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Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 3:49 am
by llondel
boing wrote: ↑Wed Sep 16, 2020 4:45 pm
Funny how the Dems, hated the Electoral College in the last two elections but now they are quite pleased with it.
It has still largely run its course and is no longer needed. I don't know that "pleased" is quite the word, more a case of acknowledging what the current system is and trying to win according to that system.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Thu Sep 17, 2020 5:06 am
by boing
Llondel,
What means would you suggest for ensuring that less populous States would feel that they have equal representation with the more populous States when voting for the President etc.?
It does not matter if the less populated States are truly disadvantaged, all that matters is if they feel that way. The Electoral College was a fig leaf provided to help the less populous States feel that they had equal representation even though they had lower populations. It may be unwise to interfere with this arrangement. Pandora's box comes to mind.
.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Sun Sep 20, 2020 4:46 am
by llondel
Therein lies the issue - why should states have equal representation when individuals can instead? With the electoral college, casting a vote in a smaller state is mostly worth more than casting a vote in a larger state. How is that fair? If you, personally, vote, then your vote should be of equal value to mine. Voting rights are based on population but number of eligible voters is a variable fraction of that amount, and voter turnout is even less. When all of that is taken into account, it appears that a vote in Oregon is worth marginally less than a vote in California, so you probably get a better turnout with the mail-in ballots. A vote in Wyoming is worth three times as much. Again, how is that fair?
You talk about the small states being disadvantaged - what happens when the big ones feel that way?
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:06 pm
by PHXPhlyer
Trump's Taxes (Or Not)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/202 ... e=Homepage
Long but well worth reading.
Sorry...Too long to cut and paste.
All over MSM here.
PP
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:34 pm
by Boac
It would seem that the quickest and most effective way to squash what the Chump calls 'Fake News' would be to publish his returns - unless, of course, he has something to hide?
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 5:11 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
Boac wrote: ↑Mon Sep 28, 2020 4:34 pm
It would seem that the quickest and most effective way to squash what the Chump calls 'Fake News' would be to publish his returns - unless, of course, he has something to hide?
The man is and always has been a low grade grifter!
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 7:56 pm
by barkingmad
Simples! Only 750 bucks. What a clever chap he is?!
Though $70,000 for that glued-on wig seems rather steep?
I’m sure one imported from ‘Chienaah’ would have been cheaper...
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 9:03 pm
by boing
Trump will certainly take flak over this but the real point is whether the calculations leading up to the taxes paid were legal and proper. We all know that big operations are experts at dodging taxes by the use of clever accountancy. If any deductions involved were legal there is no problem however immoral we may think they are. If the deductions were questionable but not challenged by the IRS auditor someone in the IRS is going to have to explain why the returns were accepted. The result may be a request for payment of incorrectly calculated taxes but in the first instance this is an administrative procedure not an offense unless actual illegal tax avoidance can be proved ie falsification of actual income or improper deductions. The IRS interpretation can always be challenged in court and so they generally do a back of the envelope calculation to decide if it is worth going to court and perhaps losing so establishing a legal precedent..
In the US the tax regulations are horrible complex and they favour those with professional accountants over those filing their own returns because it is considered that no certified accountant will get himself locked up for filing an improper tax return for a client.
Even the seemingly crazy matter of the cost of haircuts is not such a big deal. If someone pays a ridiculous amount for a haircut as long as the hairdresser pay taxes on that income the IRS is relatively happy. They get their taxes either way.
I had a friend that faced down an IRS inspector. The inspector claimed that the cost of my friend's routine lunches, taken on the road during working travel, were unjustifiably high. My friend replied that after a good meal and a couple of glasses of wine it was easy to reach the amount in question. The inspector replied that he could get a good lunch for far less than my friend payed to which my friend gave the withering reply "Well, I don't have to eat at the places you do." and he walked away from the audit in the clear because he had the correct receipts and, to the IRS, he was correct.
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Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Mon Sep 28, 2020 11:07 pm
by PHXPhlyer
Paying his daughter a consultancy fee when she is already on the payroll is, I think, more than a little bit illegal.
