Here is an excellent e-mail illustrating how illegal immigration is sucking America dry.  Now, you idiots that want to start throwing out the racist tag or something of the like, I will direct your attention to the word “illegal” in bold, underlined, italics in the first sentence.

Like most Americans, I’m COMPLETELY in support of LEGAL immigration.  That means people who wait their turn, obey our laws, come here legally, and contribute to America as a citizen, and pledge their allegiance to America.

If you sneak across our border (against the law), take our jobs, and our benefits, raise the flag of your home country while spitting on ours, and contribute nothing but a giant sucking sound to our treasury, then take your illegal posterior to the exterior of our interior before we kick your inferior posterior out.  Don’t let the door hit you in the assets as you leave, never to return.

You have two families: “Joe Legal” and “Jose Illegal“

Both families have two parents, two children, and live in California ..

Joe Legal works in construction, has a Social Security Number and makes $25..00 per hour with taxes deducted.

Jose Illegal also works in construction, has NO Social Security Number, and gets paid $15.00 cash “under the table”.

Ready? Now pay attention…

Joe Legal: $25.00 per hour x 40 hours = $1000.00 per week, or $52,000.00 per year. Now take 30% away for state and federal tax; Joe Legal now has $31,231.00.

Jose Illegal: $15.00 per hour x 40 hours = $600.00 per week, or $31,200.00 per year. Jose Illegal pays no taxes. Jose Illegal now has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays medical and dental insurance with limited coverage for his family at $600.00 per month, or $7,200.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $24,031.00.

Jose Illegal has full medical and dental coverage through the state and local clinics at a cost of $0.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal makes too much money and is not eligible for food stamps or welfare. Joe Legal pays $500.00 per month for food, or $6,000.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $18,031.00.

Jose Illegal has no documented income and is eligible for food stamps and welfare. Jose Illegal still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays rent of $1,200.00 per month, or $14,400.00 per year. Joe Legal now has $9,631.00.

Jose Illegal receives a $500.00 per month federal rent subsidy. Jose Illegal pays out that $500.00 per month, or $6,000.00 per year. Jose Illegal still has $ 31,200.00.

Joe Legal pays $200.00 per month, or $2,400.00 for insurance. Joe Legal now has $7,231.00.

Jose Illegal says, “We don’t need no stinkin’ insurance!” and still has $31,200.00.

Joe Legal has to make his $7,231.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, etc.

Jose Illegal has to make his $31,200.00 stretch to pay utilities, gasoline, and what he sends out of the country every month.

Joe Legal now works overtime on Saturdays or gets a part time job after work.

Jose Illegal has nights and weekends off to enjoy with his family.

Joe Legal’s and Jose Illegal’s children both attend the same school. Joe Legal pays for his children’s lunches while Jose Illegal’s children get a government sponsored lunch. Jose Illegal’s children have an after school ESL program. Joe Legal’s children go home.

Joe Legal and Jose Illegal both enjoy the same police and fire services, but Joe paid for them and Jose did not pay.

Do you get it, now?

If you vote for or support any politician that supports illegal Aliens…

You are part of the problem!

It’s way PAST time to take a stand for America and Americans!

What are you waiting for? Pass it on..

HT: Greg Mankiw

Associated Press, August 3, 2009

AP ENTERPRISE: Federal tax revenues plummeting

By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer – Mon Aug 3, 8:51 pm ET

AP – Graphic shows change in federal tax receipts from 1980

WASHINGTON – The recession is starving the government of tax revenue, just as the president and Congress are piling a major expansion of health care and other programs on the nation’s plate and struggling to find money to pay the tab.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

The last time the government’s revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.

“Our tax system is already inadequate to support the promises our government has made,” said Eugene Steuerle, a former Treasury Department official in the Reagan administration who is now vice president of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

“This just adds to the problem.”

While much of Washington is focused on how to pay for new programs such as overhauling health care — at a cost of $1 trillion over the next decade — existing programs are feeling the pinch, too.

