Thank you, Republicans!

Posted by: Cybjorg

Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 15:12

I am in the process of selling my residence in order to relocate to a different state. Fortunately I was able to sell my house for 24% more than what I paid for it nearly 2 years ago.

What made me sick was the prospect of paying Capital Gains taxes next year. The problem seemed to increase when the buyer requested a $3,000 increase to the purchasing price if I agreed to pay $3,000 in closing costs (basically allowing them to finance the closing costs). While I wasn't opposed to the idea, I wanted to verify that I wouldn't have to pay taxes on the increase.

I called a CPA friend of mine to question the issue. She informed me that, thanks to the political party currently in office, Capital Gains tax is no more. I hear alot of gripes about the Republicans on these boards, but I will be singing their praises next year come tax time. I'd venture to say that you will too when it comes time to sell your residence.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 15:18

Isn't capital gains less than regular income tax? (May be showing my financial ignorance here.) Or are you aying you won't have to pay any tax on that at all (which seems unlikely)?
Posted by: genixia

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 15:36

Yeah, well while your busy filling out your pary election papers, consider this;

Under the old rules, a primary residence lived in for 2 years was exempt for $250,000 (or $500,000 if married filing jointly).

Your accountant has just conned you.
Posted by: siberia37

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 15:44

You wouldn't have had to pay the taxes anyway if you lived in your residence for 2+ years. And Capital gains tax has not gone away entirely- it's just less than it was. Here's a recent link on avoiding captial gains, you still have to worry about it so you better read up on it.
Posted by: djc

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 15:46

While your situation might not require paying capital gains tax on the sale of your home, it's not quite as simple as that. The exemption is limited to a capital gain of $250,000 (or $500,000 if you're heterosexual and married) on the sale of your primary residence, and you must have owned it for a minimum of two years, and occupied it for two of the last five years. You can also claim this deduction at most once every two years.

This was part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, so it's not exactly news. It also has nothing to do with the Bush administration, although it was a GOP-sponsored bill. You forgot to thank Clinton for signing it, though.

--Dan.
Posted by: Daria

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 05/04/2004 18:10

I guess your accountant is a Republican too, which would explain how she so easily can play fast and loose with the facts
Posted by: mwest

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 07:41

That's right folks... Bush can be blamed for everything bad about any Republican but he can't take credit for anything good about any Republican. Come on...
Posted by: djc

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 08:20

Umm, you want to give Bush credit for a bill passed in 1997? OK...

--Dan.
Posted by: tonyc

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 08:25

That's right folks... Bush can be blamed for everything bad about any Republican but he can't take credit for anything good about any Republican. Come on...
All djc was saying is that Bush wasn't involved in a law that was passed in 1997, because he wasn't involved in our nation's government at the time. On the flip side, 99% of the complaints about Bush (in other threads, not in this one) have been related to things that Bush is directly responsible for, because he's the President now.

So, yes, Bush *can* be blamed for any bad thing that our government has done in the last 3+ years, because *he's the guy*. He gets all the credit and all the blame. If he didn't want that responsibility, he shouldn't have run for office.
Posted by: Cybjorg

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 08:56

This was part of the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, so it's not exactly news. It also has nothing to do with the Bush administration, although it was a GOP-sponsored bill. You forgot to thank Clinton for signing it, though.

Sounds like he'd be stupid not too. But that doesn't mean he wasn't stupid...
Posted by: Neutrino

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 09:06

When you get to the trench go through it, not over it.
Posted by: mwest

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 13:20

I wasn't really speaking directly to any post. My apologies for lack of clarity. The board is pretty heavily slanted against Republicans and Bush. I just find it a bit narrow to say that Republicans can take heat over tax relief (or at least their definition of it) but not the credit, which seemed to be the direction the entire thread was taking.
Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 19:43

Republicans can take heat over tax relief (or at least their definition of it) but not the credit

To my eyes, taking credit for tax relief is not something to be proud of.

We are facing the largest deficits in the history of this country, have amassed a debt that will be literally impossible for our descendants to repay, and what does our financial wizard want to do? Reduce the amount of money coming in so we can go even further into debt.

Mark my words -- we are looking at the seeds of destruction for America as we know it today.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: Jerz

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 06/04/2004 20:28

To my eyes, taking credit for tax relief is not something to be proud of.

We are facing the largest deficits in the history of this country, have amassed a debt that will be literally impossible for our descendants to repay, and what does our financial wizard want to do? Reduce the amount of money coming in so we can go even further into debt.

Although I tend to lean pretty far right, I would have to agree with the tax relief and spend theory of Bush. While it doesn't make sense on paper... it really doesn't make sense in theory either. I would hate to see how much interest was spent on the $600 tax relief check I received a couple of years ago... I would prefer the government keep the money now because it will definately cost boat loads more later...

