I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

QuinnCat

Oh my my my

http://www. thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/21/mormons-want-to-excommunicate-romney-critic.html 

ananda8

Romney has said that he will eliminate the tax on capital gains.  I wonder how many jobs he'll create when he has been relieved of the "burden" of capital gains taxes.

His donations to charity are almost exclusively to the Mormon Church where one must go before a bishop once a year and confirm that one has tithed at least 10% of one's income to the church.  In order to serve as a bishop, which Romney has done, one must tithe at least 10%. 

Bren-2007

Hi Enjoyfulscoot!  Too bad you had to change your name.  I liked it.  I'm keeping you in my thoughts.

Sunnyflowers ... Hope you're feeling okay.

Kam ... That is so cool.

Ducky ... I love your son.  My son votes for the Green Party.

I've been busy raking chestnut and walnut pods, as well as acorns and sticks.  It wasn't a lot of fun.  Then I managed to get two huge piles shoveled over the fence.  Once pile left for Mr. Tim to help me with. 

I have a little rant about insurance companies!  My doctor changed the dosage on one of my medications.  It's hard to find this medication in my area and I have to drive to Roanoke to get it filled.  So I got the new Rx and drove up there yesterday afternoon, after calling ahead to make sure they had it.  Get up there an hour later just to find out they won't fill it because it needs "prior authorization" from the insurance.  It pisses me off that the insurance companies are the ones who decide what meds we can and cannot not take.  I finally got it all straightened out about 15 minutes ago and can drive all the way back up there tomorrow to pick it up.

Hope everyone is enjoying this lovely September weather.

Bren

Bren-2007

Notself ... Tithing to the Mormon church is not a charitable donation.  They have no choice if they don't want to get excommunicated ... so if Romney is saying it's a charitable donation, he's full of horse manure.  I lived in Utah for many years and I'm very familiar with the Mormon church.  For the most part, they're really nice people, but it's a very exclusive club.

hugs,

Bren

QuinnCat

Notself

http://exmormon.org/d6/drupal/Mormon-Church-and-Humanitarian-Aid

According to this article, the amount of charity spent after these contributions is $6.73/per member/per year 

Less than 1% of what they take in from members.  They spent more on a mall in SLC. 

I also find it incredulous that someone would even tell us that he or she paid X effective rate, but if you add back in my payment to charities, it was this other effective rate.   Well Mitt, even before I add back in my charitable donations to Wells Fargo for mortgage interest, my effective rate was higher than yours! 

kad2kar

What exactly is "investment income"? Does he have other income he doesn't pay taxes on?----------kas2kar
Hi everyone, Im certainly learning alot with you gals, not just what is in fashion or who is dating whom(?).

bluedahlia

There seems to be a lot of pollution in the air lately.  So much so. that I can smell the BS from here.

RetiredLibby

Kad, "investment income" is what people make from stocks, bonds, mutual funds and other types of investments. There are many types of income from investments and they are taxed differently than income from working a job. Two types of income from investments are capital gains and dividends. Capital gains income is taxed at the lowest tax rate, or 15%. So, if all your income was capital gains, you would pay a 15% tax rate. That is a very simplistic explanation ... Maybe someone who knows a little more can chime in?



I just use TurboTax and do what it tells me ... And then I go through the forms and do them again to check TurboTax because I am compulsive.



L

Anonymous

what bren said.  giggled when willard called it a charity.  yeah, right, as a Bishop in his church - he really had no choice.

Great day  - rested, painted, sat in a rocking chair in the sunshine. Life is Good.  Nice being retired - oh, I forgot - mooching....tee, hee....heard the Ryan talk to AARP = trying to say Obamacare "cuts" Medicare - BULL Sh--

It cuts the ADVANTAGE PLANS - and the ridiculous amount of SUBSIDY the gov. was giving them...grrrrrr...

just gott stop reading, listening to this stuff....tho, if anyone has low blood pressure, I'll bet it would help them.

We should send Nose Clips to our friends north of the Border - and Idjut proof ear plugs.

suzieq60

Going soon to get the Brazillian hair treatment done again as a birthday present for me. It's lasted 6 months - 2 more than they said. Still doesn't really need it, but I want to spoil myself. Still not looking forward to Monday - maybe I'll wake up and realise I'm not really different from the day before, just a year older. I was talking to a guy at work about morning tea for a girl on his team. Her birthday is Tuesday and we are having a joint morning tea. He was quite surprised I was turning 60 and another woman said yesterday she doesn't think I look that age, so I guess it's all in my mind

ananda8

When GW Bush was elected the second time, Dems thought about moving to Canada.  Where will the Repubs go when Obama is elected?  Not Canada because of that socialist Universal Health Care you guys have and the smaller gap between the very rich and the average citizen.  Not the country for ex-pat Repubs.

Intrade gives Obama a 73% chance of winning. http://www.intrade.com/v4/markets/contract/?contractId=743474

crazy4carrots

About capital gains:  Let's say you purchased 5,000 shares in Widget Corp. 10 years ago.  At that time each share was worth $5.  Over time, demand for the company's product (widgets, of course) grew and Widget Corp. shares today are worth $10 each.  You decide to sell your shares, and you make a grand profit of $50,000, less the $25,000 you paid for them.  Your "capital gains" = $25,000, and I believe the income tax rate on capital gains profit in the U.S. is 15%.

