Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 01-15-2015, 09:39 PM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,250 posts, read 60,994,380 times
Reputation: 30134

Advertisements

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ariadne22 View Post
Well, even with the pension income you could have part of your SS subject to tax on page 1 of the 1040 (I do) - but with standard deductions/exemptions, possible other writeoffs, any potential net tax (including on SS) could be zeroed out. This happens to me most years. Some part of SS is subject to tax, Schedule E and itemized deductions, zero out the tax liability.
Today zero of my pension is taxed. According to that calculator zero of my SS will be taxed.

Before I retired, I had a much larger Gross income. During that time I used Schedule Cs, Es and Fs, along with itemizing to keep my income from being taxed.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 01-15-2015, 10:00 PM
 
Location: Wisconsin
25,593 posts, read 56,275,055 times
Reputation: 23257
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
Today zero of my pension is taxed. According to that calculator zero of my SS will be taxed.
Before I retired, I had a much larger Gross income. During that time I used Schedule Cs, Es and Fs, along with itemizing to keep my income from being taxed.
Sounds like me.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 10:01 PM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,840,623 times
Reputation: 32530
Quote:
Originally Posted by nicet4 View Post

I personally dislike government picking winners and losers based on some bureaucrats idea of "fairness".
The provisions for taxing up to 85% of Social Security retirement benefits were not decided upon by "some bureaucrat(s)". Rather, they were enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by the sitting President.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-15-2015, 11:34 PM
 
Location: Montana
1,829 posts, read 2,222,409 times
Reputation: 6225
Quote:
Originally Posted by goingstrong View Post
Easy to use calculator makes projections easier. I ran several what if's and was somewhat surprised at the results.

How much of my social security benefit may be taxed? | Calculators by CalcXML
By that calculator, 85% of my benifit will be taxable. Ouch!
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 06:32 AM
 
Location: Los Angeles area
14,017 posts, read 20,840,623 times
Reputation: 32530
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tuck's Dad View Post
By that calculator, 85% of my benifit will be taxable. Ouch!
There is another way to look at that fact. Instead of "ouch!", "yippee!". In other words, be glad that you are in a financial situation that is favorable enough for that to be the case.

An analogy might be the tiered premiums for Medicare Part B. I pay the lowest premium (slightly over $100 per month - don't remember the exact amount). But if I had to pay the next higher premium, it would mean that I had a lot more income. (Yippee!)

(Actually I am quite happy and comfortable with my level of income; my point is that I would never wince or complain about the higher Medicare Part B premium if I had that higher income, just like I don't complain that 85% of my Social Security is taxable.)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 07:56 AM
 
7,898 posts, read 7,077,245 times
Reputation: 18586
Quote:
Originally Posted by Escort Rider View Post
.........I would never wince or complain about the higher Medicare Part B premium if I had that higher income, just like I don't complain that 85% of my Social Security is taxable.)
I lived in a very high cost of living area with very high progressive taxes. Even with a good salary I struggled to get by. Now that I am retired and not making an income, I am still paying huge property taxes on a small house. I pay sales taxes that are close to the top in the nation.

Now that I am on a fixed income, I do wince and complain at the thought of higher taxes of any kind. It is the next generation's turn to carry the burden. It is up to all of us to elect officials who are responsible and will stop the needless spending. Whenever government cutbacks are mentioned, we are threatened with cuts in social security, healthcare or other social benefit programs. Why not cut some of the other expenses. I get upset with spending billions in foreign aid for countries that hate us anyway. Why are we financing the Egyptian army? I get upset with billions being spent on "farm aid." Willy Nelson also needs to wise up. The age of the little 40 acre farm are long gone. Farms and farmers are multimillion dollar enterprises. How about the hundreds of billions of taxpayer expenses that are going to support the uneducated, illegal aliens? Why not do something about taxing the rich? Whenever that topic comes up the upper half of the middleclass gets hit with taxes and the super wealthy continue to pay very little.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 09:07 AM
 
Location: Forests of Maine
37,250 posts, read 60,994,380 times
Reputation: 30134
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
I lived in a very high cost of living area with very high progressive taxes. Even with a good salary I struggled to get by. Now that I am retired and not making an income, I am still paying huge property taxes on a small house. I pay sales taxes that are close to the top in the nation.
Have you considered moving? There are low COL regions.



