This morning I had the last of my meetings with staff in India for my old role.
In my new role, I have no one assigned to me in Asia, and I am happy about that.
I previously mentioned about a cafe/art gallery that opened up around the corner from my home called "Two Moons" (perhaps they consulted with Rob when they named the place?). It is owned and run by two attractive ladies in their mid-twenties.
I pass by the place many times and it was often empty. It seemed like it was not catching on. Well, in the spirit of true capitalism, these two gals rewrote their business plan and came up with a new competitive advantage: boobs!! I went in there yesterday to get a cup of coffee, and the place was pretty crowded. And lo and behold, the two ladies were wearing VERY low-cut blouses. Their boobs were not just hanging out - they were oozing out. I guess even the namby-pampy men of Park Slope took notice.
Benson, yeah, joking but then I wouldn't be surprised if there is some degree of truth to the post though - ie our debates here can get pretty intense often.
Arkady, if DIBS posts more, it'll be lots of whining - ie if he has that much time to post, it'll mean he is bored with retirement, and missing nooners,.....
DIBS, that is NOT pertaining to now but a forecast of you bored as shit in retirement - ie the only scenario where you would be posting more than now. If that scenario plays out, you'll be whining.
I watched 60 minutes last night (very rare event - but in current location TV is mostly on ).
One segment was about these ranches in Texas outside dallas or houston or someplace like that....where they have these exotic african animals many which are endangered species. So - looks like I could go on safari there. So many of my friends have gone to africa last few years on these safaris...but seems too far and expensive for me. And not so interested.
But I could see going to Texas to see them maybe. Not like seeing in a zoo they are 'free-range' .
Dona, have you been -since you seem to go Texas and lived there?
and for you primary followers down here in florida.....I hear constant Romney ads but no gingrinch on tv. All seem like so-called 'negative' ads. At least in Miami/Broward county market. Must be his campaign has tons more $$$ to spend.
I have a hunch that Mitt and his "establishment Republican" supporters may have overplayed their hand in Florida with their "scorched earth" negative campaigning against Newt.
"I'm starting the count-down clock on the G-Men spanking the Pats: 7 days"
I am going to say the same thing I always say under these circumstances: I thought Chinese were superstitious. With Jewish (ashkenazy) folk superstition, you would never boldly predict victory on something this important, lest you risk drawing the attention of the "evil eye." Does Chinese superstition work differently? Can you brag in advance with no repercussion?
I'm stepping up efforts / incentives for the little guy to re-appear here. CGar, this hottie is in real estate and she resides in NYC - ie vs some hottie living else where
I am attempting to withdraw from all this retail political coverage -- to the extent I can overcome my news junkie habit (in addition to OT habit...all these obsessions!). All of this news coverage of tactics is a waste of time (newscasters get a theme and cover it in an unimaginative, unimformative way, chewing it until it is white.
I am also sick of these characters. I loathe Newt Gingrich. Obama has disappointed me. (my industry and things like Keystone) and Romney is still a cipher to me.
I am concentrating on work. Please inform me if anything changes but I'm out for a few months.
"I have a hunch that Mitt and his "establishment Republican" supporters may have overplayed their hand in Florida with their "scorched earth" negative campaigning against Newt."
So far, it seems to be having the intended effect -- Newt, contrary to my rpediction of last week, seems to have dropped quite a bit in the FL polls. One of the interesting ironies for me for this primary campaign is the role of the FEC decision in opening the corporate $$ floodgates for nominally independent PACS to engage in intraparty warfare at this level. Colbert was right on in skewering SuperPACS on the noncoordination requirement.
Interesting, benson. It will be intersting to see if other polls are showing apples to apples trend in same direction. I am also not fully buying the conclusion of the poll -- same poll shows 8 point margin, then 5 points -- given margin of error, these polls coul dbe showing the same thing or not.
Overall, polling during the GOP primaries this year has shown a lot more volatility than one usually sees, even in primaries, much faster swings and reversals and of graeter magnitude. So my initial prediction of a close race in FL may prove true. Perhaps some of what we keep seeing is an overreported response to events (positive or negative response to debate performance, influence of barrage of negative ads) followed by a small correction. I was surprised by the polls showing such a steep and rapid drop in FL poll #s for Gingrich because I did not see what would cause that rapid a change of that magnitude with that electorate. So a bit of a correction towards a tighter race in polling makes sense to me, but so would the effect of a barrage of negative ads.
February is going to be sleepy primary-wide after this. But I do not see anything getting settled between the candidates before Super Tuesday in March.
Seems like all one need do is goad Newt until he loses his temper, which doesn't take long. Then sit back and watch the fireworks, and watch the Newt implode. That's why "establishment Republicans" didn't want him in the first place. He showed that side of himself back in the 90's, and they know what he's like. He may talk the talk that some segment of the population wants to hear, but his personality is not suited for the presidency. It wasn't suited for Speaker of the House, and it cost him that job, too.
florida voting already started. I haven't read what % vote early as opposed to those who wait until tomorrow.
This is 1st primary of season where only registered republicans can participate, I think. A winner take all primary(not sure if I think that is best idea).
I think florida was punishsed by national party for having their primary so early (reduced the # of delegates to convention)---
.
if there were truly a big surge for Newton and then quickly a big rebound for Willard,
I'd say reason was big negative campaign advertising splurge. Unfortunate that they are effective but seems like they do work.
I watched Meet the Press Sunday and it was interesting to see two doyens of the Republican establishment -- Fred Thompson and John McCain -- talk with David Gregory. They are both supporting Romney and in a relaxed sort of way took a walk down memory lane back to the shutdown of the government spearheaded by Gingrich and ultimately undone by the efforts of Bob Dole. It was interesting, but I am out. I am sick of this shit. This is what I think will happen: Romney will get the nomination and it will be a close general election, but Obama will win. Republicans however will get more seats in Congress and the more conservative agenda will drive Obama in his second term, ala Clinton.
If anything happens to the contrary, I will wake up and start paying attention. In the meantime, it's work work work for me.
I was blocked last week when at the hospital. Then when went to 2nd page of comments I was okay.
maybe that pic of the cat with censorable caption? or that word that starts with b and ends with b.
Donatella, what is that lighting store you mentioned to me previously (that I obviously forgotten now)? want to look at lighting before I tell contractor to put in drop ceiling for can lights
M4L, I bought a lot the light fixtures I put in here on line. Lampsplus.com is the best one. But for crystal fixtures and sconces (have two chandeliers) I bought them from Crystorama. They sell crystal fixtures and glass fixtures and a lot of historic reproductions. Their assembly plant is in Long Island and they sell to the trade. BUT they have a sale and sell to the public twice a year - in Oct and March. I got some great stuff that fits perfectly in here and I got it 50% off retail price -- a la trade price. You can check their website to see if the fixtures work. They specialize in glass/crystal obviously but there is sort of a lot of stuff. You might really like it. crystorama.com
Actually, from Crystorama, I bought sconces for the hallway, a small area hanging crystal fixture, a historic reproduction for the front parlor room (a small crystal hanging chandelier) and a larger brass one for the back room. I also got a hanging lantern type fixture for the hallway and three flush mount crystal fixtures -- one for lobby, two for the downstairs here. So they got a lot of biz from me. Prices very good. Stuff is beautiful.
Yeah, I might have been sleeping. Or cleaning. Or cooking. It was clear about McCain. Maybe Thompson was so low key that I missed that. Thanks Benson. I know that I can never get confused if you are around. :-)
Donatella, the new pad is 1960's plain vanilla post war pad that we'll renovate more toward modern feel than anything. There's currently no ceiling light or wall sconces for the bedrms, living rms and large portion of the hallways. dropped ceiling with can lights is the easy practical solution but it's not the most aesthetic look hence want to see overall look I can get via floor / table lamps and wall sconces (for where I'm putting up new walls).