Social Security is in danger of running out of money earlier than the government projected just a few month ago. Highway, mass transit and airport projects are at risk because fuel and industry taxes are declining.

The national debt already exceeds $11 trillion. And bills just completed by the House would boost domestic agencies’ spending by 11 percent in 2010 and military spending by 4 percent.

For this report, the AP analyzed annual tax receipts dating back to the inception of the federal income tax in 1913. Tax receipts for the 2009 budget year were available through June. They were compared to the same period last year. The budget year runs from October to September, meaning there will be three more months of receipts this year.

Is there a way out of the financial mess?

A key factor is the economy’s health. The future of current programs — not to mention the new ones Obama is proposing — will depend largely on how fast the economy recovers from the recession, said William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center.

“The numbers for 2009 are striking, head-snapping. But what really matters is what happens next,” said Gale, who previously taught economics at UCLA and was an adviser to President George H. W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers.

“If it’s just one year, then it’s a remarkable thing, but it’s totally manageable. If the economy doesn’t recover soon, it doesn’t matter what your social, economic and political agenda is. There’s not going to be any revenue to pay for it.”

A small part of the drop in tax receipts can be attributed to new tax credits for individuals and corporations enacted in February as part of the $787 billion economic stimulus package. The sheer magnitude of the tax decline, however, points to the deep recession that is reducing incomes, wiping out corporate profits and straining government programs.

Social Security tax receipts are down less than a percentage point from last year, but in May the government had been projecting a slight increase. At the time, the government’s best estimate was that Social Security would start to pay out more money than it receives in taxes in 2016, and that the fund would be depleted in 2037 unless changes are enacted.

Some experts think the sour economy has made those numbers outdated.

“You could easily move that number up three or four years, then you’re talking about 2013, and that’s not very far off,” said Kent Smetters, associate professor of insurance and risk management at the University of Pennsylvania.

The government’s projections included best- and worst-case scenarios. Under the worst, Social Security would start to pay out more money than it received in taxes in 2013, and the fund would be depleted in 2029.

The fund’s trustees are still confident the solvency dates are within the range of the worst-case scenario, said Jason Fichtner, the Social Security Administration’s acting deputy commissioner.

“We’re not outside our boundaries yet,” Fichtner said. “As the recovery comes, we’ll see how that plays out.”

The recession’s toll on Social Security makes it even more urgent for Congress to address the fund’s long-term solvency, said Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., chairman of the Senate Aging Committee.

“Over the past year, millions of older Americans have watched their retirement savings crumble, making the guaranteed income of Social Security more important than ever,” Kohl said.

President Barack Obama has said he wants to tackle Social Security next year, after he clears an already crowded agenda that includes overhauling health care, addressing climate change and imposing new regulations on financial companies.

Medicare tax receipts are also down less than a percentage point for the year, pretty close to government projections. Medicare started paying out more money than it received last year.

Meanwhile, the recession is taking a toll on fuel and industry excise taxes that pay for highway, mass transit and airport projects. Fuel taxes that support road construction and mass transit projects are on pace to fall for the second straight year. Receipts from taxes on jet fuel and airline tickets are also dropping, meaning Congress will have to borrow more money to fund airport projects and the Federal Aviation Administration.

Last week, Congress voted to spend $7 billion to replenish the highway fund, which would otherwise run out of money in August. Congress spent $8 billion to replenish the fund last year.

Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., chairman of the House subcommittee that oversees fuel taxes, is working on a package to make the fund more self-sufficient. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which doesn’t back many tax increases, supports increasing the federal gasoline tax, currently 18.4 cents per gallon.

Neal said he hasn’t endorsed a specific plan. But, he added, “You can’t keep going back to the general fund.”

]]> http://consultingsaga.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/starting-an-income-log/ Sun, 19 Jul 2009 09:15:15 +0000 Paloma Pentarian http://consultingsaga.wordpress.com/2009/07/19/starting-an-income-log/

Ledger Paper and Pencil

The first thing I did today was to start an income log in a book of accounting paper.  (I now learned that this is called ledger paper.)   I don’t want to be in a position later on of not remembering what I earned.

