Oh man... all the crazed soccer mom's and dad's would love to get remote controls for their children while they're playing soccer. At least if these jerks had remote controls, maybe it would shut them up.
Most people couldn't produce a "proof-of-purchase" after a few days. I know I couldn't prove my copy of Win2000 is legitimate, even though I legitimately purchased my copy with my PeeCee from my local computer store.
In any event, if there are any hiccups on the validation process and Joe and Jane Doe Computer User get any bit of hassle from Microsoft when they do a Windows Update, I expect there will be a backlash.
Hopefully, Red Hat and other Linux vendors are positioned properly to catch the fallout. "Windows Validation problems? Switch to Red Hat Linux and never pay for your Windowing Operating System again! Free Games with every download!"
I did all that same stuff as well. I still have my A1000 in my garage.
My favorite nerd show-off was to do all of the following with my stock A1000, all at the same time:
1) Compile Code
2) while downloading files from a BBS (1200 baud, baby!)
3) while formatting two flopping disks
4) while playing lunar lander
All those tasks would execute flawlessly at the same time with Amiga O/S's premptive multitasking and it's sort of impressive even today, but blew people away in 1986. (Ok, it blew nerds away)
The simple slacker's solution: StealthSwitch. It's a foot switch that automatically hides the window you're viewing in Windows.
Read the owner's about page to see what he's about. It's a pretty cool idea that jives with the theme of this topic. Of course, this assumes you're at the office and not boating at the lake, but it's a tool for "stressed computer users" *snicker*
No, I'm not affliated in any way, just a happy customer.
Yeah, where I went to school the cafeteria staff was composed of good-natured PhD's who just enjoyed providing high quality food products for the youth of their community.
Well, here's a complete story about all this called "Monster Island" that explains it all for you. Fun "brain candy" for reading (heh, heh) and it tells how to make a smart zombie by preserving the brain through the death process.
Oh boy, now that Firefly will air on the SciFi channel, we'll get to watch the one hour episodes drawn out to 90 minutes what with all the damned commercials SciFi puts into their shows. I have a Tivo and I still don't watch the SciFi channel because my fingers get sore from all the fast forwarding I have to do to skip all the commercial breaks.
No thanks, I own the DVDs of Firefly and I'll just stick with those. Evil Fox Network is holding the broadcast rights for 10 years so no new episodes will be made for TV so this is non-news. Thanks for the gesture SciFi channel, but no thanks.
My own personal experience has been at numerous companies where I have been a consultant and am assigned a phone extension with voice mail. Has anyone else experienced ultra-secure voice mail? I'm talking about no less than 8 digit passwords, no repeating digits or sequential digits (ascending or descending)... all to protect my stupid voice mail. The LAN password security is less stringent than the voicemail security.
So, a good example of when I write my password down - in plain sight - actually on the phone itself with the label: "voicemail password: 34212983". One answer to your question is sometimes the security is designed incorrectly by a B(PBX)OFH. Others?
I believe I understand where you're coming from: You feel that since your tax dollars are paying for it, then the use of that taxpayer-funded service should be monitored.
First of all, I don't get to track the use of all my tax dollars. So-called "black ops" or whatever immediately jump to mind where I, as an individual taxpayer, do not have any right to know what my tax dollars are doing (and I probably wouldn't approve of it, either). In our government with it's huge tax rolls, you simply will not be able to track every dollar spent.
But that's not really the point here. I personally like the idea of putting up a block that the State must go through in order to get private information. What I'm surfing for on the net is not public information.
The real point is, just as with free speech, in order to protect access to ALL information, we must put up with some bit of unsavoriness in the information that is accessed. It is absolutely NOT the State's job to tell it's citizens what public information it can access. Giving the State access to the list of which citizens are accessing which information, be it books, websites, CD's, whatever... is a de-facto limitation as to what information is accessed.
The classic example is the whistleblower. One can dream up all sorts of examples of this. In order to protect yourself you go to the public library to look up information to verify your claims, or perhaps even to look-up what your rights as a whistleblower are. If you know that the government has easy-access to all information accesses, you may be better-served by just keeping your big mouth shut and not risking loosing your job... or worse.
