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EnlightenedOne Donating Member (452 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 02:46 PM
Original message
Help with Email I Received
I received this email, and would like to respond back right away - but I just don't have the time to correct every issue (or explain/refute it) - anyone care to help??

Subject: HERE'S THE TAX SCOOP!



In just six months, the largest tax hikes in the history of America will take effect. They will hit families and small businesses in three great waves on January 1, 2011:

First Wave: Expiration of 2001 and 2003 Tax Relief

In 2001 and 2003, the GOP Congress enacted several tax cuts for investors, small business owners, and families.

These will all expire on January 1, 2011:

Personal income tax rates will rise. The top income tax rate will rise from 35 to 39.6 percent (this is also the rate at which two-thirds of small business profits are taxed). The lowest rate will rise from 10 to 15 percent. All the rates in between will also rise. Itemized deductions and personal exemptions will again phase out, which has the same mathematical effect as higher marginal tax rates. The full list of marginal rate hikes is below:

- The 10% bracket rises to an expanded 15%
- The 25% bracket rises to 28%
- The 28% bracket rises to 31%
- The 33% bracket rises to 36%
- The 35% bracket rises to 39.6%

Higher taxes on marriage and family. The “marriage penalty” (narrower tax brackets for married couples) will return from the first dollar of income. The child tax credit will be cut in half from $1000 to $500 per child. The standard deduction will no longer be doubled for married couples relative to the single level. The dependent care and adoption tax credits will be cut.

The return of the Death Tax. This year, there is no death tax. For those dying on or after January 1 2011, there is a 55 percent top death tax rate on estates over $1 million. A person leaving behind two homes and a retirement account could easily pass along a death tax bill to their loved ones.

Higher tax rates on savers and investors. The capital gains tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 20 percent in 2011. The dividends tax will rise from 15 percent this year to 39.6 percent in 2011. These rates will rise another 3.8 percent in 2013.

Second Wave: Obamacare

There are over twenty new or higher taxes in Obamacare. Several will first go into effect on January 1, 2011. They include:

The “Medicine Cabinet Tax” Thanks to Obamacare, Americans will no longer be able to use health savings account (HSA), flexible spending account (FSA), or health reimbursement (HRA) pre-tax dollars to purchase non-prescription, over-the-counter medicines (except insulin).

The “Special Needs Kids Tax” This provision of Obamacare imposes a cap on flexible spending accounts (FSAs) of $2500 (Currently, there is no federal government limit). There is one group of FSA owners for whom this new cap will be particularly cruel and onerous: parents of special needs children. There are thousands of families with special needs children in the United States , and many of them use FSAs to pay for special needs education. Tuition rates at one leading school that teaches special needs children in Washington , D.C. (National Child Research Center) can easily exceed $14,000 per year. Under tax rules, FSA dollars can be used to pay for this type of special needs education.

The HSA Withdrawal Tax Hike. This provision of Obamacare increases the additional tax on non-medical early withdrawals from an HSA from 10 to 20 percent, disadvantaging them relative to IRAs and other tax-advantaged accounts, which remain at 10 percent.

Third Wave: The Alternative Minimum Tax

and Employer Tax Hikes

When Americans prepare to file their tax returns in January of 2011, they’ll be in for a nasty surprise—the AMT won’t be held harmless, and many tax relief provisions will have expired. The major items include:

The AMT will ensnare over 28 million families, up from 4 million last year. According to the left-leaning Tax Policy Center, Congress’ failure to index the AMT will lead to an explosion of AMT taxpaying families—rising from 4 million last year to 28.5 million. These families will have to calculate their tax burdens twice, and pay taxes at the higher level. The AMT was created in 1969 to ensnare a handful of taxpayers.

Small business expensing will be slashed and 50% expensing will disappear. Small businesses can normally expense (rather than slowly-deduct, or “depreciate”) equipment purchases up to $250,000. This will be cut all the way down to $25,000. Larger businesses can expense half of their purchases of equipment. In January of 2011, all of it will have to be “depreciated.”

Taxes will be raised on all types of businesses. There are literally scores of tax hikes on business that will take place. The biggest is the loss of the “research and experimentation tax credit,” but there are many, many others. Combining high marginal tax rates with the loss of this tax relief will cost jobs.

Tax Benefits for Education and Teaching Reduced. The deduction for tuition and fees will not be available. Tax credits for education will be limited. Teachers will no longer be able to deduct classroom expenses. Coverdell Education Savings Accounts will be cut. Employer-provided educational assistance is curtailed. The student loan interest deduction will be disallowed for hundreds of thousands of families.

Charitable Contributions from IRAs no longer allowed. Under current law, a retired person with an IRA can contribute up to $100,000 per year directly to a charity from their IRA. This contribution also counts toward an annual “required minimum distribution.” This ability will no longer be there.

PDF Version Read more: http://www.atr.org/six-months-untilbr-largest-tax-hikes-a5171##ixzz0sY8waPq1





Now your insurance is INCOME on your W2's......

One of the surprises we'll find come next year, is what follows - - a little "surprise" that 99% of us had no idea was included in the "new and improved" healthcare legislation . . . the dupes, er, dopes, who backed this administration will be astonished!


