|
Sunday, April 11, 2010
12 comments:
-
pdwalker said...
-
Nicely done!
-
4/11/10, 10:55 AM
-
Josh Fahrni-Barn Army Dog Catcher said...
-
...I just did my taxes. Last year I made a little over 800 dollars doing odd things for a real estate company my mom works for...and now I owe (after I already had 15% deducted when I was paid) over 150 dollars because of a "self employment tax". I'm basically being taxed 33%.
I've never heard of that in my life. I'm not exactly an entrepreneur, but I know there are many out there, and the idea is the same. You're getting taxed for trying to make it on your own? I just looked it up, a loser like me should fall under the 10% tax rate.
Apparently because of the "self-employment tax" I'm paying in the tax rate of someone that makes between 170,000 and 372,000 dollars.
Neat. -
4/11/10, 1:34 PM
-
pdwalker said...
-
ooooo
I just felt someone getting hit by a nice hard slap of cold reality.
Yes Mr Fahmi, you have just discovered the incentive the tax system places on entrepreneurs to go out and create more wealth.
In reality, small entrepreneurs are just not bribing the politicians in the same way that large companies can afford to do. As a result, your taxes as compared to theirs are at slightly different rates (as you have so aptly observed).
Screw the people! Make them pay more than their fair share! And make sure they only work for big companies. It's the American Way!
(I know of other countries with a flat tax system, and no additional taxes for entrepreneurs. Guess what? They have very low unemployment rates and lots of small businesses and entrepreneurs) -
4/11/10, 2:42 PM
-
Josh Fahrni-Barn Army Dog Catcher said...
-
I guess the shock comes from the fact that I've read a lot about the tax boondoggles going on. But as much as we here politicians talk about 'the little guy' and how small business is the backbone of America...I don't know. I'd literally never heard of this. I can afford to shell out the 150, although I don't really care to. Just a surprise. Working at Walmart, I made 10x the amount of money in a year, and I paid less than I'm paying this year, making such a tiny amount.
Strange. -
4/11/10, 3:02 PM
-
Anonymous said...
-
Josh,
Welcome to the world of self employment!
Watch out the Gov Goons are gonna lean on you and ask for 33% of the take... or else.
RAK -
4/11/10, 3:50 PM
-
JimO said...
-
I was self employed for over 30 years...finally sold my business and got a job...put in my 40 a week and go home with no worries. The biggest killer for self employment was paying both the 7.5% employee AND the the 7.5% employer portions of Social Security taxes....especially since I probably won't see any of either.
-
4/11/10, 7:29 PM
-
rickn8or said...
-
Josh--
You need to find a way to get money without a paper trail. -
4/11/10, 7:31 PM
-
Anonymous said...
-
pdwalker - could you give us a short list of these flat tax utopias as I am about to retire AND willing to relocate should the RNC,once again,not live up to expectations?
-
4/11/10, 11:15 PM
-
Anonymous said...
-
Josh Fahmi, For what did the company deduct 15%? Federal income tax? Unless you were already in the 15% bracket for income taxes due to other income, that would be applicable to what you "owe" for FICA. I hope you deducted mileage at .55/mile for your round trip to the job as well.
-
4/12/10, 1:26 AM
-
Josh Fahrni-Barn Army Dog Catcher said...
-
I don't have any receipts to back up anything I did or didn't do. It was a while ago, now. I didn't plan on getting gouged so hard. I suppose one never truly does, lol.
-
4/12/10, 3:04 AM
-
pdwalker said...
-
Anon seeking flat tax utopia's:
I found some information here: http://www.worldwide-tax.com/
From this list I can see that:
* BVI ( nada )
* Hong Kong (17% individual)
* Saudi Arabia (20% individual)
* Singapore (20% individual, 7% gst)
* Ukraine (15% individual, 20% vat)
are potential places with decent tax schemes. Are any of those places a place you'd want to live?
Personally, I'd avoid places with a VAT, as that just sucks away your savings as you spend it. A low tax % on earned income is nicer on your pocketbook.
Anon on why the 15% "extra":
When you work for other companies, the companies also have to pay "extra" taxes for each employee. These taxes are not shown in your income statement.
When you are self employed, there is no company to pay that tax, so the government essentially double taxes the self employed (that's not 2x tax, but tax once, and tax twice on income earned)
This is a gross simplification and maybe completely wrong, but that is my current understanding based on what little I've read.
It feels more painful because the self employed see all of their income go in and they see how much of it goes out to the government. -
4/12/10, 3:38 AM
-
Anonymous said...
-
Josh & self employed folks in the U.S.:
If you can manage, do as much of your work for cash as possible. Keep two sets of books. One reflecting actual business, the other, transactions involving traceable funds. Only report the tracable funds as income.
It's illegal, but as we all now know, the FedGov has been cooking our books for decades in ways that would make an Enron executive blush. Why should statist wankers get to have all the fun?
Use a simple electronic register, and take the 5-10 minutes necessary at the end of each day to run the receipt tape with the reportable transactions only. IRS agents get their panties in a twist for paperwork, and any decent tax lawyer and your fake paper trail & books should see you through an audit with flying colors unless you're a moron...
They can continue to pretend to serve the best interests of the republic and its citizens, we'll pretend to loyally pay our taxes.
Be prepared!
Armageddon Rex -
4/12/10, 11:12 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)