Quote:
... Why not cut some of the other expenses. I get upset with spending billions in foreign aid for countries that hate us anyway. Why are we financing the Egyptian army? I get upset with billions being spent on "farm aid."
I also favor spending cuts. The Farm Bill is far too large, as is our Foreign Aid.



Quote:
... Willy Nelson also needs to wise up. The age of the little 40 acre farm are long gone....
I disagree. I live in one of the few states that has been seeing farm growth.

http://www.agcensus.usda.gov/Publica..._1_008_008.pdf

The state-wide average size of farms here is 177 acres.

48.5% of those farms are less than 50 acres.
25.7% of those farms are less than 10 acres.

I personally know a lot of farmers, through the Farmer's Markets where I sell my farm produce, that operate on 3 to 5 acres of land.



Quote:
... Farms and farmers are multimillion dollar enterprises. ...
There is Big Ag. It does exist.

However there are a lot more of us small farmers.



btw, in full disclosure. I am on pension, about equal to minimum-wage. After I retired we got 150 acres of land. We produce food from about 15 acres of our land, the rest is forest.

Most of the other Farmer's Market vendors I rub elbows with are small farms. Our COL is low, it does not take much to support a family here. Maybe half of them do have p/t seasonal jobs in town making MW, some do not. Most do odd jobs on the side [hunting / fishing guides, snow plowing, wreaths, trapping, etc].
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 09:41 AM
 
11,150 posts, read 15,920,764 times
Reputation: 29751
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
I also favor spending cuts. The Farm Bill is far too large, as is our Foreign Aid.
Foreign Aid is too large? If the entire budget of the US was one dollar, foreign aid would be a penny. And that's all foreign aid, not just aid to countries that you may not think worthwhile. And it's not just military aid. That also includes all of the humanitarian aid we provide to others less fortunate than ourselves or to others who have suffered catastrophic natural disasters. One percent of the budget is dedicated to all of that foreign aid.

Still think that a penny is too much?

Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
Whenever government cutbacks are mentioned, we are threatened with cuts in social security, healthcare or other social benefit programs.
Very simply, that's where the money is. That and Defense + Homeland Security. You could eliminate the rest of the entire government and the rest of government spending and it wouldn't solve our budgetary problems. Either cut from where most of the money is spent or increase the money that is coming in.


Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
Why not cut some of the other expenses. I get upset with spending billions in foreign aid for countries that hate us anyway. Why are we financing the Egyptian army?
See my answer to Submariner above.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 06:39 PM
 
Location: Maryland
282 posts, read 380,646 times
Reputation: 338
Quote:
Originally Posted by jrkliny View Post
It is up to all of us to elect officials who are responsible and will stop the needless spending. Whenever government cutbacks are mentioned, we are threatened with cuts in social security, healthcare or other social benefit programs. Why not cut some of the other expenses. I get upset with spending billions in foreign aid for countries that hate us anyway. Why are we financing the Egyptian army? I get upset with billions being spent on "farm aid." Willy Nelson also needs to wise up. The age of the little 40 acre farm are long gone. Farms and farmers are multimillion dollar enterprises. How about the hundreds of billions of taxpayer expenses that are going to support the uneducated, illegal aliens? Why not do something about taxing the rich? Whenever that topic comes up the upper half of the middleclass gets hit with taxes and the super wealthy continue to pay very little.
I understand how you feel, and many of the areas you would like to see cut, I agree with. However, where we differ is that part of the problem over the past several decades has been the growth in spending on social programs, so I would like to see those reduced so there is money to spend on infrastructure... without raising revenue (taxes). They don't need to cut 10% across the board, just go back to the cut offs of long ago. Expansion of medicaid, cell phones for people on subsized housing, etc. need to be eliminated.

And 1% is too much. I would like to get 0.1% given to me !
Picking special interest groups is just plain wrong in my book.

Last edited by CSRSJim; 01-16-2015 at 06:42 PM.. Reason: 1%
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 01-16-2015, 06:49 PM
 
105,821 posts, read 107,799,717 times
Reputation: 79437
Quote:
Originally Posted by Submariner View Post
Have you considered moving? There are low COL regions.

c].

when your kids ,grandchildren and family are all where you are , moving away to save a few bucks is an option not alot of us would choose unless we had no choice.

i can't imagine not being a part of their lives and just being a vacation stop like our parents were to us and the kids.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > General Forums > Retirement

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top