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Tax plan finalized, ready for vote


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48 minutes ago, preacherman76 said:

Trump seems to be the only one actually trying to fulfill them all, and is honest about there intentions, and in a very short amount of time. 

I am glad the TPP went away for now.  I don't think our negotiators were stupid or got a bad deal, I think they were corporate types who got exactly what they wanted and gave up worker protections they didn't care about.  That is what triggers me when people say we need a businessman to run the government like a business.  Business does run the government, they get exactly what they want to the detriment of the rest of us.  I hope your faith is justified.  We need somebody to derail that train.

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13 hours ago, Tatetopa said:

 

I am glad the TPP went away for now.  I don't think our negotiators were stupid or got a bad deal, I think they were corporate types who got exactly what they wanted and gave up worker protections they didn't care about.  That is what triggers me when people say we need a businessman to run the government like a business.  Business does run the government, they get exactly what they want to the detriment of the rest of us.  I hope your faith is justified.  We need somebody to derail that train.

Between the TPP and the Paris accord we were estimated to lose like 6 million more jobs. That’s a really bad deal. 

The way this tax plan is set up, it works great for the people. Yes corporations get big cuts, but individuals in the 1% got their taxes raised. This Incentivises corporations into reinvesting the money saved back into the company, instead of just giving themselves bigger pay checks. Why try to horde the money when you are gonna just lose much of the money to taxes anyway? The best way to keep the money is to expand the company. This plan even closes tax loopholes for rich individuals, further encouraging investment into said company, instead of hoarding it to themselves.

Its a win win for everyone.  

 

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On 12/26/2017 at 2:06 AM, preacherman76 said:

The way this tax plan is set up, it works great for the people. Yes corporations get big cuts, but individuals in the 1% got their taxes raised.

I was looking at the summary.  It seems to indicate the current top rate is 39.6% going down to 37%. The CEO of the company I work for made about $8 million this year.   His tax savings would be a little over $200,000.  Am I misreading something?  it looks like most brackets go down 2-3%  Not sour grapes, still good at my level, but I don't think the top  1% actually got a tax raise.  Please explain.

Not sure about the loopholes, seems like pass through and estate tax got slightly reduced too.  Like I say, its still good for me, but I don't think the top 1% will be hurting.

As far as higher wages are concerned, it also might be a while.  I wouldn't go to the grocery store and offer to pay more than the going price for a bag of potatoes.  A business doesn't need to pay higher wages until they have trouble getting employees. Unemployment may have to go down more before there is much incentive to raise wages.

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  • 3 weeks later...

So, I talked to my new accountant.  Looks like it's a tax increase for me and other construction workers.  We lose our non reimbursed expenses- union dues, travel expenses, tool/safety gear expenses, clothes washing deduction (for hazardous area work), etc.  Used to be I could accept a project at a chemical refinery in say Wisconsin and deduct my travel costs, hotel costs, safety boots, fire-retardant clothing, union dues, parking, specialty tools etc.  I am losing out to the tune of over $10,000 in deductions- which would likely or not put me in the next tax bracket in addition to increasing my taxable income. 

The accountant did have some ideas to offset this.  One idea was for the company to start/increase reimbursement pay and cut down on the wages.  So instead of say $30/hr, we would get $25hr and $5/hr reimbursement.  We get the money still and the business can write it off as an expense instead of payroll.  The $25 would be our new (lower tax) pay and the $5 would go to cover our business expenses.

But over all, this wasn't a tax cut at all.  it was a tax increase for us. 

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On 1/14/2018 at 8:50 AM, Gromdor said:

So, I talked to my new accountant.  Looks like it's a tax increase for me and other construction workers.  We lose our non reimbursed expenses- union dues, travel expenses, tool/safety gear expenses, clothes washing deduction (for hazardous area work), etc.  Used to be I could accept a project at a chemical refinery in say Wisconsin and deduct my travel costs, hotel costs, safety boots, fire-retardant clothing, union dues, parking, specialty tools etc.  I am losing out to the tune of over $10,000 in deductions- which would likely or not put me in the next tax bracket in addition to increasing my taxable income. 

