Do you use a Mac? If so try using Voiceover. It takes some getting used to and if you’re used to being a speedwhiz on the keyboard…you may find it frustratingly slow but I found it helpful when I lost use of one of my hands for a week.
22 karma · joined July 16, 2012
It was abuse without being physically abusive.
So I cut them out and off entirely. It absolutely sucks. I know many have health and financial problems that I could probably help them through. But not at the cost of my own mental health and well being. It took time to accept it and feel better.
…please dear g–d don’t do this. If you are caught you can be deported and banned from re–entry to the US for anywhere from 5-10 years (on any visa).
Waiting for Republican "tax reform" is like watching Lucy hold the football for Charlie Brown. If you are holding off managing your business cash flow until this "tax reform" is set in motion…you are going to be waiting a very, very long time.
Put another way: that one on one meeting time is labor, they're trying to understand what it is that you want to build and clarify the requirements so that when they do the "labor" they get it done well the first time.
Put yet another way: when you meet with a product manager to get the requirements for code that you're supposed to write, do you do so for free or a reduced salary, because it's not "real" labor?
An LLC only pays taxes if it has elected to be treated as a C corp by the IRS, otherwise income & losses pass through to the members.
An C or S corp only makes sense as a sole-proprietor if you have substantial other assets to protect, or expect to accept investments from non–individuals.
You need far better tax advice than you're getting, wherever you're getting it from.
If your goal is to pay absolutely no taxes, then that's not going to happen if you want to rely on the systems those taxes pay for in the US.
If your goal is to legitimately reduce taxes and spread income over multiple years, there's legal ways to do so which a proper tax advisor can guide you through.
As long as business can leverage “overseas” cash assets to issue debt in the US without paying taxes on the cash, they'll do so, only until the interest rate on the debt exceeds how much they'd have to pay in taxes to repatriate the cash.
If you want to accumulate wealth, focus less on how much money you pay in taxes, and more on how to make the money you earn work more for you. If you earn $1MM in app sales in one year, fantastic, great for you. Pay your taxes, and invest the remainder to build up a business that earns you $500k a year with minimal effort on your part.
Of that $900k AGI, only about $450k was wages, the rest is earnings from investments (which get taxed differently depending on how they're paid).
I'm not losing money, I'm contracting out a variety of services I'd otherwise have to pay for.
I think we should either pay enough taxes to cover our routine government expenses, or cut the expenses to meet the revenues from taxes.
Generally the GOP talks about cutting taxes and spending, but shifts the burden to debt and various user fees. Democrats get blamed for raising taxes, but generally raise taxes to meet existing obligations (as well as use taxes as punitive means to change social or business policy).
For 2014 my household had an AGI of approximately $900k, of which we paid around $250k in US Federal taxes, roughly $70k in NY State taxes, and another $32k in NYC taxes. So, roughly 42% tax rate when you combine all three (I'm ignoring sales taxes).
I don't think I pay too much in tax.
Would I like it to be less? Sure. But I like having roads that are paved, bridges that don't fall down, police and firemen who are paid a decent wage. None of these services are free. Many of these services (at least in NYC) started out as commercial services in the 1800s and shifted to being government produced and funded.
You know why? Because humans suck at forecasting their own needs. I don't have kids, but I pay for schools in my taxes. I don't plan to have a fire, or be the victim of a crime, yet I continue to subsidize the people who are victims of crimes, even (indirectly) the people who commit those crimes.
Americans seem to be uniquely blind to the benefits of the social system we’ve created over the past 230+ years. All we see are the system, its bugs and inefficiencies, the corruption, the costs. We fail to recognize the benefits.
The US economy is an extremely imperfect capitalist system, but until someone explains to me clearly, without waving hands, or relying on the Laffer curve, how to fund socially shared obligations without paying taxes, then I'll pay them and use other forms of influence to try to change how my taxes are used.
Because the alternative is to resort to building a castle and a moat, and hiring a bunch of flunkies to guard me and my moat and my money, and effectively create my own little government.
R/E tax is also deductible.
We “extracted” enough from sales of two previous apartments to give us close to 65% equity in our current apartment.
Prior to buying a co–op we were paying $8900/month in rent for a 900 square foot two bedroom. Manhattan is certainly an expensive choice to live, but we both walk to work and have 2+ hours a day extra by avoiding commuting.
As for what I do: I solve catastrophically expensive technical problems for companies for a percentage of the savings. My partner works for a large I/T conglomerate. Between us we make enough that $120k/year in housing costs are manageable.