So, yeah, we may have to put up with the occassional "worm, or interact with a bot network, or send fraudulant mail", etc.. but that's the TRUE price we pay for freedom.
Your freedom and personal safety are much, MUCH more threatened by an out of control government then it is by some looser running his phishing scam from the public library.
That's funny, I was thinking just how time travels way too fast. So much to do, so little time to do it. Eh, you'll understand when you get a little older.
I believe it's approximately 300 libraries of congress, or... the same amount of downloaded electron bits that would fill the left front tire of an original VW bug.
This is a good point - Since schools suffer from budget crunches all the time, it follows that they will continuously be re-addressing this "should we upgrade our Microsoft Software this year, or should we put fire extinguishers in the teacher's lounge" question every year.
One of your points should be, once we make the switch to OO, we'll never have to pay another upgrade fee again. Spend the money this year that we would have sent to MS to fund the re-training of staff and installation of OO - then we don't have to spend that money ever again on software upgrades.
Your points are well taken, although I will note that countering video taped "proof" has paid off for most of the NYC Republican Nat'l Convention protestors. Yes, I read your comment about this not being "the point" of the mall exercise in the story.
I believe that Steve Mann was making the point of the unfairness and potential for abuse of ubiquitous recording devices throughout all of our lives. The necessity of proving one's identity at even the most mundane transaction while the person asking for proof does not have to do the same. Lack of trust - by everyone - brings all of us down and damages society in general.
So, the point isn't that he was trying to engage mall employees in philosophical discussions, he was trying to get all of us to wonder just why we put up with this surveillance without thinking about what we're losing from it. Don't forget that sure a Mall is private property, but it's still designed for public access. If the property owner can record me in their public access location, why can't I record them? This isn't someone's truly private property, like their home, but a publicly accessible property that is privately owned. What gives them the right to surveil me while removing my right to video them?
Credit providers are responsible for extending credit to people and should face the risk that the people they extend credit to may default. Bankruptcy isn't fun, one cannot do it regularly.
Furthermore, 50% of all bankruptcies are from people, most of whom HAVE insurance, that are in debt due to medical bills. Most people aren't running up debts willy-nilly to screw the system. This is the sort of thing that bankruptcies are for. Yeah, the credit card companies and others suffer the brunt of this when it happens. That's part of the risks they take for extending credit and charging interest and fees and what-not.
The problem stems from predatory lending practices. How about the credit card companies stop lending money to people who aren't able to manage their debts (like college kids) until they can prove their credit-worthiness?
Finally, the new bill does nothing to restrict corporations from declaring bankruptcy and all the more consumer-friendly amendments were killed by the republicans. How about making it a little more fair for the average Joe? How about making it sting a bit for the corporations as well?
This is a corporate protection bill and you've been suckered... again.
Actually, this will lead to the death of these ads anyway since now the site itself is controlling the counters for page-views of the ad. The ad farm won't be able to verify any of the page views except as a general hit count for the web server. Script-generated log files will make the host site wealthy since there's nothing the advertiser can do to verify viewers.
So, go ahead and let the host site host the ads. Heh, heh.
I agree - as I get older my understanding about how the rest of the world isn't so stupid after all is growing. Yes, the bulk of the planet cannot compile a new kernel. That doesn't make them stupid.
However, why don't the Linux vendors go ahead and have a user-stupidity ranking system and actively reject the morons. When someone like one of us super-smart Slashdot readers calls Red Hat with a super-smart question like "when recompiling the kernel, I tried to optimize using the gcc 64 bit libraries, but as a result I'm only getting 7% greater performance rather than the 8.2% I was expecting. What gives?" - the caller would then be granted access to the "normal" tech support helpline.
However, when a caller has a stupid question, demonstrating their obvious mouth-breathing status such as "I installed your lin-nucks and now my drink holder don work no mo" the response should be "WHY YOU'RE A STUPID IDJIT! WHY DON'T YOU CALL MICROSOFT! DUUUUH!"
