I agree that people shouldn't have to pay an inheritance tax. I doubt I'm inheriting a ton of money any time soon, but if I were, I don't want to give up a big chunk of it "just cuz." It's not like that money goes to cover tax refunds for poor people. the government just takes it, cuz they can.
it's not fair at all, but people are hesitant to speak out against it, because it's a "poor little rich kid" situation. but seriously, why should you pay a ton of money on top of having just lost a relative? they earned their money, and now they want you to have it. i just don't get why the feds are like OMGMINE.
OH also on the estate tax thing-- Opponents of the estate tax looking to drum up support fail to mention HOW STUPIDLY EASY it is to avoid it via creative trust making and unlimited spousal giving.
@morninggloria: Seriously. Pay a trust company 5% or you can give the IRS 45%. This should not be difficult math for people who have managed to amass a few million bucks.
@morninggloria: stupidly easy is right. I have about 4 different revocable living trust forms on my computer right now that will basically make sure the majority of your estate passes to your heirs nice and easy.
@megnificent: Don't overestimate the math skills of Americans. I graded a math test on percentages this morning. One problem involved a $60 dress at a 15% discount and asked students to list the sale price of the dress. At least 4 students wrote that the sale price would be $59.85.
When the bleepity-bleep did pity for rich people become some kind of moral high ground? These allegedly oh-so-burdened folks are currently paying less taxes than they paid under RONALD REAGAN. Ari Fleischer, please take your irrelevance and shove it. Maybe you missed it, but back in November the American people collectively offered up their opinion on your ex-boss's performance and it was a pretty resounding FAIL.
Hooooot, I can't respond to comments, so let me say this:
Estates up to $3.5 million are exempt from the estate tax in 2009. That's $7 million per couple. Republicans love to use "estate tax LOL OMG MY MONEEZ!" as a rallying cry, but the people that they end up rallying have nowhere near $7 million to pass on.
Most people who complain about the estate tax do not understand it. And my point is that money passed down from one's rich daddy/mommy/granddaddy/grandmommy etc is no more earned than a welfare check. It's money that you didn't earn and is handed to you.
@bluebears: "After all, if giving a single mother $10,000 a year in welfare stifles her incentive to work, just think how much worse it must be for someone who gets a windfall of 100 or 1,000 times that much."
Haha, love it, whoever wrote that has got subtle snark down pat.
@morninggloria: Thank you. The amount of misinformation about the Estate Tax that its opponents put out there makes me so angry. They are deliberately misleading people for their own gain.
@nakedscience: The fact that he's speaking there at all will piss them off. My cousin is graduating from ASU this year, and she said a few of her friends' parents are refusing to go to the graduation since Obama is speaking.
By having him speak but not giving him an honorary degree, they're pissing off both McCain supporters and Obama supporters...
@SarahMC: I was all like, "Gee, thanks for that stimulus payment in '08, federal government. Did you miss it? Yeah, 'cause now you're getting it back."
I always find it hiiiiiilarious that the people who tend to rail the most on "entitlements" and people (minorities. poor minorities.) living off money that they don't earn tend to be the people who are the biggest perpetrators of "living off money that they didn't earn." Like, they inherited it from their families. Or they had families who paid for their schooling and who supported their lifestyles while they were getting on their own feet financially. Or they inherited a big fatass stock portfolio that's subject to 15% long term cap gains tax rates rather than income tax rates.
Yet, the poor are the ones who don't work for their money. Yep. It's the poor.
@morninggloria:is this the same as the death tax? Cause i know its like 50%. I don't believe in heavy taxes on ANYONES money. Inheretrnce taxes effect poor people too, and a lot of times getting $2000 from your dead grandma isstead of $4000 is a big deal.
@HoooooooT: No, inheritance taxes don't affect poor people in the same way. The rate is based on the taxable estate and is a variable tax rate starting at 18% and going up to 55% of amounts over $2 million. I really, really believe in estate taxes, and wish the government would sure up many of the complicated run-arounds that the rich create. A founding principle of the U.S. was no aristocracy, and limiting inheritable wealth is one of the ways it is done.
So, here's the thing--at my last serving job, we had to declare all our tips as income. Which really sort of sucks, because the paychecks don't cover the taxes and we end up owing.
Yeah, I owed almost $2,000. Which was over half of what I had put away for tuition next year. I'm going to have to work 60+ hours a week over the summer to cover school, and I have no idea if I'll even be able to take classes in the spring.
@elitza bleeds Cubbie blue: same thing just happened to my brother - he is a full-time server (occasional chef and restaurant manager) and got seriously screwed on his taxes this year. he owes double what you owe.
