MaxRedline

Get Your Stuff Together

This year's tax filing season will begin on Jan. 24, 17 days earlier than last year, the Internal Revenue Service announced Monday.

How special!

 

 

 

Migration

California already has some of the highest taxes in the United States and is losing residents as a result.

So, their answer? Another tax hike! Naturally. They've evidently never heard the old bromide: when you're in a hole, stop digging.

California lawmakers have introduced a plan to almost *double* state tax revenue, at an additional cost of $12,250 per household.

So glad I didn't follow the herd by moving there in the 60s and 70s. I suspect they can kiss their business startups goodbye.

Understandably, over-taxed residents are moving to places like Arizona, Oregon, and Texas. But frankly, we neither need nor want more Californians here, as all too often the refugees bring their voting habits right along with them.

In the words of the late, great governor here: "Welcome to Oregon! But don't plan to stay."

 

The Tax-Man Cometh

(FOX 46 CHARLOTTE) — If you’re planning to rob a bank or steal something from a store, you better be ready to mark it down on your tax return come tax season. You know, unless you do the responsible thing and return it.

Yep, the federal government wants a piece of the action. According to the IRS 2021 Federal Income Tax Guide, stolen property and illegal activities fall under “income.”

According to the guide, “If you steal property, you must report its fair market value in your income in the year you steal it unless you return it to its rightful owner in the same year.”

https://www.fox46.com/news/national-news/you-must-list-illegal-activity-and-stolen-property-on-your-taxes-irs-says/

I wonder how they check for compliance?

Maybe they just rely on the "honor system".

 

Some May Sleep Easier

A serial killer dubbed the UK’s Hannibal the Cannibal will die in an underground glass box after having his Christmas appeal for freedom refused.

Robert Maudsley, aka Britain’s most dangerous prisoner, was told this week he will be incarcerated in his own glass cell until he dies, and cannot make any further appeals against the decision.

The 68-year-old, who murdered child molesters, appealed to be allowed to spend the rest of his prison days with the “general population” but chiefs ruled him too dangerous to mix with prisoners and guards at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

He will now spend the rest of his life, 23 hours a day, locked alone inside a glass box beneath the jail, with a concrete slab to sleep on, a table and chair made of compressed cardboard, and a toilet and sink bolted to the floor.

Maudsley’s underground cell is a specially constructed 5.5 metres by 4.5 metre space with bullet proof glass cage that was built in 1983, nearly ten years after his prison sentence began. The cell was built for his ongoing murders behind bars. He will never be released.

They could've saved a lot of tax pounds had they retained the death penalty.

 

Glenn K. Beaton

I like this man's commentary. He says what's on his mind, with no mincing around, and it's easy to see why many agree with him.

As an example, he recently published the following:

A fawning “report” in the Aspen Daily News breathlessly announced more federal COVID funds for Glitter Gulch, otherwise known as Aspen, Colorado. You know the place. It’s where the house pictured above just sold for $72 million, and houses routinely go for $3-5,000/sq ft. Where insiders such as newspaper reporters and city council members get slope-side multimillion dollar homes for dimes on the dollars under the taxpayer-subsidized housing program.

The fed money this time is for Aspen’s vagrants. Er, I mean “homeless.” Er, I mean “persons experiencing homelessness.” Whom, we’re told, are camping on the sidewalks and pooping in the gutters because they’re afflicted with something called “shelter-resistance.”

Aspen already has a “homeless shelter” for people who say they can’t afford a roof over their heads but nonetheless choose to live in one of the most expensive places in the world.

As he so often does, Beaton gets right to the root of the "problem", there. He doesn't simply "flatten the curve"; he pretty well nukes it.

 

 

A Bit Late This Year

Yes, the tax return deadlines have come and gone without me this year; as I've grown older, it seems to be easier to forget little things like that that only happen once a year. Hopefully, I won't get tossed into the hoosegow over it.

 

Oh Boy!

The IRS says face masks, hand sanitizer, and wipes are tax deductible ... if your medical expenses are more than 7.5% of your adjusted gross income, that is.

You were thinking of getting that lobotomy done, anyway....

 

 

Tax Codes Change Again, Because Why Not?

This year's tax season is shaping up to be a gnarly one. The IRS has agreed to give Americans an extra month to file their taxes — but that's barely going to be enough to help them and their accountants when it comes to navigating the new code.

The new changes to the tax code include everything from health care costs to the child tax credit — all happening during a year when the pandemic caused millions of Americans to have more complex financial lives than usual, thanks to job losses, unemployment insurance, stimulus checks, and the like.

 

Seattle In The Rearview Mirror

Tech giant Amazon is slowly abandoning Seattle. The company will not renew its lease for the top eight floors of an office building in South Lake Union. The space reportedly totals over 180,000 square feet. They’re heading for Bellevue, another upscale city across Lake Washington from Seattle.

Amazon, which leases over six million square feet of office space in Seattle, will bring another 10,000 jobs to Bellevue, in addition to the 15,000 previously announced jobs. These aren’t just new jobs. An Amazon source says the plan includes moving Seattle jobs to Bellevue.

So what's the motivation behind this move?

Seattle city council's new payroll tax - on top of all of the other taxes the company pays. And this isn't really all that slow a move: they plan to be out of Seattle in December. The Seattle city council managed to bite themselves well and truly in their collective butts with this move, as it's going to cost them a lot of revenue.

As they'll soon discover, actions have consequences.

 

Something Smells

A rare and once-endangered fish, which makes its home in a southern Oregon lake that can reach temperatures of up to 104 degrees, has made a full recovery and was removed from the endangered species list, according to federal officials.

The Borax Lake chub, which lives only in Harney County’s Borax Lake, was granted emergency protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1980 after its numbers dropped precipitously due to geothermal projects around the lake, shoreline degradation from off-road vehicle use and development.

When fully grown, it's essentially a bait-fish; running to a whopping two inches long.

Borax Lake is fed by geothermal springs, accounting for the lake’s extreme temperatures, and the lake also contains high levels of borax, arsenic and lead. Despite high levels of chemicals toxic to other animals, the Borax Lake chub thrive in the 10-acre lake, keeping to the edges where temperatures were more suitable. It is the only animal that is known to live in the lake’s harsh environment.

Presumably, it feeds on algae or something like that, as it apparently has nothing to hunt. I wonder how much in tax dollars were spent to save this important fish. Reminds me of the great California Delta Smelt escapade.