Starting in 2011, (next year folks), your W-2 tax form sent by your employer will be increased to show the value of whatever health insurance you are given by the company. It does not matter if that's a private concern or governmental body of some sort. If you're retired? So what; your gross will go up by the amount of insurance you get.

You will be required to pay taxes on a large sum of money that you have never seen. Take your tax form you just finished and see what $15,000 or $20,000 additional gross does to your tax debt. That's what you'll pay next year. For many, it also puts you into a new higher bracket so it's even worse.

This is how the government is going to buy insurance for the15% that don't have insurance and it's only part of the tax increases.

Not believing this??? Here is a research of the summaries.....

On page 25 of 29: TITLE IX REVENUE PROVISIONS- SUBTITLE A: REVENUE OFFSET PROVISIONS-(sec. 9001, as modified by sec. 10901) Sec.9002 "requires employers to include in the W-2 form of each employee the aggregate cost of applicable employer sponsored group health coverage that is excludable from the employees gross income."

Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters. Go to Kiplingers and read about 13 tax changes that could affect you. Number 3 is what is above.

Why am I sending you this? The same reason I hope you forward this to every single person in your address book.

People have the right to know the truth because an election is coming in November.







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Ozymanithrax Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 02:49 PM
Response to Original message
1. Yes, it is terrible for the Bush Administration to have written these laws...
to expire.

Since they were written by the Bush Administration and Republicans, Republicans are raising your taxes.

Or...

You can ignore idiots like this. Nothing you can say will change their minds.
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gratuitous Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 02:52 PM
Response to Original message
2. A fact or two to apply to that steaming pantload
First off, the resumption of prior tax rates is hardly "the largest tax hike in history." When the Republicans decided to crack open the Treasury vault and hand out the contents to their overrich pals back in 2001, they had to abide by the rules so that the tax cuts wouldn't add to the deficit. Ergo, they wrote them to expire come 2011, and guess what? 2011 is almost here, 10 years and trillions of squandered dollars later.

So, if Ms. Pryde and her little newsletter are eager that people should nkow the truth because of the election coming up in less than four months, they are saying that the tax rate hocus-pocus they're decrying today was set in motion by the GOP back in 2001. Voters should absolutely remember that come election day, and vote accordingly against the party that impoverished the nation in favor of lining the pockets of themselves and their fat cat pals.
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EstimatedProphet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 02:53 PM
Response to Original message
3. Here, this should debunk it:
Joan Pryde is the senior tax editor for the Kiplinger letters.

This is proof that it is a lie.
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rfranklin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 02:55 PM
Response to Original message
4. These are lower taxes than under Ronald Reagan who raised them hugely!
"It's conservative lore that Reagan the icon cut taxes, while George H.W. Bush the renegade raised them. As Stockman recalls, "No one was authorized to talk about tax increases on Ronald Reagan's watch, no matter what kind of tax, no matter how justified it was." Yet raising taxes is exactly what Reagan did. He did not always instigate those hikes or agree to them willingly--but he signed off on them. One year after his massive tax cut, Reagan agreed to a tax increase to reduce the deficit that restored fully one-third of the previous year's reduction. (In a bizarre bit of self-deception, Reagan, who never came to terms with this episode of ideological apostasy, persuaded himself that the three-year, $100 billion tax hike--the largest since World War II--was actually "tax reform" that closed loopholes in his earlier cut and therefore didn't count as raising taxes.)"

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2003/0301.green.html
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EstimatedProphet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 03:06 PM
Response to Original message
5. BTW part of the debunking - the 39% tax rate
Conservatives love to twist this. The increase to 39% (which is what it used to be anyway) is a MARGINAL tax increase. That means it only applies to the part of the income which exceeds the lower cap. So for example, if someone makes $255,000, only $5,000 is in the 39% rate. They like to claim that if someone exceeds the threshhold, then their entire income - $255,000 in this case - is suddenly taxed at a higher rate. This is what allows nonsensical arguments about making so much money that you do better to quit your job and go on welfare to pay no taxes. It is a lie, plain and simple.
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Bitwit1234 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 03:39 PM
Response to Reply #5
9. So since the tax cuts set to expire effect the top richest
does this person think we all of us in this country make over 250,000 on up a year. This is the lie they tell they don't give the bases of the tax cuts expiring.
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guruoo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 03:13 PM
Response to Original message
6. "ATR was founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan."
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EC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 03:16 PM
Response to Original message
7. Do they really think that regular people and unemployed
people give a damn if the upper middle or upper class will have to pay more in taxes? Most of these are expiring breaks anyway...they should count themselves lucky that they had the break and get over it....


And I think they are hyping up the insurance amount on W2's - as I recall there will be a tax on "cadillac policys" but that isn't added into your total income because the tax on the policies is a lot less...isn't it something like .05% or something? This is all hype.
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TNDemo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Thu Jul-15-10 03:23 PM
Response to Original message
8. The biggest chunk of the deficit is due to Bush's tax cuts
so maybe these extra taxes will help take care of the deficit they are so worried about.
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