The accountant did have some ideas to offset this.  One idea was for the company to start/increase reimbursement pay and cut down on the wages.  So instead of say $30/hr, we would get $25hr and $5/hr reimbursement.  We get the money still and the business can write it off as an expense instead of payroll.  The $25 would be our new (lower tax) pay and the $5 would go to cover our business expenses.

But over all, this wasn't a tax cut at all.  it was a tax increase for us. 

Did the tax guy say that this was due to the doubling of the standard deduction? I know that I usually can deduct a lot more then the standard amount if I itemize. I give a lot to charities and church, and so get a lot of various deductions. 

I've never deducted much for work, from what I read (In the tax pamphlets), it seemed like you'd need to keep cracking good records, or you could be called out easily.

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2 hours ago, DieChecker said:

Did the tax guy say that this was due to the doubling of the standard deduction? I know that I usually can deduct a lot more then the standard amount if I itemize. I give a lot to charities and church, and so get a lot of various deductions. 

I've never deducted much for work, from what I read (In the tax pamphlets), it seemed like you'd need to keep cracking good records, or you could be called out easily.

It was from the elimination of many of the non reimbursed expenses- stuff you could previously claim when you itemize.  My itemized deductions exceed the doubled standard deduction still.  And yeah, I have to keep a work log book.  I personally have never been hit with an audit, but a few co-workers have.  The log book and the just the truth of the costs of the job was enough to pass.  A couple of electricians just used a computer print out log and they were rejected.  It had to be a hand written one for some reason. 

There is talk that charities might take a hit with this.  They are still deductible if you itemize, but with the doubled standard deduction and reduction of other itemized expenses there is little financial benefit from donating.  You give enough and you can drop your taxable income into a lower tax bracket, if you itemize.

If you just take the standard deduction and never itemize, you probably have been paying more than you need to.  We have some Catholics that tithed 10% on top of all the other expenses and have just used the standard deduction.  I cringed at the thousands or so they over paid every year in taxes over the career. 

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What about the company you are working for? Aren't their taxes supposed to go down? If so, then are they planning to just keep the extra profit? Because it seems like they could return part of that to the employees if those employees are getting screwed from the tax changes.

Maybe they could keep 75% of the extra savings, and give 25% of that savings to the employees in some fashion? I don't have any idea if that would be more or less income after taxes for the employees, but at least it would benefit both, and raise moral tremendously. :D

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13 minutes ago, DieChecker said:

What about the company you are working for? Aren't their taxes supposed to go down? If so, then are they planning to just keep the extra profit? Because it seems like they could return part of that to the employees if those employees are getting screwed from the tax changes.

Maybe they could keep 75% of the extra savings, and give 25% of that savings to the employees in some fashion? I don't have any idea if that would be more or less income after taxes for the employees, but at least it would benefit both, and raise moral tremendously. :D

They could.  The accountant suggested reimbursements in lieu of pay.  The company can write it off as business expenses instead of having to do it as payroll.

Don't worry about me.  Like I said before, I have more than one tax path.  I'm just pointing out that the reform was actually a tax increase for someone in my shoes.  I would imagine it to be worse for east and west coast construction workers.

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22 minutes ago, Gromdor said:

They could.  The accountant suggested reimbursements in lieu of pay.  The company can write it off as business expenses instead of having to do it as payroll.

Don't worry about me.  Like I said before, I have more than one tax path.  I'm just pointing out that the reform was actually a tax increase for someone in my shoes.  I would imagine it to be worse for east and west coast construction workers.

Yes.. I worked for a couple yrs helicopter logging... Food and travel expenses were reimbursed non taxed on to our cheques.

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A company can issue all the reimbursements they want on an employees check but they’ll need receipts or proof to back it up. Otherwise companies everywhere would be paying employees through reimbursement.

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