Originally posted November 14, 2017. Want to get away? If you live in blue-states New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and while I’m at it California, you do now. As the so-called tax “cut” grinds its way through the sausage maker in Washington, why would you stick around any longer than you have to? Most of you aren’t sticking around for the weather. It’s more likely you’re here for your family. Last time I checked, raising a family is a big investment and where you live is a huge part of the equation. Which is why I have a problem with this tax “cut” … [Read more...]
Do You Live in a Blue State and Want to Get Away?
There’s no perfect answer but I like the idea of a boots on the ground approach through vacationing or a seasonal rental. Once you determine you actually like living somewhere new, then it’s time to make the big move. Research is part of the fun and here’s one way to get you on the road again. Glenn Ruffenach at The Wall Street Journal gives potential movers a way to compare destinations: So, as you indicate, combining results from several resources generally works best. Here are some good places to start: The nonprofit Council for Community and Economic Research in Arlington, Va., has … [Read more...]
Stand with Rand: Spending Matters
“I simply asked for one thing in this broken process: a 15-minute vote on whether those caps should or should not be broken. The furor this request set off among leadership, the wailing and screeching among Big Government advocates in Congress and in the media — well, you would think I had asked them to shut down forever,” writes Senator Rand Paul in Time. He wanted them to act like spending matters, “Like the process matters.” “The sad irony is that December’s Republican tax cut is supposed to save Americans $1.5 trillion over 10 years. But the new spending is essentially a $1.5 trillion … [Read more...]
Media Finally Acknowledges the Best Part of Tax Reform
After months of negative press over the prophesied ill effects of tax reform, the liberal media has come to admit the greatest benefit of all from tax reform: rising wages. The AP wrote today that despite the tax bill being "contentious," workers are starting to take home more pay. Big corporations across America have announced wage increases and bonuses as a direct result of the cut in their corporate tax rates. While some have called these benefits for employees "crumbs," the numbers are really beginning to add up. The AP writes: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has estimated that the new … [Read more...]
Southern States on Tax Cuts: Bring it On!
While high tax Northern states are desperately attempting to find ways around new rules in the tax reform legislation passed at the end of 2017, the South is cheering them on. The problems stem from high state and local income and property taxes in the North that will no longer be fully deductible for federal tax purposes. Meanwhile, in the low tax South, those issues aren't a concern, and a lower federal corporate rate looks great to the states that have made themselves attractive to big employers with Right to Work laws and low state taxation. Cameron McWhirter and Arian Campo-Flores … [Read more...]
Apple is About to Flood the IRS with Money and the U.S.A. with Jobs
Apple's CEO Tim Cook has announced that Apple will be paying $38 billion in taxes to bring home profits it had been keeping overseas. The impetus for the repatriation is the favorable treatment created by the recent passage of tax reform. Along with the boon for nation's budget, Apple will be investing $30 billion in capital in the U.S. over the next five years, including the creation of a new campus. In all the spending will create as many as 20,000 jobs. The repatriation reform is long overdue. Tripp Mickle reports: The total includes a new campus, which initially will house technical … [Read more...]
Companies Celebrate Tax Reform
American companies are celebrating the completion of the long-needed tax reform that was signed in November. Many are raising their profit targets, and some are even raising wages and handing out bonuses in anticipation of the windfall. Theo Francis writes: The announcements come as companies begin to report what are expected to be strong fourth-quarter financial results. A major focus will be executives’ expectations for how their operations and results this year will be affected by the tax law, which lowered the corporate rate to 21% from 35% and ended U.S. taxes on most future foreign … [Read more...]
Trying to Prepay Your Property Taxes? Read This First
For those rushing to pre-pay 2018 property taxes in order to maintain full deductability of those sums, it might be time to examine new IRS guidance on the subject. At Bloomberg, John Voskuhl explains: U.S. taxpayers can deduct their 2018 state and local property taxes on their 2017 returns if they pay those tax bills before the end of the year -- and only if the taxes were assessed before 2018, according to the Internal Revenue Service. The federal authority’s guidance reflects an effort to address some of the confusion triggered by the tax overhaul signed by President Donald Trump last … [Read more...]
Tax Bill Big Changes to 529 Plan
One item, in particular, that I like with the pending tax reform is how the 529 plan will be treated. It expands the use to elementary and secondary schools at a max of $10,000 per beneficiary per year for qualifying expenses. This from the NYT: Buried in Section 1202 of the tax bill are a number of proposals to consolidate and simplify various tax breaks for education savings. Part of the section in effect would neuter something called a Coverdell account, which families have used for years to save for both private school and college. But then comes the big change: Elementary and high … [Read more...]
Fake (and Biased) News Still a Problem for Investors
You might have hoped that after all of the media attention, the problem of fake and biased news would have been solved by now. But any objective evaluation of the media’s coverage of the tax bill that was just passed by Congress dispels that myth. The coverage of the tax plan has been so uniformly negative that almost half the people polled disapprove of the tax plan and a shockingly high 50% of people think their taxes are going up. The press has fed the narrative that taxes are going up on middle-income Americans and only the wealthy are going to benefit from the plan. Senators and … [Read more...]
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