Getting money stolen from you sucks

[pucho812]

Having also filed 1099 self employed status in the past, I am aware of paying estimated taxes and so forth. What I find most absurd is this, according to the tax code as it currently is written, you are only supposed to be taxed on profits made. So for example if you work 8 hours and are paid for 8 hours of work, you have not made a profit and therefore should not be taxed at all. But if you work 8 hours and get paid 9 hours, then you are supposed to be taxed on that one hour as it is profit.

 

[emrr]

Many of the poor here don't have bank accounts in which to accept direct deposit; having a bank account requires having a pile of money sitting there.  They have to take a check to a check cashing outlet who keeps some large percentage as their fee.  Many old people don't trust the internet or DC/CC's either. 

 

[sodderboy]

Having also filed 1099 self employed status in the past, I am aware of paying estimated taxes and so forth. What I find most absurd is this, according to the tax code as it currently is written, you are only supposed to be taxed on profits made. So for example if you work 8 hours and are paid for 8 hours of work, you have not made a profit and therefore should not be taxed at all. But if you work 8 hours and get paid 9 hours, then you are supposed to be taxed on that one hour as it is profit.

You are talking about AGI which is different than profit.  Hourly work is straight income, and you deduct the cost of getting there, parts used, meal with the client, etc.  It would be the same taxes as if you did not go to the gig and still got paid.  If you charged $10 for the $1 of Tandy caps used to fix their DAT, then you have a $9 taxable profit.

Now if we can somehow calculate a cost of calories burned, brain cells lost, rack rash, backs spazzed, opportunity cost of not doing something else etc. during work hours and monetize that as further deductible expenses, then we are getting somewhere!
Hmmmmm.  Gotta call my greenshades. . .
Mike

 

[Kingston]

Don't know the details the the US system but any extra taxes you pay around here is not inflation secured. Around here the man gives negligible interest for the past years extra tax you paid. The wise would plan it better and put that money to better use somewhere with better interest. Like JR points out most people probably view tax returns as some kind of awesome special extra money. In reality you lost at least the current rate the inflation swallowed from the man's "benevolent paycheck".

Don't pay any extra for the man.

 

[ruffrecords]

The tax authorities are one thing but family is another. I lent my sister a deposit on a house in France on the understanding it would be repaid a couple of months later following the sale of her own house in the UK. In the end she got less for her own house than expected but was 'committed' to the purchase in France. So everyone got paid except me. That was three years ago and I still have not got my money back. I had to employ a debt collector force her into action and he gets a 12% cut of the proceeds.

Cheers

Ian

 

[JohnRoberts]

The tax authorities are one thing but family is another. I lent my sister a deposit on a house in France on the understanding it would be repaid a couple of months later following the sale of her own house in the UK. In the end she got less for her own house than expected but was 'committed' to the purchase in France. So everyone got paid except me. That was three years ago and I still have not got my money back. I had to employ a debt collector force her into action and he gets a 12% cut of the proceeds.

Cheers

Ian

"Money lent to a friend must be recovered from an enemy"

That must have been difficult. I hope you and your sister can reconcile eventually.

That kind of sucks where you try to help somebody and it ends up that way. I helped a friend who started his own business, I didn't lose as much money as he did, but i lost some money and a friend. While I would repeat the good advice when lending money, if you can't avoid lending completely, document the loan with a signed contract so there is no question about what the terms are for payback. The signed loan contract was very helpful when I had to refresh my friend's memory.

JR

 

[ruffrecords]

The tax authorities are one thing but family is another. I lent my sister a deposit on a house in France on the understanding it would be repaid a couple of months later following the sale of her own house in the UK. In the end she got less for her own house than expected but was 'committed' to the purchase in France. So everyone got paid except me. That was three years ago and I still have not got my money back. I had to employ a debt collector force her into action and he gets a 12% cut of the proceeds.

Cheers

Ian

"Money lent to a friend must be recovered from an enemy"

That must have been difficult. I hope you and your sister can reconcile eventually.

That kind of sucks where you try to help somebody and it ends up that way. I helped a friend who started his own business, I didn't lose as much money as he did, but i lost some money and a friend. While I would repeat the good advice when lending money, if you can't avoid lending completely, document the loan with a signed contract so there is no question about what the terms are for payback. The signed loan contract was very helpful when I had to refresh my friend's memory.

JR

Agreed. Just proves you are never to old to make mistakes or to learn from them.

Cheers

ian

 

[sodderboy]

Don't know the details the the US system but any extra taxes you pay around here is not inflation secured. Around here the man gives negligible interest for the past years extra tax you paid. The wise would plan it better and put that money to better use somewhere with better interest. Like JR points out most people probably view tax returns as some kind of awesome special extra money. In reality you lost at least the current rate the inflation swallowed from the man's "benevolent paycheck".

Don't pay any extra for the man.