It has columns for different types of income, and the first column, I labeled “tutoring.”   Then I logged the income I received two weeks ago. It doesn’t appear that tutoring is a very reliable source of income, as it’s very on-again, off-again, according to the parents’ whim.

I’m an American, and America taxes the worldwide income of all its citizens, including its expats (unlike many other countries).  Failing to report cash income is considered a crime.  So I thought I’d do it right from the inception.

It appears that cash income is reported on Schedule C, and that a Sole Proprietor has to pay Social Security Taxes on the reported income.  According to THIS EXCELLENT SITE (with lots of great advice well-organized by topic on starting your own small business), ” The social security tax can be quite a surprise for the new small businessperson who does not expect to pay roughly 15% of net income for social security tax on top of the income tax.”  Estimated tax payments can help lessen the burden of the final bill.

–Paloma

I have people all the the time wanting to know why they can’t be one of those people who pay NO income tax such as those described by Bob Williams in his article on TaxVox.

Truth be told, most of my clients pay very little in the way of income tax. The trouble is that people can’t distinguish between social security taxes and income taxes when they’re self-employed. If someone is self-employed and makes $30,000, they’re looking at social security taxes of $4,500, and a negligible amount of income tax if they’re married, with a kid or two.

Do you think that person is going to congratulate themself as one of the few who pay no income tax? No way! Tax time came and they owed $4,500 on their ‘income tax’ return that was due April 15, all being from social security!

My point here is that tax planning is not just about the income tax, that social security taxes plays a much larger role for self-employed people than our society seems to recognize. Most of us have a regular paycheck with social security being deducted before we even go to the bank and are therefore insulated from this problem.

When we do tax planning with our clients, the goal is to find business expenses. For instance, charitable contributions are nice, but they do nothing to reduce your social security tax exposure, because it’s not a business expense. So we’ll advise clients to take a closer look at that ‘charity’ and see how much of that can be converted into ’sponsorships’ or ‘advertising opportunities’, and thus deductible against the self-employment income.

So when you hear or read about people who don’t pay income tax, find out if they’re paying social security taxes, because that’s the real killer.

– Steven A. Feinberg – www.AppletreeBusiness.com

There are two types of credits that you have in your yearly taxes, refundable and non-refundable.  Refundable tax credits will allow you to receive a refund on taxes you have overpaid.  Non-refundable tax credits will pay toward your tax bill until it reaches zero.  If you made any overpayments during the year and have non-refundable tax credits, the IRS will get to keep that overage.

The refundable tax credits include:

1.  Additional Child Tax Credit.  Up to a maximum of $1,000.

2.  Earned Income Credit.   Varies, depends on income.

3.  Excess Social Security Tax Withheld.  Varies.

4.  First Time Homebuyer.  Up to $7,500 for first time home buyers, who purchased homes between between April 9, 2008 to July 1, 2009.  Unlike other tax credits, this one will need to be repaid, at $500 per year, up to 15 years.  Essentially, it is an interest-free loan.

5.  Health Coverage Tax Credit.  Pays off 65% of health care premiums to qualifying tax payers.

Non refundable tax credits include:

1.  Adoption Credit.  Up to $10,390 per child.

2.  Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit.  Depending on the adjusted gross income, 20% to 35% of qualifying expenses.

3.  Electric Vehicle Credit.  7.5% of the new vehicles cost,  up to $3,000 in credit.

4.  Elderly and Disabled Credit.  Varies.

5.  Foreign Tax Credit.  Varies, depends on income tax from foreign country, and income.

6.  HOPE Scholarship Credit.  Credit up to $1,500 per child.

7.  Mileage.  For the period of January-June 2008, Business $0.505 per mile, Charity $0.14 per mile, Medical and moving $0.19 per mile.  For July-December 2008, Business $0.585 per mile, charity $0.14 per mile, and medical and moving $0.27 per mile.