Riverdale and jamaica estates (or somewhere else in outer Queens) were two of my first guesses, but the second pic has me thinking somewhere in southern SI or up in the hills of SI somewhere. Just too rural. Of course, during the RE bubble, realtors listed Kenilworth, IL properties under "Park Slope Vicinity."
M4L, if you want to send me pictures I can give you a couple of ideas. I have looked at thousands of every kind of fixtures. It has been a while, but I know about major manufactures and styles for certain spaces. Or if you want me to look at the space itself, I would be happy to do that. I swear to you I spent an insane amount of time on fixtures. BTW, I know cans are considered declasse here, but I have them in my kitchen since I like a lot of light. I don't like dim, creepy dark places and in brownstones, light is the major design challenge. I LIKE LIGHT.
Quinnipiac is the least reliable of the most three recent polls, as it has the smallest sampling size. Other two recent polls show Newt closing the lead:
I really like exploring different areas of the city. The last place I explored was the North Shore of Staten Island, which is the older section. I can imagine that this area was once wealthy, but unfortunately their waterfront view these days consists of oil tank farms across the channel in Bayonne, NJ.
No Legion, Slopey got it right. I am fed up with the retail political coverage and I find that I spend too much time and mental energy swimming around in this media bath. And Benson, not true. Your fact checking is fine and appreciated. It means that you read my long posts. Thank you.
Train friends were jealous when i told them this morning that today was my last official,Monday on the 6:46 from Philly to NYC!!! Most of them do it every day and I just can't imagine that.
My parents used to live on the north shore of Staten Island, in fact my father and grandfather worked for Exxon, taking a ferry across the water to work at what is the Bayway refinery. My grandfather went from a longshoreman job supervising barges and then worked as a supervisor in the refinery itself. He was the man. My father worked for some time in the lab, but left to work for NYC. My grandparents used to live near a US Gypsom plant which my grandmother hated because it deposited white dust on her furniture. The north shore of Staten Island was more developed and has historic housing stock. The south shore was the total sticks where my parents moved in the early 50s.
benson and arkady -- what I would look for to see whether benson's onto a comeback trend in FL is how many polls are showing the trend compared with a previous iteration of the same poll. Are more polls showing apples to apples movement back in favor of Gingrich? Benson's got 2, though I think the claim for how dramatic the reversal is may be overstated given the apples to apples comparison. But I keep underestimating how fast primary voter preferences can change in this season, mainly because I've never quite seen anything like it before.
One question in my mind is whether, as benson seemed to suggest, the Gingrich mini-surge is because of outrage at Romney's attacks, or whether the full extent of the damage frm those attacks is now done and this is a bit of a regression toward a preexisting mean.
My overarching point remains that Gingrich will do well enough to push this to Super Tuesday.
ok, Benson, you're on. I have no time for those characters any more. I had an experience in living in Japan. I was out re TV media. They only had NHK and porn channels. I would listen to these wooden NHK characters do the news loop after my Japanese improved but no way would that be my way to get news. So I read. I read the Economist and other papers and journals and I realized how we THINK we are informed here because we watch the news, but it is crap. Entertainment. I am fed up with it and think I can probably get better informed other ways. It is too time consuming anyway.
I tend to put a lot of stock in PPP's polls (from your side of the world, I might add). From my experience, they tend to have more insight than others.
My hunch above is based on reading some Tea Party blogs. They are none-too-happy about the way that establishment Republicans have mauled Newt. Sarah Palin stepped in again, as she did at the last minute in SC, to speak up.
Hey, benson, I am not agreeing or disagreeing with you or your read of the polls, just looking for more data to confirm or rebut the trend. I am generally suspicious from experience of claims that negative advertising is hurting the candidate who is using them, unless the ads are patently false and unequivocally and publicly revealed as such. Though this election and electorate differs from apst expereince in many ways so I would not rule it out here. Nate Silver does a good job sifting real meaning out of tons of polling data, but has not updated his blog recently enough to capture these polls. His most recent on the subject is at the depths of the Gingrich swoon.
Big picture question for both of us is whether eventual GOP nominee is strengthened or softened up by the primaries. I know what I wish for but I don't have an opinion yet as to what will actually happen.
It would seem that most of the country still doesn't know that carried interest is the same as capital gains and that's why it is taxed at 15% currently.
So I emailed the recruiter for the FD job just to check on the status and he did indeed say that CFO has been busy with projects and not sure if he looked at my resume. He said he'd check and get back to me.
In other news, I almost had a heart attack today because one of the potential buyers for one of the apartments in my building called me and said that Chase doesn't want to close because the lien search came back and there is a lien on our building for 160 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! I was shocked as we just had closing and refinancings with Chase at the end of October and I never heard of such thing. Plus there is no outstanding legal matters pending or anything like that and our building is worth maybe 20 Million tops. I have no idea where this lien came from and I really hope that it's a mistake. It's not like we haven't been paying our bills. I have a few thousand unpaids but none more than 60 days and I can easily cover it with what we have in the account now and not like our vendors are screaming for payment or anything so 160 Million just doesn't make any sense to me. Hopefully the bank's attorney and the buyers attoney can figure out where this mistake is from.
I'm not complicating it. That's a real consideraton. If the value of a capital asset just goes up with inflation, is that a gain, and should it be taxed? One way to address this issue is by a lower tax rate.
Benson, I don't have a good answer to your question right now. In principle I think cap gains should be taxed comparably to ordinary income. You are right to point out that inconsistency. I suppose you could have cap gains defined as real gains - i.e., inflation-adjusted gains - and tax those at ordinary income rates. Yet more complication, of course.
I have to say that I've lost a lot of respect for Warren Buffett over this tax issue. I haven't lost respect because of his general position that the rich should rather pay more taxes. Rather, he has used his "secretary's taxes" argument in a disingenuous way. He often cites the fact that he pays taxes at a lower rate (around 15%) than his secretary, and he uses it to argue for President Obama's proposed increases. He pays 15% because most of his income comes from dividends, and raising the top marginal rates on earned income - as the President proposes - would do NOTHING to alter the taxes that he pays. Completely cynical and disingenuous.
In principle I'm not saying to tax principal, my principal concern is that earnings principally from principal are no different in principle than earnings principally from wages.
I can be persuaded to your point about capital gains (with the inflation qualification I discussed). WRT dividends, I strongly believe in the 15% rate, since that money has already been taxed as corporate earnings.
You just say they are not different. You ignore the original reason as to why they are defined differently which is because they promote longer term investment.
cap gains should be taxed at ordinary income - I call bullshit / bluff that the capital will go elsewhere. One thing this financial crisis has shown is rich peeps are scared shitless of the risk that awaits them around the world - that's why gold, T-bills etc prices been so freaking high.
"cap gains should be taxed at ordinary income - I call bullshit / bluff that the capital will go elsewhere. One thing this financial crisis has shown is rich peeps are scared shitless of the risk that awaits them around the world - that's why gold, T-bills etc prices been so freaking high."
MORON...that's exactly what's happening....money that would be invested longer term is speculating in gold.
I agree w/r/t dividends, benson. The earnings are already taxed.
Similar to how it pisses me off so much when I have to pay taxes with after-tax money. The 9% sales tax or whatever it is in NYC means that a fucking cup of coffee is massively more expensive for me than for many others. I probably have to earn $4 to buy a $2 cup of coffee.
Liberals really don't get this. They think there is some magical pot of money somewhere in the hands of faceless greedy people that they can just dip into to pay for their social programs. Fuck them.
"Liberals really don't get this. They think there is some magical pot of money somewhere in the hands of faceless greedy people that they can just dip into to pay for their social programs. Fuck them."