Just sayin'.
PP
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 1:03 am
by boing
I wouldn't know PP. All I know is that the tax laws are entirely insane so it would not surprise me at all if there was a way to do it. The definition of a consultant is something like a person who supplies their own tools and other required items but they cannot work for one organisation only or they are considered an employee. You must have a credible list of clients in the period. I would not be surprised if you can do one job, say as a branch manager for four days a week using company facilities and be paid by the company and come back on Friday using your own equipment and act as a consultant programmer. As long as the 4 day job is a genuine position and the fifth day is working in a speciality where you have a list of other clients you are probably OK. The company expenses would probably list Miss XXX as the employee and the XXX Company as the consulting firm. This difference may cause an audit to miss the arrangement.
Now, if the person is paid as an employee and consultant for the same time period the IRS should get suspicious but bearing in mind the IRS is understaffed and likes to go for the easy targets even this might get by.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:31 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
Sully supports Biden... (as any sane decent human being would)...
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 2:39 pm
by Boac
The suggestion that the Chump was so bad at business as to make a large loss in all his enterprises for many years is interesting. especially when he is in charge of USA inc.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 3:06 pm
by PHXPhlyer
BOAC:
The large loss for USA, INC is not just dollars anymore. It is also lives.
The way things are going instead of saying "two hundred six thousand and however many hundreds dead", we will simply say "more than a quarter million dead". How much easier to say, NOT.
PP
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 4:38 pm
by Boac
Yes, that goes without saying - awful, but the wonder Chump 'business man supreme' appears to have had his clothes nicked.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 7:09 pm
by boing
Caution is advised if you only consider net profits and ignore gross income. I have not seen a comparison of the figures for Trump and I don't intend to check but basically if you make a lot of profit the IRS takes a lot of it in taxes. Real Estate is especially notorious for being a shelter for income, for example, claiming losses on buildings based on fair-wear-and-tear deterioration of the structure over a period while the value of the ground it stands on is rising dramatically. The deterioration is an annual tax item but the profit on the ground value is only seen on sale so you sell the ground at a time when you have big deductions for the year, such as making another property purchase, and reduce your net profit and pay less taxes. This is all a big game played by corporate accountants, except at the planning stage the boss may not even know what is going on, he pays other people for that.
In the US you can claim deductions for (not limited to).
Club memberships if they help your business.
Travel, first class and airline club membership, aircraft lease, aircraft ownership, if you need to travel for the business. My licenses lapsed years ago but I could re-qualify and rent an aircraft for business use if I felt like it and deduct the costs. If I then flew for fun I would have to split my time into business and personal use in my tax returns but I could probably deduct time required for annual safety training.
Travel expenses for wife etc if she will be attending a function designed to promote the business.
Almost any entertainment expense such as a hotel suite instead of a simple room if you hold a social business gathering in the hotel.
Any car, and chauffeur, you happen to prefer for the business followed by transferring the car to yourself at a good price after a couple of years.
A good corporate accountant can reduce your taxes to almost zero, we see it all the time especially in real estate, why do you think it is such a lucrative choice? You can bet that if the boss only makes a small net income but he flys around in a corporate jet his accountant is doing something right, at least for him.
All of these claims take good documentation to avoid IRS questions but they are all legal even if we would call them scams or immoral. So, just saying, the belief that Trump is a bad business man based on his net income may not show the full picture but it makes good adverse publicity.
.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 9:57 pm
by bob2s
Question without notice.If Biden/Harris gain the White House,how will Kamala Harris go when she takes over the presidency after Biden's fall from grace due to his addled mind, which seems to be an increasing problem given some of his performances as of late.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 10:12 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
boing wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 7:09 pm
Caution is advised if you only consider net profits and ignore gross income. I have not seen a comparison of the figures for Trump and I don't intend to check but basically if you make a lot of profit the IRS takes a lot of it in taxes. Real Estate is especially notorious for being a shelter for income, for example, claiming losses on buildings based on fair-wear-and-tear deterioration of the structure over a period while the value of the ground it stands on is rising dramatically. The deterioration is an annual tax item but the profit on the ground value is only seen on sale so you sell the ground at a time when you have big deductions for the year, such as making another property purchase, and reduce your net profit and pay less taxes. This is all a big game played by corporate accountants, except at the planning stage the boss may not even know what is going on, he pays other people for that.