8.  Lifetime Learning Credit.  Twenty percent of the first $10,000 of eligible expenses, up to $2,000.

9.  Retirement Savings Contributions Credit.  (also known as Savers Credit)  20% of the first $10,000 of eligible expenses, up to $2,000 maximum.

Tax planning now is key to maximizing your future returns.  To maximize your own tax benefits, pay as little as possible out of your paycheck per pay period, and set aside enough money to pay your taxes later will guarantee that you will not lose money in the end.  Set yourself up by contacting your HR department, and have money automatically deposited into a special bank account that you dedicate to just paying your yearly taxes.  Having this extra money automatically deposited into a special bank account will help assure that you will not be overwhelmed with a new tax bill.  At the end of each tax year, after you pay your taxes, you can then withdrawal the previous tax years overage, which now acts as your “refund”.  Of course, there are always the options of consulting a CPA, purchasing tax or finance software, or looking up information at www.irs.gov for more advice.

What about individuals who have zero taxable income?  People who have zero taxable income should still file a tax return.  While they would not owe any taxes, if they have a refundable tax credit, may actually receive a tax refund.

Other considerations.  Due to economic fallout, we are actually seeing states suspending income tax refunds.  Kansas has already announced that it will not be refunding for the 2008 tax year, and we will likely see others follow suit.  To maximize your own tax benefits, pay as little as possible out of your paycheck per pay period, and setting aside enough money to pay your taxes later will guarantee that you will not lose money in the end.

My Flag Flies Everyday

I can’t believe the amount of stuff I know about “Joe the Plumber,” in less than a week. The audacity of this working man to ask a question of a candidate. The one question, which was not “vetted,” by the DNC has become an example of how well BO has staged his campaign by carefully writing and rehearsing canned answers. He was asked one question off the script, and blew it big time. He exposed himself. He might as well have dropped his pants. All I can say is this, I’d like to ask BO some questions too, and I’d like his army of investigators to dig dirt on me. I’d welcome spending my entire 401K, or what’s left of it, fighting them in court. It would be like an aircraft carrier fighting a canoe, but I”d go down asking questions the guy won’t answer.

Here are some for starters.  I’m retired living off Social Security, and my 401K. Since you and your democratic friends have destroyed the market with the free housing program, will you eliminate the taxes I pay on Social Security? Don’t tell me that I’m in the 95% of the population that will get your tax cut. I want to hear you say that the SS tax is evil, it always was, and that you will abolish it immediately. Will you abolish the capital gains tax on the few feable stocks that I own in my 401K? Or will you also want that too. Your affinity for giving opportunity to those who have not worked fifty five years to accumulate a 401K is astoundingly stupid and naive.

Every one of the good citizens you so galantly want to help from the bottom up, have the same opportunities afforded to them as has Joe the Plumber. They have the same school system, the same laws, the same environment as all of us. Why do they waste it? Because you and yours choose to raise them in a welfare environment, they have never known anything else. They have no role models to show them how to work. Want to try an experiment? Try paying them for all the children they have ”in wedlock.” Try this as a plank in your arsenal, “Give a man a fish, he has one meal. Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime.”

Let me also ask you about your accusations that John McCain and Sarah Palin don’t argue the “issues.” They do argue issues, they have laid out concrete plans for “Energy Policy, Right to Life, How to fix the Economy, Supreme Court Justice selection, Foreign Affairs, Health Care, and more. The problem is, those big ears of yours are not listening to anything but what you want to hear. If John Mc Cain’s responses are not the same as yours, you fail to hear.  The trouble with you, BO, is that you are totally out of touch, as are your vetting agents at NBC,ABC,CBS, and the most liberal of all, out tax supported NPR.