The end result will be that Microsoft gets all the stupid customers and Linux vendors get all the smart ones. This would be a more pro-active method of destroying Microsoft while also purifying the Linux user base. Microsoft eventually goes bankrupt by all the support calls they have to field, the rest of us can finally breath easier and just reject all SMTP requests from any windows boxes, effectively quarantining viruses and spam to windows users only, and marginalizing the windows world.
I will definately look into this with my CPA. I have no misconceptions that I could be mistaken on this, so I want to determine if this is true or not, uh... from someone who I can sue if I do this and get dinged by the IRS.
If this is legal, it's a pretty huge deal. Most contracting agencies will pay you as a 1099 corp-to-corp at $5 less than their billing rate. As a W-2 employee they typically pay you 50%-70% of their billing rate to cover the employer portion of FICA, insurance and what-not. So, when one does the math it is typically a wash as to whether to bill the agency as a 1099 or get paid as a W2 because there aren't any tax benefits. If you're not having to pay self-employment taxes on 70% of your salary, it's a huge loophole.
The big issue is if you have a corporation and you can claim business losses or expenses, then you come out ahead by having your agency pay you as a 1099. But most people don't have those expenses or other sideline losses (wife's business, for example) so just go ahead and get paid via W2 because there's no paperwork and you don't have to create invoices or pay quarterly taxes.
Your explanation sounds extremely fishy to me though. If you are an S-corp and are the sole employee and stockholder, your $30 / hour payroll to yourself and the $70 / hour income from the corp that is also on your income tax sure seems like self-employment income to me. You must have a "made" accountant (like John Edwards surely does, ha, ha) that can slip things like this through.
I am definately going to check this out more thoroughly and will push my timeline up for my own incorporation if true. I have a need for a corporation for my next career, but if I can take advantage of this tax shelter now, I'll just do it immediately.
Ha, this is good info, but you're totally off base, man!
With only a few exceptions, under the Subchapter S election for taxation as a partnership the S corporation pays no income taxes and corporation income or loss is passed through direct to the stockholders.
So, in your original example, that $100,000 of income is passed directly to your personal income tax statement. You don't get to pay yourself a measly $30,000. You'll get taxed on the full $100,000 as income and you'll pay at the 35% income bracket.
Earnings representing "return on investment" (interest, rental payments, etc.) are not subject to self-employment tax as long as stockholder-employees receive adequate compensation for labor and management of the business.
Your corporation's earnings from your programming contract is decidely NOT ROI, so your entire $100,000 of income WILL be subject to self employment taxation. Yes, it's no longer called "FICA" but, it's the same $$ amount (and that's not a coincidence).
If you're talking about forming a corporation for the purposes of renting out property, well then, that's an entirely different beast, but your example was about forming an S-Corp as a programmer with a 1099 contract. In your example, a C-Corp would be much better, where you were only paying yourself $30,000 per year on your $100,000 per year corporate income. What you're doing with the leftover $70,000 per year is extremely relevant to the question but you didn't specify that in your example. You are STILL paying taxes on $100,000 with an S-Corp, and since your income is not related to ROI, you're subject to self employment tax.
You can believe SS will go broke if not attended to, but the facts are, it will be a little bit short in 2040 and only able to pay out 80% of the benefits that current retirees enjoy. That is a minor problem and can easily be fixed. Once the baby boomers die off, everything levels off again. it's NOT a ponzi scheme by any means. Also, I agree with your statement about able-bodied people who can work should not be able to get Social Security Disability, but that's the way it is now. People retire and get a benefit because they paid into it with FICA taxes (work more, get more). Nobody is saying that there's a right to the good life, you've got your facts royally screwed up.
Dude, you don't get social security benefits unless you work and pay into the system, so your statement about "I don't like my money being forceably taken to support some bad luck or ignorance" is totally off-base. You may be complaining about SSDI but there are already rules, regulations and penalties for able-bodied people who cheat the system and try to get those benefits. SSDI is *not* what the Rethuglicans are trying to modify, by the way (and add 2 TRILLION dollars in debt to the system... Doh!), they're modifying the social security retirement benefit.
