The first-ever Online Tax Revolt, a free, interactive march on Washington was launched using state of the art technology. Concerned Americans can have a voice on tax policy, culminating on April 15 2010 with events in Washington, D.C. We need more events like this to show Congress that Americans are taxed enough.
“The Online Tax Revolt is open to every American who believes taxes and spending are out of control, harmful to our country and a threat to our nation’s future,” said Campaign Chairman Ken Hoagland back in 2010. “Our economic future and that of future generations is at stake. We need taxes that are lower and a tax structure that’s fair.
“We’re in serious trouble and it falls to us to get the nation back on track. This march is a wake-up call to everyone in Washington that the American people won’t be ignored any longer,” said Mr. Hoagland.
One team was led by Michael Reagan. Another team was be led by nationally syndicated radio host Neal Boortz. There also were state-based teams and veterans’ teams. We need this same spirit back in force for the 2018 midterms as the Deep State and Democrats have tried to take out our duly election President Trump by any means necessary. We need to politically fight back and organize like never before.
]]>1. Qualified long-term care premiums up to the following amounts. a. Age 40 or under – $410. b. Age 41 to 50 – $770. c. Age 51 to 60 – $1,530. d. Age 61 to 70 – $4,090. e. Age 71 or over – $5,110.
There are several hurdles one must meet in order to be able to deduct your so check with your tax pro to see if you are able to deduct your Long Term Care Insurance premiums. There was a good site I found here that gives more details on this long term care insurance tax deduction possibility.
If you don not already have a policy and need Long Term Care Insurance quotes, the above aforementioned site link Comparelongtermcare.org, seems to works with about ten of the companies that sell this type of insurance. They promise to send you Long Term Care Insurance costs and quotes in the mail which is rare in today’s email society.
The Long Term Care Insurance tax deduction may not seem like a lot of money but if you are in a 30% tax bracket that will save your 30% off your taxes right there. As you know our US Government tax and wastes too much of our money any way on programs that are inefficient and often don’t wok so any time we at Online Tax Revolt can show you legal ways to pay less in taxes that’s a good thing!
]]>- Ireland
The country has relatively low-income tax rate for corporations and has thus attracted many multinationals to invest there. This is set at 12.5%. However, the country’s citizens do not enjoy such low tax rates and are currently charged a 48% income tax on income levels exceeding $40,696.
- Finland
It is the country whose teachers are paid more than any others in the entire world. Finland is famous for continuously improving its educational system over the years. This, however, comes at a cost for the Finnish taxpayer who has to part with 49.2% income tax for incomes over $87,222.
- United Kingdom
The land of the famous Premier League also happens to be among the countries with the highest taxes. The UK imposes a 50% tax rate for those earning more than $234,484. However, it also considers the low income-earners and does not tax those earning $14,000 and below.
- Japan
Japan’s capital has more millionaires than any other city in the whole world. This would perhaps help paint a picture of why it also makes the list of countries with the highest taxes. With an average income of $27,000 the country has imposes a 50% income tax.
- Austria
Austria’s population is little over 8 million. The German-speaking country ranks sixth on the highest taxed countries list. The citizens and corporations have to pay taxes totaling to 50% of the total income for all incomes above $74,442. It is also among the highest taxed countries in the European region.
- Belgium
Similar to Austria, the land of tasty chocolates is also the land of 50% income tax. The country’s population is slightly above 12 million citizens and the government has put the tax revenue to good use improving the country’s overall infrastructure. Belgium ranks alongside Austria and the United Kingdom as Europe’s top taxed countries.
- Netherlands
The Dutch government has imposed a 52% income tax rate on its citizens. The country, popularly known for its numerous shipping ports and horticultural sector comes in at fourth, only topped by Denmark, Sweden, and Aruba.
- Denmark
Denmark has a very low population thus probably justifying the government’s decision to tax its citizens a 55.3% income tax. However, the Danes also enjoy what is perhaps the world’s best social accessibility program. This has continuously seen the citizens rank among the world’s happiest people.
- Sweden
Sweden has the highest tax rate in Europe, coming in at a very high 56.6% income tax. An interesting fact is that despite the high taxation all residential property sales are tax exempt in this country.
- Aruba
Aruba is a small island, a member of the Kingdom of Netherlands. The country has the highest taxes of all countries. The citizens part with 58.95% of their income each year as tax payments. However, the island’s residents are also the highest income-earners in the Caribbean.