Margaret Thatcher put it much more eloquently but essentially came to the same conclusion.
I'm with M4L on calling bullshit that low cap gains rate is needed to promote investment. And DIBS, your response makes no sense at all - cap gains ARE low, so how exactly does that support your argument that high rates push people into speculating in gold?
DIBS, gold is temporary rest stop man. and it aint the the tax rate driving this as cap gains are at 15% now. rich peeps are scared shitless by the financial crisis. show me the data where the money is leaving the US mkts vs them chilling out on the sidelines.
I agreed that people were scared and that's what is pushing them into the speculation. It's bad that that money isn't being invested, merely used for speculationg. I was blaming it on the environmentt, not the rates.
"Margaret Thatcher put it much more eloquently but essentially came to the same conclusion."
You've seen Iron Lady, I take it? Is it good? I'm thinking of going to a movie Saturday. Toss-up among Incredibly Loud and Unbelievably Close, Iron Lady, and Carnage.
The mortgage interest deduction was a mistake because it encourages people to go into debt, and artificially raises the price of homes.
It was a very popular measure politically because it seemed to be a break for the middle class. In reality, it is no such thing.
DIBS is right. Mortgage interest deduction will never, ever go away. Ever. It's a one-way ticket. Stupid idea to begin with, all it was was a one-time wealth transfer to people who bought homes before the deduction, but now that it's here it will never be undone. Can you imagine the impact on the housing market?
Isn't there a cap on the mortgage interest deduction? If so, that would be one way to phase it out, similiar to how income limits have taken a signficant number of apartments off the rent stabiization roll in NYC.
Without looking it up, I thought interest on balances over $1mm isn't deductible. I suppose that could take care of itself through inflation over the very long term - of course housing has been deflating, not inflating.
Yeah, I just looked it up - it's $1M. So you would have to have a whole bunch of inflation for it to have any significance. I don't see that happening in the housing market any time soon.
benson, your hood is seeing some big sales prices on them fancy old houses. feels very divergent mkt still - ie pricey stuff selling well vs. rest of mkt dragging
Arkady, I didn't realize they don't allow that anymore. I thought the only key was such capital improvement would need to have the work be a filed / permitted job and the cost you put into the filing is the proof / basis upon which you add to your cost basis used to calculate what profit you have.
I believe that cap improvements can still be added to the cost basis. What Arkady may be thinking of is cap improvements on nvestment property. In that case cap improvements are depreciated. Often the life of a cap improvement is only 7 years, so that by the time you sell it may not be added to your cost basis.
benson, if given the choice (which we're NOT), it's much juicier to be able to depreciate that over 7 or whatever years than to deduct the full balance at the time of the sale - ie one gets to enjoy the beneficial tax benefits of it from the start vs many yrs into the future
I agree that the depreciation is taken against rental income, and the residual value is added to the cost basis. However, after the useful life of the improvement(per the depreciation tables), its residual life may be zero.
benson, given we get $250k (or $500k for married couple) tax free cap gains on primary residence lived in 2 out of the last 5 yrs, hard to see a scenario where we left "some on the table" to the IRS. only ones who'll have some left on the table are those who bought their pad for peanuts eons ago and is sitting on a mountain of unrealized cap gains
Yes benson, after it is fully depreciated which, by definition, means that the full value is deducted against income. One way or another you get the benefit of spending the money.
Residual life = 0 after fully depreciated. Better to have the depreciation against ordinary income than cap gain (if any).
The only real issue between inverstment property and your residence is that you cannot claim a loss on your residence. You can on an investment property but it will be rolled and subject to the yearly $3,000 max
Wait a minute. I just remembered that Arkady is correct. Congress passed a law a few years ago that limits the amount of depreciation you can take against income. It's called "Depreciation recapture" and is applied at the time of sale. It makes you realize some of the cap gains due to depreciation as INCOME, taxed at a 25% rate. You can read more about it here:
If you make too much money (over $150,000) you cannot take any yearly accounting loss from an investment property from income. When you SELL it goes against your income that year.
One way or another, all capital improvements to investment property will count as a deduction, either during the life of that property against income or at the time of sale against any capital gain or IF IT WAS NOT ALLOWED DURING THE LIFE, against income at the time of sale.
Dibs, we have a rental unit in our house. We've been setting depreciation of the improvement costs off against rental income pursuant to depreciation schedule. We also set off repair costs and operating costs (insurance, gas for heat, etc) attributable to the rental againsty rental income, but not on a depreciation schedule. It is not a stand alone rental property, just part of our house, but a separate source of income. The depreciation lowers the cost basis of the house for when we sell it, but in the mean time it operates as a loss against rental income, thus lowering income tax. This is what you are talking about, right?
At a certain income level (your W-2 income, not rental income) starting at $100,000 ( and phasing to zero at $150k), you cannot deduct all of that accounting loss from the rental property. But that accumulated lossdoes go against your income when you sell it.
I bought at $265,000. House is now worth over $2million. I cannot realize all the improvements I've made if I were to sell. I'm not thinking of doing so for a multitude of reasons but I obsessively kept track of the money I put into the place & now that's all just interesting data.
Arkady, as far as I know, they all go into the cost basis if they were LEGIT capital improvements. But repairs made throughout the life, though they add up, are not
" The depreciation lowers the cost basis of the house for when we sell it, but in the mean time it operates as a loss against rental income, thus lowering income tax."
This is not entirely correct (and I'm speaking from first-hand experience here). This goes to the "depreciation recapture" I discussed above. The IRS will REAPPLY some of the depreciation at the time of the sale to your cost basis, meaning you have a smaller capital gain tax. They then take the amount of depreciation they reapplied, and count it as income to be taxed at a 25% rate. The wind-up: lower cap gains tax then you would have paid if the full depreciation was applied, but a higher income tax.
See the link I posted above. (and this only applies to the half of your house that is considered a rental property).
I thought we simply can't take the loss directly against total income, but that we can show a net rental income of 0 if rental costs, including drepeciation of capital expenditures, exceed rental income, and then carry over losses beyond that to reduce rental income in future years.
benson, only of your level of W-2 earnings precluded you from taking accounting loss. Income-expenses - depreciation/amortization usually results in an accounting loss at least for the first 12-15 years or so of a property.
Read the link I posted above. Most people don't know about this depreciation recapture, and they are shocked when they see the tax they owe at the sale of their house.
Again, spoken from experience when I sold my 2-family.
No, slopey. It doesn't work that way. It's all about the level of W-2 earnings. The scaleback starts when you make > $100k and it becomes zero at $150k. Below $100k, you can take the full accounting loss each year.
I'm not talking about taking losses against income. I'm talking about "depreciation recapture" at the time of sale. I fully agree with everything you wrote above about deductions against income and its limits.
benson, this should not come as a surprise to anyone....
Depreciation Recapture for Rental Property
Depreciation on a rental property reduces your basis for figuring a
gain or loss on a later sale or exchange. If you have a gain on the
sale of your rental property, part or all of the gain may be required to
be "recaptured" as ordinary income that is completely taxable in
the year of the sale. Depreciation recapture is taxed at a rate of 25%.
Example: Dan Bacon buys a rental property for $120,000. Over time
he takes $25,000 in depreciation deductions. These deductions reduce
his basis to $95,000 ($120,000 - $25,000). In 2011, Dan sells his rental
property for $150,000. Dan's gain is $55,000 ($150,000 - $95,000). The gain
is comprised of two parts, $25,000 in depreciation deductions and $30,000
in excess of the purchase price. The $25,000 is counted as part of
the taxable gain and taxed at a rate of 25%.
"Below $100k, you can take the full accounting loss each year."
Ok, so are you saying that if W-2 income is higher than that, we can't reduce rental income to 0, or just that we can't take a loss overall? My understanding is that we can show on a schedule a net rental income of 0 by offsetting costs and depreciation against rental income, but that we can't show an actual loss. Any actual loss would just get carried over to the next year and applied if we needed it.
