Friday, October 19, 2018

Did the Trump tax cut for corporations bring all profits home from overseas?


Did the Trump tax cut for corporations bring all profits home from overseas?
Most businesses are continuing with business as usual when it comes to their valuable intellectual property since the tax law’s provisions aren’t enticing enough for them to keep it at home, according to experts who advise large public companies. It means that other countries ultimately get to collect the billions of dollars of tax revenue generated by many U.S.-made innovations, including life-saving drugs, the algorithms that power social media networks, and the software running computers and smartphones. Apple for instance is still parking its profits in the tiny island off the coast of France. So Trump’s promise of bringing the tax revenue back the US to pay for the huge breaks to individuals like himself has not happened. In fact, all of Trump’s tax cuts have not spurred any growth in tax revenue—tax breaks DO NOT pay for themselves. We taxpayers, who do not have a way to dodge taxes by moving our assets to a foreign country, will have to pay for the wealthy tax breaks eventually. The average tax rates paid by the very wealthiest has fallen in recent years from a peak of 24.1% in 2013 to 22.9 on 2016. For the top 1%, the rate has fallen a full four percentage points below the 26.9%. The deficit is 18% greater than last year!! We can’t spend more than we make and survive.

  
What about your mental fitness—a gym for your brain?
Everyone gets in a rut. ‘Rut-living’ means brain power is reduced—your brain cells are not called to work and so they don’t stay fit. Result: Not Good. Remember the nun study—expanding mental tasks decreased the risk of Alzheimer's disease. Exercise of brain power is necessary just like physical exercise. Focus – avoiding distractions to the mind – seems the first step. I can’t learn how to do my own taxes or how to invest wisely (learn a new language) without FOCUS. Training the brain to stay on one task at a time is hard work like working up to a 10K run. I assume I will need all the brain power I can muster for the decisions about making my money last. First, I take small lists of things I want to do and put them on my calendar. Next, I break the job down into parts and tackle one at a time. No skipping ahead. I set a time. I don’t stop to answer the phone or check email/texts. I take courses that help me FOCUS on the goal. There are many around.

Younger generation does not need financial industry any more
Survey respondents were risk averse and skeptical of the financial planning and investment industries in a survey of 1,000 affluent millennials with at least $50,000 in net worth or $100,000 in annual income. Why? Affluent millennials are still most likely to be do-it-yourself investors, with 35% claiming that they make all their own financial decisions without any help or advice. Another 27% said they consult financial professionals for affirmation, but continue to make their own decisions. Only 15% of affluent millennials retain a professional money manager. According to the survey, 77% view the financial system as rigged to favor the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary people like them. Millennials also don’t trust recommendations from advisors working on commission: 80% said that they were suspicious of the commission revenue model in the financial services industry. Things have changed since I worked—good!

Trump’s ‘advisor’ Jared paid little tax using the same shelter as The Don
How do you shield yourself from paying your fair share of tax? The Don’s son in law used the same method: tell the IRS you lost money on real estate ventures. The losses were driven by depreciation, a tax benefit that lets real estate investors deduct a portion of the cost of their buildings from their taxable income every year. In 2015, for example, Mr. Kushner took home $1.7 million in salary and investment gains. But those earnings were swamped by $8.3 million of ‘losses’, largely because of “significant depreciation” that Mr. Kushner and his company took on their real estate, according to the documents reviewed by The Times. Not illegal now but the depreciation deduction often represents a lucrative giveaway to developers like Mr. Trump and Mr. Kushner. Its enormous flexibility allows real estate investors to determine their own tax bills. They pay nothing! 

Why are some states restricting voting?
Why do some in GOP want to stop people voting?  Democracy is about voting, isn’t it? GA is stopping 53,000 people from registering. Since the 2010 election, 23 states have adopted new restrictions on voting, such as stricter voter ID laws, cutbacks to early voting, and aggressive purging of voter rolls. This week, the Supreme Court upheld a voter ID law in North Dakota that could prevent thousands of Native Americans from voting, and the Associated Press reported that Georgia is blocking 53,000 voter registration applications, 70% of which are from African Americans. Some states are making it easier for people to vote and harder for states to gerrymander political districts. There are more Dems than GOP so I assume GOP wants to keep the Dems from voting like in GA. TX has gerrymandered districts so all the Dems are in a few districts.
Make America democratic again! Vote for your future, not the past.

Are your 401k or 403b fees taking 63% of your future nest egg?
You may be giving up more than HALF your future retirement income to fees your employer loads into your retirement plan. Some have even been taking kickbacks from the company that runs your mutual fund choices. Some even go to the head of the company alone. Unfortunately, Washington University in St. Louis has beaten a lawsuit by employees participating in the school's 403(b) plan. One analysis shows that if you pay excessive fees for record keeping and investment management you can give up 63% of your potential total savings over time. WOW that is a lot. The answer is switch to an IRA at a low-cost mutual fund firm. You could earn 10-12% instead of 6-8%.

Make your tax refund larger BEFORE December 31
Tax changes you need to know before end of year MAY help increase your refund. You can no longer deduct alimony if divorced after Jan 2019 so finish by Dec so your future payments remain deductible to payer and income to recipient. Medical expenses that exceed 7.5% of AGI are generally deductible. Beginning in 2019, qualified medical expenses will have to exceed 10% of AGI to be deductible. You might want to prepay in 2018 to take the full deduction. Many middle income folks will not itemize since the standard deduction doubled. There is no penalty for canceling medical insurance, so more and more healthy people choose to be uninsured as premiums escalate. The result may be more bankruptcies from medical bills when a illness or accident strikes. If you are one who decides to go ‘naked’ find a bare bones comprehensive policy to avoid the worst disaster.



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Make America, “The Don”, Great Again

Two Americas: A Banana Republic? Do we really want an infant king? Daddy Putin!

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Trump snags 1 of 5.7 millionillegal’ voters and nets $200; costs $6,000 to prosecute.
Governments blame each other for lack of help to Michael victims: water sits in PR dock


SCAMS/SPINS:

Fidelity sued by 401k participants: excessive fees and poor returns.
Bank fees devastating to some workers: $2,000 out of pay of $30,000 is excessive.

Bruce Fixelle NJ Aurora caught promising safe new company trading stole $3 million.
Dawn Bennett stole $20 million in Ponzi ‘hoodoo spell’ scheme gets 20 years.
Decoding the electric car sales pitch—what works and what doesn’t in electrics.

Drug prices: 5 common generics—SHOP and SAVE either $66 or $928.  

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The Mob Boss can never go to jail: Trump has Kava as Supreme so no indictment.
‘No man is above the law’ … well up till now. Dictators nullify courts first, then votes.
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Jobs:

Who owns your account now?

Miracle:

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