Obama/Biden vs. McCain/Palin

[ghostrunner]

Is there ANY situation in which moving up to a bigger tax bracket loses you money? I'm pretty sure that's not possible.

Leroy?

[Leroy]

I've missed the last few pages ghost, so I'm not sure of the context of your question.

[ghostrunner]

I've missed the last few pages ghost, so I'm not sure of the context of your question.

The post above mine. Not this one, the other one.

[Leroy]

Running on a lot of assumptions here, but maybe here is what the guy is thinking.

(I haven't done taxes for awhile, so I am using completely arbitrary numbers).

Let's say that a tax bracket breaks at the top from 30% to 35%. When I did business / farm returns, you would have a guy that was well into the higher bracket. We would maximize depreciation to get him into the lower bracket, but only barely. That way he could maximize his 30% income and not make any 35%, making it better next year (more income available before the high bracket kicked in). Maybe not gaining money, but minimizing the tax bite, and deferring it into the future. It is kind of a gain. But you also have to look at the net gain/loss and how long it can be deferred.

This probably only makes sense to me, but you asked.

[ghostrunner]

Running on a lot of assumptions here, but maybe here is what the guy is thinking.

(I haven't done taxes for awhile, so I am using completely arbitrary numbers).

Let's say that a tax bracket breaks at the top from 30% to 35%. When I did business / farm returns, you would have a guy that was well into the higher bracket. We would maximize depreciation to get him into the lower bracket, but only barely. That way he could maximize his 30% income and not make any 35%, making it better next year (more income available before the high bracket kicked in). Maybe not gaining money, but minimizing the tax bite, and deferring it into the future. It is kind of a gain. But you also have to look at the net gain/loss and how long it can be deferred.

This probably only makes sense to me, but you asked.

Now, could you do this again with say, apples and oranges? Maybe work some widgets in there?

Actually, I think I get it.

[sighyoung]

Running on a lot of assumptions here, but maybe here is what the guy is thinking.

(I haven't done taxes for awhile, so I am using completely arbitrary numbers).

Let's say that a tax bracket breaks at the top from 30% to 35%. When I did business / farm returns, you would have a guy that was well into the higher bracket. We would maximize depreciation to get him into the lower bracket, but only barely. That way he could maximize his 30% income and not make any 35%, making it better next year (more income available before the high bracket kicked in). Maybe not gaining money, but minimizing the tax bite, and deferring it into the future. It is kind of a gain. But you also have to look at the net gain/loss and how long it can be deferred.

This probably only makes sense to me, but you asked.

Now, could you do this again with say, apples and oranges? Maybe work some widgets in there?

Actually, I think I get it.

Couldn't he just take estrogen treatments, and selling his milk to hospitals for extra cash?

[Leroy]

I feel kind of naughty.

[Radbird]

I feel kind of naughty.

This thread has that effect on people.

[Freed Roger]

I am absolutely, positively convinced that Obama is the right man at the right time.

Really? I'm not. I'm confident that he's a better choice than McCain and a big improvement over Bush, but I don't really know if he'll do great things as President.

A lot of people are in for a big shock when it's Washington politics as usual after Obama gets elected.

Probably right Hud. , the challenges and problems are huge. We can't really put all that much hope in one person to be a savior. I think we all know its up to us as individuals in this country, to work harder, be better people, use only our fair share of resources.

I do think we'll look back at this election as being historic for the racial reason - I mean for chrissakes we've had the same group of folk running this country for 220+ years. It is a huge deal to break that up. Next time it won't be such an event.

Also the election is historic because of the timing. this election occurring alongside an economic crisis, and when our world political clout has dwindled - it has waken up America from an apathetic slumber. now if we can just turn our energy from this election towards something useful.

Hopefully Obama can at least start steering the ship in the right direction.

[PujolJunkie]

4 days left and Obama is still the President of the United States.



Pennsylvania +3 for Obama looks to be an outlier. As does the FOX poll of National +3. Every other poll shows the margins double digits for Penn and 5 to 13 for Obama in the National race.

Boy, that's a lot of data. If there's anything that jumps out here, it's that we probably shouldn't be too quick to conclude that the race comes down to exactly Virgnia, Colorado and Pennsylvania. There are two polls out of Virginia today that show that state a little tighter than most of the other recent numbers; on the other hand, Ohio is becoming a real problem for John McCain, and perhaps North Carolina is too.

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/10/ ... -1030.html

EDIT: Also, those National Journal polls are EXTREMELY iffy. A 400 person sample size for big states like FL and VA? Bogus. Also the reason the Louisiana +3 for McCain confuses me. Needs further polling, though. And very fast.