Sorry, I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative. Actually I have done the research on S-corps and C-corps and am currently putting together my own paperwork for my own incorporation, and I plan on filing as an S-corp.
The problem is, you cannot avoid the "SS monster." At some point you have to take the money out of your corporation if you want to enjoy it and there's really only two ways to do that:
1) Dividends - taxed at Self Employment rate (which is the FICA tax, doubled)
2) Employee Compensation - where FICA taxes are withheld by the corporation
Sure, you can have the corporation buy your house and lease your car and all sorts of other things like that, but that bring up a host of other tax issues. It can be done, but it's a pain in the arse and you do risk "piercing the vail" of liability. If you have millions of dollars in revenues, OK, but that's a totally different situation.
I believe you are confusing S-Corps with C-Corps. Don't forget that as an S-Corp, all the income from the corporation is poured directly into your 1040 - which will push you up into a higher tax bracket. Everyone's situation is different, so everyone must figure if the higher tax bracket is better for them, mainly related to being able to write off business losses (which you probably don't have in your computer consultant example). When you are referring to an "S" corpororation, you really mean "C" corp, which is taxed at it's own tax rate.
All corporations have certain benefits such as providing liablility protection and some tax benefits, just not for the reason you're referring to.
You'll get taxed in other ways one way or another and you just can't avoid it. You can delay it, but you can't avoid being taxed. You can probably avoid paying some of your FICA, but that money will be taxed another way in the end, so you're not really gaining anything.
There are a great many other benefits of having one's own corporation, but by all means, consult with a tax advisor and a CPA! This stuff is slightly complicated, especially if you're starting out confused over S-corps and C-corps!
Unfortunately, there are millions of destitute people in our history that makes our society realize that not everyone is able to take care of themselves in their old age, and for the betterment of society as a whole, we have this social security thing. It appears that in your own situation, you don't feel like it benefits you and you're probably right, but that's part of the responsibility you bare as being a member of this society. The nice thing is, once you reach retirement age, you'll have a nice benefit check coming to you (assuming the Republicans don't kill SS as they would like to). I don't like paying taxes to finance the killing of Iraqi children, or being lied to by my government, but I still have to pay the taxes. At least with SS, I'll get something back in the end.
Oh, and for the record, there is no SS crisis and SS was absolutely, definately, intended as a retirement benefit, and it isn't any different than it was in it's original form. I wonder where you got the idea that it was changed in any significant fashion? Do a little research on that site, before you respond (but please do respond).
Slashdot Mirror
Ummm, Taxes also build roads, schools, libraries...
FWIW, I've never seen a corporation build a highway for everyone's use.
Doesn't it seem odd to anyone else that this information is coming from Forbes?
I am not your remote-controlled consumer! I am a MAN! *zzzap* must. buy. new car.
Oh man... all the crazed soccer mom's and dad's would love to get remote controls for their children while they're playing soccer. At least if these jerks had remote controls, maybe it would shut them up.
Sure! Here's the spammer's web page (provided as a public service)
Spammer and Loser for hire
White Buffalo's lawyer and CEO are one in the same.
Most people couldn't produce a "proof-of-purchase" after a few days. I know I couldn't prove my copy of Win2000 is legitimate, even though I legitimately purchased my copy with my PeeCee from my local computer store.
In any event, if there are any hiccups on the validation process and Joe and Jane Doe Computer User get any bit of hassle from Microsoft when they do a Windows Update, I expect there will be a backlash.
Hopefully, Red Hat and other Linux vendors are positioned properly to catch the fallout. "Windows Validation problems? Switch to Red Hat Linux and never pay for your Windowing Operating System again! Free Games with every download!"
I did all that same stuff as well. I still have my A1000 in my garage.
My favorite nerd show-off was to do all of the following with my stock A1000, all at the same time:
1) Compile Code
2) while downloading files from a BBS (1200 baud, baby!)
