Trump Presidency

[madhatter]

meanwhile...

Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3628 ... or-victory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[XtremeJibber2001]

meanwhile...

Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3628 ... or-victory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not the best, not what was promised, and took too long to pass ... but it's better than what we have today. Disappointed income tax cuts will end in less than 10 years (this also pertains to other key cuts, too). Some key changes from the House version ....

Senate bill retains the 7 brackets, but they're now 10, 12 (lowered by 3), 22 (lowered by 3), 24 (lowered by 3), 32 (lowered by 1), 35 (remains the same) and 38.5% (lowered by 1). No idea what they GOP was hard on lowering the bracket for wealthiest earners (this tax change is already going to grow the debt).
Senate bill doubles per-child tax credit to $2,000 and creates a $300 tax credit for each adult in a family. I'm not an accountant, but my understanding is you're only eligible for these credits if you still need to itemize, which for most couples won't be necessary as the standard deduction was doubled to $24k. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Senate bill retains the current limit for the deduction to interest paid on the first $1 million of mortgage. Again, not sure why GOP was hard on increasing this deduction from the House version of $500,000. Another item benefiting only the most wealthy.
Senate bill ends deductions for moving expenses and tax preparation. House eliminates medical expense deduction.
Senate bill repeals the requirement for ACA. This will create other problems.
Senate bill keeps AMT.
Senate bill retains estate tax, but double the limits.
Senate bill cut Corporate Taxes from 35 to 20. However, implementation will be delayed 12 months.
Senate bill imposes a one-time tax on profits (14.5% on cash assets / 7.5% on non-cash assets) that U.S.-based corporations are holding overseas. Also ends tax advantages for firms moving overseas.

The last two are huge and the primary reason I am in favor of the tax overhaul.

[madhatter]

meanwhile...

Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3628 ... or-victory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not the best, not what was promised, and took too long to pass ... but it's better than what we have today. Disappointed income tax cuts will end in less than 10 years (this also pertains to other key cuts, too). Some key changes from the House version ....

Senate bill retains the 7 brackets, but they're now 10, 12 (lowered by 3), 22 (lowered by 3), 24 (lowered by 3), 32 (lowered by 1), 35 (remains the same) and 38.5% (lowered by 1). No idea what they GOP was hard on lowering the bracket for wealthiest earners (this tax change is already going to grow the debt).how much do you think 1% of the tax liability of the 1% is??? I'm gonna go with nothing significant enough to "grow the debt" by any significant amount...
Senate bill doubles per-child tax credit to $2,000 and creates a $300 tax credit for each adult in a family. I'm not an accountant, but my understanding is you're only eligible for these credits if you still need to itemize, which for most couples won't be necessary as the standard deduction was doubled to $24k. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Senate bill retains the current limit for the deduction to interest paid on the first $1 million of mortgage. Again, not sure why GOP was hard on increasing this deduction from the House version of $500,000. Another item benefiting only the most wealthy. lots of million dollar dumps in NYC and SF etc...
Senate bill ends deductions for moving expenses and tax preparation. House eliminates medical expense deduction.
Senate bill repeals the requirement for ACA. This will create other problems.
Senate bill keeps AMT.
Senate bill retains estate tax, but double the limits.
Senate bill cut Corporate Taxes from 35 to 20. However, implementation will be delayed 12 months.
Senate bill imposes a one-time tax on profits (14.5% on cash assets / 7.5% on non-cash assets) that U.S.-based corporations are holding overseas. Also ends tax advantages for firms moving overseas.

The last two are huge and the primary reason I am in favor of the tax overhaul.

tax credits and deductions are different...pretty sure you'll be able to take both...mrs hatter is an accountant but she's not home right now... I'll get a further explanation from her later...

Tax credits vs. tax deductions. ... Tax credits provide a dollar-for dollar reduction of your income tax liability. This means that a $1,000 tax credit saves you $1,000 in taxes. On the other hand, tax deductions lower your taxable income and they are equal to the percentage of your marginal tax bracket.

for most "not rich" people this will put extra money in their pockets...AMT kind of assures that upper middle class ( that many mistake as rich) won;t see the kind of breaks the lower income earners will... corporations will see lower tax rates but this should not be mistaken as a break for the wealthy ( as many people seem to think)...individuals earning a corporate salary will still pay the designated rate for their tax bracket...

[madhatter]

not trump related but an interesting little story on tax protest...

[XtremeJibber2001]

meanwhile...

Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3628 ... or-victory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not the best, not what was promised, and took too long to pass ... but it's better than what we have today. Disappointed income tax cuts will end in less than 10 years (this also pertains to other key cuts, too). Some key changes from the House version ....

