Work quantity

[ucbruin]

I think you love the GOP as often as you allude to them....

Does that mean pedo09 loves epstein....

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

They need to work on some of the tax code and enforce what exists.

They are enforcing what exists and congress created every single one of those tax breaks because without many of them they were economy killers. I mean are you going to not allow deductions for business expenses? Everyone likes to pick on the oil business, and one thing they pick on is the depletion allowance. The depletion allowance is exactly what it says it is. As your reserves are produced (depleted) it is just like depreciation, like you get to take on any business item. And at the end of the well's life, there is no more reserves. Big oil actually calculates what the depletion is and what their reserves are so it is exactly like depreciation. You get depreciation and every farmer depreciates their buildings, tractors, and cattle as the cow ages. If we raise our own replacement heifers, we don't get to depreciate them as an investment. For individuals who own mineral rights, a reserves calculation would require a petroleum engineer, would cost in the thousands of dollars even if it only produced a couple thousand a year, so for individuals, the government allows a set 15% of the income as "depreciation". It is the sole expense against income a mineral owner is allowed. You pay taxes on 85% unless your CPA is a oil biz moron and cannot figure out how to calculate it correctly (I ran into that.) And a rapidly depleting well (with a life less than 7 years) will therefore not let the owner depreciate the entire 100%. It is just a short cut that keeps the mineral owner from paying on 100% of the well or paying unreasonable engineering expenses.

This is why much of the tax code is so complex. It wants to tax things without damaging the economy behind those taxes. When debating Hillary, she claimed Trump was an example of how rich people game the system, and he replied that she (a senator) had to power to change those tax laws, not him. And that is the issue. If politicians are funded by Buffet, Icahn, Musk, Bezos, Gates, and their ilk, do you think those solons will be passing aggressive tax burdens on their own benefactors? And if they were to do what Newsom is doing in California, then what? Well, you know what? Rich people are moving to where taxes are cheaper. So then who pays those taxes? The ever-shrinking middle class. The poor don't pay taxes much and mostly as consumption taxes. It is a choice. Abolish income taxes nationwide and install a VAT - value-added tax. And that hits the poor even worse. I believe Elon Musk paid in some $11 billion in taxes. What do you pay to support the government?

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

PS - speaking of taxation of mineral rights. I pay an ad valorem tax, a conservation tax (to plug abandoned wells that cost more than the bond was), a severance tax, as well as state income taxes and federal income taxes. And will have to pay a capital gains tax if I sell it.

PS - speaking of farming, if land was taxed at its market value rather than an agri exemption taxing it at a multiple of the rents estimate; then we are talking about making farming impossibly expensive. Here roughly 1% of the value is the tax. So, my neighbor sold her 91 acres and will now have to pay a huge "capital gains" tax... about 35%. So the net from the $950k is roughly 2/3rd the sale. And the taxes annually for the buyer would be what? $95,000? that 91 acres has never netted $95,000 in a year ever. In fact, I doubt it ever grossed $100 an acre in a year. It is about half pasture and half woods on a steep hillside. Is that the taxes we want?

 

[Franco2]

You're not the only one. I'm in MA and working on my 4th report of this month. I keep hearing that mortgage applications are up due to rates going a little down but still dead here

 

[J Grant]

I expect everyone who is slow, including myself, will get a rush of orders at the end of the -relative that is, lol -people are slow betting back to activity after Xmas and New Year, and it takes a while to get the new loans and apps and sales into the pipeline.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

The problem is if the FED lowers rates...then inflation is likely to increase and offset the lower interest rates. Catch 22. I am thinking interest rates remain stubbornly high for more than a year and I suspect will not return to 3% for perhaps years after I return to room temperature.

 

[djd09]

Does that mean pedo09 loves epstein....

i would chopped off his arms and legs and placed them in the four corners of our country...and looped off his head and stuck on a pole on live t.v. for a warning to all your lying media friends...

 

[ucbruin]

i would chopped off his arms and legs and placed them in the four corners of our country...and looped off his head and stuck on a pole on live t.v. for a warning to all your lying media friends...

Based on BRCJR's earlier post....
I take your wordy answer as a YES....

 

[djd09]

Based on BRCJR's earlier post....
I take your wordy answer as a YES....

you can try to put words in my mouth...living in your head just like trump

 

[ucbruin]

you can put words in my mouth...living in your head just like trump

Where's your wingman, DISfunctionalObsolescence....