@elitza bleeds Cubbie blue: I used to be a server (UGH unemployment STINKS!!) and the place I worked allowed me to only claim as many tips as I wanted to...like in the POS system (called maitre d or something) at the end of the night, you could enter whatever number you wanted, and since we were kind of independent contractors (not in a legal sense, but we held our own banks, etc) it was basically our choice if we wanted to assume the risk of not being completely honest about our total tip income. Anyway, maybe your work doesn't allow that...
how do your bosses know that what you are declaring is ALL of your tips? I know quite a few servers who just declare a portion, or just declare their cc tips b/c those are the only ones that they govt. can check.
@zoobabe: our tip-outs were based on tips, not sales. And we actually fired at least two people in my time there for not being honest about their tip-out and tips claimed. It was in my best interest to be honest, at least in terms of keeping my job, but man. Shitty April, indeed.
I'm conflicted on calling the resolution to the pirate situation a "victory." A real victory, in my opinion, would be no one dead, bad guys captured and put to trial, and hostage back in America safely. Celebrating anyone's death, evil foreign pirate or no, just doesn't feel right to me.
I'm sick of Ari Fleischer and other Republican, out of touch, rich dickheads passing judgment.
I'll pay my taxes when he stops using loopholes to avoid paying his full share, too.
Wait, I DO pay my taxes. Meanwhile, those who are too broke to pay theirs, who are struggling to even feed their families, or as his ex-boss said, struggling to put food ON their families, would like to give him a swift kick to the crotch.
FUCK YOU, Ari Fleischer, you self-aggrandizing turd.
@AthertonMerriweather: I, too, am in the hole to the Feds... for $2000. Top that off with NJ state taxes and property taxes and its a wonder I have clothes and food.
@rosasparks looks like a Fraggle: There's one of those stupid teabagging parties in my town on tax day, ON THE COURTHOUSE LAWN. I want to go hold a sign that says "Hey dumbshits it is because of our tax dollars that this lawn is even here for you to stand on, much less the roads you drove on to get here. IDIOTS."
@rosasparks looks like a Fraggle: I can't stand listening to Republicans talk about taxes. One of my customers at work asked me where I went to school/my major (poli sci), and they asked me how I leaned politically after learning I'm a politics junkie. I always get this question when asked about my major (maybe I should just say studio art next time....) and he proceeded to go off on me about how liberals and taxes are evil and "when [I] start paying taxes, [I'll] vote differently."
I was like. Dude. I'm working right now. MEANING I PAY TAXES. But, you know, since I'm 20 years old, I don't know any better.
They are so faux "patriotic" and scream at us for not supporting the troops, but when it comes time to pay taxes they're the first to talk about how much the government sucks.
Dr. Warren's condition was related to fatigue and exhaustion...exacerbated by inhalation of fumes
OMG Rick Warren is TOTALLY a huffer!!
Which may explain why he thinks EVERY religion and culture EVER has practiced only one man/one woman marriage. Anyone have an Anthro 101 textbook they can loan him?
Wow, universities who are having Obama speak at their commencements are just falling all over each other in a rush to embarrass themselves.
Notre Dame: OMG! TEH FETUSES! PLEASE TO NOT LET THE PREZIDENT SPEEK! HE EATS TEH BEHBEHS AND CATHOLIX ONLEE CARE OF TEH BABEEZ AND NOTER DAYM IS TEH SAME AS TEH CATHOLICK CHURSH! ASU: LOL TEH FERST BLAK PREZIDENT DOZNT HAS TEH EXPEREENCE!
To be fair, the LOLOBAMA speak from Notre Dame is coming from fringe groups and people who are not affiliated with (and most of whom would probably not gain admission to) the university, and the LOLOBAMA speak at ASU is coming right from the tippy top.
@morninggloria: Yeah. With ASU not wanting to give him an honorary degree, it's like...why did you bother inviting him then? My bf's Republican and Catholic dad doesn't like that he's speaking at Notre Dame, even though none of us have any affiliation to the school whatsoever. I think it's just some crazy religious people getting their panties in a bunch because they are convinced Obama is the antichrist.
But I go to a pinko school that invited Hillary Clinton to speak at commencement this year, so the haterz can suck it.
@onestrawplz: BUT HE IIIIIIIIIIS THE ANTICHRIST OMG DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE WANTS TO DO TO TEH BEBBEHS? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH HE WANTS TO MAKE YOU GAY MARRY OMG????
(I go to ND, and I never really appreciated how loud and annoying the crazier Catholics and conservatives can be until I found myself right in the middle of their wailing and hand-wringing and threats of divine retribution. Not a day goes by now where I don't want to drive someone's head into a cement block.)
@wtfox?!: It's amazing that all they seem to care about is abortion. Like, I was watching Fox "News" (not voluntarily, they put it on the TV at work sometimes) and people were FREAKING OUT because he's pro-choice and might try to push the pro-choice "agenda" at the ceremony, somehow. Seriously guys, his speech will have nada to do with abortion. Then I heard they want to remove ND's status as a Catholic institution. For the fuck of shit.