And I don't know how carryover would work. If you continue to be UNABLE to take those losses for the period you own the property, ALL of the accumulated losses will go against your CURRENT YEAR's W-2 income the year you sell.
And presumably if you owned it for more than 20 years you would start to have accounting gains and the previous losses would go against that but this is way beyond my level of expertise and I've never owned anything that long
I told my wife that if all of a sudden I find out I can sell the new pad at around 500k profit (the tax free cap gain for a couple), I would sell it so can buy something else and start the clock again on another ppty. She whined she aint moving so quickly after moving in and I responded with "like prices would shoot up that much in 2 yrs; you think this is 2000-2003 again??" She didn't appreciate be corrected with a dose of reality. needlesstosay, I got dressed down and reminded of my pecking order in the marriage.
Dibs -- either I don't understand you or I don;t understand what our accountant is doing. Also, the income range may be different for us as joint filers.
We do not claim rental losses on our taxes. Say we collect rent of $20,000, but repairs, heating, insurance, plus renovation depreciation total $25,000. We file a schedule showing same, file rental income as 0, and have a carry-over of $5000 to apply next year against rental income. My understanding is we are not allowed to list the $5000 loss for that year's taxes and lower our total taxable income. But if next year's rent receipts were the same and costs were $15,000, we'd add the carry over and have total costs of $20k, making rental income 0 yet again.
DIBS, it's normal instincts for a legit Chinaman to be head of the house, making the decision, etc. Hence I occasionally forget I'm wearing shorts and wife is wearing the pants - repercussions of marrying a round-eye mentality ABC
Lech, is "carnage" movie the one with jodie foster? if so, I'll let you know later in the week when I get a chance to watch the dvd. that tinker taylor soldier movie you mentioned was good. for sci fi fans, underworld 4 is not worth seeing in the theater - ok if watching via computer or bootleg dvd.
uh... i was just at some gay ass french pastry shop picking up a birthday cake and on the tip jar there was a card that said support the ron paul 2011 tip tax act. basically an act that will allow for tips to be not be taxed!?! wtf? if people are not going to pay taxes on their tips, they aint gonna get any tips!
Does anyone ever have those days when they come into the office and just don't feel like doing crap that day? Like if nothing is pressing or no project is due? Today is definitely one of those days.
I think many restaurants might monitor the tips because I know there's a big bruhaha going on about that now. It has to do with the fact that they are almost all put on credit cards and the card companies charge extra % handling fees. Do restaurants include that in any sort of a 1099???
I'm sure people like doormen and taxi drives show very little of their tips.
Rob, God forbid you should ever have a job where you depend on tips in order to make a decent salary. It's not like most people who get tips are rolling in dough. You do realize that most wait staff jobs have a below minimum wage base salary, precisely because it is expected that their tips will make up the difference? That means they have no guarantee of anything. My other tenant, who is a bartender in a mid-town restaurant, sometimes works all day and comes home with $20, after splitting the till with the other waiters and the busboys.
Baton Rouge airport to French Quarter is around 90 miles. My guess is that a cab driver would look at you like you were insane if you suggested that trip.
Kens, it's your cousin. it's a bachelor party. only 3 days. BALLER TIME!!!!!!!!!!!! the only issue with getting the convertible is that puts you into chaffeur duties which could restrain your partying.
quote:
My other tenant, who is a bartender in a mid-town restaurant, sometimes works all day and comes home with $20, after splitting the till with the other waiters and the busboys.
i dont know anyone who bartends who makes that little of money, but that is irrelevant., why shouldnt it be taxed just like everyone elses wage? not taxing it just benefits the employer and gives them more incentive to pay even LESS!
also not reporting tips allows lots of people to qualify for all sorts of freebies that those who have to declare ALL their income dont qualify for even tho they might be making less than the person hiding their tips from the government.
and honestly i dont even give a crap if moonface burgers go from 20 dollars to 40 dollars because of that since it's totally irrelevant to my existence.
Rob, she's a full time college student, and often has to take shifts that are not particularly busy or lucrative, depending on her class schedule. The restaurant is in midtown, and often, her evening shifts are a dead zone, as the restaurant makes most of its money at lunch, and is not a popular night spot. That said, she does pay taxes on her tips. No one wants to work all day for $20, but that's what happens sometimes.
And please. Eligible for what freebies? You may have to report your entire income, via W-2, but you get a steady salary, health insurance plus additional health perks, and the relative comfort in knowing that unless your business goes belly up suddenly, you're ok. She's been tossed out of countless jobs because the restaurant closes virtually overnight for reasons good and bad, including one job where the owner was busted for being a cokehead, is on her feet for 8 hours putting up with a-holes and jerks, or stands around all day counting glasses because no one is in there, and gets $20 for her pains. There is no health insurance, or 401K's. Her "freebies" may include a meal, and maybe someone buys her a drink, but that hardly makes up for what is essentially a crap job.
I'm familiar with the Dan Bacon scenario. But instead of stating 25% I think it is more accurate to say taxed as regular earned income. And that is just federal tax.....and another 6.7% or something like that for state. and whatever local is.
i was not hating on her or her job, i am hating on the fact that tips are not taxed and that people can get away with paying servers 2 bux an hour. it's an absurd system. pay a regular wage and tax it! sorry but i got a little annoyed to see that tip jar promoting that tips shouldnt be taxed. there's tons of things i dont believe should be taxed either, but i have to accept it!
Rob, if you list your occupation as "waitress" or some kind of service job that relies on tips, the IRS has basic expectations as to what you should be making. If you under report by a lot, as in not declaring your tips, red flags go up in their little heads, and the person could be audited. We can debate the sense or nonsense in going after a waitress as opposed to some high ranking exec hiding money in more devious ways, but they are going to go after low hanging fruit, and that's lower income people. Most people are not going to hide too much of their tip income.
Besides, are you going to worry about every penny someone else may be making off the books? Because there's as many people out there making a few dollars here and there, and not reporting it, as there is sand at the beach. It's called survival. And I'm not talking about hookers or drug dealers, either.
Thanks, legion, but that's pretty much what I knew. I entered the fray on this topic because I thought dibs was saying something different, not because I needed advice on how to do this.
slopefarm,
Here's some more information on the rental deductions.
You can deduct losses on your rental property, or part of your house that is being rented up to the limit of your passive income on your rental.
There is a "special allowance" however which allows you to deduct up to an additional 25K against active (W2) income. This phases out however between 100k to 125k of adjusted gross income.
If you get a real estate license and 51% of your work activity is real estate oriented, you can declare yourself a real estate professional and deduct passive losses past the rental income and into your active income as well without limit.
I just bought this great music compilation:
The Sounds of Philly,
I love this description of the 3CD set:
"...this compilation is a wonderful soul chronicle....The rhythmic charge of the Philly International house band...is what propelled Gamble and Huff's increasingly topical compositions into a soulful state of euphoria that would later be labeled disco..."
