State of the Union Address 2019

[BigBoxaJunk]

Yep, and in my case that appears to be true. I just had to go through it to make sure (well, I had Turbo Tax go through it. LOL). I don't have a ton of deductions - mortgage interest, property tax, vehicle excise taxes - but they didn't come near $12K.

I'm in the same situation. I got out all of my vehicle, trailer, and boat registrations and all the stuff I get for mortgage and other things, but I also didn't get near 12K either. I scanned things and uploaded pdfs to HRBlock, but I did have to correct a couple of numbers. Anyway, nice to see that although my refund check is smaller (I miss the days when I could claim both my kids), I paid less in taxes.

 

[BugI02]

Wasn't one of Mr. Trump's campaign promises that you would be able to file a simple one page return?

Is that why Jetta is so mad at him?











Hola, Jetta

 

[DoggyDaddy]

This was the first year I used the standard deduction.

Same here, at least since before I bought our house.

 

[amboy49]

Take every legal deduction available to you. Every single one.

I am curious. What is the one half social security deduction you speak of ?

 

[2A_Tom]

meh

Obviously, hate-filled, racist Trump and the Republican toadies arranged for smaller refunds to make life hard for minorities and the poor.



The lottery is a tax on stupidity. I'd guess most of the people complaining about "paying more taxes because their refund is smaller" were going to "invest" a lot of the refund in lottery tickets.

That is how they invested the extra money id their pay checks. They had more than their budget said, so they bought lottery tickets.

I said they have budgets.

 

[2A_Tom]

I am curious. What is the one half social security deduction you speak of ?

Self employed people pay around 14% ss tax as opposed to where employed people split that with their employer. Self employed get to take 1/2 of that off their income. That lowers your tax a little.

 

[Clay Pigeon]

Maf's hard for some folks.

 

[printcraft]

Originally Posted by blue falcon
Wasn't one of Mr. Trump's campaign promises that you would be able to file a simple one page return?

Is that why Jetta is so mad at him?


Hola, Jetta

Just think of the increased number of "guest workers" taxes could be filed if it were simplified!

 

[Blackhawk2001]

About immigrants and assimilation. In the past, the families of immigrants were mostly assimilated by the 3rd generation. So a grandchild of a direct immigrant would grow up “Amrican”. But those were primarily from Europe.

Immigrants who look physically different have an extra problem to solve. It is a human nature to be suspicious and unwelcoming of people who are different. Generations of cultural and language assimilation solve this problem for people who look the same. But for the people who look different, it’s harder.

Mexicans also have a proud and deep familial culture. Which might make them slower to assimilate. But some have a pronounced physical difference which tens to help isolate them. Partly because they want to be around people who look like them, and partly because white Americans tend to be the same way.

There’s been a bit of controversy about the metephores of the melting pot vs a salad. Progressives who think they’re being “tolerant” don’t like assimilation because they think each (nonwhite) culture should be preserved, and that everyone should accept every cultural and even language difference. So they say a salad metophore is a better model.

In a racially homogeneous society, it’s not realistic. Cultures will blend as immigrants live and adapt to their new surroundings. They’ll go to school with, work with, and intermarry between cultures. The melting pot is a discription of the phenomenon, not prescription fornwhat it should be.

But the salad analogy is truer with multi-racial immigration. They may go to school together and work together, but not as integrally as immigrants of the majority race. And especially important is they they tend to intermarry less. They don’t tend to assimilate cultures as easily.

I’m not saying that we should’t have such immigration. I’m just saying why some cultures may not assimilate as quickly as same-race immigrants do. Not caring about race and physics differences would gona long way solve that. But progressives can’t not care about race. They take college courses to learn how to care about nothing else.

I don't know if you know it, but Irish and Italians were discriminated against because of their skin color as well as their religion when they first arrived in the country. And Asians - especially the Japanese and Chinese - have managed to successfully assimilate in the country despite prejudice of their skin color, customs, and languages, all while largely keeping what they want of their own original culture.

