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| Heading out |
The Olympics have been going strong for a week now and some
of my neighbors in a small town just south of here are anxiously waiting for
tomorrow’s sailboat race in the Star Class.
Going into the medal round, the North American sailing center seemed positioned
to crews from their boats on each of the podiums. Out of the sixteen boats in competition,
thirteen were built in Richland, MI.
Right now, the top five boats were built by the center. These boats sailed by crews from Great
Britain, Brazil, Sweden, Norway and Portugal. Ironically, the boat in the sixth
position, flying the American flag, was built by an Italian boat maker. That’s right, the United States didn’t want
to pony up the extra $25,000 that the North American Sailing Center asks for
their boats. The price range for these
22 ½ foot long keel boats are between $85,000 and $90,000! It will be interesting to watch the finals
and see some local fiberglass craftsmanship at work on the water.
Marco Rubio, a Senator from Florida who wants to been seen
as the savior of athletes, is proposing that Olympic medal winners not be
taxed. All over my Facebook feed, folks
are “Liking” advertisements for anti-tax groups trying to jump on the bandwagon
and make political hay out of the issue.
These ads suggest that a gold medalist could pay nearly $9000 in taxes
just for winning the gold. That is
nonsense. First of all, the ads make it appear
they have to pay that much just because they got a gold medal. According to one account, there’s only $644
in gold and silver in the gold medals, much less in the silver and bronze. What these ads are not saying is that the
winners of the gold medals receive a $25,000 bonus from the U. S. Olympic
committee and that is taxable.
Furthermore, the $9000 tax bill, even for $25,000 in extra income, seems
a little out of line. Not only would the
athletic have to be in the top earnings bracket to receive this amount (which a
few are as their endorsements are significant), but that they had no deductions
to offset the tax bill. As I said, this
is some organizations trying to make political hay. There needs to be a barn fire under such
nonsense. At least we should demand they
honest and clearly state that they are
not taking about the value of the medal…
but then who would “like” their ad, especially for those who get paid
hundreds of thousands of dollars or more for endorsements?
While I am on my rant against the anti-tax folks, I have a
compromise to suggest about the Bush-era tax cuts. The Republicans want to keep them all and the
Democrats want to keep them only for those earning less than $250,000 a
year. My suggestions, let’s end all
those tax breaks. We can all sacrifice a
little for the well-being of the Republic and at some point we are going to
have to pay off our borrowing for that Bush-era war in Iraq.
Okay, enough about politics and taxes. It’s time for me to
get back on the water!
With your comments on Tax breaks, may I suggest you never run for public office. :)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you but that probably won't get anyone votes.
Thanks! I have no plans to run for public office. One politician in the house is enough and it ain't me!
DeleteAre you not required by law to don an inflatable flotation device.
ReplyDeleteOn the tax thing, seems one of those silly season pieces that fly in August.
Vince, you have to have life jackets and also a throwing type floatation device within the boat, but you don't have to wear them. Of course, if you were racing and the wind was strong and you were leaning out, you'd want a life jacket on just in case you hit your head and fell out.
DeleteMy neutral view is all participants have satisfied their tax liabilities in sweat equity. However, being of Portuguese extraction, I can't claim neutrality in the sailing event. Unfortunately, the British have superior on-board cannoneers, so I may be disappointed.
ReplyDeleteThe Brits have dominated so far, we'll see what today brings!
DeleteI have no comment on the Olympics seeing as I only stop for a bit at women's sand volley ball and even that just for a quick ogle.
ReplyDeleteThe Young Turks on Current TV covered Rubio's and by extension Romney's spin machine and you came to the EXACT same conclusion. No one knew about the award money which is income.
I actually am willing to go a step further than you Jeff in ending the whole tax debate---Let's go back to the Eisenhower rates where the effective top rate was slightly less than 50% after deductions. The stated top rate was 90%.
Obama whether you like him or not is closer to the truth about the economy being built from the middle out but even so---we are dealing with a whole new economic reality now and what I find odd is, like the Higgs-Boson particle just seen by physicists at Hadron(they think), no one can explain our economy or how to make it do anything but generate capital (profit).
The problem is we run our economy on algorithms which take into account no human need or understanding. Not even the writers of the algorithms understand their math entirely enough to justify it as "real."
We either move forward into uncharted territory where there are not enough or diversity of jobs for 300 million people or we go back and rebuild it to function differently.