This is a must for any house party and it's on the compilation: MSFB TSOP
quote:
Besides, are you going to worry about every penny someone else may be making off the books? Because there's as many people out there making a few dollars here and there, and not reporting it, as there is sand at the beach. It's called survival. And I'm not talking about hookers or drug dealers, either.
no, you are right on that. i didnt pay taxes (oh god should this be erased?!) at the part time gallery job i worked out for a number of years. i was paid in cash. so yeah i guess im a hypocrite, tho honestly i thought if you made under 6K a year at a specific job you didnt even have to file. at least that's how it was with my part time high school job where i never filed, also taxes werent taken out of that either.
i could really REALLY use one of those under the table part time gigs again, badly. seeing the dentist tomorrow. they were able to squeeze me in at least for just an xray to get to the root of this problem.
anyway, montrose, my intention was not to start a fight about people who work hard for a living off the books because they have to survive, that really was NOT my intention. i just found the little card on the tip jar, well, kinda jarring... i guess i consider everyone that works in that shop a total privileged moonface, but for all i know it could just just be a second part time job they have as well. i was not talking about hard working waitresses like the lovely ladies at hooters and stuff, hells i dont care if they dont report their tips, they deserve it. frou-frou little pastry shops with snotty service on the other hand kinda irked me, and only irked me when i saw the tip jar and the accompanying placard attached.
plus half the discussion in the OT today was people discussing ways to get tax breaks and stuff on home ownership,income properties, investments, etc... my envious inner brat was getting pissy.
I think you are correct - if make under a certain amount don't have to file return. and they (IRS) really wouldn't care if you filed now because they owe you......would only care if you owed then and didn't file.
I read the pink house thread on the other site. First thing I have read on there in a while.
The problem with it for the buyer IMO is that every random dickhead in PS or on the internet regards how it is renovated as their business. Especially an issue for those whose 'taste' is not the same as the current owner's and who would stand to be castigated for 'destroying its individuality' .
I don't think the ask is much below market either. A nicer unrenovated place round the corner on Polhemus sold for less last year.
OH bad bad bad bad bad day at work today. thought we had extra toner cartridges for our newer copy/fax machines... they look exactly like the old ones and during the orientation (wtf needs that for a copy machine i dont know, but whatever i sat thru it) they never told me that the toner cartridges were different. well ran out today and tried to put one in only for it not to work and im like FUCK so i call and asked if they can over night a black one and they said no sorry the factory in japan is not keeping up with production! WTF.! and that it would be 7-10 businesses days before getting one. so i scrambled and found a few places that COULD get one, but they are also 5-7 days. i took a LOT of shit for this today and im sending a complaint email to their headquarters office about not informing us this that the toners were different (and they are differently only by one teeny tiny little piece of plastic.)
we still have one working machine (we have two) but im terrified that the black toner on that one will go out before the 5-7-10 days the next one is expected to arrive. i feel like such an imbecile. i really should have known how companies like that do business. grrrr
i havent been over there yet, is that the bubblegum brownstone!?! i LOVE that building. is my blood pressure gonna rise if i go over there and read the thread?
Probably not. The debate seemed to be about how much of a wreck it was inside vs whether it was worth the ask considering the good location. Not much debate on its aesthetics.
My PS place is round the corner and I think the house looks ridiculous (and not in a fun quirky way), but it doesn't bother me that much.
Did any of you see the story about that well-off Afghan family living in Canada that did an honor killing of their daughter? Three of them got the maximum sentence!!!!! Great news for any of this Sharia Law shit
Toner thing sounds irritating rob, I'd just keep calling and hassling them. Not expecting them to do anything different, just for the satisfaction of annoying them..
you know what i think looks ridiculous on those SAME blocks!? fugly prius's, 3000 dollar bikes chained all willy nilly to anything they can chain themselves around, tacky window treatment, fugly red placards attached to every stoop saying NO FLYERS!!!!!, people who come out of their brownstone on a hot summer day and have a hissy that someone and their dog are popping a squat to rest on their stoops, people who bug out if a dog goes anywhere near the PUBLIC PROPERTY TREES AND PLANT BEDS (i never let my dog go on flowers or piss on trees, but if it's an empty patch of dirty dirt, it's fair game and if i wasnt such a closeted pooper i'd shit along with him). people complain too much about the most trivial things in life, must be nice to live in such a bubble.
I wouldn't recognize a 3000 bike if I saw one. Or a prius. how do you know about these things? can you ride a bike? I know you can't drive....so why do you pay attention. Cars look all alike to me.
oh yeah and when they WATCH YOU to make sure you pick up after your dog :-/ i mean really lady, how many people around here DON'T pick up after their dog? honestly ive never seen people just let their dogs shit and not pick it up around here. why they wait and stare at you while you reach for your baggie is beyond obnoxious. once i almost screamed out DO I WATCH YOU CHANGE YOUR TAMPONS!?!?! but i thought better of it and, honestly, they are my neighbors.. i try to keep under the radar the best i can in this neighborhood, but sometimes you just wanna go off you know!?
'Honor killing' thing was all over the news in Canada for the past few weeks. Glad they were found guilty and got the max sentence (tho it's still too short).
That kind of thing is a big problem in the Pakistani community in the UK as well.
quote:
I wouldn't recognize a 3000 bike if I saw one. Or a prius. how do you know about these things? can you ride a bike? I know you can't drive....so why do you pay attention. Cars look all alike to me.
um, with cars, it's pretty obvious. just look at the bumper stickers. with bikes, well, i dont know, i could be wrong, but i think i can tell an expensive bike from a cheap one. how hard is that? yeah i can ride a bike i guess, i bought a used one from a delivery dude off craigslist when i lived in chelsea. i wound up just abandoning the bike. i didnt feel comfortable riding around NYC streets on one. maybe i would around here, but in manhattan i was just too frazzled and never saw the point. i wouldnt mind having one now and riding in prospect park and stuff kind of thing. but at the time having a bike felt like a hassle. i just walked to work since it wasnt very far. and my ex was like oh just bring your bike to harlem and bike to work and i was like um. no. besides i <3 my commute time on the train to get reading done and honestly it's a major decompressing state between work and home and home and work. if i had to ride a bike to work i'd arrived frazzled as hell, if i even arrived at all.
hahaha....whenever I see someone walking the dog...I stand by the gate and glare....don't stop at my tree you filthy person who sleeps with dogs and fleas.....you don't even wipe clean the dogs butthole and then you let it sit on your furniture and bed.
i wonder if dave's retirement is going to stick. mostly likely it will because i think he travels between different places and well duh has multiple lovers. my grandfather retired and moved back home full time (he only came home on the weekends for over 30 years, he lived on the job in a trailer in south jersey) it was kind of a shock for both him and my grandmother. they were not used to living with each other 24/7 like that. of course around the time he retired, throw me into the mix of moving back home for a few months and oh jeez. it wasn't pretty. he was bored and she was bitchy and i was pissy about moving back home after college. she wound up making him get a job cleaning the hallways of the building complex we lived in, at first he did it for FREE (!) but eventually he got paid for it.
my grandmother wasnt a hausfrau, but she lived the frau lifestyle for the most part, and honestly, if youre used to having your days free of your husband and to yourself, i could imagine it being really annoying when they retire and are there the whole time. oh yeah, i remember her being mad that her and francisco the super couldnt spend time together when my grandfather retired (he was jealous i think, but i dont think for any good reason). my grandmother and the super liked to have coffee during the day and watch talk shows. francisco came over one time to put up wallpaper (post my grandfather's retirement) and he threw him out and decided he was going to put it up himself. oh.my.GOD. that was a disaster and it looked AWFUL.
quote:
....don't stop at my tree you filthy person who sleeps with dogs and fleas.....
my dog hasn't slept on my couch with me (except for a few nights) since 2008. he sleeps downstairs with my roommate and his boyfriend, he did it starting the FIRST NIGHT I MOVED IN. i was like omg, they are going to HATE me that my dog ran downstairs and hopped in their bed. but they actually LOVE it. sadly, even when they are on vacation he goes to sleep down there. but it's a big bed, and i sleep on a leather sofa in my bedroom, so i dont take it personally. plus dogs are pack animals and 2 > 1. and they burrow in caves, and my bedroom is on the ground floor and my roommate's bedroom is below ground in the basement.
me and duke do nap sometimes together. but no over nights. i wouldnt mind if duke slept with me, the first 3 years of his life me and him slept on an inflatable raft in a 6x7 room.
quote:
.....you don't even wipe clean the dogs butthole and then you let it sit on your furniture and bed.
you should study some anatomy and physiology. animals are able to push out their poop in a way that makes TP not necessary because of their phsyiognymy. if humans dont wipe, yes it will make a mess. it's because of how we poop and how we evolved. also our diet. supposedly lots of vegans claim they dont need to use toilet paper when they shit!!!
quote:
Dog droppings are on the increase around my block. Several squished ones last week & 3 new offerings today. So I am beginning to glare too.
id be mad at that too. it's just rude and disrespectful not to clean up after your dog. a lot of people dont pick up after their dog cuz they consider it "faggy" shit you not. someone said that to me once. he was like 12, but still...
that's also one of the reasons i've never liked taking it in the butt. you wind up spending way too much money on toilet paper. i mean DUH. those muscles arent exactly meant to become all loosey goosey!
