April 15th 2016 Income Tax deadline moved to April 18th this year.

[ultrarunner]

I use to be one of those that had my taxes in early... not so easy anymore when waiting on K-1 and Proof of Health Insurance forms...

This year, due to a holiday we have till Monday to file on time.

It is also this time of year when it really hits home just how much taxes are a part of productive living... between Income, State and Federal, Sales, Property, Utility, Use and Excise Taxes it really adds up... so much so that taxes are by far my greatest expense each year... just food for thought.

This is also the first year where proof of medical coverage is required and there have been some horror stories of individuals in catch 22 situations where erroneous information or no information was reported and in California... there really isn't a thought out process on how to correct..

 

[Tomtint]

I think that if you sit back and add up every tax we are hit with.. It's north of 55/60% of income. Then there is insurance and interest if you have any debt. ..

 

[ultrarunner]

At one time I managed a fair amount of low income housing... mostly Section 8.

Sometimes I wonder it they got it right... especially around Tax Time.

Still remember one Grandmother age 40 taking care of 3 Grandchildren.

She told me she had never filed a tax return because she has never had a job... she had her first child at 15.

The local paper did a comparison that said a family of 4 would need around 65k income to equal housing and other benefits and losing your job or getting laid off don't happen when you are on full assistance.

It was then that it really sank in about those that support the government and those that are supported by government.

 

[Tomtint]

At one time I managed a fair amount of low income housing... mostly Section 8.

Sometimes I wonder it they got it right... especially around Tax Time.

Still remember one Grandmother age 40 taking care of 3 Grandchildren.

She told me she had never filed a tax return because she has never had a job... she had her first child at 15.

The local paper did a comparison that said a family of 4 would need around 65k income to equal housing and other benefits and losing your job or getting laid off don't happen when you are on full assistance.

It was then that it really sank in about those that support the government and those that are supported by government.

Multi generational welfare recipients = Hillary / Bernie voters.

 

[smstonypoint]

For comparison purposes, here's a copy of the first 1040 (for 1913):

There's an additional two worksheet pages and one page of instructions.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-utl/1913.pdf

Steve

 

[ultrarunner]

My CPA has this framed in the office...

Just counted my Fed/State return and it totals 139 pages!!!

 

[CurlyDave]

...She told me she had never filed a tax return because she has never had a job... she had her first child at 15.

The local paper did a comparison that said a family of 4 would need around 65k income to equal housing and other benefits and losing your job or getting laid off don't happen when you are on full assistance...

The government could not give me enough money to live in section 8 housing. And, close neighbors just like the one you describe are the reason.

She did such a good job of raising her children that they have abandoned their children to her care. Any bets on the outcome of that?

 

[randy41]

The government could not give me enough money to live in section 8 housing. And, close neighbors just like the one you describe are the reason.

She did such a good job of raising her children that they have abandoned their children to her care. Any bets on the outcome of that?

most of those people are happy to have a roof over their heads....not everyone is as fortunate as you

 

[CurlyDave]

most of those people are happy to have a roof over their heads....not everyone is as fortunate as you

While I think I have been successful in life, characterizing success as being "fortunate" is the kind of reasoning that leads to a lack of success. There absolutely has been both good and bad luck in my life, but there have also been deliberate decisions to build income through activities outside of tradition employment (lets call this hard work), substantial amounts of saving and investing (lets call this delayed gratification), and the early determination to diligently apply myself to becoming educated in a valuable field, engineering (lets call this responsible behavior).

When a man stays in school, holds down a 40-hour job, comes home and spends his "spare" time looking at investments in both stocks and real-estate, then puts every extra nickel into those investments and puts in the physical labor to both maintain and improve those investments, characterizing the predictable success he achieves as being "fortunate" is both insulting to him and misleading to those just starting out in life.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

While I think I have been successful in life, characterizing success as being "fortunate" is the kind of reasoning that leads to a lack of success. There absolutely has been both good and bad luck in my life, but there have also been deliberate decisions to build income through activities outside of tradition employment (lets call this hard work), substantial amounts of saving and investing (lets call this delayed gratification), and the early determination to diligently apply myself to becoming educated in a valuable field, engineering (lets call this responsible behavior).

When a man stays in school, holds down a 40-hour job, comes home and spends his "spare" time looking at investments in both stocks and real-estate, then puts every extra nickel into those investments and puts in the physical labor to both maintain and improve those investments, characterizing the predictable success he achieves as being "fortunate" is both insulting to him and misleading to those just starting out in life.

I couldn't agree more. Being "poor" has more to do with mind set than it does with the economy, at least in this country as long as I've been here. I admit that some people are ushered into this world with insurmountable obstacles, like physical handicaps and low mental capacity and those things are hard to overcome. For the most part, you have to decide early on in life if you want to be the bus driver or if you want to be the passenger. Of course it takes a lot more effort to be the driver, but as a wise man once told me, "It's not supposed to be easy".