Senate bill retains the 7 brackets, but they're now 10, 12 (lowered by 3), 22 (lowered by 3), 24 (lowered by 3), 32 (lowered by 1), 35 (remains the same) and 38.5% (lowered by 1). No idea what they GOP was hard on lowering the bracket for wealthiest earners (this tax change is already going to grow the debt).how much do you think 1% of the tax liability of the 1% is??? I'm gonna go with nothing significant enough to "grow the debt" by any significant amount...
Senate bill doubles per-child tax credit to $2,000 and creates a $300 tax credit for each adult in a family. I'm not an accountant, but my understanding is you're only eligible for these credits if you still need to itemize, which for most couples won't be necessary as the standard deduction was doubled to $24k. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Senate bill retains the current limit for the deduction to interest paid on the first $1 million of mortgage. Again, not sure why GOP was hard on increasing this deduction from the House version of $500,000. Another item benefiting only the most wealthy. lots of million dollar dumps in NYC and SF etc...
Senate bill ends deductions for moving expenses and tax preparation. House eliminates medical expense deduction.
Senate bill repeals the requirement for ACA. This will create other problems.
Senate bill keeps AMT.
Senate bill retains estate tax, but double the limits.
Senate bill cut Corporate Taxes from 35 to 20. However, implementation will be delayed 12 months.
Senate bill imposes a one-time tax on profits (14.5% on cash assets / 7.5% on non-cash assets) that U.S.-based corporations are holding overseas. Also ends tax advantages for firms moving overseas.

The last two are huge and the primary reason I am in favor of the tax overhaul.

tax credits and deductions are different...pretty sure you'll be able to take both...mrs hatter is an accountant but she's not home right now... I'll get a further explanation from her later...

Tax credits vs. tax deductions. ... Tax credits provide a dollar-for dollar reduction of your income tax liability. This means that a $1,000 tax credit saves you $1,000 in taxes. On the other hand, tax deductions lower your taxable income and they are equal to the percentage of your marginal tax bracket.

for most "not rich" people this will put extra money in their pockets...AMT kind of assures that upper middle class ( that many mistake as rich) won;t see the kind of breaks the lower income earners will... corporations will see lower tax rates but this should not be mistaken as a break for the wealthy ( as many people seem to think)...individuals earning a corporate salary will still pay the designated rate for their tax bracket...

From what I can tell the child tax credit would be moot for most due to the increase in the standard deduction. It's not a top line deduction.

[madhatter]

meanwhile...

Senate passes tax overhaul, securing major GOP victory

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3628 ... or-victory" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It's not the best, not what was promised, and took too long to pass ... but it's better than what we have today. Disappointed income tax cuts will end in less than 10 years (this also pertains to other key cuts, too). Some key changes from the House version ....

Senate bill retains the 7 brackets, but they're now 10, 12 (lowered by 3), 22 (lowered by 3), 24 (lowered by 3), 32 (lowered by 1), 35 (remains the same) and 38.5% (lowered by 1). No idea what they GOP was hard on lowering the bracket for wealthiest earners (this tax change is already going to grow the debt).how much do you think 1% of the tax liability of the 1% is??? I'm gonna go with nothing significant enough to "grow the debt" by any significant amount...
Senate bill doubles per-child tax credit to $2,000 and creates a $300 tax credit for each adult in a family. I'm not an accountant, but my understanding is you're only eligible for these credits if you still need to itemize, which for most couples won't be necessary as the standard deduction was doubled to $24k. Correct me if I'm wrong here.
Senate bill retains the current limit for the deduction to interest paid on the first $1 million of mortgage. Again, not sure why GOP was hard on increasing this deduction from the House version of $500,000. Another item benefiting only the most wealthy. lots of million dollar dumps in NYC and SF etc...
Senate bill ends deductions for moving expenses and tax preparation. House eliminates medical expense deduction.
Senate bill repeals the requirement for ACA. This will create other problems.
Senate bill keeps AMT.
Senate bill retains estate tax, but double the limits.
Senate bill cut Corporate Taxes from 35 to 20. However, implementation will be delayed 12 months.
Senate bill imposes a one-time tax on profits (14.5% on cash assets / 7.5% on non-cash assets) that U.S.-based corporations are holding overseas. Also ends tax advantages for firms moving overseas.

The last two are huge and the primary reason I am in favor of the tax overhaul.

tax credits and deductions are different...pretty sure you'll be able to take both...mrs hatter is an accountant but she's not home right now... I'll get a further explanation from her later...

Tax credits vs. tax deductions. ... Tax credits provide a dollar-for dollar reduction of your income tax liability. This means that a $1,000 tax credit saves you $1,000 in taxes. On the other hand, tax deductions lower your taxable income and they are equal to the percentage of your marginal tax bracket.

for most "not rich" people this will put extra money in their pockets...AMT kind of assures that upper middle class ( that many mistake as rich) won;t see the kind of breaks the lower income earners will... corporations will see lower tax rates but this should not be mistaken as a break for the wealthy ( as many people seem to think)...individuals earning a corporate salary will still pay the designated rate for their tax bracket...

