Inspired Analogy

Economic Stimulus Package = American Taxpayer Reparations

Maintenance, WTF?

I am using the TaxACT website to e-file my return and I clicked continue and got this:

TaxACT Online is Temporarily Offline

We’re sorry, our system is temporarily unavailable for maintenance on our servers.

Please try back again later. We apologize for any inconvenience.

I’ll be up in a few hours. Hopefully it will too.

Glen Maxey: A Blast from the Past

I’ve been following the Travis County race between incumbent Nelda Well Spears and challenger, former State Congressman Glen Maxey for the Democratic nomination for Tax Assessor/Collector. Maxey has been going over the top waging a negative campaign against Spears. Something felt familiar about the way the attacks were coming and I have finally figured out what it is. He’s behaving towards her the same way that Jim Mattox behaved towards Ann Richards in her campaign for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 1990. Ann had been an alcoholic years before and Mattox went on and on in speeches and commercials making it sound like she was having 8Balls delivered to the loading dock at the Travis County Tax Office. Well Ann won with a landslide in the primary and went on to defeat Republican candidte Clayton Williams in November.

Things are different now. The apparent “infractions” and associated accusations are not the same, but he’s grasping at every handful of mud he can and flinging it. He’s not really telling anyone why they should vote for him. He’s spending most of his time telling them why they shouldn’t vote for Ms. Spears. He’s been telling people that “she raised their taxes.” Wooo. TaxGate. It does not matter if her office set the tax rates or not. If they did Ms. Spears isn’t just walking into the office with a wild idea and ruling the office by executive order. Such a decision would have been researched and discussed with several people before it was ever approved. He’s being an unbelievable jerk about all this. He’s stepping down to get his foot back in the door of politics. Such people are usually unbecoming the offices they get elected to. I’m voting for Ms. Spears on March 4th. If the voters choose Mr. Maxey for the nominee I will vote for the Republican to stop him from getting the job.

It’s Decided. The Bush Rebate Goes to the Bank.

I’m sorry. I just can’t do what they want. This isn’t helping keep us from a recession or depression or whatever it is we are headed towards. If I take this money and use it to buy an iPod or camera or whatever I will just be following along with the rest of the mind-numbed who had a choice but took the easy route. I am going to look for a $500 CD and try depositing it on that for a year if possible. I really think that would be the best use of the money. This way I am “buying” something with it…just not a trinket. I’ve got iTunes on the laptop and an MP3 player. That needs to suffice for now. Maybe by this time next year they will have improved the iPod Touch even more. A camcorder would help since I plan to use one in my business. But that needs to be purchased with proceeds from the business not from this government funnymoney. Yeah it’s all coming out of my collective pool (Read: Casserole Dish) of funds. But the money from the government wasn’t budgeted for and shouldn’t be indiscriminately tossed about.

The Economy: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it

Well it is broke. But what you’re proposing won’t fix it. Mr. President, if you want to encourage people to buy stuff, open the oil reserves, cut the gasoline tax in half, fire the guy who’s negotiating with our foreign oil suppliers and replace him with someone who can talk the price down about $75 a barrel from where it is and is going. A lot of people aren’t buying stuff because they’re rolling dimes to pay for gas. I really don’t think anyone over here cares how we look to the folks you’re calling the enemy. So what if we appear weak. Who cares what they think. They’ve held and hold worse opinions than that about us. When you presented the $150B stimulus package you knew, by telling Capitol Hill to not mess with it, that the Senate and House would be bringing add-ons. I don’t have a problem with a $500 vs. $600 rebate if the $100 goes toward senior citizens who are solely on Social Security. It’s not money that’s in my budget anyway. I am curious why you are opposed to that and why the thing was crafted to exclude them in the first place.

Weekend: Weather, Shopping, Exercise

The sun has been out this past couple of days. Temperatures have been above 65 both Saturday and Sunday. I actually got some exercise in. I have to send out 1099 forms by this Wednesday and I have been having trouble finding a smaller package than 50. I only have to send out 4, and that includes the one I am issuing myself. So Friday night I went to Office Depot downtown and found only packs of 50. They weren’t marked very well and while it appeared the thing was only $24, when I got to checkout they wanted $44. So I am thinking there is no way I am paying $10 a piece for 1099 forms. So I had them void that item and Saturday I went to another shopping center and found another package of the forms for only $24. But these did not include the envelopes. Those were an additional $12. Again not worth it. So I walked from that Office Max to the other end of the stripmall (about 1/4mi) over to the Office Depot where I found that they still had packs of 10 forms with envelopes. So I grabbed that. Now the forms only cost $3.50 each to produce. If you have to send out 1099 forms, keep whatever envelopes you have left over. You might need them the following year.

Money 101: The tax rebate check

I am trying to decide what to do with this check the government is proposing to send everyone. I could use this tax check to pay part of my property taxes. I figure if they’re going to play with the economy like it’s a set of Tinkertoys® I should play too. I know I’ll have to add the money to my income but I’ll be writing off the property taxes on Schedule A anyway. Another option would be to buy more stocks with it. Or make an extra house payment. Or put some cash with it and make two truck notes. Or pay off a bill. I’ll have to think about it. I really feel like I should make money with those funds before I have to start paying taxes on it. I want to get the most use out of it. I don’t want to just blow it on stuff. If I decide to buy something with it I have to make sure it is something that will bring in money. Because whatever is not making you money is costing you money. I know that is a dualistic way of viewing the world, but if you look at life and money, you’ll find it to be true. There may be some things that are costing you money that you don’t mind, like your kids needs or your house. But that non income producing asset is a liability even if is a welcome one. You can find out all about this by reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! by Robert Kiyosaki. I really think we’re in the situation we’re in because the education system is designed to produce consumers and employees, not enterprisers and owners.

Gross vs. Net: Thoughts on tithing

The question came up years ago whether as Christians we should tithe out of the gross or the net pay. The “conservative” bunch wants us to all think that you take 10% of the gross and the government just does whatever about their part. Well pay wasn’t handled the way we do now when Jesus was in the flesh. Trust me. They weren’t taking taxes out when people sold things or got their pay from their employer. There were tax collectors who went around to gather in the funds and see to it getting to the regional governor for transport to Rome. That appears to be the system that was in place until Rome fell. But during the time of Jesus’ ministry, the Pharisees confronted him about whether to pay the offering or the tax. Jesus said “…render to Caesar that which is Caesar’s and to God that which is God’s. (Matthew 22:21)” It has always looked to me as though Jesus was making a distinction between the two and that therefore we could pay off the net if we wished. When I said that at church I was told that it took “more faith” to pay off of the gross. Well when you get your paycheck, the taxes are gone. Caesar has already taken out his portion and if you don’t give him enough he’ll demand more in April. More faith, less faith, whatever. The money’s gone. You have to take care of whatever other obligations you have in life out of what is left. There is support in scripture for choosing to pay off of the net. St. Paul says let each give what he has purposed in his heart … for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7). As a believer you have to make that choice for yourself. I say if you are able pay out of the gross pay out of the gross, if not, pay out of the net. As for the way things are for me right now I am tithing out of the net. I plan to increase the amount as I am able and will eventually be paying out of the gross. As far as other people’s opinions and attempts to beat me down with a faith-bat, I’m not going to worry about all that. I’ll get with God’s CPA on the other side and hash out the details of what should or should not have happened when I see him.