2011 tax season.
 

OK well this is my rant about dealing with the Internal Revenue Service this year.:diablo: Well because we forgot to take into account that during our home remodel last June that we pulled money out of our TSP "Thrift Savings Plan" in order to fund that project, we are getting hit hard this year. We withdrew nearly $50K for the house remodel and also to pay off credit card debt, which in turn drove our total annual taxable income over the $150K mark for 2010.:gasp: We did this to ourselves, but the house had to be upgraded no matter what. It was an oversight on our part because when you draw money out of your own accounts you kind of forget about the fact that this was money that had not been taxed prior.:oops:

The wife is still recalculating and figuring things out, but we are looking at a tax debt of about $5K-$7K right now:neutral:. After we just moved and had to pay nearly $7K for unexpected added shipping weight above our authorized limit:eyes:, and now also have to purchase these Pro Mac-book laptops just so our boys can attend high school next fall, which is another $3600.:no: The rain just keeps coming. Its like trying to hold back a raging river with a sheet of plywood.

The pisser for me is that I have to wait until a job opens up within the US Embassy so I can earn some extra cash to help pay for this crap. I can't just go out and get a job while living here in Prague. We have to depend on job services available at post each place we go. Some places have no jobs available at all for spouses of employees. I will probably end up working in the Embassy Post Office 20-40 hours a week, but the pay is good. OK my venting is done. So what IRS related issues are the rest of you having this year?:whistle:

I pull in $8500 a year. My income (disability check) is low enough that I don't even have to file taxes.

On top of that I get $90 a month ($1080 a year) in food support. I generally live off $60 of food each month, and I use the extra $30 at the end of the month to treat myself to some filet mignon or salmon.

And in the last 8 years I've accumulated probably $10k in r/c stuff, and bought and sold my way to what I have now.

So I live off a total of $9580 a year and still spend about $200 a month on r/c.

I drive a '98 van that is payed for. 190,000 miles and runs like new, my old man is meticulous about maintenance. New hoses and belt before they fail, every grease zerk greased at every oil change, water pump and alternator replaced before failing, stuff like that. I will own the van to 300,000+ miles.

Yeah, if I made $250,000 a year I would spend most of it. It's amazing how little I can live on though. The world is full of excess.

True that. I recently went to a trip to Eastern Asia to places like Cambodia and Vietnam, and some people live there for a lot less than a dollar a day. Makes the US seem greedy sometimes.

When your in a rant, your my favourite author Jerry!:lol: Having said that I do feel for you, it never rains it pours:diablo: I hope you have a good run now, that lasts.

I am guessing you live with your parents? There could be no way I could even feed my self on that. Probably because I consume half my body weight in food every day but still that is not much money on the scale of things. Good on you for that. At least you know the true value of the dollar.

I Hate tax time. Every year I get smacked with a big tax bill. Mainly due to all the little perks I get from work. They call it Fringe Benefit Tax or FBT for short. Last year I had to pay nearly $4K tax time and belive it or not I wasn"t too upset about that. It's been worse than that. I know I can't complain as it still works out in my favor but I hate having to blow my savings every year on tax. GRRRRRR!!!!

Couple of years ago I went to Europe on a holiday to see some of my cousins. They live in Serbia and Croatia. I set my self a limit of $100 a day over the 8 weeks I was there. First day I walked into a bar I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Hineken was about $1.20 and evry other beer was even cheaper. In a bar!!!!!:surprised: First day I blew about $60 and that includes the taxi I had to be carried into. By the end of the first week I thought my liver was going to pack it in. Food was even cheaper. I loved it. Spent about $5.5K of the $9K i allowed. I wish I couls make money here in Australia and live there.

Living in poverty.
 

Yea Harold you are a very special guy thats for sure. I could not imagine living off of less than ten grand a year nowa days. That is wat my father was making back in the 1960's when I was just a toddler. Even then we were living in poverty, and wondering if we were going to have food to eat for dinner. And that was when a Big Mack was like $0.50. You must be going to bed hungry a lot of nights. I am sorry to hear that is the way you have to live. Meanwhile our Gov is giving billions & billions of $$$$$$$$$ away to other countries for charity. Something isn't right??? But my best friend keeps telling me sarcastically not to worry, because Obama has a plan and he is going to fix everything. He gave everyone in the USA free healthcare, right. Bullshite, because all of our rates went up, and our take home income went down. I keep saying it, but things are going to get a whole lot worse before they get better. I keep hearing grape vine chatter that Donald Trump may run for president. Can you imagine what he is going to do in order to get this country back on top of its financial nightmare? We are going to be screwed even worse next term. Se la vi"

Nope. A little 1 bedroom apartment. Rent is based on income, so I only pay $210 a month

Wow I am gobsmacked!! I have no idea on how you do it man. And to be able to stay in the RC game........my hat is off to ya.

Sounds kinky, bet Harold is into that too. Shame you are so far away from each other, you could enjoy a mutual gobsmaking good time, pants optional!!!

Jerry, I cannot belive the BS prices Apple charge for their "crap" computers. Did Steve Jobs not notice that all of this "technology" is getting cheaper as he rolled out the door? I guess the schools are jumping on the Aplle bandwagon cause the software is cheap? Or free? I know Microsquish like to charge for their software, but I always pirate it anyways... Probably why it costs so much!!!

I feel you guys on taxes, I own my own business, a house and vacant land. So I get hit with 3 property taxes a year, and none of the listed items actually benefit me at all. I do not have kids in public schools, I do not call the police, I do not have elderly parents in state run old folks homes, etc. None of what I am paying for applies to me. At least I have a mortgage (never thought i would say that) and a small child so I get to have some big deductions next year.