]]>Trump and his administration have all emphasized heavily on public safety and national security both within and out of the country. One of the president’s major campaign promises was that he would build a border wall between USA and Mexico and make Mexico pay for it. Well, apart from making the Mexicans pay, the rest of the plans seem to be progressing quite well, at least according to Trump’s 2018 fiscal budget. The budget has been made with much emphasis on the border wall, funding to solve violent crimes, defense funding, and immigration enforcement and reducing drug abuse. The key part of the budget and the one that really highlights the president’s America first agenda is that most of the money collected from taxpayers will be spent within the country.
Secondly, the budget seeks to see the national debt reduced significantly within the ten-year period. The republicans will perhaps pride themselves in this seeing as the previous administration almost doubled the country’s national debt. This was from a figure of $10.5 trillion in the year 2009 to $20 trillion in the year 2016 when Trump took office. The Trump administration aims to achieve this through reduced wasteful expenditures, creating a leaner workforce and putting in a place a less intrusive government.
The budget allocates more than 2.6 billion dollars on the country’s border security. This includes immigration enforcement, technology and infrastructural investments and general improvement on border patrol. The southern wall is among the top if not the top factor why most citizens voted Trump in and the fact that his budget places emphasis on this implies that the president is indeed working towards the America first agenda.
Trump also seeks to expand the country’s military which is the currently the smallest it has been since world war I. Most citizens feel that since enemy countries continue to expand and advance, America should similarly be doing so and increasing the military size is u there among the priorities. Generally, the budget looks to be protecting the American citizen and easing the tax burden at the same time. The president however faces criticisms from sections of the media and members of the Democratic Party. From the perspective of the fiscal budget however, Trump seems to be pretty much on the right path.
]]>Fries Rebellion (1799)
This one wasn’t named after the product but after the leader of the rebellion, John Fries. It was an uprising protesting against a property tax that had been imposed by the federal government. While anticipating for a war with France, the federal government decided to source for revenue by taxing all property that people owned. This included buildings, land and even slaves. Fries and other angry farmers marched to Bethlehem and forced the release of other resistors who had been captured.
Whiskey Rebellion (1791-1794)
It is also known as the whiskey insurrection. It was a tax resistance protest that took place during George Washington’s tenure as president. The tax in question was the whiskey tax that had been imposed by the federal government. It was aimed at raising funds to pay the debts that had risen during the war. The tax was to be applied to all types of distilled spirits. The problem however arose due to the fact that the American whiskey was the country’s most popular whiskey and was therefore seen as being targeted by the tax. The farmers whose produce was distilled into the whiskey started the resistance which came to be known as the whiskey rebellion.
The Boston Tea Party (1773)
You have probably heard of this one but perhaps never gave it much thought. Prior to the event, the British Parliament passed a bill known as the tea act, cleverly designed to prevent the fall of the East India Company. The bill lowered the company’s tea tax thus giving it an unfair advantage and giving it monopoly powers. Viewing this as tyranny, Samuel Adams and members of the sons of liberty raided three East India ships and tossed more than 340 cheats of tea into the ocean.
Shay’s rebellion (1786-1787)
This was more of a series of protests against local tax collections. The protests were mainly carried out by American farmers. The Shay rebellion was most felt in Massachusetts where farmers faced the largest risk of farm losses through poor harvests, economic depression and to top it off, the imposition of very high taxes. The protestors tried to capture a weapons arsenal unsuccessfully ending in the rebellion’s leaders fleeing to Vermont. The rebellion, while it never caused any serious instability to the country raise much required awareness among the political circles and contributed to the revision that was later done to the articles of confederation.
]]>Regardless of what type of business you run, there are two main ways you can boost capacity: you can hire more people or you can buy the right machinery or equipment. Spending more on people is pretty straightforward-you simply put out an ad (online or offline), interview people, and hire them on. All these steps require money and count as business expenses. Saving money on taxes through increased headcount and personnel costs is also helped by the training costs of additional staff. Also, you can buy machinery or equipment that supplements or enhances your staff’s production. Eventually, you might want to go the whole nine yards and automate your production and reassign your staff to quality control. Machinery expenditures is no different from software expenditures. Saving money on taxes through software or machinery expenditures aren’t as easy as you think though.
Quick note on equipment outlays
You might think you will be saving money on taxes if you dump money on new machinery. Not so. The write-off value of the equipment you buy is calculated using a schedule. This schedule is called a depreciation schedule. You can’t simply write off the full amount of the machinery or equipment you bought. Usually, the write-off schedule spans several years. Saving money on taxes by buying items that are on a depreciation schedule might not help you reach your tax savings goals.