I think I read that Romney wants to get rid of the capital gains tax entirely.  This would benefit him enormously as I'm sure he has a very healthy, and active, stock portfolio!  On the other hand, it would definitely not benefit your government's bottom line.....

In my former life as a hospital foundation executive, we lobbied the Canadian government to allow donors to donate stocks and avoid paying any capital gains tax (thereby making it much more desirable for the wealthy to donate their shares to qualified charities).  I don't know if that is also possible in the U.S. 

Wabbit

susie ... just a day older.  Mind over matter ... if you don't mind it doesn't matter.  Hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do Monday! 

I bet a whole lot of those people Mitt was calling freeloaders contribute to their churches.  Wonder why he didn't mention that about them? 

And donations to a church are tax deductible ... so not only are they certainly not the same as paying taxes they actually reduce the amount of tax he pays.   

1Athena1

You know, Mitt just succeeded in capping off a very bad week by making it even worse. The man seems to have a talent for shoving his foot so far up his mouth that it comes out on the other end...

Honestly, right now was not the time to release his tax statements. Maybe he did it because  he misinterpreted people's outrage as a feeling that he is too distant - only a vain man would think that was the main issue. They thought (found out) he was hard. By releasing his tax returns so close to the video Romney reinforces notions that he is out of touch because he has it easy and that he doesn't play by the same rules as everybody else.

What a tin ear the man has.

On top of everything else, Mitt has the worst run campaign I have seen since McCain - and that is saying a lot. He should have at least waited a week - or not been so stubborn and naive and released them sooner.

Boy, lack of empathy really makes a person clueless.

QuinnCat

Has anyone said this yet?  I just heard that Romney didn't deduct all of his charitable contributions for this return, so he could show a higher effective tax rate.  Ofcourse, later he can ammend his return to deduct the full amount and get more money back from the government.

Wabbit

Not to mention that it again brings up the question of what is he hiding in the ones he still won't release.  Mr. Ryan had a bit of a hard day dodging boos at the AARP too.  Watched a video ... he's pretty obvious with his smirky "we don't care what you think" look.  And Mrs. Romney is peeved at her fellow GOPers because they don't realize how 'hard it is' to campaign.  And how lucky they are to have Mitt available to 'run' the country.  Yep ... not lead ... not serve ... run.  Little tin horn dictator mindsets there IMO. 

1Athena1

Where's our bartender - I am sure she has some words of wisdom.

QuinnCat

Update - Romney could not take all of his "charitable" contributions as deductions or he would have paid less than the 13% effective rate he previously claimed he would have paid for 2011.  Ofcourse, that sort of belies his claim that a good business should take all of the deductions they're legally entitled to.

Rumor buzzing around the internet is that the Dems have all of the Romney returns that were given to John McCain.  Might be why Harry Reid said what he said about Romney not paying any tax in some years.   A nice October surprise?

riley702

That would be sweet. So, he admits that he didn't take some deductions to make his tax rate match his previous claims? I wonder if he's busily filing amendments for previous years that didn't match either? And he'll release the amended returns when they match his claims? Of course, as previously noted, there's nothing to keep him from amending them AGAIN to get those extra taxes back at some point in future. I'm not sure, but I think you can go back 10 years to file amendments.

Wabbit

One thing his returns and rate of taxes paid proves beyond a doubt ... the wealthy are doing fine and do.not.need more tax cuts.  They already pay less percentage wise than the middle class. 

riley702

Sing it, sister! You are so right.

1Athena1

At outrageous moments like this (my outrage: I KNOW he doesn't do his fair share - I'm just amazed he thought NOW was the time to say it!!) I like to read comments around the web. Here are the ones from the NYT:

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/21/romney-to-release-2011-tax-returns/#commentsContainer

(scroll down a bit to find the comments)

Ang7

Not to change the subject but...

The dogs were losing their minds by the azalea bushes today and I went out to investigate.

I stuck my head into the bush (never doing that again) and there were 5 baby snakes and then a much bigger snake was coming towards my face.

Looked them up on-line and they were harmless but I did not want the dogs trying to eat them.

Called my good old dad and he said they were live-bearing and to give them some time and they would leave.

Had the dogs inside for about an hour and we went back out and they were all gone.

I would much rather have a deer or two in my yard. 

That probably won't happen because of the dogs...

pip57

That reminds of the autumn that there were 4 or 5 snakes hanging from some apple trees in the orchard.  We had never seen that before or since.  Weird.

1Athena1

We have officially surpassed 500,000 views. (Yikes!)

So I'm going to take this opportunity to make sure everyone who reads wishes SCOOTALOO/ENJOYFUL the best of luck tomorrow morning. She is having a biopsy. May it be....extra tissue!!!!

Best of luck, dear friend! Have a boooooring day!

Think of her early-ish, Eastern time.

Enjoyful

Thank you, Athena! I heard your roar way out here!

pip57

I will definitely be rooting for you girl!

RetiredLibby

In your purse, E, ready to throw things if they don't give you enough good drugs!



XOXO



L

Enjoyful

I told them to be ready with the sedatives in case I lose it again.

rosemary-b

In your purse Scooto- or whoever you are