@ Vince the medal tax thing without the proper knowledge of what is being taxed is disingenuous and I for one am tired of all the political pandering to fear, It annoys me.
What did I say that was either disingenuous or in any way pandering. My point is that some things get reported and get legs in August that would not see daylight any other month. And as soon as people get back from vacation this will vanish. No body cares one iota about the Olympic athletes beyond the time it takes to run whatever race.
DeleteOn the general point about tax. It is so complex in all western countries that lifting it or lowering it has unforeseen consequences, usually inflationary. See, the English speaking economies that States lowering the top rate from '97 on. All have been hit with property bubbles. And the bubble was hidden from the head-line stats and in some cases not called inflation at all since a ludicrous and delusional notion has taken hold that labour is the only dangerous inflation.
Oh, and an FYI. Any State where the tax is drawn from a tiny cohort is in real danger. Not because the cohort is over taxed. But that tax is a function of economic activity. So if 10% of a Pop is paying 90% of the taxes. It means 10% are the only section with any activity at all.
Vince, I don't think Walking Man was saying that you or your comments were disingenuous. He was referring to the ads and comments that get people riled up at the thought that to win a gold medal, you have $9000 in taxes. The taxes isn't on the medal, it is on the prize the US Olympic committee gives to medal winners (some countries give a lot larger prize and others, like Great Britain, don't give any. You make some good points about taxes.
DeleteWalking man, I wonder what our deficit would be if we used the 1950 tax rates? Heck, we could even go back to Reagan's tax rates and be a lot better off.
DeleteOn Walking Man. You know I'll happily dive into areas where the sensible would stay well away. So here when I didn't dive -at first-, I squawked a bit when I was being good. :-)
DeleteAye, well, the amateur ethos was always a bit thin. You could look at the Olympic setup as a tax on the poor since participation requires a huge investment. Thereby removing it from anyone without the wherewithal regardless how talented.
Personally I think any Olympic award should be offset with legal business expenses including meals, lodging costs while training and every other un-reimbursed expenses. If they got it down to 0% that'd be fine with me, because them who make far more quantify their income as capital gain or loss which has a top tax rate of 15% and make no mistake the bi-Annual Olympics is business for more than just them on stage.
DeleteBut you did hit on something there Vince (sage was correct I was not referring to you as disingenuous, but the propaganda)the correct term for our new capitalism that has been in play since trickle down came to be with the Reagan era is Bubble Market Capitalism.
If you take a look at the behind the scenes maneuvering that was going on in the Wall Street banking houses and investment syndicates (groups of individuals pooling millions) that were operating after T Roosevelt broke the trusts (monopolies) not with destruction but strict regulation, that was going on prior to the crash of 28-29, you'd find that was exactly how the market worked bubble economy. Their pooled monies ran the price of a stock up, people saw the smoke and ran to the fire and as the prices rose they syndicate took their profit and collapsed the stocks.
That is what has been going on and will continue to go on until we reinstate the Glass-Steagall act and pile on even stricter financial regulations of the economy profiteers.
The oddest thing about the crash of '29 was that at no time were there more than 15% of the American population invested in the market. That it affected everyone is another story for another day.
But today our population has roughly tripled and almost 90% in one way or another have at least a portion of their earnings and retirement invested in this market, which is why bush HAD to do TARP and Obama the Stimulus (to little to late) and the Fed QE1 & 2.
What pisses me off the most though is our government had the chance to break the TBTF banks up into component pieces and did not do it, instead we still are giving them basically interest free money which they now are using against us.
Personally I think we are headed towards hyper-inflation.
At the moment the Swiss and German Government Bond has a negative interest rate. That means over the life of that Bond the owner will get less than the amount put in. So you aren't the only one expecting a huge lurch with either hyper-inflation or a savage deflation.
DeleteGoing to step away from the political and simply say I would prefer tax dollars be spent more wisely than they have been recently or in the recent past. As for the Olympics and taxation, I don't like the idea of them having to pay taxes on their medal or win bonus. That just seems tacky. Now, their endorsements and other monies made, that's different.
ReplyDeleteI heard some talking head on TV yesterday saying how there have seemed to be no negative repercussions for candidates who ran blatantly false and/or misleading political ads. Not sure what that says, except unfortunately they're not likely to stop.
ReplyDeleteCan I come hang out with you until the election is over? I like the water... and I'd like to avoid any more ads...
ReplyDelete