Besides hiring more warm bodies and investing in machinery, your business can also boost capacity by spending money on process enhancement systems like Six Sigma. This, of course, requires consultants. Consultants can cost quite a bit of money. Consulting fees are completely legitimate business expenses.
The problem with spending money on consultants is that too many business owners think their business is already benefiting by simply having a consultant coach them on what to do. This is not the case. Your consultant might come up with an awesome report but that report isn’t going to do your business much good if you don’t implement it. Don’t waste money on consultants by hiring them and then never getting around to implementing their recommendations. You won’t be taking your business to a higher level this way. Indeed, you’re just burning money if you do this.
Boosting quality with QA-specific outlays
Another way you can take your business to higher revenue levels is to boost quality. For every bad or defective product your production system produces, you lose money. That is a product you can’t sell. By investing in Quality Assurance systems and processes, you decrease the amount of defective or bad items your system cranks out. This means you have more acceptable items that can be sold. The more of these items you have, the higher your revenue. You can spend money on consultants that can fix your current processes so they produce higher quality products or less defective products.
Basic marketing expenditures
While it is too easy to get excited about spending on marketing, don’t get carried away. Just like your operations, there are two sides to marketing: basic and targeted. Investing in the wrong marketing component will not only fail to produce significant sales improvements but you would essentially be burning precious capital. You need to separate your marketing between basic marketing and targeted marketing. Figure out the ROI of these components currently and see which is a better recipient of your business’ capital.
Basic marketing covers non-targeted, non-relationship-based marketing. This type of marketing covers product giveaways, event sponsorships, fliers, brochures, business cards, and similar marketing methods and techniques that don’t focus on building a relationship between your brand and your audience members.
Targeted marketing expenditures
The great thing about targeted marketing is that this type of marketing outreach tends to hit the people who are most likely to buy your products or services. The downside to targeted marketing is that it often takes a long time to develop the relationship enough for your customer to put money in your pocket. In some situations, relationship-based or targeted marketing might only be worth doing if you already have an established base of heavy spending loyal customers. In essence, you are increasing the amount of cash you generate from existing customers. Don’t overlook this important marketing segment. Marketing study after study consistently show that the cheapest source of new business is your collection of existing customers.
Another great area of targeted marketing you can invest in is further market research. Hire a consultant to study your target audiences and see if you can spot new opportunities. Doing this might just result in heavier revenues for your business because you expand into market segments. Also, you go a long way in protecting your business against future shocks. Why? You are diversifying your product or service offerings.
End goal: Boosting profits while maximizing tax savings
If you want to truly milk as much value from the hard-earned money you’re investing in your business operations while minimizing taxes, you have to really work both ends of the equation hard. Make sure you spend as much money on items that can be fully written off and can truly boost your company’s revenues. Not only do reduce taxes, but you are laying the groundwork for even greater sales and profits in the future.
Make no mistake about it, taxes can pack quite a punch. By operating your business in a strategic way, you can reduce your business’ tax liabilities while laying the groundwork for huge increases in output, productivity, and quality. The right spending decisions can lead to your business producing more products, producing lower-cost products, and gaining a key competitive advantage over other players in your industry. And you did all these while trying to reduce your taxes. It all boils down to solid planning.
]]>Begin the Year with Tax Management in Mind
If you want to save on taxes come tax time while working to take your business to a higher level, don’t expect this to happen automatically. Don’t expect this to happen all of a sudden. Least of all, don’t expect to get lucky. It takes serious planning to pull this off. Saving money on taxes doesn’t just happen. Left to themselves, tax authorities will try to saddle you with as much taxes as possible. Don’t be surprised. That is their job. There is, however, a lot you can do about this situation. You can plan your fiscal year with tax reduction in mind. At the start of the year, start with a solid plan. Read the points raised below and add them to your business operations and management plan for the coming year.
Aggressive Spending means substantial tax write-offs
The tax code is structured in such a way that the government only taxes what’s left after a company deducts its expenses from its revenues. So, the more expenses you have, the less adjusted income your company has. Your company is taxed based on what is left over. If you are serious about saving money on taxes, it is very important that you increase your expenses. This is the core of saving money on taxes while positioning your business for further revenue growth. The less left over, the less taxes you pay because tax authorities follow a graduated system. There is a minimal income level that doesn’t get taxed at all. There’s a higher income level that gets taxed and the rate goes up as your company’s income goes up. This keeps going up until you hit the maximum tax rate. The key to saving money on taxes is to make sure you have very little left over. After all, 32% of nothing is, you guessed it, nothing. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean you don’t make any money. You still make money but you don’t make enough taxable income to get slapped with a high tax rate.