Yeah, Obama screwed us. Well not just him, but he can take the fall. The fact they bailed out the banks and you had to throw 50k into your house so you could keep it plus all of the other costs just pisses me off. We (tax payers) just keep getting screwed. Time to bring back the gallows and have some good old fashioned hangings. I am sure the sight of some feet twiching would get the point across to the "people in charge"...

Here is my rant:

Everyone tells you to go to school so you can be successful. So we go to school with some student loans and all of a sudden you are 15-200k in debt. So you think no big deal, I get my dream job and pay it all back. Then you realize there are very few jobs and that people who have been in the business took serious pay cuts to keep their jobs. No one wants to train you, since the economy is so bad. Then someone tells you to looks for another career and invest in yourself. We guess what, all we are doing is cross training ourselves on new careers that dont have any jobs either.
Then you finally land your job, if you are not working at a 7-11. You realize the 60k a year you were supposed to make is 30k. Now you can get on with your life.
Now you start making good money and the more you make the more you get taxed.

I'm sorry, but at the end of the day, you are no better than a service industry worker, working at a nice restaurant, or parking cars, that probably keeps his tips hidden from the IRS. He got to start his job right from high school. He doesnt have student loans to pay back. He makes just as much as you do with your degree after you figure he gets to keep his 60k a year while you pay taxes on all of your 80k a year.

Bottom line, the more you work, the much more you get taxed, and the less you get to keep. I'm not sure going to school is really as rewarding as everyone thinks it is. The IRS has it set up so that people who make between 60 and 250k get to pay all the taxes while everyone else doesnt have to.

Then you get married and your wife works and you get to pay some serious taxes, while your kids get to go to day care so you can barely make more than if your wife stayed at home.

All this time you are supposed to be saving to buy a house, but the good news is they keep dropping in value so eventually you will be able to afford one.

i always claim 0 on my taxes, they take a little extra out throughout the year but I always get a refund. I also never make much money...so I've always gotten back everything I've paid in taxes (except $24 to state this year). Hope fully I'll get a decent engineering job and start paying taxes, sigh. What a great dream, earn enough money to pay taxes!

Not in the least Jerry. I should have elaborated. I live like a king. I don't compare myself to Donald Trump. I think about what would happen if I were in haiti or cuba. I'm very lucky.

Like you said in the "workplace" thread- I've got everything a man could want: tv, stereo and lot's of r/c

Oh, and Linc- thanks for paying your taxes:na:

Hey, I would rather see you get them than half the people on welfare... At least you have a good reason!!!

I own a shop in the "olde towne" area of slidell. Basically it is a few blocks square that used to be the town of slidell back when the put they railroad in a long time ago. I am on the edge of that area, which is nice as it is kept up quite well. However across the street a few blocks over you have the "welfare" area of town. And I have a church soup kitchen right behing my shop. So I get to see all of my "taxes" walk by daily at lunchtime to get some free food. All but 1 of them look to be physically capable people, the other guy has a bad limp. So they could all be working, and that limping guy could have a desk job... I wonder how many of them have escalades rollin' on dubs?

I got injured at work Nov '08. Last year I got some decent $ back due to a labor dispute with the union I was in. This year I didn't have to file because comp isn't taxable and I didn't get enough in my returns to have to file. Still waiting on my lawyer and comp to figure stuff out for my retraining or settlement.... 2 1/2 years now. My whole life has come apart, lost my job after 6 mos short term disability ran out, wife left not long after that. Have had 2 back surgeries and a neck surgery in that 2 1/2 years. And last fall I had to get my gall bladder out on my damn birthday... One day I'll have a life again...

That sucks
 

WOW that really sucks. I know that some of us have had to deal with unwanted circumstances in our lives, but I can tell you that there can also be happier days down the road so hang in there and never give up. These things can not only bring out the worst in us, but also the best in us as well. Its hard some days to keep fighting, but what else is there? As the saying goes, dead is dead, and there is no coming back from that. Find joy in something and always strive to improve who you are. Hey you got R/C and that is something, right?

Tax season does suck most of the time, but as I was telling the wife the other day up to now we have always gotten back a nice chunk of our taxes (usually $5K to $8K every year, so paying some out one time in 7 years isn't so bad. We will live through it, and next year we will be back in teh green again.

I have to share that I was feeling quite low 7 years ago. I had gotten divroced in 2000, and the EX moved our kids 4000 miles away, and made it pretty much impossible for me to see them for 7 years. On top of that she hit me with $1800 a month in child support, which was about what I took home on my job at the time. I felt like my life was overwith. I swear I was about to sell my house along with everything I owned and move overseas just to avoid dealing with any of it. I had a few really good friends who helped keep my mind right through it all. Slowly things began to change in my life and although recovery was pretty slow I could see that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I can't say whether it was devine intervention or just life's way of working out all on its own, but the EX passed away in 2008, and the kids now live with my wife and I. Not only do I no longer pay child support, but we collect about the same amount in SSI payments now because of her illness, which helps greatly with raising them. It allows me to stay home most of the time to make sure they have what they need (good dicapline, and strong guidance) and I get to keep a close eye on them so they don't kill each other. Life is never easy, but we have to find a way to fight our way through even the toughest of situations to succeed.

I dont have any stories to share but im getting back about $700 so im definently not complaining.

Not sure how new this is, but I just read that they are considering getting rid of the mortage interest deduction. I think the politicians all sit around all day wondering how they can make the middle class pay more and more in taxes. I once saw someone list all of the taxes we have to pay and it just made me laugh. Pretty much all you can do is limit the amount of things you do and buy so that you can start keeping most of the money you make.

They wanted change...

At least I'm not forced into public health care. Yet.
Gay marriage forced through the courts DESPITE how we voted...

They say historically democracies last about 200 years.
Arghhh, and is all I have to say about that.