In the US you can claim deductions for (not limited to).
Club memberships if they help your business.
Travel, first class and airline club membership, aircraft lease, aircraft ownership, if you need to travel for the business. My licenses lapsed years ago but I could re-qualify and rent an aircraft for business use if I felt like it and deduct the costs. If I then flew for fun I would have to split my time into business and personal use in my tax returns but I could probably deduct time required for annual safety training.
Travel expenses for wife etc if she will be attending a function designed to promote the business.
Almost any entertainment expense such as a hotel suite instead of a simple room if you hold a social business gathering in the hotel.
Any car, and chauffeur, you happen to prefer for the business followed by transferring the car to yourself at a good price after a couple of years.
A good corporate accountant can reduce your taxes to almost zero, we see it all the time especially in real estate, why do you think it is such a lucrative choice? You can bet that if the boss only makes a small net income but he flys around in a corporate jet his accountant is doing something right, at least for him.
All of these claims take good documentation to avoid IRS questions but they are all legal even if we would call them scams or immoral. So, just saying, the belief that Trump is a bad business man based on his net income may not show the full picture but it makes good adverse publicity.
.
Boing you are long on blah and also long on *****!
As a man who has a great deal of respect for you... I find your delusions worrying.
NB - If you took off, you left hand seat, with my 5700 hours under my belt against your 10,000 hours plus I would be watching you like a hawk! Asking myself, is this **** delusional?
TGG
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:35 pm
by boing
Just what is delusional in what I reported GG? I am making no comment on the morality of anyone's actions, only its legality. I have lived through the accountant selection process several times myself and I know the thought process. Quite simply it is why pay more taxes to the IRS than you have to, use any loophole you can and in the US there are hundreds.
I'm not delusional. I have owned rental real estate (and decided it was far too tedious to deal with), I have sold a $1.5 million house in town when we went rural. The capital gain was going to be horrific until a smart accountant decided that the purchase basis should be what he calculated it to be rather than what we paid for it since the circumstances were unusual. How he managed that I have no idea, didn't ask.
I use the travel deductions of course, including First Class and no IRS man has ever told me to take a cheaper seat. I enjoy the flight, the company pays the bill, my life is improved and the deduction reduces my taxes.
etc etc.
So, if you make yourself familiar with US tax law and its complications and find anything in my report you can specifically challenge please let me know, I'll pass it on to my accountant.
.
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:42 am
by TheGreenGoblin
boing wrote: ↑Tue Sep 29, 2020 11:35 pm
Just what is delusional in what I reported GG? I am making no comment on the morality of anyone's actions, only its legality. I have lived through the accountant selection process several times myself and I know the thought process. Quite simply it is why pay more taxes to the IRS than you have to, use any loophole you can and in the US there are hundreds.
I'm not delusional. I have owned rental real estate (and decided it was far too tedious to deal with), I have sold a $1.5 million house in town when we went rural. The capital gain was going to be horrific until a smart accountant decided that the purchase basis should be what he calculated it to be rather than what we paid for it since the circumstances were unusual. How he managed that I have no idea, didn't ask.
I use the travel deductions of course, including First Class and no IRS man has ever told me to take a cheaper seat. I enjoy the flight, the company pays the bill, my life is improved and the deduction reduces my taxes.
etc etc.
So, if you make yourself familiar with US tax law and its complications and find anything in my report you can specifically challenge please let me know, I'll pass it on to my accountant.
Dinna pay too much tax me old darling,
Re: The US Hamster Wheel
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2020 2:49 am
by prospector
" with my 5700 hours under my belt against your 10,000 hours plus I would be watching you like a hawk! Asking myself, is this **** delusional?"
Is that all you have got?? I would think the hawk would be in the left seat!!!.