3) while formatting two flopping disks
4) while playing lunar lander
All those tasks would execute flawlessly at the same time with Amiga O/S's premptive multitasking and it's sort of impressive even today, but blew people away in 1986. (Ok, it blew nerds away)
The simple slacker's solution: StealthSwitch. It's a foot switch that automatically hides the window you're viewing in Windows.
Read the owner's about page to see what he's about. It's a pretty cool idea that jives with the theme of this topic. Of course, this assumes you're at the office and not boating at the lake, but it's a tool for "stressed computer users" *snicker*
No, I'm not affliated in any way, just a happy customer.
Yeah, where I went to school the cafeteria staff was composed of good-natured PhD's who just enjoyed providing high quality food products for the youth of their community.
Well, here's a complete story about all this called "Monster Island" that explains it all for you. Fun "brain candy" for reading (heh, heh) and it tells how to make a smart zombie by preserving the brain through the death process.
Oh boy, now that Firefly will air on the SciFi channel, we'll get to watch the one hour episodes drawn out to 90 minutes what with all the damned commercials SciFi puts into their shows. I have a Tivo and I still don't watch the SciFi channel because my fingers get sore from all the fast forwarding I have to do to skip all the commercial breaks. No thanks, I own the DVDs of Firefly and I'll just stick with those. Evil Fox Network is holding the broadcast rights for 10 years so no new episodes will be made for TV so this is non-news. Thanks for the gesture SciFi channel, but no thanks.
I agree with the parent's line of questioning...
My own personal experience has been at numerous companies where I have been a consultant and am assigned a phone extension with voice mail. Has anyone else experienced ultra-secure voice mail? I'm talking about no less than 8 digit passwords, no repeating digits or sequential digits (ascending or descending)... all to protect my stupid voice mail. The LAN password security is less stringent than the voicemail security.
So, a good example of when I write my password down - in plain sight - actually on the phone itself with the label: "voicemail password: 34212983". One answer to your question is sometimes the security is designed incorrectly by a B(PBX)OFH. Others?
I believe I understand where you're coming from: You feel that since your tax dollars are paying for it, then the use of that taxpayer-funded service should be monitored.
First of all, I don't get to track the use of all my tax dollars. So-called "black ops" or whatever immediately jump to mind where I, as an individual taxpayer, do not have any right to know what my tax dollars are doing (and I probably wouldn't approve of it, either). In our government with it's huge tax rolls, you simply will not be able to track every dollar spent.
But that's not really the point here. I personally like the idea of putting up a block that the State must go through in order to get private information. What I'm surfing for on the net is not public information.
The real point is, just as with free speech, in order to protect access to ALL information, we must put up with some bit of unsavoriness in the information that is accessed. It is absolutely NOT the State's job to tell it's citizens what public information it can access. Giving the State access to the list of which citizens are accessing which information, be it books, websites, CD's, whatever... is a de-facto limitation as to what information is accessed.
The classic example is the whistleblower. One can dream up all sorts of examples of this. In order to protect yourself you go to the public library to look up information to verify your claims, or perhaps even to look-up what your rights as a whistleblower are. If you know that the government has easy-access to all information accesses, you may be better-served by just keeping your big mouth shut and not risking loosing your job... or worse.
So, yeah, we may have to put up with the occassional "worm, or interact with a bot network, or send fraudulant mail", etc.. but that's the TRUE price we pay for freedom.
Your freedom and personal safety are much, MUCH more threatened by an out of control government then it is by some looser running his phishing scam from the public library.
Hey, don't worry, Mr. Big Word, we'll get to Tom. The AG in Travis County, Texas is just working his way up the food chain.
Hey, here's some background information for you. Oh, sorry, it's from CBS News! You'd better kill the messenger, quick!
Oh, and the choice quote is in the very last paragraph:
"The problem here is we believe that the law was broken in the process. That's the point. The law was broken." - Ronnie Earle
Oh, my... indeed she is a marvelous specimen of beauty
That's funny, I was thinking just how time travels way too fast. So much to do, so little time to do it. Eh, you'll understand when you get a little older.
