The lowdown on the taxes

In less than six months, on January 1, 2011, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect.

They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves.

On January 1, 2011, here’s what happens... (read it to the end, so you see all three waves)...



First Wave:


Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011.



Personal income tax rates will rise.

The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed).

The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent.

All the rates in between will also rise.


Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as highermarginal tax rates.


The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%

The 25% bracket rises to 28%

The 28% bracket rises to 31%

The 33% bracket rises to 36%

The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%



Higher taxes on marriage and family.

The "marriage penalty" (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income.


The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child.


The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level.


The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.


The return of the Death Tax.

This year only, there is no death tax. (It’s a quirk!) For those dying on or after January 1, 2011, there is a 55 percent
top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes, a business, a retirement account, could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones. Think of the farmers who don’t make much money, but their land, which they purchased years ago with after-tax dollars, is now worth a lot of money. Their children will have to sell the farm, which may be their livelihood, just to pay the estate tax if they don’t have the cash sitting around to pay the tax. Think about your own family’s assets. Maybe your family owns real estate, or a business that doesn’t make much money, but the building and equipment are worth $1 million. Upon their death, you can inherit the $1 million business tax free, but if they own a home, stock, cash worth $500K on top of the $1 million business, then you will owe the government $275,000 cash! That’s 55% of the value of the assets over $1 million! Do you have that kind of cash sitting around waiting to pay the estate tax?



Higher tax rates on savers and investors.

The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011.

The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011.

These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.



Second Wave:

Obamacare


There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:



The "Medicine Cabinet Tax"

Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).


The "Special Needs Kids Tax"

This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children.

There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States, and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education.

Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. ( National Child Research Center ) can easily exceed $14,000 per year.

Under tax rules, FSA dollars can not be used to pay for this type of special needs education.


The HSA (Health Savings Account) Withdrawal Tax Hike.

This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAsand other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.




Third Wave:

The Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they'll be in for a nasty surprise-the AMT won't be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired.

The major items include:


The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year.

According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress' failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families-rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.


Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear.

Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or "depreciate") equipment purchases up to $250,000.

This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can currently expense half of their purchases of equipment.

In January of 2011, all of it will have to be "depreciated."


Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses.

There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the "research and experimentation tax credit," but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.


Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced.

The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available.

Tax credits for education will be limited.

Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses.

Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut.

Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed.

The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.


Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed.

Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA.

This contribution also counts toward an annual "required minimum distribution." This ability will no longer be there.



PDF Version Read more: ; http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171#%23ixzz0sY8waPq1


And worse yet?


Now, your insurance will be INCOME on your W2's!

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!

Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort.

If you're retired? So what... your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year.

For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.



This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001,
as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."



- Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.
- Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.



Why am I sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward this to every single person in your address book.

People have the right to know the truth because an election is coming in November!







- Posted using The dark side of the shwartz.

Overwhelmed

Right now as I look over the news I feel overwhelmed. I am in stunned incredulousness when looking at statements made by people who believe government and more government is the answer to....anything. I am stunned at people who seriously speak of greedy capitalists. I am amazed at people who blame free markets for our present issues. I am amazed that they do not know that there has been no free market in many things for decades.

Parts of our current problems go back to ratification of the constitution. I guess the founders felt like their political descendants would be able to comprehend at a third grade level. I can read the constitution and understand it. What is this nonsense about 'interpreting the constitution?' The thing is in plain English. It isn't in runes. If you hear talk of interpreting the constitution, that means making it say something other than that which it does.

A huge part of the problem is in the diminution of the states.

A huge part of the problem is in citing things as being from the constitution that are nowhere in it. One example is the separation of church and state.

Thus falling like a waterfall from points above, the federal government involves itself in things constitutionally left to states and individuals.

1913. My grandmother was born. She is a hero to me. Yet, that same year brought the federal reserve and the income tax system.

Social Security came along. Medicare came along. As quickly as they were created, they were looted.

Our government has no desire to enforce our borders. A country without borders is no country. Any entity without borders is no entity. Things cannot exist without borders.

We wage war against human nature and a human's right to decide what do do with his body. Has the war on drugs solved a thing? Sorry Ron. I love you man, but you were as wrong as a man can be in deciding to declare a war on drugs.

We are supposed to be a free people. The individual was to reign supreme. We are no democracy. A democracy is mob rule. We are a constitutional republic. With freedom comes responsibility. Being responsible is hard. It is so much easier to let someone else do it. In giving up responsibility, we have given up our individual liberty.