I think HD and hotsy totsy sound systems make TV watching go from bad to intolerable. I'm talking about regular series on TV....saw part of House and beginning of Alcatraz. They dramatic music that gets amplified with those sounds systems makes the whole thing seem over-dramatic and the HD makes all look like on a stage set rather than real place. non-HD seems more realistic.
you know what is really aweful? im the official birthday party planner at work and i screwed that up today, along with the whole copy machine fiasco. ugh. i suck. im usually amazing at planning everyones birthday party at work, it's either ice cream social, bagel breakfast, cake, cupcakes, etc. but the person who helps me out all the time is on maternity leave and it was ALL UP TO ME TODAY, on my own! i did not do such a good job. the cake was too small, etc. complains up the wazoo. i tried, i really did! the thing was that there wasn't petty cash for a giant cake and none of the birthday boys (there were two of them) even wanted to celebrate their birthdays anyway.
funny thing is my birthday, along with like 3 other people are next. i share the same birthday with one person and two people share the same birthday the day before us. the woman on maternity leave used to plan it all and do everything, she'd go out and get ice cream cake in the middle of february and stuff. work birthdays are kinda akward, but sometimes so much fun, especially if it's the only cake youre getting some years!
im just going to suggest a bagel breakfast and a cake, both of which ill pick up the stuff for, which is totally cool cuz i like doing that kinda stuff, but it's weird not having my right hand woman around to do it cuz she is home after having had had a baby. im sorry, but from the lenses i wear, it seems like children mess up everything good in life.
most porn and most video games do look better in NON-HD. sorry, but no one wants to see your HD genital warts and stretch marks. same with video games, they just look stupid.
I think the problem is HD is too close to reality which is a TV studio and bunch of people pretending to be someplace else.
With regular or even better b/w tv...you had to project what you saw to your own realism. and same with porno movies of course even tho I have never seen any HD porno.
In my new role, I have no one assigned to me in Asia, and I am happy about that.
1. Occupy New Haven is still going strong.
2. Personalized license plate: NO CGAR.
I usually pick them out by the number they are wearing on their Speedo
GM, all.
M4L: are you serious in last comment or just a joke?
I pass by the place many times and it was often empty. It seemed like it was not catching on. Well, in the spirit of true capitalism, these two gals rewrote their business plan and came up with a new competitive advantage: boobs!! I went in there yesterday to get a cup of coffee, and the place was pretty crowded. And lo and behold, the two ladies were wearing VERY low-cut blouses. Their boobs were not just hanging out - they were oozing out. I guess even the namby-pampy men of Park Slope took notice.
Joking.
One segment was about these ranches in Texas outside dallas or houston or someplace like that....where they have these exotic african animals many which are endangered species. So - looks like I could go on safari there. So many of my friends have gone to africa last few years on these safaris...but seems too far and expensive for me. And not so interested.
But I could see going to Texas to see them maybe. Not like seeing in a zoo they are 'free-range' .
Dona, have you been -since you seem to go Texas and lived there?
When pigs fly.
I am going to say the same thing I always say under these circumstances: I thought Chinese were superstitious. With Jewish (ashkenazy) folk superstition, you would never boldly predict victory on something this important, lest you risk drawing the attention of the "evil eye." Does Chinese superstition work differently? Can you brag in advance with no repercussion?
I am also sick of these characters. I loathe Newt Gingrich. Obama has disappointed me. (my industry and things like Keystone) and Romney is still a cipher to me.
I am concentrating on work. Please inform me if anything changes but I'm out for a few months.
So far, it seems to be having the intended effect -- Newt, contrary to my rpediction of last week, seems to have dropped quite a bit in the FL polls. One of the interesting ironies for me for this primary campaign is the role of the FEC decision in opening the corporate $$ floodgates for nominally independent PACS to engage in intraparty warfare at this level. Colbert was right on in skewering SuperPACS on the noncoordination requirement.
Am hoping to return to NYC thursday.
You need to catch up. Latest news:
http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/gingrich-romney-insideradvantage-poll/2012/01/29/id/425901
d
i
c
k
reference. someone else owns the
b
o
o
b
s
Overall, polling during the GOP primaries this year has shown a lot more volatility than one usually sees, even in primaries, much faster swings and reversals and of graeter magnitude. So my initial prediction of a close race in FL may prove true. Perhaps some of what we keep seeing is an overreported response to events (positive or negative response to debate performance, influence of barrage of negative ads) followed by a small correction. I was surprised by the polls showing such a steep and rapid drop in FL poll #s for Gingrich because I did not see what would cause that rapid a change of that magnitude with that electorate. So a bit of a correction towards a tighter race in polling makes sense to me, but so would the effect of a barrage of negative ads.
February is going to be sleepy primary-wide after this. But I do not see anything getting settled between the candidates before Super Tuesday in March.
This is 1st primary of season where only registered republicans can participate, I think. A winner take all primary(not sure if I think that is best idea).
I think florida was punishsed by national party for having their primary so early (reduced the # of delegates to convention)---
.
I'd say reason was big negative campaign advertising splurge. Unfortunate that they are effective but seems like they do work.
If anything happens to the contrary, I will wake up and start paying attention. In the meantime, it's work work work for me.
maybe that pic of the cat with censorable caption? or that word that starts with b and ends with b.
Glad I'm done with that shit.
Were you sleeping when you were watching "Meet The Press"? ????? Either that, or I call BS on what you just wrote.
Fred Thompson is supporting Newt. He has stumped for him in Florida.
http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/hannity/2012/01/24/fred-thompson-endorses-newt-gingrich-hannity
I was doing some business in another part of town early today.
Who wants to play Guess The Neighborhood?
Kennilworth, IL
definitely within NYC.
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/01/house-of-d-open-for-tours-this-coming-weekend/?stream=true
houses are even larger in Jamaica Estates though.
hope you enjoyed it:
I hope you didn't mean what you said about leaving this site for several months! :o(
As soon as I win the MegaMillions Lotto,
I'll be leaving an offer in the mailbox of that second home pictured.
It's got a huge yard.
Quinnipiac is the least reliable of the most three recent polls, as it has the smallest sampling size. Other two recent polls show Newt closing the lead:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/gop-presidential-primary/207331-polls-show-gingrich-cutting-romney-fla-lead-to-single-digits-
The only thing more common than strong opinions on the OT
are promises to avoid particular discussions on the OT!
Probably mostly full of laborers and maids.
One question in my mind is whether, as benson seemed to suggest, the Gingrich mini-surge is because of outrage at Romney's attacks, or whether the full extent of the damage frm those attacks is now done and this is a bit of a regression toward a preexisting mean.
My overarching point remains that Gingrich will do well enough to push this to Super Tuesday.
Well, I'm off for now.
Later......
LOL, are you a correspondent, news analyst or commentator?
LOL, are you a correspondent, news analyst or commentator?
He is the Maureen Dowd of the right. He does it all.
