Considering that a 15.3% tax on the first 110,100, and a 7.65 tax on earned income over that amount brings in the same amount as the entire Federal income tax, I bet a 10% flat tax on everything (including capital gains, dividends, and SS income) would easily bring in the same amount.</p>
<p>All the flat tax plans I’ve seen typically exclude a fairly large amount of income, like $40K or whatever, from being taxes. This is why most flat tax rates are 18-20%-ish.</p>
<p>Having no exclusion would hurt the poor and elderly pretty badly though.</p>
<p>I am a friend with a trader for almost 30 years. He is kind of manic. Not clinically manic, but manic. The guy can not relax. When he works out, the gym shakes and it is a big gym. </p>
<p>Anyway, I told him that I am no longer a trader. I barely trade now. The guy calls me at
7:30 in the morning. He calls me at night. Calls me a few times a day. He wants to talk trading. He asks, “What do you think? What do you think? What do you think?”</p>
<p>I don’t know. I don’t. He was going on and on today about some stock. Asking me my opinion. Finally, I just said, “I am not trading. I am doing other things. I don’t know. I am not interested. I don’t want to talk about this”. </p>
<p>My friend was taken aback. Like I never said this before. I have said this to him at least 10 times. I feel bad. He is a nice guy. He doesn’t listen well though. </p>
<p>I guess I wrote this because I have calmed down too. There were times at my peak where I used to be very intense. :)</p>
<p>I am not doing anything special. I am getting healthy. Mind and body. I actually read a book. Going to the gym. Going on multi hour walks. I lost weight. My blood pressure is down 20 points. I am going to a movie tonight, a week night. Spending some time with a few friends. But really, I am a loner. I like the time I have now for myself.</p>
<p>I am not trying to accomplish anything. I am not an alpha dog. It may be hard to read from my posts, but I am not a type A personality. I feel very relaxed. I feel good. </p>
<p>If you have any option questions, you can ask me anything. Hopefully, I will know the
answers. :)</p>
<p>TurboTax has a little message saying that they will update their software on January 3 from the IRS forms so the IRS is in last-minute mode. This year, they might even be in after last-minute mode like they were for the 2011 tax season.</p>
<p>I may try downloading TaxAct to do some modeling. I’m not going to use it for the real return but I’d like to get some ballpark numbers before the end of the year.</p>
<p>I have 66 year old cousin who’s financially well off (in the financial industry for > 40 years) and doesn’t have any plans to retire. He said a lot of people he knows retire, play golf for 6 months and then don’t know what to do with themselves. I’m trying to figure out my retirement. My office got moved at work and I threw out almost everything. I’ve got a laptop, a monitor, a docking station and 1 book. Somebody came by the other day and asked me if I was giving a message with how my office looked.</p>
<p>We will see how things play out. I am going to enjoy the ice cream cone. This means I am going to enjoy the moment. I am not going to worry about the future. If I get bored, I will deal with it when the time comes. </p>
<p>Everybody has their own way. Some people have this need to be very busy, to be constructive. </p>
<p>I don’t like golf either. Playing a lot of golf would bore the heck out of me.</p>
<p>You will find what works for you, doct. Do what works for you.</p>
<p>Well I’m home sick today and watching aapl. That put has really come in handy and I ended up yesterday on aapl. Now I’m hoping it goes to 0 by the 22nd. However, I don’t thinks so. If it gets back to 505, I’ll probably sell the put and hold onto the 1/19 call spread.</p>
<p>I ran my numbers through TaxAct and I noticed quite a difference from TurboTax so I went through the 1040 and the difference was the AMT. TurboTax assumes no AMT for now and TaxAct assumes the AMT. So between the two, I have a pretty good idea as to where I stand for 2012 taxes.</p>
<p>I just did some estimates if we didn’t do the AMT patch - about $100 billion/year ($3,700 average AMT taxes X 28 million households. That’s a pretty big chunk of change for the country.</p>
<p>I had to check the topic title to remind myself what the topic was… taxes? Hong Kong has a flat tax. They give you a choice:
The salaries tax rate is the lower of either:</p>
<pre><code>15% of “assessable income” after the deduction of allowances; or
A progressive rate levied on “assessable income” after the deduction of allowances. For the 2009/10 tax year onwards, these progressive rates are:
Nil to HKD40,000 - 2%
HKD40,000 to HKD80,000 – 7%
HKD80,000 to HKD120,000 – 12%
HKD120,000 upwards – 17%
</code></pre>
<p>120k HK dollars is only $15,600 so they give a break to only the lowest of the low incomes. </p>
<p>No capital gains tax and estate tax was abolished in 2005. At least it is a real live working example of a flat tax. </p>
<p>I am also trading less and enjoying it more. Involuntarily retired since 2007 but only recently getting comfortable with the concept of being “retired” I am trying to play golf but only seem to get out there once a month. I have been doing some fun stuff (having a very flexible schedule creates opportunities) and a lot of volunteer work. I have been a Guardian ad Litem for almost 2 years now. It can be a lot of work, but also can be very rewarding. If you have extra time and are concerned about child welfare you might consider volunteering. (also called “CASA” = Court Appointed Special Advocate, in many states)</p>
<p>^ In TaxACT you can toggle the patch on and off directly in the Form 6251 Exemption worksheet. You can get to that from the list of worksheets on the left, or click on the field for line 29 in form 6251 and then click the folder to open the supporting worksheet.</p>
<p>I just wanted to see what it would be like with it. I already had an estimate from TurboTax without it. TaxAct also puts the amount right in the 1040 form so you can just subtract it from your result.</p>
<p>So at this point, I think that I have as good a view into my 2012 taxes as I’m likely to get until we have certainty on the AMT and I’m pretty happy to know best case and worse case. I am not going to bother with tax planning for next year as nobody knows what next year is going to look like. There are still a few moves that I could do in December on taxes but the effect would be relatively minor. At least I can more or less relax for three weeks in this area.</p>
I feel very relaxed. I feel good. </p>