Friday, December 16, 2016

Shelter from The Don's tax plan

The Don’s tax plan may not be much help
You may not see much more in your gross pay statement from the GOP tax cut unless you are rich. If you are in the 10% bracket now you will be in the 12%. If you are a single parent or you have many children, you may pay more since “head of household” status is gone. Trump's lower rate for business income--a top 15% rate, versus 33% for salary ---will lead half of high wage workers to take steps to convert salary into business income. If you have a small business, you may be able to move some expenses to the business. You may also take advantage of the smoothing of income like Trump probably did when he took a $916 million deduction. A business can carry a loss back for two or three years and claim a refund from the government of taxes previously paid, or opt to carry the loss forward for as much as 20 years, offsetting profits. Workers with wages can’t use this averaging method now. McConnell GOP Senate says any tax cut for the rich needs to be offset by tax increases or cuts for other programs. Ryan GOP House wants to cut Medicare, Medicaid and SS benefits. Protect your future now!

If your advisor manages your money, ask for total return
In the five years ended June 30, only 8% of large-cap stock managers beat their benchmarks, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Ask your advisor how you did in the last 5 years—net without your additions or subtractions. You will be surprised. If you are trying to build your retirement fund, you should have increased your egg in the last 5 years by 78%. There is a better way. Most investors need index funds since the costs you pay OVER time can take 60% of your potential total. Salespeople take more than half your money but you take all the risks! Usually you don’t even have a good time.

GOP wants Americans to go shop for senior coverage—disaster last time
Medicare was created because seniors could NOT buy medical coverage at a reasonable price before 1965. In 2017, wealthy Congressmen want each of us to go back and shop for coverage when we leave employment. If we find it, they promise they will vote enough money to cover part of the cost. They have free coverage—we pay for it. Half of them are millionaires and can buy their own coverage in retirement. They believe that insurers will accept older people with any ailment or the hospitals will treat older people for free. They think they were elected to cut spending and providing govt assisted health care is NOT what we want. They do not think funding Medicare Medicaid is more important than giving $ trillions in subsidies to profitable oil gas agribusiness and drug companies. There are thousands of lobbyists buying our Reps lunch and dinner to keep those subsidies coming. Even after some war spending are declared wasteful, the funding continues. GOP has warned us that they will cut social programs to pay for Trump’s projects like the Wall. When they privatize Medicare we will be back to 1950s when we could not find coverage we could afford. http://www.fool.com/retirement/2016/12/03/is-paul-ryans-medicare-privatization-proposal-good.aspx
Cut taxes like Trump so you will have enough:  https://www.amazon.com/Your-Hidden-Wealth-Reserve-Reduce/dp/1540435148
Will your retirement income last?
This is the number one question we get asked. But no advisor can predict the future so we must rely on the past to consider the probabilities. First, the reason wealthy people keep their serious money in stocks and other investments and not in the bank is because stocks investments have a higher probability of success over time. Second, you can improve your odds by using what we know of stock market returns over time. Third, time invested determines how well you will do with stocks. Bank returns only match inflation. Social Security benefits in retirement are your “bank” returns. You paid into your SS account all your life and your benefits reflect the amount you paid. The average today is $2,212 per month for a couple. As you get older, the amount will increase with inflation. Will your pensions increase and will they continue after you are gone? Can you survive on the total of these two benefits? Let us assume you need another $2,000 a month or $50,000 total before tax to be comfortable. You can generate $25,000 a year from a $500,000 nest egg fairly easily. However $25,000 will be worth less in the future and so you must find a way for your nest egg to keep up with inflation like your SS benefit does. You can’t park your nest egg in the bank at 2%. That’s why pension funds invest in stocks/bonds/other. Test your nest egg for longevity. See that with 50/50 stock/bond mix you have over 80% chance of success of $2,000 for 30 years even with inflation.  https://retirementplans. vanguard.com/VGApp/pe/pubeducation/calculators/RetirementNestEggCalc.jsf
 