I don't know any personally, but I understand Pakistanis and Persians who emigrated to this country decades ago have managed to integrate into American culture, and of course, there are Texans whose families started out as "Mexican" when Texas was still part of Mexico, but who successfully integrated into American society despite the prejudices against them.

What I'm basically saying is that your argument is faulty: there is plenty of evidence that, although skin color, language, customs, and a natural desire to stay in one's comfort zone exit, there is no reason that the cultural forces that resulted in "the Melting Pot" of American society can't be operative now as they have been in the past. It's the fact that it's not in the _interests_ of various political blocs to encourage assimilation, not cultural bars, that's driving the unwillingness of various immigrants to assimilate.

 

[drawer86]

There's always gotta be one, doesn't there?

 

[mmpsteve]

There's always gotta be one, doesn't there?

Care to expound on this?

.

 

[ghuns]

Care to expound on this?

.

I thought he was talking about Kut. You know, our token...














Trump basher.

Sent from my HTC 10 using Tapatalk

 

[printcraft]

 

[jamil]

They've been talking about it on the news this morning. A lot of people are *****ing because their refund is smaller or they owe this year, but they fail to understand that they got to keep that money up front instead of on the back end.

Hold on there. I try to end up at net zero. I’ll be judicious and say it this way. At best they failed to properly value withholdings. Said a little less judiciously, the people bragging about bigger paychecks are finding out that some of that isn’t due to real ass tax cuts, but merely withholding less.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Hold on there. I try to end up at net zero. I’ll be judicious and say it this way. At best they failed to properly value withholdings. Said a little less judiciously, the people bragging about bigger paychecks are finding out that some of that isn’t due to real ass tax cuts, but merely withholding less.

Without changing anything on my withholdings (W4), $2700 less was withheld compared to last year. Since I still got a refund (albeit 1200 smaller than last year), how does that not equate to a tax cut?

 

[jamil]

Without changing anything on my withholdings (W4), $2700 less was withheld compared to last year. Since I still got a refund (albeit 1200 smaller than last year), how does that not equate to a tax cut?

Apparently you missed some key words. I didn’t say it wasn’t a tax cut. “some of that” implies there was a tax cut. In other words the tax cut they were bragging about wasn’t the tax cut they actually got. Would have been nice if they’d have properly calibrated the withholdings to the new tax rates and brackets, so that people wouldn’t get that big of a surprise.

 

[jamil]

I don't think Mongo meant that all, he didn't even pose the "cultural" component into the conversation. Mongo, at least as it appeared to me, was indicating how he believes that society has, somehow, created a backlash against anything perceived as "white," and how to stop the trend.

I did not have Mongo in mind when I posted that.

 

[DoggyDaddy]

Apparently you missed some key words. I didn’t say it wasn’t a tax cut. “some of that” implies there was a tax cut. In other words the tax cut they were bragging about wasn’t the tax cut they actually got. Would have been nice if they’d have properly calibrated the withholdings to the new tax rates and brackets, so that people wouldn’t get that big of a surprise.

So you're saying they (the IRS) should've withheld more up front, or are you saying individuals should have had more withheld voluntarily so their end result (whether a refund, or net zero) would have ended up the same? Maybe I'm not following. It's still early though.

 

[KellyinAvon]

Without changing anything on my withholdings (W4), $2700 less was withheld compared to last year. Since I still got a refund (albeit 1200 smaller than last year), how does that not equate to a tax cut?

Are you using actual mathematics learned in 2nd grade to prove your point? This IS 2019 after all, to the re-education facility with you!

 

[churchmouse]

So you're saying they (the IRS) should've withheld more up front, or are you saying individuals should have had more withheld voluntarily so their end result (whether a refund, or net zero) would have ended up the same? Maybe I'm not following. It's still early though.

I am confused. You want a return. I would go for the lets break even part. You do not get to keep my money interest free and then make me jump all these hurdles and loopholes to get my money back.

Return. Trying to remember our last one and danged if I can.