Answer these too, How will you pay for Universal Health Care when Medicare, a much smaller program, is going broke? How will you help students through college, when they can’t read or write? Will you lower standards? Will you lower interest rates on student juice loans? Will you forego your salary to “help” the poor? Will you abolish affirmative action, a program disciminating against those who really want to get an education? 

What were your grades in college, who were some of your friends? Why did you vote “Present,” so many times in the Illinois State Senate?  How is it that you have  come in contact with so many questionable people in your short lifetime? I never met anyone controversial in over seventy years, nor have any of the entire population of this country. 

When do the investigators show up? I have more questions to ask.

My Flag Flies Everyday

A good friend of mine sent a package of articles last week. He included a letter with his political views in support of John McCain. The articles were all re-prints from Investors Business Daily. All of them proclaimed the shady background, affiliations, and non-virtues of one Barack Hussein Obama. I read them without stopping. That night I did not sleep. My body was trembling with anxiety and fear. That is the effect BO has on me when I see or hear him. On days like today, I sit at my computer BLOGGING away wondering if I am the only guy in the world who sees through the Obama hypnotica. My own children are falling for his semantics and smooth delivery. Of course, they also hate George Bush with such a vengeance that they want to punish him.

Voting irrationally for a candidate that is trying to change the best country in the world into a mediocre socialist state is not wise. Children, wake up, for once in your life, listen to your father. BO is a cobra wrapped in a sheep’s pelt. He will lure you with his bobbing and weaving, and then, when you are relaxed for just an instant, he will inject his poisonous venom into your blood. You will never recover.

One could argue, that if BO does bad things, we will replace him, and fix the wrong. Have you ever seen a bad law repealed? No, we have to live with them. As an example, the Fair Housing Act( Democrat Lyndon Johnson-LBJ) passed in 1968 was improved with the Community Reinvestment Act (Democrat Bill Clinton-WJC) of the nineties, which became the tool of ACORN. It all led to the subprime mortgage giveaway. 

This great country didn’t always have an income tax. The government enacted an income tax when it became necessary to fund something big, like a war. As soon as the debt was paid, the income tax was eliminated. Once the democrats realized the power of the greed, the income tax remained. Now we are faced with a deficit of trillions of dollars. Think about that, a trillion dollars of debt. See my post titled ”How Much is a Trillion?” What would happen if you were to spend your credit card debt to the limits? Would you ever pay it off? Would you try? Would the credit card companies lend you more money? What if you told the bank, whose card you maxed out, that you wanted more money to give to charities? Would it make any difference? 

What BO is asking of you, who are already maxed out, is for more money to give away. He ’s not interested in paying off the debt. He is playing “Robin Hood.” He wants to tax the rich to give it away to programs that he thinks will benefit you. That is the socialist way, they believe you are not able to take care of yourself, so Big Government will do it for you. All Big Government does is create a bureaucracy to administer to our needs. That bureaurocracy of administrators will use the funds to feed their own greed, and the offal will fall to the serfs.

 Everyone of the issues, he so proudly declares to be campaigning on, will cost this country trillions and add to the national debt. After Robin Hood has taxed the rich into the poorhouse, the payment of the bill transfers to us. Don’t be fooled. When we begin receiving the benefits of his entitlement programs, and BO realizes that he can’t pay for them, he will enact a tax on the benefit. Don’t believe me? I happen to pay income tax on my social security entitlement. Why? Because a few years ago, the Democrats needed a new way to pay the bill. What sense does that make?

I would like to see what will happen when every family in the country runs up a huge credit card bill and then refuses to pay. Will big government bail us out?  Currently, credit card debt is running so high in so many families, that I may get to see the need for a new bailout in my lifetime. Think it won’t happen? I think you will be forced to pay with your children, and their children before that bailout occurs.

Want to try an experiment? Send your Senator and Congressman a bill for your share of the bailout. It amounts to about three thousand dollars per person. Just multiply the number of people in your family by 3000 and send a bill for the total. Don’t hold your breath waiting for payment.

“I’m Grumpa Joe and I approve this message.”