My mom's Catholic, she proudly voted for Obama, and she thinks some Christians are certifiably kooky. So, there's some amount of sanity in that Church, albeit very little.
04/13/09
it's not fair at all, but people are hesitant to speak out against it, because it's a "poor little rich kid" situation. but seriously, why should you pay a ton of money on top of having just lost a relative? they earned their money, and now they want you to have it. i just don't get why the feds are like OMGMINE.
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Estates up to $3.5 million are exempt from the estate tax in 2009. That's $7 million per couple. Republicans love to use "estate tax LOL OMG MY MONEEZ!" as a rallying cry, but the people that they end up rallying have nowhere near $7 million to pass on.
Most people who complain about the estate tax do not understand it. And my point is that money passed down from one's rich daddy/mommy/granddaddy/grandmommy etc is no more earned than a welfare check. It's money that you didn't earn and is handed to you.
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Haha, love it, whoever wrote that has got subtle snark down pat.
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By having him speak but not giving him an honorary degree, they're pissing off both McCain supporters and Obama supporters...
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I always find it hiiiiiilarious that the people who tend to rail the most on "entitlements" and people (minorities. poor minorities.) living off money that they don't earn tend to be the people who are the biggest perpetrators of "living off money that they didn't earn." Like, they inherited it from their families. Or they had families who paid for their schooling and who supported their lifestyles while they were getting on their own feet financially. Or they inherited a big fatass stock portfolio that's subject to 15% long term cap gains tax rates rather than income tax rates.
Yet, the poor are the ones who don't work for their money. Yep. It's the poor.
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So, here's the thing--at my last serving job, we had to declare all our tips as income. Which really sort of sucks, because the paychecks don't cover the taxes and we end up owing.
Yeah, I owed almost $2,000. Which was over half of what I had put away for tuition next year. I'm going to have to work 60+ hours a week over the summer to cover school, and I have no idea if I'll even be able to take classes in the spring.
So, Ari Fleischer? BLOW ME.
04/13/09
I'm sorry.
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04/13/09
how do your bosses know that what you are declaring is ALL of your tips? I know quite a few servers who just declare a portion, or just declare their cc tips b/c those are the only ones that they govt. can check.
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Whatta wackadoo schmuck.
04/13/09
I'll pay my taxes when he stops using loopholes to avoid paying his full share, too.
Wait, I DO pay my taxes. Meanwhile, those who are too broke to pay theirs, who are struggling to even feed their families, or as his ex-boss said, struggling to put food ON their families, would like to give him a swift kick to the crotch.
FUCK YOU, Ari Fleischer, you self-aggrandizing turd.
04/13/09
This guy can eat a dick.
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But somehow, I think they might miss my point.
04/13/09
I was like. Dude. I'm working right now. MEANING I PAY TAXES. But, you know, since I'm 20 years old, I don't know any better.
They are so faux "patriotic" and scream at us for not supporting the troops, but when it comes time to pay taxes they're the first to talk about how much the government sucks.
04/13/09
OMG Rick Warren is TOTALLY a huffer!!
Which may explain why he thinks EVERY religion and culture EVER has practiced only one man/one woman marriage. Anyone have an Anthro 101 textbook they can loan him?
04/13/09
as
"Obama throwing the first punch at Nationals home opener"
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I'm still bummed though. I'll be at today's game, and it would be pretty cool if President Obama was there.
04/13/09
Notre Dame: OMG! TEH FETUSES! PLEASE TO NOT LET THE PREZIDENT SPEEK! HE EATS TEH BEHBEHS AND CATHOLIX ONLEE CARE OF TEH BABEEZ AND NOTER DAYM IS TEH SAME AS TEH CATHOLICK CHURSH!
ASU: LOL TEH FERST BLAK PREZIDENT DOZNT HAS TEH EXPEREENCE!
To be fair, the LOLOBAMA speak from Notre Dame is coming from fringe groups and people who are not affiliated with (and most of whom would probably not gain admission to) the university, and the LOLOBAMA speak at ASU is coming right from the tippy top.
Embarrassing for everyone, though.
04/13/09
But I go to a pinko school that invited Hillary Clinton to speak at commencement this year, so the haterz can suck it.
04/13/09
(I go to ND, and I never really appreciated how loud and annoying the crazier Catholics and conservatives can be until I found myself right in the middle of their wailing and hand-wringing and threats of divine retribution. Not a day goes by now where I don't want to drive someone's head into a cement block.)
04/13/09
My mom's Catholic, she proudly voted for Obama, and she thinks some Christians are certifiably kooky. So, there's some amount of sanity in that Church, albeit very little.