Screwed Up On My Taxes!

[Guest Josh]

I take part in the Sprint Employee Purchase Plan which allows me to designate a certain % of my salary every pay check for Sprint stock at a discounted rate.

Basically I gained $101.05 though this program but forgot to include in my tax filings with H&R Block. Next year I suppose I'll have to claim this, or do I not claim anything until I cash out the investment?

[z28luvr01]

Better watch it, or else the IRS will give you an Audi.

</family guy joke>

[Flybrian]

It's a faaareign car, the 'T' is silent.

[knightfan26917]

Hmmm....

AFAIK, as long as that is in a 401(k) plan or similar ... it is tax-sheltered (i.e. non-reportable) until you take a distribution....

But, don't quote me on that .

Cort, "Mr MC" / "Mr Road Trip", 32swm/pig valve/pacemaker

MC:family.IL.guide.future = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/

Models.HO = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort/trainroom.html

"It's coming down to nothing more than apathy" ... The Fray ... 'Over My Head'

[Derek77]

Wouldn't it be nice to not have to worry about doing taxes? April 15 would be just another day. And we got to keep all of our pay check...... Oh it would be nice.

See Below.

[Black and Blue Landscaper]

Well i share an idea that Camino told me about, as far as income taxes go...

no income tax only a sales tax, so if you dont buy anything with the money you make you do not pay taxes, if you have more money and buy more &#036;h&#33;, than you pay more taxes if you have a little bit of money and buy a little bit of &#036;h&#33; you pay a little bit of taxes, seems fair to me, its easy, no paper work, nothing, and everyone can get what they need...

[Turbojett]

Better watch it, or else the IRS will give you an Audi.

</family guy joke>

I like the Alpha-Bits gag better.

[Enzora]

Well i share an idea that Camino told me about, as far as income taxes go...

no income tax only a sales tax, so if you dont buy anything with the money you make you do not pay taxes, if you have more money and buy more &#036;h&#33;, than you pay more taxes if you have a little bit of money and buy a little bit of &#036;h&#33; you pay a little bit of taxes, seems fair to me, its easy, no paper work, nothing, and everyone can get what they need...

Can you say black markets?

[Derek77]

Can you say black markets?

And there isn't black markets now to avoid paying taxes under our current system? Is there punishment for not paying your taxes now? Will there be punishment for not paying under the fair tax? You bet. Find out more about the Fair Tax before you bash the Fair Tax.

[Enzora]

And there isn't black markets now to avoid paying taxes under our current system? Is there punishment for not paying your taxes now? Will there be punishment for not paying under the fair tax? You bet. Find out more about the Fair Tax before you bash the Fair Tax.

Okay, now that I've looked through that site some, I have one burning question about the, uh, what was the name of that tax plan again? I don't think you mentioned it. How would it possibly address the fact that although rich people may spend more overall, they spend a smaller percentage of their actual income?

[Derek77]

Okay, now that I've looked through that site some, I have one burning question about the, uh, what was the name of that tax plan again?  I don't think you mentioned it.   How would it possibly address the fact that although rich people may spend more overall, they spend a smaller percentage of their actual income?

48. Is the FairTax progressive? Do the rich pay more and the poor pay less as a percentage of their spending?

[Enzora]

But the rich would still be paying a smaller percentage of their overall income in taxes than those who make less money.

[Derek77]

But the rich would still be paying a smaller percentage of their overall income in taxes than those who make less money.

Is that a crime? Are you asking that the rich be punished for making more money? Should they have to pay 50% in your mind? Under the Fair Tax, everyone would be taxed the same no matter how you cut it. The more you spend the more you pay.

[Enzora]

Is that a crime? Are you asking that the rich be punished for making more money? Should they have to pay 50% in your mind? Under the Fair Tax, everyone would be taxed the same no matter how you cut it. The more you spend the more you pay.

Okay, let me present a hypothetical situation to more clearly express my point.

Person A makes 30,000 dollars a year. Person B makes 500,000 dollars a year. Person A spends 25,000 dollars a year and puts the remaining 5,000 in investments. Person B spends 250,000 dollars a year and puts the other 250,000 into investments. Person B is spending a lot more money than Person A, as would be expected, since Person B makes a lot more. When the primary tax is a sales tax, Person B would definitely be paying more than Person A(at 23% tax rate, person A is paying around 5750 in taxes, while person B is paying ten times as much, at 57500 dollars). And yes, with that rebate thingy, would actually end up with a higher percentage of his expenditures going towards taxes Here's the thing, though. At a tax rate of 23% on expenditures, Person A is spending 19.2% of his total income in taxes, while person B is only paying 11.5% of his total income in taxes.