From what I can tell the child tax credit would be moot for most due to the increase in the standard deduction. It's not a top line deduction.

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/ho ... ur-wallet/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Boosting the child tax credit while removing the personal exemption
Of the 150.6 million tax returns filed in 2015, 22.6 million took advantage of the child tax credit, for a total of 27.4 billion untaxed dollars. As it currently stands, you can reduce your income by up to $1,000 for each dependent kid you claim. Your ability to take this discount is mainly defined by your income: The credit begins to be scaled back starting at $110,000 a year for married couples. The current House GOP plan would increase the credit from $1,000 to $1,600, which would be $600 worth of good news per kid for those 22.6 million filers. The plan would also offer a $300 tax credit for each non-child dependent, such as an elderly parent or a child older than 17.

However, the plan also gets rid of the personal and dependent exemptions. That allows each person — the tax filer, their spouse, their dependents — to make $4,050 of their income exempt. Taxpayers took 293 million exemptions in 2015, amounting to just over 1.1 trillion dollars. As a result, the math gets a little harder on families here: gaining $600 and losing the taxed portion of $4,050 per child, essentially. For larger families, the hike on the standard deduction isn’t going to wipe out those losses.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-t ... d=51522631" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Upper-middle income households with a lot of children

Although the bill does expand the child tax credit from $1,000 to $2,000 it also does away with personal exemptions. If you’re in the 25 percent bracket or lower and you have children, Greenberg says “the Senate bill is a good or harmless trade.”

The personal exemption allows individuals to deduct more than $4,000 as a “personal exemption” for themselves, their spouses, and each dependent. Greenberg says this could hit upper-middle income families.

unless you are upper income ( over 110k), and/or have a large family the tax bill is a net gain...so perhaps for a small number of people its "moot" for most it's a decrease in liability...

tax the rich they gotta pay their fair share...

from five thirty eight

As it happens, most people don’t have a mortgage, most people don’t own stocks and, as a rule, most people are unaffected by carve-out exemptions created in response to lobbying for small classes of individuals. The reality is that, outside of the marginal rates that determine how much of your income goes to taxes and the personal exemption you get just for existing, the standard deduction is probably the single part of the tax code that most affects a majority of Americans.

for a family of four not much changes...

12k standard + 4k * 4ppl = 28k

24k standard + 2k for each of 2 dependent children = 28k

unless yer rich of course...@ 20% of households break the 6 figure mark...$110,000 was more than 93% of Americans who earned money in 2014

http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[XtremeJibber2001]

for a family of four not much changes...

12k standard + 4k * 4ppl = 28k

24k standard + 2k for each of 2 dependent children = 28k

unless yer rich of course...@ 20% of households break the 6 figure mark...$110,000 was more than 93% of Americans who earned money in 2014

http://graphics.wsj.com/what-percent/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Thanks for the info above.

[madhatter]

http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/04/politics/ ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[madhatter]

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status ... 7846934528" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[XtremeJibber2001]

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status ... 7846934528

I doubt there was any conspiracy of Trump working with the Russians to win the election. Was Trump and his administration (during his campaign and after becoming POTUS) lying to investigators and the American public about connections to Russia? I think the answer is yes given the guilty pleas from Flynn and Papadopoulos. Many of these conversations were legal, but lying to investigators is not. I suspect we'll eventually see a guilty plea from Manafort. I think the odds of a Trump impeachment, considering all these folks need to save their own asses, are growing.

[madhatter]

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status ... 7846934528

I doubt there was any conspiracy of Trump working with the Russians to win the election. Was Trump and his administration (during his campaign and after becoming POTUS) lying to investigators and the American public about connections to Russia? I think the answer is yes given the guilty pleas from Flynn and Papadopoulos. Many of these conversations were legal, but lying to investigators is not. I suspect we'll eventually see a guilty plea from Manafort. I think the odds of a Trump impeachment, considering all these folks need to save their own asses, are growing.

keep us posted...

[Highway Star]

I think the odds of a Trump impeachment, considering all these folks need to save their own asses, are growing.

Going from a 0% chance of impeachment to a 0% chance of impeachment is not growth.

[MarieM]

I'm hoping that someone here can explain to me how it is that Conyers is resigning, but Moore will be elected? What am I missing?

[Bubba]

I'm hoping that someone here can explain to me how it is that Conyers is resigning, but Moore will be elected? What am I missing?

Have you ever been to Alabama?

[Bubba]

NPR Poll: Trump opposition firmer than his support

https://www.npr.org/2017/12/05/56841238 ... is-support" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;