Fair point. The best place to do the apples-to-apples comparison is the following page from Real Clear Politics:
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2012/president/fl/florida_republican_presidential_primary-1597.html#polls
I tend to put a lot of stock in PPP's polls (from your side of the world, I might add). From my experience, they tend to have more insight than others.
My hunch above is based on reading some Tea Party blogs. They are none-too-happy about the way that establishment Republicans have mauled Newt. Sarah Palin stepped in again, as she did at the last minute in SC, to speak up.
Please do not compare me to THAT WOMAN.
lampsplus is more my cup of team - style & price wise. crystorama is more appropriate to a fancy pre-war aptmt then my vanilla post war pad.
Big picture question for both of us is whether eventual GOP nominee is strengthened or softened up by the primaries. I know what I wish for but I don't have an opinion yet as to what will actually happen.
Please do not compare me to THAT WOMAN.
LOL
http://dealbreaker.com/2012/01/brian-moynihan-has-already-spent-a-year-apologizing-to-shareholders-please-dont-make-him-handle-another-confrontation/
http://dealbreaker.com/2012/01/james-gorman-to-morgan-stanley-employees-stfu-or-gtfo/
http://www.brownstoner.com/blog/2012/01/house-of-the-day-233-garfield-place/?stream=true
Sincerely,
The guy who gets highly fucked by the tax system
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-01-30/if-carried-interest-irks-you-don-t-get-it-commentary-by-william-dantzler.html
How would you account for pseudo-capital gains, aka inflation?
In other news, I almost had a heart attack today because one of the potential buyers for one of the apartments in my building called me and said that Chase doesn't want to close because the lien search came back and there is a lien on our building for 160 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! I was shocked as we just had closing and refinancings with Chase at the end of October and I never heard of such thing. Plus there is no outstanding legal matters pending or anything like that and our building is worth maybe 20 Million tops. I have no idea where this lien came from and I really hope that it's a mistake. It's not like we haven't been paying our bills. I have a few thousand unpaids but none more than 60 days and I can easily cover it with what we have in the account now and not like our vendors are screaming for payment or anything so 160 Million just doesn't make any sense to me. Hopefully the bank's attorney and the buyers attoney can figure out where this mistake is from.
If anything, the "date" by which gains get capitalized could be moved
By having them pay their capital gains tax in deflated dollars. Same way you deal with higher wages in an inflationary environment.
Beginning to sound very academic here, kinda like Elizabeth Warren!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The tax table for earned income is indexed to inflation. Wage earners do not face the same issue.
Another fact check brought to you by Benson News.
Let's just stick with why cap gains taxes shouldn't be 15%
In principal I think you are wrong and misguided.
I can be persuaded to your point about capital gains (with the inflation qualification I discussed). WRT dividends, I strongly believe in the 15% rate, since that money has already been taxed as corporate earnings.
Besides, I will be biased as I will now be living off of dividends, cap gains and IRA distributions (not taxed in PA).
*Please don't stop contributing to my SS*
MORON...that's exactly what's happening....money that would be invested longer term is speculating in gold.
Similar to how it pisses me off so much when I have to pay taxes with after-tax money. The 9% sales tax or whatever it is in NYC means that a fucking cup of coffee is massively more expensive for me than for many others. I probably have to earn $4 to buy a $2 cup of coffee.
Liberals really don't get this. They think there is some magical pot of money somewhere in the hands of faceless greedy people that they can just dip into to pay for their social programs. Fuck them.
Margaret Thatcher put it much more eloquently but essentially came to the same conclusion.
You've seen Iron Lady, I take it? Is it good? I'm thinking of going to a movie Saturday. Toss-up among Incredibly Loud and Unbelievably Close, Iron Lady, and Carnage.
yes, Arkady and student loan interest as well
It was a very popular measure politically because it seemed to be a break for the middle class. In reality, it is no such thing.
I agree that the depreciation is taken against rental income, and the residual value is added to the cost basis. However, after the useful life of the improvement(per the depreciation tables), its residual life may be zero.
Residual life = 0 after fully depreciated. Better to have the depreciation against ordinary income than cap gain (if any).
http://www.real-estate-owner.com/rental-property-depreciation.html
If you make too much money (over $150,000) you cannot take any yearly accounting loss from an investment property from income. When you SELL it goes against your income that year.
You are both talking about two different things.
I've been talking about rental property the whole time.
Yes, it belongs in some kind of user forum on a genuine real estate blog. Now if only . . . .
At a certain income level (your W-2 income, not rental income) starting at $100,000 ( and phasing to zero at $150k), you cannot deduct all of that accounting loss from the rental property. But that accumulated lossdoes go against your income when you sell it.
This is not entirely correct (and I'm speaking from first-hand experience here). This goes to the "depreciation recapture" I discussed above. The IRS will REAPPLY some of the depreciation at the time of the sale to your cost basis, meaning you have a smaller capital gain tax. They then take the amount of depreciation they reapplied, and count it as income to be taxed at a 25% rate. The wind-up: lower cap gains tax then you would have paid if the full depreciation was applied, but a higher income tax.
See the link I posted above. (and this only applies to the half of your house that is considered a rental property).
I think this is a great discussion!.
Read the link I posted above. Most people don't know about this depreciation recapture, and they are shocked when they see the tax they owe at the sale of their house.
Again, spoken from experience when I sold my 2-family.
How do you feel about kittens doing yoga?
I'm not talking about taking losses against income. I'm talking about "depreciation recapture" at the time of sale. I fully agree with everything you wrote above about deductions against income and its limits.
*rob*
Depreciation Recapture for Rental Property
Depreciation on a rental property reduces your basis for figuring a
gain or loss on a later sale or exchange. If you have a gain on the
sale of your rental property, part or all of the gain may be required to
be "recaptured" as ordinary income that is completely taxable in
the year of the sale. Depreciation recapture is taxed at a rate of 25%.
Example: Dan Bacon buys a rental property for $120,000. Over time
he takes $25,000 in depreciation deductions. These deductions reduce
his basis to $95,000 ($120,000 - $25,000). In 2011, Dan sells his rental
property for $150,000. Dan's gain is $55,000 ($150,000 - $95,000). The gain
is comprised of two parts, $25,000 in depreciation deductions and $30,000
in excess of the purchase price. The $25,000 is counted as part of
the taxable gain and taxed at a rate of 25%.
Ok, so are you saying that if W-2 income is higher than that, we can't reduce rental income to 0, or just that we can't take a loss overall? My understanding is that we can show on a schedule a net rental income of 0 by offsetting costs and depreciation against rental income, but that we can't show an actual loss. Any actual loss would just get carried over to the next year and applied if we needed it.
We do not claim rental losses on our taxes. Say we collect rent of $20,000, but repairs, heating, insurance, plus renovation depreciation total $25,000. We file a schedule showing same, file rental income as 0, and have a carry-over of $5000 to apply next year against rental income. My understanding is we are not allowed to list the $5000 loss for that year's taxes and lower our total taxable income. But if next year's rent receipts were the same and costs were $15,000, we'd add the carry over and have total costs of $20k, making rental income 0 yet again.
That's apparently where you went wrong!!!!!!!!!!!!!
*rob*
I'm sure people like doormen and taxi drives show very little of their tips.
Somehow the word "navel" keeps popping into my head.
Baton Rouge airport to French Quarter is around 90 miles. My guess is that a cab driver would look at you like you were insane if you suggested that trip.
Or I can go all baller and get a convertible for 140 bucks a day. Only going for 3 day weekend (cousin's bachelor party).
My other tenant, who is a bartender in a mid-town restaurant, sometimes works all day and comes home with $20, after splitting the till with the other waiters and the busboys.
i dont know anyone who bartends who makes that little of money, but that is irrelevant., why shouldnt it be taxed just like everyone elses wage? not taxing it just benefits the employer and gives them more incentive to pay even LESS!