Aggressive Spending can mean greater returns
The upside to aggressive spending is that it can open the door to greater revenues for your business. You are, after all, spending money to invest in key areas of your business. If you invest in the right areas of production, management, or marketing, this can result in higher capacity, higher productivity, or higher sales. All these developments lead to higher revenue. Saving money on taxes by spending aggressively means you can lay the groundwork for higher revenue in the very near future. Of course, you shouldn’t just pick up a pen and your checkbook and start spending away. There is more to saving money on taxes through spending boosts than the realization that you can spend a lot to save a lot of taxes. You have to focus on ROI.
Focus on ROI
ROI or return on investment is all about spending as little money to get as much return as possible. Successful businesses have good ROI rates. Weak or dying companies have very low ROI rates. Since you’re thinking of saving money on taxes by increasing spending that can boost your company’s performance, you have to factor in ROI. There are certain spending decisions that pack better results than others. If you end up spending money on items that have very little impact on your business’ ability to generate revenue, you are basically just saving money on taxes and achieving little else. You are, essentially, wasting money. You have to focus on ROI so you can size up the many different spending and capital outlay options in front of you. Some options are simply much better than others.
Deciding on a strategic spending strategy
It is one thing to think that you want to reduce your taxes by spending on the right items and it is another matter entirely to pull this off. You have to have a solid idea of what parts of your current business can benefit from saving money on taxes through increased spending. Not all areas of your business might be invested in for maximum ROI as far as tax reduction strategies are concerned. Some parts of your business’ operations or components don’t return much even after you pour cash into them. They have reached the point economists call the ‘point of diminishing returns.’ It would be foolish to invest more funds in these areas. You would be pouring money down a rabbit hole. Not a good idea. By focusing on ROI, you can create the following strategy: line up all your options and figure out the areas of your operations that haven’t reached the point of diminishing returns, next project potential revenue gains for each section. Figure out how much you need to spend. Eliminate low ROI elements. Focus on high ROI elements with low to decent outlays. These should be your targets. What follows is a more detailed discussion on the many different sections of your operations that you can examine in finer detail for additional investment.
Why not just dump money into high ROI sections?
If you spend on a categorical basis without breaking each category down into different parts, you might end up spending on areas within the category that don’t need additional investment. You might also end up overlooking areas that can produce solid gains or end up under-investing in them. By breaking each component of your business down into their smallest parts, you can identify opportunities where investments can yield better ROI. Saving money on taxes through increased spending requires tight analysis of your business’ many different sections and their subsections. This allows you to target your spending better. The more targeted your spending, the higher the chance your will achieve your income enhancement objectives.
]]>Constant discount options available
Whether you are planning the perfect Caribbean getaway, or simply want to rent a car and drive out of town for the weekend, there are always new destinations popping up, and Discounts available for AARP travel members. Recently, we booked a trip to Florida to visit the family. Using my membership card, we were able to book an all inclusive trip, for three travelers, saving several hundred dollars. Not only did we receive discounted airfare, we also received a discount rate for a hotel (nice hotel packages at Hilton properties), along with a rental car for the weekend.
Drive to your destination
If you don’t want to fly, or would like to visit a local destination, rental car discounts are also available to members. 30% off Budget car rentals and other major rental agencies are always promoting specials for AARP members. Whether you need a sedan, a minivan, or want a sports car for a weekend trip to Vegas there are several great deals and discounts to be found, as an AARP member. If you get sick, they even have an AARP long-term care insurance premium discount.
Book through other sites
Other sites also promote savings available to members. We book travel destinations through Expedia, Travelocity, and other travel sites. At checkout, we can enter our AARP membership card number, and receive discounted rates for flights. Currently, on Expedia, we found a $100 discount for new members to the AARP family, who were booking through the site for the first time. This and other discounts are always being promoted for members, allowing us to travel more, for far lower prices.
Being an AARP member is a great way to save on all kinds of items, and find the best AARP travel discounts, for flight, hotel, car rentals, and all-inclusive package deals. Not only can we travel locally, we can find great luxurious destinations, spa visits, and trips to international destinations, for a far lower price than the rates being charged for non-members. No matter where we travel or when we are planning a trip, we always visit the AARP site, to find out about current travel deals. We always save, and always book with top airlines, rental agencies, and hotels, for all our travels.
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