Here we are.

To regain our liberty means shouldering the responsibility. I like to think I can, but the fact is, I don't know. I don't know if my shoulders can hold. I have never used them before - not in this way. I do know that I am more able than 70% of the population at the least. But will it be enough?

There is no choice you know. If we don't fix it. It will all collapse under it's own weight. Then there will be blood.


- Posted using The dark side of the shwartz.

Groups

ANY disent from ANY part of a group's agenda makes you suspicious to that group. I would not fit in with any political party. I agree more with the conservative viewpoint than the liberal. I am mostly, but not completely of a libertarian mindset. I am me. I am an individual. I am the minority. There is only one of me. Each of you are a minority...only one of each of you. I know what I know to be true. Who said??...I did!! I evaluate for myself. There have been white people I despised, there have been white people I loved. There have been black people I despised, there have been black people I loved. You cannot do a thing about the pigmentation of your skin. You can live in the past - picking at old wounds to make them bleed. You can take advantage of the present instead. You can have callous disreagard for old wounds. You can be compassionate in consideration that old wounds always change the sufferer's viewpoint. I call on my black brethren to soar past the oppression long gone. I call upon you to reject being pigeonholed. Soar!!! Fly!!! You can if only you will!!! Why listen to leaders that complain about how oppressed they are when they are among the richest of any of us? I call upon my white brethren to do the same. For those of you that labor primarily to divide and injure, I call upon you to find your humanity.

My rant on an Article about Greta Van Sustern.

Greta Van Sustern's show mixed up pics of a couple of individuals that happen to be other than white. Over on Yahoo, there is a bunch of name calling and stupidity going on over it. It is everything from racial accusations to hatefulness aimed in every direction. I posted the following. I am trying to reason with people, get them to see that there is more to things they think are simple, while the truly small things are made complicated beyond belief.

Reply Below:::::


Look, her show made a mistake. She has apologized. Let it go. For those who spew vileness at Fox, how about saving some of that for MSNBC??

Lets not talk Obama, let us talk about a position.

Do YOU think that healthcare is a right? Unlike speech, healthcare is a service and a product. If any service or product is a right, someone is under an obligation to provide that service or product. So, if you have the right to be seen by a Doc, the what of the Doc's rights? After all, time is all that any of us truly have - and in a finite amount. If a Doc is obligated to provide you with healthcare, then you are claiming entitlement to part of his time...part of his life. Do you follow? Do you still want to go down this road?? Suppose the Doc doesn't WANT to treat YOU?? Suppose that he wants to start a practice where he sees only patients that can pay him in full - He wants no involvement in the government healthcare system. Will the government allow that? Do you REALLY think they will? Do you think invention and innovation occur under coercion? After all, that expensive new drug is expensive now. Just because it can cure a disease, does that give a disease sufferer automatic claim to it? Would it help the disease sufferer that cannot afford it and may die - if the drug were never invented? What about the disease sufferer that can afford the drug 10 years down the road when the drug has become cheap? Like ANY new thing, the price is higher until the R&D have been paid. The price is higher until it starts gaining wider use. As that happens, the price will fall. As similar cures hit the market, the price falls further. No Doctor or Drug Company OWES you ANYTHING. They are in it for various reasons. One of them is to make money. Do you think that is evil? Would YOU work where your clientele claimed that you owed your product or service to them? Where they have a right to a portion of YOUR life?
Do you think Health Insurance too expensive? Why do you think an INSURANCE should cover every doctors visit? Health Insurance was originally about covering Hospitalization. In other words, health insurance was about catastrophic coverage. If car insurance was run like health insurance, it would cover oil changes and cost 10 times what it does now. Can you tell me how much the cash price is to your local doc? Did you know that many will negotiate cash price with you? Would you buy a car where the dealership did not tell you the price - where you find out the price only after the bill is sent to your house a month after you have started driving the car?? Why do we allow this in the medical field? Why do the prices keep going up for medical insurance? It is because it is being used like crazy. An insurance company, like any other, HAS to take in more than it puts out.
Any time an administrative layer is introduced into something, inefficiencies are created and resources are consumed. So hypothetically speaking, if currently only 50 cents of every dollar invested in the healthcare industry actually makes it to the patient, that amount will fall with government added into it. Maybe only 25 cents of a dollar makes it to the patient. It costs to push paper.

Seriously, think about these things!! Honestly consider them. That is all that I ask.