[cmattson]

There's two ways of looking at this:

The rich are being penalized.

or:

The rich should pay more because they've profited more (taken more from society) than others from our capitalistic society. You surely don't think that you'd be able to profit in such a manner in another country, do you? Unless you do something WAY over-the-top, I don't think you are ever going to discourage people from trying to earn more and more. Really, the core issue here comes back to this: what spurs the economy? Money invested or money spent? I'm in the latter on this one. Invested money seems to "sit at the top". It makes stocks rise, raises paper worth, gets executives more money to re-invest. Money spent seems to make the economy grow and generates jobs, raises the standard of living, etc. My personal opinion -- take it for what it's worth..

I'm still a skeptic. Everything sounds nice and everything, but take a look at the web-site's numbers. It estimates that mortgage rates would go down 1.75% due to savings from not having to deal with today's complicated tax-policies. While I agree that there would be savings, where is the data? How did they arrive at 1.75%? Being that this is a pro-fairtax website, I'd have to assume they are choosing the rosiest scenario. What if everything isn't that rosy?

[Derek77]

What if Person B spends all their money, then Person B would be paying 23% of their income on taxes. And if Person A did the same thing, he would give 23% of his income to taxes just as Person B.

In your hypothetical situation, you forgot to mention that Person A decided to do spend more of their income on things. He didn't have to. The fact is that no class benefits more from the FairTax than the poor, if you were trying to hint that the Fair Tax punishes the poor.

The FairTax does not tax any portion of the income that rich people get. It's not an income tax. The FairTax is a consumption tax, it taxes spending. If you assume that rich people spend more than poor and middle class people (not a difficult assumption to make) then you can see that the rich will pay more in consumption taxes than the poor.

[Enzora]

My hypothetical situation was based upon actual statistics. The more people earn, the lower the percentage they spend on goods, and the more they invest. Why? Because they can. When a person is barely making enough to survive, they don't have any excess money to invest in the stock market.

[Derek77]

And they do now? Some one making 30K or less a year is not playing the stock market. Under the Fair Tax the poor might actually be able to save for their future.The Fair Tax is not an added tax. I repeat. The Fair Tax is not an added tax. It replaces the tax on all goods. So prices will stay the same or lower. The poor will get to keep all of there check. 100%. And on top of that they get a prebate check in the mail to cover the taxes on the basic necessities of life up to the poverty level. In the end the person barely making enough to survive will pay nothing!!!!

cmattson you'll have to look at the book or look at there sight to look at some of the independent studies on the tax. The soft cover is coming out soon with more and updated info in it.

The Fair Tax is not perfect, but it is better than the scam of a tax code we have in place now.

[Enzora]

And they do now?

No. They don't. That's my point. People aren't going to just buy what they need to stay alive; they buy stuff as nice as they can afford. The more they make, the nicer the stuff that they're going to buy; I recognize this. But even after buying a mansion or two, a couple dream cars, a wife, etc, a ridiculously wealthy man will still have a much higher percentage of his income left than a woman who makes 35,000 a year, owns a modest home, and drives a Camry.

[Derek77]

The Fair Tax is not ment to be a tax on the high achievers and given to the people making under 35K as a welfare credit. That would be called socialism. The poor come out smelling like a rose under the Fair Tax. They will have more of THEIR MONEY under the plan, so they can decide what they want to do with THEIR MONEY. If they want to invest, they can do it. If they want to buy more crap, they can do it. Their money is theirs.

[CaddyXLR-V]

No.  They don't.  That's my point.  People aren't going to just buy what they need to stay alive; they buy stuff as nice as they can afford.  The more they make, the nicer the stuff that they're going to buy; I recognize this.  But even after buying a mansion or two, a couple dream cars, a wife, etc, a ridiculously wealthy man will still have a much higher percentage of his income left than a woman who makes 35,000 a year, owns a modest home, and drives a Camry.

Thats why they stay middle class. It is very hard to resist spending more when you make more. What is the first thing people do after that big raise? A new car, new house, next thing you know, they are back in the hole. Instead they could be using that money to invest and make more money off it, and keeping the same car and house for a few more years.

[Sixty8panther]

My G/F is an accountant and SHE got audited last week for 2004. IN the end we have to cough up an extra $600 and the kicker?

THEIR mistake. The guy even admited that some Re-re got the "Commisions" column confused with "Contractors".