GOP bill to reduce SS benefits for all—THE simple fix is ignored
H.R.6489 slashes benefits, adds means testing, and would raise the retirement age from 67 to 69. For most workers, the bill would cut Social Security benefits substantially. As Michael Linden, associate director for tax and budget policy at Center for American Progress, pointed out on Twitter, a letter from Social Security’s Office of the Actuary calculated workers making around $50,000 would see checks shrink by between 11% and 35%. Dems prefer to require all Americans to pay the SS tax. Currently someone making over $118,000 pays nothing more. There is a better solution. We could use the subsidies paid to oil gas agribiz and drug companies to secure SS and Medicare funding for 100 years. Of course that requires GOP to lose their campaign funds so it will never happen.  

GOP plan for replacing ObamaCare is another voucher tax credit plan
The Don promised to “replace” ObamaCare immediately with something “terrific” that is “so much better, so much better, so much better.” 20 million people use ObamaCare. So why do more Trumpers sign up for ObamaCare if it will be gone Jan 20? How can he beat $75 a month? McConnell, Senate, said he will start repealing ObamaCare on Jan. 3 even with no replacement in sight, declaring that “surely” the GOP revision will wind up “covering Americans better than Obamacare.” He did not say how he will cover the 25 million; six percent” of us who have no coverage. (Previously, GOP has used “voucher” tax credits to say they can cover everyone in America but a voucher is not coverage and 47% of Americans don’t pay tax so tax credits are meaningless to them. A voucher only works if an insurer will offer a policy at a reasonable cost and that was the problem before Obama. GOP does not realize that millions can’t afford what Congress has.) Truman fully supported national health insurance but it was killed because opponents linked it with the Cold War. “Socialized medicine” became code for communism.


Don’t fall into the BIG hole in the new Fiduciary Rule
The new Fiduciary Rule (give clients BEST product for them not self) has a waiver for insurance agents selling fixed-index annuities. Financial advisors also selling annuities object saying the exemption defeats the purpose of the rule. Agents can sell commission annuities and their brethren cannot. Agents may call themselves planners but can’t offer all the solutions advisors can. Agents and advisors use marketing tactics that may induce seniors to buy what they do not understand. For instance, fixed-rate annuities are often billed as CD-type accounts for risk-averse customers. Later the complicated contract terms with high costs are revealed. The industry shields itself from losses with terms that even the most sophisticated SELLERS can’t understand. Contracts are sometimes over 50 pages long. The BIG hole is called PTE 84-24 and permits agent ‘fiduciaries’ to receive a commission for selling insurance or annuity contracts to retirement and IRA plans. If approved, an insurance marketing firm could initiate variable compensation which competes with securities-licensed advisors who are banned from taking commissions.

FREE tax preparation
Advertising to you is how they pay for free credit score and free tax preparation. https://www.creditkarma.com/ needs your eyes to obtain dollars from sellers of financial services and they give you software to file federal and state taxes at no cost. If you need to file a simple return, this is the cheapest way. There are some sites through the IRS https://www.irs.gov/uac/free-file-do-your-federal-taxes-for-free that allow free federal but they usually charge for a state return. You can also use a local AARP tax aide office. http://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide/ AARP does not discriminate by age or income so they can usually take care of most people. Best tip: deduction for IRA contributions and tax credit $2,000 subtracted from tax you owe. Double Pleasure.  

Don’t forget your RMD rules if you are over age 70
The IRS rules require that RMDs must be calculated separately for all the accounts you own. In some cases, RMD amounts can be added together and the distribution taken as you like from one or more of the accounts. Any type of IRA accounts can be aggregated, which means you could total up your RMDs and take it all from one IRA – one that is a poor performer, perhaps, or one that will help you rebalance an account that might be overweight in equities in your allocation plan. This task becomes easier if you have all your retirement accounts at one firm. Ed Slott, IRA expert, says the IRS will often waive the penalty if you make a mistake but can offer a “reasonable cause” for the error. 

