have a use for it 23 years after you learned it....

Oh, great, so the Ides of April this year were Friday the 13th.

What an interesting morning, LOL....by Fed return including 6251 (AMT) was just under an hour, while NYState non-resident return was 1 hr 45 minutes....now for other states....

(I'm glad I'm not a professional entertainer or pro athlete, though if I were I'd have an accountant or two on staff!). Every state in which you have earned income requires a separate state income tax return....which means if you earn a living by commuting to another state or if you work for a consulting firm and work several weeks in several states, or if you move from one state to another during a year, or [see footnote C on worksheet III on p22 unless you qualify for these exceptions, so that you reference footnote D on worksheet IV on p24 instead....]

My sympathies actually go out to the people who work for IRS or state revenue dept because they did not write the dopey laws they merely have to figure out how to write the forms and instructions to implement the actual legislation passed by the legislators.

I think we should pass US and State Constitutional amendments that require ALL legislators to do their own taxes; they are not allowed to hire accountants! That might teach them to pass laws in language ordinary people can understand and follow!

[FlagDUDE08]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

Y'alls have my sympathy.

I filed back in January, because for the first time in years I had a refund waiting for me.

The previous few years, though, I waited until the last possible day before making that last payment. I knew that was the right way, economically. Why overpay and let the government earn interest? Psychologically, though, it was a different story. April 15 sucked.

Even if I get a refund, I typically have to wait until at least March to file, because the gosh darn oil royalty companies don't publish their tax booklets until then. I've come to keeping my own tabs for dividends, capital gains, and buy/sell, because gosh knows my broker can't get the 1099-DIV and 1099-B correct to save their lives.

[FreshFish]

Re: Tax Season 2012: Work No Longer Pays

NY State is really sneaky compared to most other states when it comes to non-resident income tax.

Most other states just tax you on non-resident income at their state income tax rates. Simple, straightforward, fair. If it is your state of residency, you get a credit equal to the lesser of tax paid elsewhere or what you would have paid in tax were that income earned in your state. Again, simple, straightfoward, fair.

For NY state, you first put down your entire taxable income from all states. Then you figure out your NY tax on that entire income. Then you pro-rate that tax by the amount of income earned in NY.

Because NY has graduated rates, you are paying tax in a higher bracket than if you only paid tax on the income earned in that state, because the rest of your income from other states, plus your spouse's income, are all added. Also, NY does not have a graduated tax structure, once you move into a higher bracket, you pay tax at that rate from dollar $0. So it's a double whammy for non-resident income earned in NY state.

Fortunately for me, when we first moved into our new home, way back in the last millenia, we built a space 100% dedicated to work. Our office is separate from the home, so that I can walk out one door, walk 8 feet, walk in another door, and be done with my commute on those days I'm not traveling elsewhere, yet still be in an office (and technically not "working from home") for tax purposes.