Well all I gotta say is that lovely Uncle Sam has one hand in my pocket while the other hand is pilfering my homestead!
That's right boys and girls, the IRS has effectively blocked us from at least one "self-sufficient" goal this year, all because of the sneaky way they handle capital losses. So we have to decide what necessity least critical to get this year: solar panels/wind turbine, water well, soil amendments or winter transportation. Wonderful options, eh? Just forget about a tractor :`(
Ain't it just interesting how you must claim all of your Capital Gains as taxable income for a given year, but they only allow you to deduct $3k in Capital Losses a year then force you to carryover the rest? Tricky bastards! They're banking that you won't get as much benefit deducting the losses in the future or get stuck carrying over until you die so they never have to let you deduct them. If that weren't the case, we wouldn't owe anything! I can understand limiting it so you can't have negative AIG or don't get a refund when you'd otherwise owe (ok, from their perspective, I can understand it), but you should at least be able to use it to reduce the amount you owe to $0 if you end up with an underpayment at the end of the year. Because, seriously, the snafu "income" amount that screwed us and made us go over the taxes withheld would have been completely offset by our "losses" if we'd been able to claim them. Arrrrgggg
Oh well, just another "little fee" to the powers that be to get us off of the grid and out from under thumbs, I guess. 2010 should be the last year Uncle Sugar's fiddly little fingers will be digging in our pockets... and if we're really luck, we won't even get screwed on the 2010 return, but I'm not holding my breath. grrrrr
4 comments:
PC -
I can empathize. I lost a big chunk of money in the markets when the dot-com bust hit. Ever since, I've been taking that $3k credit every year and will continue to do so for many years to come. Sigh....
After that disaster, I pulled everything we had left out of the stock market and have avoided it like the plague ever since!
--
Sam....
For heaven's sake don't hold your breath. that sniveling slug that I once so proudly called Uncle is not going to willingly let go of your hard earned money, resources or presence. But don't give up extricating yourself but don't hold your breath.
Hi Plickety - Safewrite from the forums at Chris Martenson here. We got a very nice refund on our Federal and both state taxes because they withheld my money at 25%, like I needed in 2008 when I only made a third of that before I left metro NY and moved to the wilds of South Carolina. The money is going to prep items. My half of our joint Federal refund is getting us an airtight woodburning stove. We may only get two months of cold weather but it goes down ot the 20s.
My big worry is that next year they may peanalize us for not buying health insurance. Nasty how the IRS is being used to police that!
Hi Plickety - Safewrite from the forums at Chris Martenson here. We got a very nice refund on our Federal and both state taxes because they withheld my money at 25%, like I needed in 2008 when I only made a third of that before I left metro NY and moved to the wilds of South Carolina. The money is going to prep items. My half of our joint Federal refund is getting us an airtight woodburning stove. We may only get two months of cold weather but it goes down ot the 20s.
My big worry is that next year they may peanalize us for not buying health insurance. Nasty how the IRS is being used to police that!
Post a Comment