I think (this is just me thinking of course) that we are fixin' to see huge inflation in the near term. One reason being the shrinking dollar and the other being the doubling of construction products (steel and copper in particular) in the past couple of months.

....but what do I know.
Posted by: canuckInOR

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 07/04/2004 02:27

Although I tend to lean pretty far right, I would have to agree with the tax relief and spend theory of Bush.
Did you mean to say that you agree with the theory, or agree with tanstaafl about said theory?
Posted by: Jerz

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 07/04/2004 03:23

Did you mean to say that you agree with the theory, or agree with tanstaafl about said theory?


Ooooh... my bad (I should reread my posts a bit better first). I agree with tanstaafl and NOT with Bush about Tax Relief and Spend it makes no sense.
Posted by: Cybjorg

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 07/04/2004 07:52

In my estimation, half the money spent by our government, Republican or Democrat, doesn't make sense.

After all, most of us have heard the joke about the man who owed the government $600 at tax time so he sent them a hammer and called it even.
Posted by: djc

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 07/04/2004 08:15

In my estimation, half the money spent by our government, Republican or Democrat, doesn't make sense.
Amen! Now if we could only agree on which half...

--Dan.
Posted by: DLF

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 09/04/2004 15:52

But that doesn't mean he wasn't stupid...
Clinton was and is a lot of things (many of them immoral and some of them even illegal), but unintelligent is not one of them.
Posted by: number6

Re: Thank you, Republicans & Democrats! - 10/04/2004 17:39

In reply to:


To my eyes, taking credit for tax relief is not something to be proud of.

We are facing the largest deficits in the history of this country, have amassed a debt that will be literally impossible for our descendants to repay, and what does our financial wizard want to do? Reduce the amount of money coming in so we can go even further into debt.

Mark my words -- we are looking at the seeds of destruction for America as we know it today.



Hmm, Can't disagree with you here.

Except to say that, "You say that like its a Bad Thing".

I think the whole planet might breathe a huge sigh of relief if "America as we know it today" went away.


Posted by: tanstaafl.

Re: Thank you, Republicans & Democrats! - 13/04/2004 11:28

Except to say that, "You say that like its a Bad Thing".

Well, yeah, I have to say it will be a Bad Thing. But perhaps not for the reasons you think I'm saying it.

When America's financial infrastructure goes down the tubes, it is going to take the whole world with it. Imagine the hardships of the 1929 American depression, and extend them worldwide, to a world far more dependant on a global economy than it was 75 years ago, to a world far more vulnerable to failure of whole systems -- transportation, food production, communications, law enforcement, production of any and all trade goods -- more vulnerable because of that interdependance.

Do you remember the historical method of ending depressions? When the war that ends this one is over, there may not be anybody left to remember how or why it started.

tanstaafl.
Posted by: genixia

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 13/04/2004 12:04

In my estimation, half the money spent by our government, Republican or Democrat, doesn't make sense.
Yep. It doesn't make any sense to have a Federal debt so large that nearly half of all annual income tax receipts go to pay just the annual interest.
Posted by: JeffS

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 13/04/2004 12:09

It doesn't make any sense to have a Federal debt so large that nearly half of all annual income tax receipts go to pay just the annual interest.
Well said.
Posted by: gepme

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 13/04/2004 14:24

In my opinion, the tax cuts aren't the problem. It's the spending, on both sides nowadays. I don't blame Bush for the deficit. I blame Congress. I'd like to keep more of my money, but Congress has been digging a deeper and deeper hole for the last 50 years. Cut taxes, cut the pork.
Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 13/04/2004 14:27

The administrations define the budget. Congress approves it. While you can argue that it's Congress ultimately to blame, it's the administrations that suggest these unwieldy budgets to begin with.

I mean, Congress could argue with the President for ages, but that can easily create a situation where the country's being run willy-nilly without a budget, and that's bad news. It's happened a few times.
Posted by: gepme

Re: Thank you, Republicans! - 13/04/2004 14:35

I don't think the president proposes $225,000 for a Kentucky Civil War theme park or $200,000 for Cleveland's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Although, the spending won't stop until there's a president that isn't afraid to use his veto. The Libertarian party is looking more and more appealing...
Posted by: bonzi

Re: Thank you, Republicans & Democrats! - 13/04/2004 17:07

Yeah, that's one of gloomiest aspects of globalization. Even China is not an island likely to be largely unaffected by worldwide meltdown it used to be only a decade ago...

But current administration does not heed any warning if it clashes with extremely short term interests of their corporate puppeteers, be it about dangers of enourmous budget deficit, imminent terrorist attack or abrupt climate change (about Pentagon's warnings on the later see news, eg. in Fortune or more complete in Guardian, or the full report.)