June 23, 2009
New York Creates a New Tax
It’s called the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation Mobility Tax and it is imposed on individuals engaging in business within the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District, which includes: New York, Bronx, Kings, Queens, Richmond, Suffolk, Rockland, Nassau, Orange, Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester counties. The proceeds will allegedly go toward the Metropolitan Transit Authority.
Effective March 1, 2009 employers will be required to pay .34% of an employer’s total payroll expense for employees employed within the MCTD.
Self-employeds will remit .34% of net earnings from self-employment allocated to the MCTD.
No tax forms have been created yet so we do not know how the remittances will be made. Employers will have to remit and self-employeds will owe an estimated tax on November 2, 2009.
What My Father Told Me
My father was a very wise man who was fond of repeatedly quoting several sayings. One was “You get what you pay for”. This has an important relevance to our family in the matter of health care and especially in the Obamacare Kennedy proposals. The Democrat proposals essentially lead to “Free” government healthcare which we will all “pay” for. The method by which we get there is called “the government option”. Obama and Kennedy want the US to have a National Health Care system like Britain’s. This is the same Britain that has “Free” national healthcare. But, as my father always said, you get what you pay for. In Britain, if you are sick, you cannot go to a doctor just because you want to, like you can in the US. In Britain, you must then schedule an appointment for weeks and months later for the illness you have now. You are then taken by a medical care system that “rations” care (in order to make it affordable), in turn with those people who are closest to death taken first. It is also a system that has not invented anything since WW II other than the waiting list (since there is no financial incentive to do so and governments do not invent anything!)
My mother is British and is one of five children. Three of her siblings are dead due to the waiting lists and lack of treatment by the British system. My mother, who pays for medical insurance and can see any doctor she wants anytime, is alive.
Another saying my father was fond of, “Beware what you wish for, you may get it!”
P.S. Britain’s National Health Service just announced that women over 65 years of age will not qualify for breast cancer drug treatments. According to a Member of Parliament, it is not worth the cost to society to keep the women alive.
OMG
If you owe the IRS, your season tickets to sporting events may not be safe. The IRS can sell your renewal rights if the team allows ticket holders to transfer renewals according to a new private ruling.
Deposits for personal seat licenses are at risk, too. The IRS can grab the money by serving a levy on the team exercising the owner’s right to cancel the tickets. Kiplinger Tax Letter 5/29/09
Self-employed Can Use IRA to Pay For Health Insurance
The IRS has stated in informal advice that self-employeds can tap their IRA free of the 10% penalty even if they are less than 59 ½. Although self-employeds cannot receive unemployment benefits, they can qualify for the health insurance exception if they show they could have received benefits for 12 straight weeks if they had been an employee.
The payout must be taken in the year the benefits are paid or in the succeeding year. Kiplinger Tax Letter 5/29/09
Is there a National Foreclosure Problem?
According to the media, yes there is. Here are the facts: 10.6% of all mortgages in the state of Florida were in some state of foreclosure during the first quarter of 2009. Excluding the states of Florida, Nevada, California and Arizona, only 1% of mortgages in the other 46 states were in the foreclosure process. (source:Mortgage Bankers Association)
UAW pay and benefits in the GM and Chrysler Bailouts
Why are we taxing $30 an hour school teachers to help out $59 an hour auto workers? Forbes 6/22/09 p. 12
Public Employee Pay and Benefits
When the privately owned BMT competed with the IRT, New York City subways did not offer such nice pensions or employ so many featherbedders. Forbes 6/22/09 p.12
The Tax Code
Why do we have 70,000 pages? To help members of the Joint Tax Committee get campaign contributions. Forbes 6/22/09 p. 12
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If you have any questions about the foregoing or any other financial matters, please call us. If you want to read more, visit the AOHL Newsletter Archives at www.lisch.com
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