When you decide to go electric, CR reviews them
Tesla was tops but glitches show and now you have more options. Where can you plug it in every night?


“Whatever I say is true; it is true because I say it”  Is Putin playing The Don?
Our President does his own “research” on Infowars.com, breitbart.com/, Twitter
This was where he found out that millions voted illegally. Even dead people.
That Obamacare is the “biggest voter registration fraud scheme in the history of the world” 
That the 9/11 attacks were carried out for our government.
"Hillary Clinton and her campaign of 2008 started the birther controversy."
Offer to donate $5 million to charity in exchange for Obama's college records.
That Mexico sends "rapists" and other criminals into America.
He claimed he personally witnessed "thousands and thousands" of Muslims celebrate 9/11 in NJ.
Ted Cruz's Cuban-born father Rafael Cruz was linked to the JFK assassination.
That Antonin Scalia was murdered.
That Clinton used drugs before a debate.
That "globalists" (read: prominent Jews) are trying to take over America.
That vaccines cause autism.
That burning our flag is a crime not a 1st Amend. Right, as per Supremes.
Trump does NOT take the daily intelligence report but watches TV—Fox, CNN,
That his Cabinet officer Carson thinks “Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.”
His voters represented districts with the highest drug, alcohol, and suicide rates.
Putin did NOT help me get elected and didn’t interfere with our voting. GOP McConnell believes Putin’s word not own CIA. Blames Obama of course!
What is good for Standard Oil (Exxon) is good for America.
That the CIA “intelligence” reports on Russia are bogus. Is Putin the new Stalin?
He doesn't take the top-secret briefing on national security developments--"It is curious that someone who refuses to take intelligence briefings has decided that he doesn't agree with the analysis contained in them," the former official said.
           
He does not check rightwingwatch.org/ factcheck.org/ to verify the information used to rule.


We are entering the Twilight Zone:
"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone." 
Rod Serling


75 percent of U.S. adults were fooled by false headlines. The survey found that people who cite Facebook as a major source of news are more likely to view fake news as true.

  
THE DON’S 282 PROMISES

Like mafia family, The Don has never had a boss, no corporate board to question his acts!
Remember, Don Trump is still a contractor from Queens NY
Trust only family” “I'd love to have Jared helping us on deals with other nations and see if we can do peace in the Middle East” Ivanka met with Japan PM Abe already.

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Actual outcomes: (“So much for draining the swamp” He filled it again)


CIA says Putin helped The Don get elected and tampered with the process. Trumpers say VP Cheney’s CIA was wrong about Saddam too. McConnell sides with Putin vs CIA.

China, which pays for most of our debt spending, is not happy with Trump already.

Carrier paid with IN tax credits to keep HALF jobs in Indy and Trump takes credit
            IN spent $24 million to keep jobs but lost 3,800—companies reneged!
            700 laid off workers will not be able to buy ObamaCare -- so lose twice.
            Is this what Putin would do? Force/pay owners to keep workers working!
            Carrier union rep gets threatening phone calls—kids in danger from Trumpers?
            Carrier parent UT gets $ billions from jet engine contract from US too!
            Crony capitalism—Palin does not like govt supporting business. Socialism?

Dems won by 2.5 million: GOP barred voters by closing sites, Greens took Clinton votes WI, PA MI. Clinton received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history.

The Don claims he won popular vote "if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally", though he provided no evidence of widespread voter fraud. Recount is scam.

The Don disavows white supremacists as they give the Nazi Heil but may have one as advisor.

Don’s vigilantes attack non-whites: hate crimes up in NYC—Muslim cop assaulted

The Don thinks that maybe torture is not what the generals want.