*rob*
and honestly i dont even give a crap if moonface burgers go from 20 dollars to 40 dollars because of that since it's totally irrelevant to my existence.
*rob*
*rob*
Besides, are you going to worry about every penny someone else may be making off the books? Because there's as many people out there making a few dollars here and there, and not reporting it, as there is sand at the beach. It's called survival. And I'm not talking about hookers or drug dealers, either.
Here's some more information on the rental deductions.
You can deduct losses on your rental property, or part of your house that is being rented up to the limit of your passive income on your rental.
There is a "special allowance" however which allows you to deduct up to an additional 25K against active (W2) income. This phases out however between 100k to 125k of adjusted gross income.
If you get a real estate license and 51% of your work activity is real estate oriented, you can declare yourself a real estate professional and deduct passive losses past the rental income and into your active income as well without limit.
workers taking too many bathroom breaks?
Simple solution:
I'm just posting random funny photos.
I just bought this great music compilation:
The Sounds of Philly,
I love this description of the 3CD set:
"...this compilation is a wonderful soul chronicle....The rhythmic charge of the Philly International house band...is what propelled Gamble and Huff's increasingly topical compositions into a soulful state of euphoria that would later be labeled disco..."
This is a must for any house party and it's on the compilation: MSFB TSOP
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3nPLfG9gZY&feature=related
Vibe (19971101)
follow the harmonic graph:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uOxOgm5jQ4
where they played the US Open up until the early 1980's.
Besides, are you going to worry about every penny someone else may be making off the books? Because there's as many people out there making a few dollars here and there, and not reporting it, as there is sand at the beach. It's called survival. And I'm not talking about hookers or drug dealers, either.
no, you are right on that. i didnt pay taxes (oh god should this be erased?!) at the part time gallery job i worked out for a number of years. i was paid in cash. so yeah i guess im a hypocrite, tho honestly i thought if you made under 6K a year at a specific job you didnt even have to file. at least that's how it was with my part time high school job where i never filed, also taxes werent taken out of that either.
*rob*
anyway, montrose, my intention was not to start a fight about people who work hard for a living off the books because they have to survive, that really was NOT my intention. i just found the little card on the tip jar, well, kinda jarring... i guess i consider everyone that works in that shop a total privileged moonface, but for all i know it could just just be a second part time job they have as well. i was not talking about hard working waitresses like the lovely ladies at hooters and stuff, hells i dont care if they dont report their tips, they deserve it. frou-frou little pastry shops with snotty service on the other hand kinda irked me, and only irked me when i saw the tip jar and the accompanying placard attached.
*rob*
*rob*
I just bought this great music compilation:
The Sounds of Philly
when i think the sounds of philly that only thing that springs to mind is the theme song to the fresh prince of bel air
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVbQo3IOC_A
(and LMFAO @ the commercial that is before that video i just posted!)
*rob*
*rob*
The problem with it for the buyer IMO is that every random dickhead in PS or on the internet regards how it is renovated as their business. Especially an issue for those whose 'taste' is not the same as the current owner's and who would stand to be castigated for 'destroying its individuality' .
I don't think the ask is much below market either. A nicer unrenovated place round the corner on Polhemus sold for less last year.
we still have one working machine (we have two) but im terrified that the black toner on that one will go out before the 5-7-10 days the next one is expected to arrive. i feel like such an imbecile. i really should have known how companies like that do business. grrrr
*rob*
*rob*
My PS place is round the corner and I think the house looks ridiculous (and not in a fun quirky way), but it doesn't bother me that much.
*rob*
*rob*
That kind of thing is a big problem in the Pakistani community in the UK as well.
I wouldn't recognize a 3000 bike if I saw one. Or a prius. how do you know about these things? can you ride a bike? I know you can't drive....so why do you pay attention. Cars look all alike to me.
um, with cars, it's pretty obvious. just look at the bumper stickers. with bikes, well, i dont know, i could be wrong, but i think i can tell an expensive bike from a cheap one. how hard is that? yeah i can ride a bike i guess, i bought a used one from a delivery dude off craigslist when i lived in chelsea. i wound up just abandoning the bike. i didnt feel comfortable riding around NYC streets on one. maybe i would around here, but in manhattan i was just too frazzled and never saw the point. i wouldnt mind having one now and riding in prospect park and stuff kind of thing. but at the time having a bike felt like a hassle. i just walked to work since it wasnt very far. and my ex was like oh just bring your bike to harlem and bike to work and i was like um. no. besides i <3 my commute time on the train to get reading done and honestly it's a major decompressing state between work and home and home and work. if i had to ride a bike to work i'd arrived frazzled as hell, if i even arrived at all.
*rob*
Not saying I agree but that was funny.
my grandmother wasnt a hausfrau, but she lived the frau lifestyle for the most part, and honestly, if youre used to having your days free of your husband and to yourself, i could imagine it being really annoying when they retire and are there the whole time. oh yeah, i remember her being mad that her and francisco the super couldnt spend time together when my grandfather retired (he was jealous i think, but i dont think for any good reason). my grandmother and the super liked to have coffee during the day and watch talk shows. francisco came over one time to put up wallpaper (post my grandfather's retirement) and he threw him out and decided he was going to put it up himself. oh.my.GOD. that was a disaster and it looked AWFUL.
*rob*
....don't stop at my tree you filthy person who sleeps with dogs and fleas.....
my dog hasn't slept on my couch with me (except for a few nights) since 2008. he sleeps downstairs with my roommate and his boyfriend, he did it starting the FIRST NIGHT I MOVED IN. i was like omg, they are going to HATE me that my dog ran downstairs and hopped in their bed. but they actually LOVE it. sadly, even when they are on vacation he goes to sleep down there. but it's a big bed, and i sleep on a leather sofa in my bedroom, so i dont take it personally. plus dogs are pack animals and 2 > 1. and they burrow in caves, and my bedroom is on the ground floor and my roommate's bedroom is below ground in the basement.
*rob*
*rob*
.....you don't even wipe clean the dogs butthole and then you let it sit on your furniture and bed.
you should study some anatomy and physiology. animals are able to push out their poop in a way that makes TP not necessary because of their phsyiognymy. if humans dont wipe, yes it will make a mess. it's because of how we poop and how we evolved. also our diet. supposedly lots of vegans claim they dont need to use toilet paper when they shit!!!
*rob*
Dog droppings are on the increase around my block. Several squished ones last week & 3 new offerings today. So I am beginning to glare too.
id be mad at that too. it's just rude and disrespectful not to clean up after your dog. a lot of people dont pick up after their dog cuz they consider it "faggy" shit you not. someone said that to me once. he was like 12, but still...
*rob*
*rob*
funny thing is my birthday, along with like 3 other people are next. i share the same birthday with one person and two people share the same birthday the day before us. the woman on maternity leave used to plan it all and do everything, she'd go out and get ice cream cake in the middle of february and stuff. work birthdays are kinda akward, but sometimes so much fun, especially if it's the only cake youre getting some years!
im just going to suggest a bagel breakfast and a cake, both of which ill pick up the stuff for, which is totally cool cuz i like doing that kinda stuff, but it's weird not having my right hand woman around to do it cuz she is home after having had had a baby. im sorry, but from the lenses i wear, it seems like children mess up everything good in life.
*rob*
non-HD seems more realistic.
most porn and most video games do look better in NON-HD. sorry, but no one wants to see your HD genital warts and stretch marks. same with video games, they just look stupid.
*rob*
With regular or even better b/w tv...you had to project what you saw to your own realism. and same with porno movies of course even tho I have never seen any HD porno.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy1OiFWAHNo
replace pickles with peacocks and you got me
*rob*