What is middle class (how much, companies, financial, retire)

[AksarbeN]

Originally Posted by milliebfit

I am not wealthy and I got a "Bush" tax break..I live in a very blue collar town here in south jersey. Everyone on my street is a blue collar worker and they all drive to work in either a big truck or an suv.

Some people were benefited from the SUV tax break, if you were self employed or a corporation. A self employed therapies doing counseling work that I know received the tax break, but never uses the Escalade for business, only self transportation, and he writes off the gas for driving it around on personal trips. My brother in law has two SUVs that he received as tax breaks from the government for his General Contractor work. He drives one to and from work, his wife drives the other, and the write off is for the rich in this case. The gas is also written off taxes. Little of the mileage is used for business purposes. To me this is a tax fraud for the rich, and those who are driving each day to their employer can not get the same tax benefit for the vehicles or gas write off.

I don’t mean to imply that everyone does this, but a few of the people I know do. I don’t know (personally) anyone receiving welfare benefits from the government but I do know of welfare fraud by those who shouldn’t receive it and they are wealthy.

[katzenfreund]

Originally Posted by AksarbeN

Some people were benefited from the SUV tax break, if you were self employed or a corporation. A self employed therapies doing counseling work that I know received the tax break, but never uses the Escalade for business, only self transportation, and he writes off the gas for driving it around on personal trips. My brother in law has two SUVs that he received as tax breaks from the government for his General Contractor work. He drives one to and from work, his wife drives the other, and the write off is for the rich in this case. The gas is also written off taxes. Little of the mileage is used for business purposes. To me this is a tax fraud for the rich, and those who are driving each day to their employer can not get the same tax benefit for the vehicles or gas write off.

I don’t mean to imply that everyone does this, but a few of the people I know do. I don’t know (personally) anyone receiving welfare benefits from the government but I do know of welfare fraud by those who shouldn’t receive it and they are wealthy.

Yes, they also write off trips to exotic locations, take one class or go to one meeting and call it a business trip. That way you can write off the entire trip and even hotel and meals, I worked in a tax office and saw it every day. The whole gas thing is a joke too. We didn't have one client that did not lie on that one. On the other hand the poor suckers that have W2 jobs, don't get to write off diddly squat. Not their commuting, not tools they buy for their job (unless it exceeds a certain percentage of your salary, which means most people get nothing) nothing. Nice, eh? Talk about unequality....

[AksarbeN]

Originally Posted by katzenfreund

Yes, they also write off trips to exotic locations, take one class or go to one meeting and call it a business trip. That way you can write off the entire trip and even hotel and meals, I worked in a tax office and saw it every day. The whole gas thing is a joke too. We didn't have one client that did not lie on that one. On the other hand the poor suckers that have W2 jobs, don't get to write off diddly squat. Not their commuting, not tools they buy for their job (unless it exceeds a certain percentage of your salary, which means most people get nothing) nothing. Nice, eh? Talk about unequality....

Corporate Welfare Fraud, at the costs of the few blue color and poor in this country. Hell who is servicing in the military these days ~ middle class and poor Americans who can’t go to college or get a job outside of the service at this time.

[Buckhead_Broker]

I've never heard such whining in my life! And SmerkyGrl, you hit the nail on the head! You people don't seem to understand that cars, gas, and other items are legitimate expenses for a person who owns their own company. Are there people who abuse it? Absolutely! These incentives are done partly to enable companies to invest in the equipment and materials needed to run their companies - companies that hire people and enable them to make a living. The small business owner pays more in taxes than most of you can imagine - they deserve a few breaks!

People, get your heads on straight! Stop bashing the rich because your pathetic lives are what they are. If anyone is at fault, it's you! Most people re poor because they made a lot of bad choices in their lives. It wasn't some "rich" guy who forced them to make those choices either!

And again, if you think that the middle class and poor pay most of the taxes in this country, do a little research from an impartial source. It simply is not the case.

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by KoZmiC NinJa

I will answer this question in a quantum sort way most of the posters
here on this forum today wouldnt understand. In the 40's 'til
the 70's a person could graduate highschool and demonstrating
a good work ethic could rise up to a reasonable liveble income and
support a family in a local factory or other skilled labor entity.
That generally is not available to someone today like it was back then.
For many reasons that are argued here terminally, a system of
opportunities for a class of society that previously enjoyed a slice of
the pie and were happy with even though it was a smaller one, has
been eliminated or outsourced.

Yes you are right. The days of having a high school dimpola and getting the 25 year factory job is gone. I did a quick study. In the late 60s the average household income was like $9K/year, the average home was around $18K. So for two times earnings you could buy a home- or rather afford a mortgage on a single income person with a HS education. Today it's 5x, so while technically making more than that generation, this generation is finding it difficult to make ends meet particularly when approaching it with old school tactics.

However that's the reality, fortunately in the US you can make adjustments to career, your spending habits, etc. It can be done. I'm the high tech field. I saw a lot of people do really well in the 90s with the dot.com rise. Literally for no other reason than breathing, they received 20%-40% pay increases by going to a startup. However when the market *corrected* those increases evaporated (I call it normalization). There were many who complained about all the white-collar high tech jobs going over seas to India, Russia, China, etc. I participated in the pity party (just for a second). But that's the way it is, what worked 20 years ago may not work today. My response then (and now) is figure out what is being valued by prospective employers and go get it. Then you don't have to worry about the millions of Russian PhDs ready and willing to do your old job for 1/10th the pay.

Every shift has had those that were displaced- when we moved from being an agricultural to an industrial/manufacturing and now to information based. There's no getting around those that are displaced, but the smart ones figure out how to survive in the new economy.

[AksarbeN]

There are CEOs that have retired from corporations like Exxon and United Health Care that have a retirement package larger in Billions of dollars then the total amount of money saved by the total population in many small towns of America.

[katzenfreund]

Working in the tax business really openend my eyes to the fraud going on. And the more money people have, the more fraud, 99% of the time. The worst ones we had were clergy. They would get TAX FREE housing allowances and then could deduct their mortgage interest on the Schedule A, HELLO!??? This is double dipping. One guy got $100.000 tax free housing allowance a year and then was able to dedcut the interest he paid on his mortgage. Insane. Also the World Bank employees don't pay any income tax, did you know that? We had a couple where the wife (American) made over $100.000 a year and paid no tax. Nice, huh? Oh well, enough of that, LOL.....

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by AksarbeN

There are CEOs that have retired from corporations like Exxon and United Health Care that have a retirement package larger in Billions of dollars then the total amount of money saved by the total population in many small towns of America.

I have no way of verifying that- but why is that a problem?

[katzenfreund]

And this isn't "whining" - this is stating facts about the inequality in the tax system.

[Miker2069]

Originally Posted by katzenfreund

Working in the tax business really openend my eyes to the fraud going on. And the more money people have, the more fraud, 99% of the time. The worst ones we had were clergy. They would get TAX FREE housing allowances and then could deduct their mortgage interest on the Schedule A, HELLO!??? This is double dipping. One guy got $100.000 tax free housing allowance a year and then was able to dedcut the interest he paid on his mortgage. Insane. Also the World Bank employees don't pay any income tax, did you know that? We had a couple where the wife (American) made over $100.000 a year and paid no tax. Nice, huh? Oh well, enough of that, LOL.....

Uh very nice- where can I get that job .