Text 13519, 114 rader
Skriven 2011-01-08 01:20:47 av Roy Witt (1:387/22)
  Kommentar till text 13510 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
Ärende: Taxes                               Was: Welcome to the 21st century in
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08 Jan 11 07:18, Bob Ackley wrote to Robert Bashe:

 BA>>> The problem on this side of the pond is that government (at all
 BA>>> levels) is taking between 65 and 75 oercent of people's income -
 BA>>> NOT including Obamacare.

 RB>> I could see that in Germany, but in the States? Do you meanwhile
 RB>> have a 20% sales tax and does gasoline cost $6.85 a gallon (= 3.78
 RB>> liters)? That's our situation in Germany.

 BA> Sales taxes vary with locality.  Here it's 7%, which is somewhere in
 BA> the middle (I can remember when it was 3% in California - it's about
 BA> 10% there now).  I've read that people in some states pay up to 12%.

On a brighter side, sales tax in Texas is only 6.5%, but cities and towns
are allowed to set their own sales taxes, which go to the state, but
eventually return to the cities and towns. So the average sales tax is
about 8.25%...

 BA> According to my computer I paid about $1,200 in sales taxes last year
 BA> (and (1) I undoubtedly missed entering some of them so the number's a
 BA> bit light and (2) doesn't include taxes on gasoline).  Gasoline was -
 BA> last week - just under $3/gallon here, in some areas (Nebraska, for
 BA> one) it's well over that.

It's at $2.85 here. Both the state and feds tax gasoline as an excise tax.
California adds sales tax onto their sales, so they pay state and federal
excise tax plus sales tax (per gallon) on gasoline. In the Los Angeles
area (an oil refinery area) the price of regular is around $3.32/gal, but
in San Diego, just down the road by 90 miles, regular is nearer to
$4/gal...

 BA> Then the states sting you a tax to register your vehicle - can run
 BA> several hundred dollars a year,

California registration is determined by the value of your vehicle, so it
can run from $100/year to over $2000/year. In Texas, none of my vehicles
cost more than $60/year to register. You might say that insurance is now a
forced tax, as you can't even register a vehicle here without it. Let
alone drive it past the end of your driveway.

 BA> the feds hit you with excise taxes on some things, and the counties
 BA> hit you for a grand or two a year in property tax on your house.

Just part of owning or renting a house to live in. If you rent a house,
you're helping the owner pay his mortgage and taxes on that house and his,
plus upkeep on the house. If you own it, you're paying all of that out of
your own pocket. You never really own any home outright, because you're
always obligated to pay the county property tax on it.

 BA> Federal income tax takes about 25% of one's gross,

If you file a 1040 without any deductions. Some years in the past I never
paid any income tax...but always had to pay into SS.

 BA> and most of the states help themselves to a good piece of whatever's
 BA> left (Nevada and New Hampshire don't).

Texas and Florida don't have income taxes either.

 BA> I didn't include the miscellameous taxes the government adds to our
 BA> phone bills, but they probably amounted to 2 or 3 hundred dollars
 BA> last year.

Fed, state and local don't add up to more than $100/year.

 BA> Some states - Nebraska and Iowa among them - also assess an annual
 BA> 'personal property tax' on everything you own (including your
 BA> underwear), at the moment both states have exempted everything except
 BA> motor vehicles and boats (and they can abolish those exemptions any
 BA> time they want to).

Not in Texas. Illinois started to before I moved to California. California
only had PPT on boats and such. Business property tax is another tax in
California.

 BA> In Nebraska the county assessor can show up at your door anytime he
 BA> wants and demand entry so he can inventory your possessions (I don't
 BA> know of any instance of that happening but they do have that power).

That happened to a friend of mine in California. Everything they pointed
to as business property, he told them it was used in his hobby (working on
cars). The only thing they could tax him on was his telephone (which he
used to call his broker), but that was only after PacBell quit offering
Western Bell telephones to their customers.

 RB>> Do all welfare people get $438 per person plus housing costs (within
 RB>> government-approved limits) per month? Unlimited in time? They do
 RB>> here.

 BA> I've no idea what welfare recipients get here - and I'm pretty sure
 BA> the amount varies with the localities.  IMO welfare should be limited
 BA> to housing, food, water and clothing - all issued by the government;
 BA> no cash or debit cards.  Vandalize the housing and you're on the
 BA> street.

They can't be getting very much as they're also subsidized with food from
the welfare food supply wharehouse or food stamps to shop with. What and
how much they get is probably determined by who and how old the people are
living in the household.

 RB>> Is your pension around $900 a month? Mine is.

About twice that, less $100/mo for medicare. Supplemental health insurance
that pays the 20% that medicare doesn't, costs about $130/month.

 RB>> Frankly, I think you have it better than you think.

                R\%/itt

  Fox News was not used as a source for information in this message!

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