The Don may believe in climate change by man but today it’s hoax like flat Earthers.
            House committee on NASA says it pushes propaganda. “From next year, entire U.S. government is going to be in the hands of people who really don’t believe in the 'man-made global warming' scare story." Miami flooded is illusion? Coast mayors act?

The Don will “replace” ObamaCare immediately with something “terrific” that is “so much better, so much better, so much better.” 20 million people use ObamaCare. So why do more Trumpers sign up for ObamaCare if it will be gone Jan 20? $75 a month? McConnell, Senate, said to start repealing ObamaCare on Jan. 3 even with no replacement in sight, declaring that “surely” the GOP revision will wind up covering Americans better than Obamacare. He did not say how he will cover the 25 million six percent who have none. (GOP has used “voucher” tax credits to say they can cover everyone in America but a voucher is not coverage and 47% of Americans don’t pay tax so tax credits are meaningless to them.) Sign up extended to 12/19 due to high demand



Deportations: “get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably 2 million, it could be even 3 million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate.”

Giuliani paid millions by Mexican politician running anti-Trump platform in 2018. Wow

NATO EU UN defunding: Weakening NATO, EU and UN ties is Putin’s goal in regaining Russia’s superpower status. The Don has been flattered by KGB: no friend.

End of Iran deal would be ‘folly’ according to CIA Brennan. “Disaster” for proliferation. Iran just bought 80 Boeing planes using our loans so nuclear deal will NOT be cancelled.

Tax cuts: Single parents and large family will pay more—1%ers get 13% cut.

Cut taxes so econ grows: wealthy get most breaks and buy art with windfall
Economy is doing fine without cuts: Obama economy created 178,000 jobs in November, and the unemployment rate fell to 4.6% from 4.9% in October. 10 million new jobs under Obama.

Stop corporations sending profits (UNTAXED) overseas.

Stop government subsidies (socialism) to oil, gas, agribusiness, drug corporations: Exxon as Sec State and GOP lobbyists make promise unlikely.

Reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall to keep speculation from consumer banks.  

Trump kids become national security advisors—get top-secret clearance. Giuliani claims “they can’t work in the government because of the government rule against nepotism.” But they can use the information in Trump’s companies and insider trading. Conflicts of interest range from Wall Street to Philippines and India.

Trump promised not to run businesses but continues as producer of Celebrity Apprentice confirmed for 2017. He can’t live on $400,000 a year so will need to be supported by his sons, wife’s and daughter’s businesses. Day to day they run them anyway and he knows his brand will bet HUGE boost worldwide. Postpones news on how conflicts handled.

Stop flow of jobs out of US but corp welfare was paid
Ford will still build $2 billion factory in Mexico but does not send KY jobs there yet.
Ford still move making Focus from Michigan to Mexico to keep Focus cheap.
Fiat building new factory for Jeep Compass in Toluca Mexico. Labor is ½ price.
Carrier agreed to keep 700 jobs in Indy—not furnaces. Taxpayer incentives given.
Trump’s deal “saves” less than half of the total jobs, for a subsidy from IN. Jobs still go to Mexico.

The Don will NOT show his tax returns or his birth certificate. He does not pay taxes: he claimed he lost money.



Promised to stop tweeting so much. Tweeting almost as much.

Promised to act presidential. Stop attacking individuals. Attacked Carrier union rep.

Promised to give up business. Linked business in hidden ownership no accountability.

The Don’s big bluff: what will be done has changed every day since election.

Obama’s rule giving overtime pay to 4.2 million US workers blocked. Trumpers lose

Propaganda wins: 82% middle-school students could not distinguish between an ad labeled “sponsored content” and a real news story.

“I’m going to bring down drug prices. I don’t like what’s happened with drug prices.”
            TIME names The Don ‘person of the year.’

The Don promises more government spending. “Well sometimes you have to prime the pump. So sometimes in order to get the jobs going and the country going.” Congress?  

