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Old 09-14-2017, 10:12 AM
 
10,321 posts, read 5,498,265 times
Reputation: 10421

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Quote:
Originally Posted by artillery77 View Post
The argument was that the upper middle class were all fibbing. My counter was that poverty class was as well. If it were up to me I'd put everyone on a $30K standard deduction and let the rates start from there. But its up to Congress, not me. They make the rules. However the poor may not be chased, but that doesn't mean they fib less. If anything, I'd expect the upper middle class to be more conservative as they have something to lose and like have real tax professionals preparing their taxes.

As for the dress, even at $75, that's a lot of freaking dresses to make up the lost state income taxes paid...literally allowing tax on the tax. Besides, was your wife's cost basis in the dress higher than $5? Did you get a deduction for the depreciation on the dress? Did you get a refund on the sales tax paid when new? At the end of the day if your receipt says $75, and the charity that takes it (which doesn't have to pay) uses the non-existent valuation standards as Congress has made into law? Yes...so you're all good. But AMT is still going to wipe you out overall.
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AMT STRUCTURE

After calculating their regular income tax, many middle- and upper-income taxpayers must add a number of AMT “preference items” to their taxable income, subtract an AMT exemption amount, and recalculate their tax using the AMT tax rate structure. AMT liability is the excess, if any, of this amount over the amount of tax owed under the regular income tax rules.

AMT preference items include the deduction for state and local taxes (62 percent of all preferences in 2012 according to Treasury data), personal exemptions (21 percent), the deduction for miscellaneous business expenses (9.5 percent), and the standard deduction (0.7 percent). The AMT also has special rules for the treatment of net operating losses and depreciation.

Because the AMT disallows the state and local tax deduction and dependent exemptions, families with children who live in high-tax states are among the most likely to owe AMT. Allowing the state and local tax deduction and dependent exemptions for AMT purposes would reduce the number of households affected by the AMT from 4.8 million to just 525,000 in 2017.

The AMT has two tax rates: the first $187,800 of income above the exemption is taxed at a 26-percent rate, and income above that amount is taxed at 28 percent. The AMT exemption begins to phase out at $129,700 for singles and heads of household, $160,900 for married couples filing jointly, and $80,450 for married couples filing separate returns. Because the exemption phases out at a 25-percent rate, it creates a top effective AMT tax rate of 35 percent (125 percent of 28 percent). All dollar values are for 2017 and are indexed annually for inflation (table 1).
Poor form to do a cut and paste of someone else's material, without noting that it is a quote, and giving credit to the author.
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Old 09-14-2017, 06:09 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas, NV.
1,047 posts, read 716,451 times
Reputation: 1131
Default hmmm

Quote:
Originally Posted by borninsac View Post

Replying before reading the article per your request. No, I would not. I don't even think most taxes should be legal! Private citizens should pay for the stuff allegedly our taxes pay for. The 1 % can handle it.
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Old 09-14-2017, 06:14 PM
 
Location: Las Vegas, NV.
1,047 posts, read 716,451 times
Reputation: 1131
read the article. still. no.
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Old 09-14-2017, 06:27 PM
 
10,489 posts, read 6,924,502 times
Reputation: 32281
Depends on how egregious it was.

If it were some guy whom I thought was cutting corners on his tax return, well, no. I really don't know enough to really say.

But if it were some charitable organization that I learned was funneling massive amounts of money to the founders and next to nothing to the charity's supposed beneficiaries? In a heartbeat.
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Old 09-15-2017, 03:45 AM
 
Location: Myrtle Creek, Oregon
15,293 posts, read 17,565,356 times
Reputation: 25225
Quote:
Originally Posted by stockwiz View Post
I'm glad you don't live near me. I dislike narcs. Anyways, it would depend on the situation, the amount, and the person doing it. If they are a nice person trying to provide for their family, I might let it slip. If they are a cocky drunk or alpha male always sleeping around with lots of different women and in general being irresponsible, I'd probably report em just because it still bugs me women are attracted to seedy trashy types.
I don't knowingly consort with criminals. There are plenty of honest people in this world.
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Old 09-15-2017, 05:40 AM
 
6,585 posts, read 5,831,015 times
Reputation: 16778
Quote:
Originally Posted by FLY_ME View Post
Replying before reading the article per your request. No, I would not. I don't even think most taxes should be legal! Private citizens should pay for the stuff allegedly our taxes pay for. The 1 % can handle it.
The top few percentage of earners do pay most of the income and capital gains taxes. The general population pays sales tax.

This country must have been an amazing place back in the late 1800s-early 1909s, before income tax and most other forms of taxation. You mostly kept what you earned.

Today it takes most people about 5 months just to pay off the tax burden. It's called tax freedom day , the date by which you can start keeping your money. Connecticut's is the worst.
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Old 09-15-2017, 06:42 AM
 
Location: MID ATLANTIC
8,643 posts, read 22,790,328 times
Reputation: 10461
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tzaphkiel View Post
there were many problems in my marriage of 13 years.
the "straw that broke the camels back" and brought down the whole house of cards
was cheating on taxes.

i said no we can not do that.
he said yes we can and it's not going to stop.

i ended the marriage.


the principle involved was that he had no problem with lie cheat and steal.
i could not live my life and base my marriage on that.
Sounds like we married into the same family. My ex had blatant fraud in our returns one year, I refused to sign until corrected. Not long after, it was obvious to me our 29 year marriage was growing more toxic, not more mellow. (Most everyone I know stops letting everything bother them - this man, as he aged, grew bitter, intolerant, racist and on and on). Anyway, unbeknownst to me, he resubmitted the returns and dropped me from the return. Of course, by this time, I was late filing, but it was worth it. I never reported it because I feared being audited on prior returns. Even without wrongdoing, an audit can be traumatic.

I review tax returns everyday as a mortgage loan officer. I have seen returns that are fraudulent, and many more that are borderline. Fortunately, people commit fraud to lower their income and there's no decision to make. Most kill their chance of qualifying when they pull the stunts. But, even the ones that can qualify, I cannot report (or won't). I personally consider that as a violation of their privacy rights, even if privacy rights don't apply to fraud committed outside my area. I am not a tax professional and bite my tongue. Only one time in 30 years have I come close to even think about reporting someone.
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Old 09-15-2017, 07:55 AM
 
4,346 posts, read 2,766,057 times
Reputation: 5814
No. The tax code is so complicated even the IRS answers incorrectly 1/3 of the time when asked for help. People minimize their tax to the extent they can. Sometimes they minimize it more than they should. Whether intentionally or not is too difficult for someone like me to tell.
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Old 09-19-2017, 10:49 AM
 
1,959 posts, read 3,087,419 times
Reputation: 6146
Yes! Cheats hurt all of us. And besides, isn't it true you can get 10% of what the IRS gets out of them?
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Old 09-19-2017, 11:20 AM
 
Location: NJ
31,771 posts, read 40,463,641 times
Reputation: 24590
the criminals are the IRS. unless people are given the choice to pay taxes or not, it is theft. i wouldnt report someone for actually keep their own earned money.
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