April 18th, 2017 at 10:55 PM ^
April 18th, 2017 at 11:15 PM ^
April 18th, 2017 at 11:19 PM ^
FRB is unconstitutional. You can look up who owns it but it's speculative until it's revealed. This is the most powerful institution in the US, way more so than politicians.
April 18th, 2017 at 11:24 PM ^
#2: Colonel Sanders.
Not only that, but he has cornered the market on CD sales in Indonesia!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/03/arts/music/steve-lillywhite-kfc-sell-cds-indonesia.html?_r=0
What a sneaky SOB.
In China, people get married in KFC's. It's a big deal.
Most years, I owe at least a little to both the feds and the state of Michigan - usually no more than a couple hundred in each case. My problem is that I am a procrastinator since I typically don't manage to file my returns until the first week of April. Part of that for me is that I have side things going on in addition to my day job, so the returns get a little....weird, I guess.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:49 PM ^
April 18th, 2017 at 11:00 PM ^
At the end of the day, the IRS is just a bill collector. They don't create the bills.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
April 18th, 2017 at 10:42 PM ^
is somewhat true, though i can't vouch for the numbers. google tells me this:
For tax year 2013, the maximum EITC benefit for a single person or couple filing without qualifying children is $487. The maximum EITC with one qualifying child is $3,250, with two children, it is $5,372, and with three or more qualifying children, it is $6,044.[3][4][5]These amounts are indexed annually for inflation. On December 4, 2014, The Atlantic reported that the EITC will reduce revenue to the federal government by about $70 billion in 2015.[6]
it is for 'modest' income workers and in effect is a fairly large yearly one-time welfare payment to people who didn't pay anywhere near that amount in taxes. EITC is a bit of a misnomer.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
That is where you are wrong. There are two types of tax credits, refundable and non refundable.
Refundable tax credits are treated as a payment and if the total amount of refundable credits is greater than your tax liability it will result in the IRS making a payment to you.
Non refundable tax credits can only reduce your tax liability down to nothing.
Yes, there are many people where the IRS writes them a chack, not just gives back over-withholding.
April 19th, 2017 at 11:27 AM ^
Understood. But Bronxblue's question was about credit surplusses over the top of your tax liability.
April 19th, 2017 at 10:51 AM ^
I didn't realize that with the child credit. I assumed in this context you only reduce income from the credit. I stand corrected.
I still find it hard to believe a person with 8 kids makes less than $10k a year, unless the IRS handles alimony, child support, etc differently.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:52 PM ^
I have four kids under 17 and I don't make a lot of money, so I never owe and I send mine in pretty early. Usually. This year I procrastinated on my state taxes for no reason, but those are now in as well. I use Taxslayer (because they had cheap efile options) and now that I've used it for a couple of years it's a cinch to do. I feel like it's too easy when I'm finished, a sharp contrast from when I was filling out my 1040s by hand.
Our national tax system is a disgrace- no other nation makes it so complicated and filled with special interest givaways. Taxes should be simple- not stealthy
See my post above.
They could make it a lot simpler in relation to what a tax code is actually supposed to do - provide for govt income while still maintaining economic growth - but that's not what they are trying to accomplish at all. And so the current tax code looks like the spaghetti mess it is. On purpose.
April 19th, 2017 at 10:35 AM ^
April 19th, 2017 at 12:30 PM ^
Very true. It's going to be ugly.
I'll bitch about tax breaks for what I think are superfluous special-interest reasons, but will I be willing to give up the home mortgage interest deduction? Why should that be off limits?
My sister-in-law works for the IRS and it's nauseating to hear the stories of her co-workers' gross incompetence on the job. Amazing the jobs some people get and retain that don't deserve them. I guess it wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the knowledge that they are directly responsible for collecting the revenue that keeps them employed.
Don't worry, they don't get to keep any of it.
This year I received a substantial refund, and I am not happy about it. Usually I end up owing a small amount to fed and state. Made adjustments to withholding for this year. Also, I am in a profession that is a big target for the "fake tax return to collect a refund" fraud scheme, another reason to file early.
might be time to hire an actual accountant because I'm giving the government a substantial interest free loan. Clearly I'm a crappy accountant
I probably purchased a couple of cruise missiles today.
Our tax system sucks. Our tax dollars are mostly wasted. But, opportunity to earn more, give more, and watch more wasted abounds.
God Bless the USA!
for the 35% of Americans who don't pay taxes.
They should call it "Bitch about First World Problems Day."
I TurboTax it in about two hours the first week of March or so every year. It should be easier, but that's the price of letting lobbyists write the tax code. If people actually wanted a simpler code, they would vote that way. They don't.
I'm fine with funding air traffic control and roads and schools and keeping disabled people from going homeless. Not thrilled about all the Joint-Strike Fighters and security for every weekend in Mar-e-Lago and whatnot but we don't get line-item vetoes, so whatevs. I've spent time in countries with minimal government. They are not good places to live.
Our military capability needs a major upgrade (even the newest planes not called "Raptor" or "Super Hornet" are 25+ years old). But a trillion-dollar price tag on ANY aircraft is absurd. Lobbyists, indeed.
Thsy are smart. They spread the construction and maintenance across hundreds of congressional districts so that no congressman / woman ever wants to say no.
It's very hard to kill a runaway program. Even ones the military does not actually even want.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:06 PM ^
Presidents travel. Some more than others. Some just to play golf on the tax payers dime. It's always interesting to see how some complain about what one Presidents does but never about the President they voted for. The bottom line is both parties are whores and want to abuse the tax payer. It's time for another revolt.
April 18th, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^
Wait, I thought the current POTUS was not receiving a salary?
April 18th, 2017 at 11:38 PM ^
I don't know if it counts if it's in Rubles though /s...kinda
President Trump is receiving a salary. He donates the money. He donated to the National Park Services. A president also receives many perks on the tax payers' dime.
But what is sad is that everyone is focused on the PResident and not the bloated government that has over regulated, over taxed and over indulged since 30's.
It's a behemoth that needs a serious restructuring.
April 18th, 2017 at 10:35 PM ^
goes to welfare programs we call medicare, medicaid, social security, fed gov't workers, etc. not saying it's all bad, just saying the military isn't what's blowing the biggest hole in the budget. this is not a political post either, just an informational one.
April 19th, 2017 at 11:52 AM ^
Non-defense discretionary spending, in other words, all the things people think of when they think of federal workers actual doing things via the agencies besides the Pentagon, is 16% of the federal budget. The Pentagon's budget is 50% of discretionary (non-interest, non-entitlement) spending.
Source: http://www.cbpp.org/research/policy-basics-non-defense-discretionary-pr…
April 19th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^
but that wasn't the question we were kicking around. and i guess you could make an argument that providing for national defense to maintain sovereign national status is more 'non-discretionary' than the wealth transfers we call the various medicaid/care/social security, etc.