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The Don’s new sub bosses (mostly billionaires with own conflicts of interest kiss ring):

Rex Tillerson, State, Exxon Chief and Putin buddy will make sure the oil runs on time no matter what any in his empire does. He has said, “We do not support sanctions, generally,” so Putin will win in improving his country’s economy despite invading Ukraine. Climate is changing but not Exxon’s fault. Guarantees $5.3 TRILLION of our tax credits and money will continue to fuel oil and gas firm profits. He helped end ban on gay scouts in 2013 as its former president. He supported Jeb for prez.  

John Bolton, Asst State, Fox News, frmr ambassador to the United Nations thinks Obama planted story of Russia guiding election of Trump. Bolton favors war in middle east. Rand Paul will block his nomination: “John Bolton is so far out of it and has such a naive understanding of the world.”

Rick Perry, Energy, former Gov TX said he would eliminate Energy if elected. Oil states tend to support big oil and gas wishes and Perry may expand selling our resources to other countries. We subsidize oil and gas firms while we help agribiz product corn for alternative fuels. Trump’s energy policy not clear.

Monica Crowley, National Security Communications Director, Fox News Host, Former Nixon Adviser. She was supporter from the very beginning.


Do-Nothing Congress
 will decide US future by doing nothing for more 4 years.

Tolerance is un-American now?


Regulators are the only protection against corporations since we can’t sue anymore
               Supremes stop us from suing—State courts no longer available to sue corporations!

Wells Fargo sold Prudential life insurance without licenses.
Colleges are helping students rack up huge fees for bank profits
Driver-free cars vs distracted-driver cars
"Half the cars on the road now are 'autonomous' anyway: people reading or putting on lipstick,” J Leno said.

We need regulation—GOP wrong—companies/cities wouldn’t fix bad products on own
GM killed 124 because ignition switch pin not replaced after knew it killed first in 2006.


Police want gun control.
When everyone has guns; your chance of being killed goes up. Police don’t know who to shoot. They assume everyone has one and shoot first. You and thief have guns. CO schools now allow teachers/administrators to carry guns in the classroom. Kid lesson!

Oregon jury: “having guns is no threat but statement of culture like wearing cowboy hat.”?
Another 4 year old shoots a 2 year old – what happened to the safety switch on guns?
Footballer killed in road rage event and killer not held=verbal “fear for life” claimed?
Scott shot 5 times in the back while running away from police who claims self defense.
Why police shoot those who don’t lie down immediately—dementia, mental illness, etc.
            Caller said ‘man with gun’ so shot man w/o gun 9 times! Nine!
Harris gets life for killing son by leaving him in hot car in GA in June.
OH lets concealed guns go everywhere—job, college, town hall, ect

Trumpers want police to start buying military weapons against civilians again.


SCAMS: Missed delivery email scam—don’t respond; don’t click link. Call carrier.

Ignoramus Award: Trump does not take intelligence briefings because “I’m smart.” He thinks Putin is his buddy. He does not think McCain is war hero either. McConnell and Ryan have drunk the Kool-Aid too.


How our government wastes our money—letting companies not pay taxes is waste


Exxon and big oil receive $5 Trillion in subsidies every year from usNow Sec State

$50 billions: The Don and his lieutenants don’t use CIA, NSA intelligence. “I’m smart.”

Ground-based Midcourse Defense system, doesn’t work yet our Reps spend $40.9 billion

$622 billion a year for war: more than next 7 spenders total and 10x Russia 3x China.
 

Where have all the jobs gone?

Who owns your account now?
LinkedIn to Microsoft

Miracle: The Don becomes President.
Contractor Star of negative “reality” TV show (You’re fired) and failed Atlantic City casinos and Plaza hotels is elected President of the (United) States even after insulting just about every group in the world and especially women. More women voted for him than the first woman presidential candidate after his video shows he believes it is OK to grab women by their p___ if you are a rich white guy.
When you’re a star, they let you do it.” 

IAN
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