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The Overtaxed $250K Couple: ‘We’re Not Rich’
Fiscal Times ^ | 12/06/2012 | Harriet White*, as told to Colleen Oakley

Posted on 12/06/2012 9:04:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind

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To: SeekAndFind

Been there, done that. My family and I did the only logical thing after living in Manhattan for 21 years: LEAVE.


41 posted on 12/06/2012 9:43:30 AM PST by BlueStateRightist (Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.)
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To: SeekAndFind
"We’re in a weird place: We don’t have enough money to invest in a house or the stock market, which would get us tax exemptions. So we pay the full 40 percent of our salary in city**, state and federal taxes. People who are much wealthier can take advantage of tax loopholes, capital gains preferential tax rates and a larger mortgage deduction, so they end up paying only about 20 percent in taxes. For instance, in 2011, Barack Obama paid 20.5 percent in taxes. Mitt Romney paid 14 percent in taxes."

Wagghhh Wagghh, will someone give them a Whambulence?

Really...

* 1st their are no Loopholes, their are Deductions, Credits and Exemptions.
* 2nd, you are vacuous to the fact you are your own problem. If you got that Romney ain't the problem @ 14% that would be a start, and Obama isn't the good guy for paying more, The problem is you don't know you don't know that you are no longer competitive and your kids will be surfs because you can't compete against over 20 Flat Tax Counties and a Country like the Czech Republic, who's tax code is kicking our sorry butts....

42 posted on 12/06/2012 9:43:52 AM PST by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
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To: SeekAndFind
Waaaaaaaaaaah
43 posted on 12/06/2012 9:50:22 AM PST by ataDude (Its like 1933, mixed with the Carter 70s, plus the books 1984 and Animal Farm, all at the same time.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Move out of NY, just don’t come to NC. We have enough Mid-Atlantic and NE carpetbaggers moving in.


44 posted on 12/06/2012 9:51:53 AM PST by Rebelbase
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To: SeekAndFind

Con Men, like magicians and pickpockets, are masters of misdirection. “Look over here at the pretty girl while I take your money.” We all know that raising taxes on those making over $250,000 a year isn’t going to solve our financial problems. Even Obama knows that. The Shill always knows that the misdirection is a con. This is all just part of THE BIG DEMOCRAT CON GAME. A good Grifter will even let the Mark have a “taste” of money. That’s how Madoff ran his Ponzi Scheme Con. One of the best known con games is where a Grifter exchanges a $1 bill to a Mark for a $100 bill. The Grifter gave a dollar to get one hundred dollars. The Democrats will let the middle class have a “taste” of tax cut money, and then the con will hit. The middle class is being conned. The lower class is being conned. The Grifter and his team of Shills are patient when there’s big money involved. And there’s big money involved in this.


45 posted on 12/06/2012 9:53:45 AM PST by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: C19fan

And I have to believe they would say that the student loans were a good investment so that they could be earning at their current rate in their 20s. No sympathy from me.


46 posted on 12/06/2012 9:53:52 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: SeekAndFind

The author almost gets it, she just needs a bit more thinking....

I especially enjoyed how she totals up her taxes paid and lets us know that it was 40%. Then she explains how her totaled tax bill is higher than Obama and Romney’s Federal bill. Who woulda thunk that her prop, state and fed taxes are more as a percentage than someone elses federal rate.

Then she goes on to dream about a more complicated tax system by factoring in COLA rates.

I wouldn’t hire her as an accountant, but not being a New Yorker, maybe I am missing something.


47 posted on 12/06/2012 9:55:57 AM PST by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: Responsibility2nd

Did a little quick math. If they paid 40% in taxes, then netted $150,000. Paid $3,000/month in rent, still leaves $112,000. Paid $22,000 during the year for student loans, still leaves $7,500 PER MONTH to spend on subway, off-brand clothes, food, etc. How could 2 people spend that and have nothing to show for it?


48 posted on 12/06/2012 9:58:53 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: Behind the Blue Wall

“They can’t: she works in private equity, he in securities litigation”

Move somewhere like Austin, Omaha, Albuquerque, Kansas city, Phoenix. He works as a lawyer. She works at the local bank. With the experience and education they have, someone would be happy to have them. And with their salaries that would seem so pitiful to you, they can live buy a nice house and live the high life in their new world.

They chose that career. With every life comes sacrifices. A soldier endures separations, low pay, and danger. An oilfield worker freezes out in North Dakota. A schoolteacher in Missouri can’t walk to see the latest Broadway show.
And people who elect to go rack up 150k in school debt and work in the hub of the financial industry,,,live sad lives in NYC watching the high flyers all around them, probably don’t have a washer and dryer, and will maybe own a home someday, and are always on a treadmill.

And now she wants a special tax code that gives her unique deductions based on the expense of NYC? That has Obama voter written all over it. And no, i do not care how much they suffer. NYC and her industry goes for Obama big time. Manhattan went 84% for Obama. And they are living in a heaven that is 100% democrat run. So i hope they wallow in it.