Tha man here sez there is no inflation. Pay NO attention to him in FRONT of the curtain churning $85,000,000,000 per month of pulp and promises.
Opportunity cost- your lost opportunity to use your wages as you earn them costs you, even if you can get a 50" freevee with the tax refund.
Mike

 

[Spiritworks]

Don't know the details the the US system but any extra taxes you pay around here is not inflation secured. Around here the man gives negligible interest for the past years extra tax you paid. The wise would plan it better and put that money to better use somewhere with better interest. Like JR points out most people probably view tax returns as some kind of awesome special extra money. In reality you lost at least the current rate the inflation swallowed from the man's "benevolent paycheck".

Don't pay any extra for the man.

It should be noted for the benefit of those living in other countries that the United States Treasury does NOT pay any interest on the monies they confiscate from wage earners here in the US. 
They certainly DO charge you penalties and interest, on a monthly basis, if they deem you haven't forked over the proper amount on a timely basis. :'(

 

[JohnRoberts]

Don't know the details the the US system but any extra taxes you pay around here is not inflation secured. Around here the man gives negligible interest for the past years extra tax you paid. The wise would plan it better and put that money to better use somewhere with better interest. Like JR points out most people probably view tax returns as some kind of awesome special extra money. In reality you lost at least the current rate the inflation swallowed from the man's "benevolent paycheck".

Don't pay any extra for the man.

Tha man here sez there is no inflation. Pay NO attention to him in FRONT of the curtain churning $85,000,000,000 per month of pulp and promises.

Yup inflation is funny, and I think they just changed how they measure it again. The central bank's job should be to manage inflation via the money supply, but they have undertaken a dual mandate to drive the economy and employment also. That seems to me like an imperfect lever to use for that. Since they can't literally drive employment, they are trying to increase the perception of wealth by inflating the value of hard assets. This has driven the stock market to new highs and put an updraft under housing. While we can argue about the inflation metric they use to measure with they seem to be keeping it modest. At the moment europe is having a deflation scare as inflation there has slowed dangerously. Central bankers fear deflation far more than inflation, since a deflationary cycle feeds on itself and can reverse economic growth for over a decade as we've seen in Japan.

We are not out of this economic malaise yet and the fed is risking that they can never stop the easing they have done for too long. The fed is getting no help from the legislators, while at least the sequester that nobody expected to ever go into effect is reducing spending growth a little, albeit using a very dull knife.

Opportunity cost- your lost opportunity to use your wages as you earn them costs you, even if you can get a 50" freevee with the tax refund.
Mike

Yup, time value of money... The IRS gets nasty if they don't get 90% of what they are owed, or 100% of what you paid the year before by jan 15th, so 2 weeks after the last quarter. April 15 is just a filing deadline, not when the tax is due them. While these days the interest rate on savings and CDs is barely worth the trouble.

JR

PS: My small position in gold keeps going down, but that just means everything else is going up so good on balance.. The gold is just so I can still buy ammunition and necessities should cash becomes worthless.

 

[sodderboy]

You gotta buy the ammo now while it is still available!
It will be a more easily divisible thus viable currency than a Kruggerand
Good scotch too, bottled in glass. . .
Mike

 

[JohnRoberts]

You gotta buy the ammo now while it is still available!
It will be a more easily divisible thus viable currency than a Kruggerand
Good scotch too, bottled in glass. . .
Mike

A guy that I used to work with was convinced that .22 ammo would be the future currency, not as much to kill off the undead rioters but to barter with and hunt small game to eat. I suspect he has an even larger ammo ammo pile now 10 years later.

A complete breakdown in currency and money based economic activity is pretty much bad science fiction, but the value of our currency is constantly being inflated by design, albeit at a modest rate. This means that over time our cash is being devalued. Ammo may actually hold its value at least as well or better than other hard assets. 

JR

 

[pucho812]

update,

THe IRS no longer returns phone calls. The agent I have been told to contact has calls go straight to voice mail and does not return phone calls at all. This has been a daily occurrence.  I am still out a refund. Errrrr. I suppose they are still investigating even though they told me about the check being intercepted(their word), I say stolen and had told me about the check washing.  bastards the whole lot.

 

[JohnRoberts]

I beleive there may be a customer ombudsman group  http://www.irs.gov/uac/Contact-a-Local-Taxpayer-Advocate

If still frustrated contact your congressman.

The IRS works for us... If they are unresponsive, rain down on them from above.

JR

 

[pucho812]

I figured in the last message, "I need the refund to pay for Obamacare" would have had them really moving to get things handled.  Even that didn't get a response, I guess they know me better and that the money would have gone to other things.

 

[bruno2000]

I figured in the last message, "I need the refund to pay for Obamacare" would have had them really moving to get things handled.  Even that didn't get a response, I guess they know me better and that the money would have gone to other things.

OUCH!