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Strategies & Market Trends : The Residential Real Estate Crash Index -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (178078)	1/19/2009 7:44:09 PM
From: Jorj X Mckie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 306849

unfortunately, I have to agree. Once the pandora's box of income tax was opened, and then social security....it was bound to get to this point eventually. I think we had many opportunities to get off the slippery slope of a government that really exists to fund itself, but it is too late now. Now we can't eliminate government programs because it would put people out of work. Nevermind that the rest of us are out there having to deal with the reality no real job security. at what point will Atlas Shrug?

To: MulhollandDrive who wrote (178078)	1/19/2009 9:11:39 PM
From: James Hutton	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 306849

"Let's move on to April 15--tax day. As another sole proprietor recently told me, "The government is in for a shock on April 15." Why? Because he and a few million other sole proprietors/small businesspeople will be reporting losses instead of profits, which means the gummit is going to collect zip, zero, nada in the way of FICA (self-employment tax, 15.3% of net income) or income tax. The endgame of taxes is this: the more you raise them, the less you'll collect as small businesses close and the self-employed are driven into the informal economy. Business is like a marriage in many ways, and as I never tire of stating: nobody has to operate a business, any more than they have to stay married. Nobody can force you to throw everything you've got into opening a small business, but they can surely raise the disincentives so high that only a trust-fund baby or someone with a desire to lose all their money will start a small business (i.,e. one that doesn't qualify for a Federal bailout of some sort.)" I don't think it will be all this bad - at least on this April 15. Next April 15 will be a different story. The economy didn't really fall off a cliff until the second half of the year. Moreover, the FICA tax comes off the first dollar of profit, so, unless you're Tim Geithner and you can ignore your tax payments until you're nominated to be Head of the IRS, a big chunk of sole proprietor profits would have already been paid before the economy crashed. Note too that Schedule C filers get to write off half of the 15.3%. Also note that what he doesn't mention that is killing small businesses is health insurance costs.