49 posted on 12/06/2012 10:00:11 AM PST by DesertRhino (I was standing with a rifle, waiting for soviet paratroopers, but communists just ran for office.)
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To: SeekAndFind

They should call Schmuck Schumer


50 posted on 12/06/2012 10:00:33 AM PST by PMAS (All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing)
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To: SeekAndFind

This couple’s struggle in this economy is not uncommon. They work hard for a middle class income and are left with only $150,000.00 year after taxes. And while 150k may go a long ways back in Lafayette, it does not go a long ways in Midtown Manhattan when you consider that a half way decent dinner for two costs $200.00, the yoga studio is another $300.00 a month and a round of drinks out with coworkers runs you $80.00.


51 posted on 12/06/2012 10:00:43 AM PST by OKRA2012
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To: livius

You sound like you don’t think that the “financial services industry” exists outside of NYC?


52 posted on 12/06/2012 10:01:53 AM PST by NEMDF
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To: SeekAndFind
We find it ironic that we’d have to make more . . . in order to pay less.

I find it intentional. And that nice, fashionaly-tanned President you voted for supports the concept, too. :)

53 posted on 12/06/2012 10:02:42 AM PST by Mr. Jeeves (CTRL-GALT-DELETE)
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To: EnquiringMind

Extortion is used on selected people and that is what Obama&Co are doing.These people are being taxed more than anyone else.
A fair tax is a flat tax.


54 posted on 12/06/2012 10:02:42 AM PST by Vaduz
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To: Vaduz
A fair tax is a flat tax

I agree. Completely.

55 posted on 12/06/2012 10:06:42 AM PST by EnquiringMind
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To: SeekAndFind

If they are good at business, they should own and operate their own business.

They could take small salaries, only enough to live on, which would dramatically lower their effective tax rate. They could let retained earnings pile up inside a C corporation and defer an taxes until they sold their shares or liquidated the company; that’s the only “taxable event” for them personally, and it needn’t happen for 50 years. Meanwhile, whatever salary they want they can pay themselves as long as the business can afford it. Spend those early years with no kids building up their own business. Work like a dog building that business into a multi-million dollar enterprise. A C corp can own real estate investments, operate any business it wants to.

They do not have to rent in Manhatten, they could get a house for a relatively low price right now in the suburbs.

They could buy intelligently, taking into account that property taxes are killer expenses right now in the suburbs. Buy too big, and the taxes are 20k per year.

They’d find wonderful towns with people like them. They could take the train (nice ride) into NYC with everyone else; it only takes maybe 1/2 hour and runs late. For the occasional real late night you call the car service. Cars line up outside the office buildings, everyone does this. Stockbrokers, lawyers galore on the train.

They need to think outside the “dream bubble” they came up with in Louisiana; they’re chasing after a lifestyle instead of building a life. The folks who live in Manhattan who are smart have enough net worth that they own their place and they profit when they sell it. Renting in NYC is only for the truly wealthy who simply want a pad their or for real estate investor landlords.


56 posted on 12/06/2012 10:09:35 AM PST by PieterCasparzen (We have to fix things ourselves)
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To: OKRA2012

“half way decent dinner for two costs $200.00, the yoga studio is another $300.00 a month and a round of drinks out with coworkers runs you $80.00.”

The last time I went out for dinner was, hmmm, I can’t remember, then I also bet she and a friend could partner up to do Yoga at each others apartments, finally I haven’t gone out for a round of drinks with co-workers for over 2 years.

Yet, for some reason I am going to pay my house off this month. Heck, I guess we better punish evil people like me!

The author of the piece is still immature. Someday she might get it, but I have my doubts...


57 posted on 12/06/2012 10:11:48 AM PST by CSM (Keeper of the Dave Ramsey Ping list. FReepmail me if you want your beeber stuned.)
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To: livius
+1.

These are the type of working people the GOP should be actively recruiting to our way of thinking.

High marginal tax rates are not a tax on “the rich” but upon those attempting to accumulate assets. I have long noticed that the better your financial situation the less of a tax bite you get on your income. Once I could afford a house, I paid taxes at a much lower rate. Someone who makes the majority of their income from investments rather than work pays at a much lower rate.

For wealthy liberals it must be nice to be at the top, pull up the ladder behind you, and pat yourself on the back for being so “giving” advocating higher marginal tax rates - when they have already accumulated a huge amount of assets - and the taxes are on those attempting to accumulate assets over their working life.

58 posted on 12/06/2012 10:15:07 AM PST by allmendream (Tea Party did not send GOP to D.C. to negotiate the terms of our surrender to socialism)
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To: Obadiah

The term for folks like this is “HENRY”: high earner, not rich yet.

The problem with the HENRYs is that while they’ll bitch and gripe about their taxes, they really vote social issues and in support of things like abortion rights and gay marriage.

I’d guess that this overeducated, overpaid and overleveraged twit bought the whole war on women line hook line and sinker ... and voted accordingly.


59 posted on 12/06/2012 10:18:02 AM PST by tanknetter
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To: NEMDF

Good question.

I also see they are saving for a house. They have saved 3 years, and are 3 years away from having a $100,000 down payment.

That means they are putting $16,666 into savings each year. Or about $1,388 per month.


60 posted on 12/06/2012 10:18:12 AM PST by Responsibility2nd (NO LIBS. This Means Liberals and (L)libertarians! Same Thing. NO LIBS!!)
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