I believe it's approximately 300 libraries of congress, or... the same amount of downloaded electron bits that would fill the left front tire of an original VW bug.
This is a good point - Since schools suffer from budget crunches all the time, it follows that they will continuously be re-addressing this "should we upgrade our Microsoft Software this year, or should we put fire extinguishers in the teacher's lounge" question every year.
One of your points should be, once we make the switch to OO, we'll never have to pay another upgrade fee again. Spend the money this year that we would have sent to MS to fund the re-training of staff and installation of OO - then we don't have to spend that money ever again on software upgrades.
Your points are well taken, although I will note that countering video taped "proof" has paid off for most of the NYC Republican Nat'l Convention protestors. Yes, I read your comment about this not being "the point" of the mall exercise in the story.
I believe that Steve Mann was making the point of the unfairness and potential for abuse of ubiquitous recording devices throughout all of our lives. The necessity of proving one's identity at even the most mundane transaction while the person asking for proof does not have to do the same. Lack of trust - by everyone - brings all of us down and damages society in general.
So, the point isn't that he was trying to engage mall employees in philosophical discussions, he was trying to get all of us to wonder just why we put up with this surveillance without thinking about what we're losing from it. Don't forget that sure a Mall is private property, but it's still designed for public access. If the property owner can record me in their public access location, why can't I record them? This isn't someone's truly private property, like their home, but a publicly accessible property that is privately owned. What gives them the right to surveil me while removing my right to video them?
Citizen Video Undoes RNC Protest Prosecutions
Wrong
Credit providers are responsible for extending credit to people and should face the risk that the people they extend credit to may default. Bankruptcy isn't fun, one cannot do it regularly.
Furthermore, 50% of all bankruptcies are from people, most of whom HAVE insurance, that are in debt due to medical bills. Most people aren't running up debts willy-nilly to screw the system. This is the sort of thing that bankruptcies are for. Yeah, the credit card companies and others suffer the brunt of this when it happens. That's part of the risks they take for extending credit and charging interest and fees and what-not.
The problem stems from predatory lending practices. How about the credit card companies stop lending money to people who aren't able to manage their debts (like college kids) until they can prove their credit-worthiness?
Finally, the new bill does nothing to restrict corporations from declaring bankruptcy and all the more consumer-friendly amendments were killed by the republicans. How about making it a little more fair for the average Joe? How about making it sting a bit for the corporations as well?
This is a corporate protection bill and you've been suckered... again.
Actually, this will lead to the death of these ads anyway since now the site itself is controlling the counters for page-views of the ad. The ad farm won't be able to verify any of the page views except as a general hit count for the web server. Script-generated log files will make the host site wealthy since there's nothing the advertiser can do to verify viewers.
So, go ahead and let the host site host the ads. Heh, heh.
I agree - as I get older my understanding about how the rest of the world isn't so stupid after all is growing. Yes, the bulk of the planet cannot compile a new kernel. That doesn't make them stupid.
However, why don't the Linux vendors go ahead and have a user-stupidity ranking system and actively reject the morons. When someone like one of us super-smart Slashdot readers calls Red Hat with a super-smart question like "when recompiling the kernel, I tried to optimize using the gcc 64 bit libraries, but as a result I'm only getting 7% greater performance rather than the 8.2% I was expecting. What gives?" - the caller would then be granted access to the "normal" tech support helpline.
However, when a caller has a stupid question, demonstrating their obvious mouth-breathing status such as "I installed your lin-nucks and now my drink holder don work no mo" the response should be "WHY YOU'RE A STUPID IDJIT! WHY DON'T YOU CALL MICROSOFT! DUUUUH!"
The end result will be that Microsoft gets all the stupid customers and Linux vendors get all the smart ones. This would be a more pro-active method of destroying Microsoft while also purifying the Linux user base. Microsoft eventually goes bankrupt by all the support calls they have to field, the rest of us can finally breath easier and just reject all SMTP requests from any windows boxes, effectively quarantining viruses and spam to windows users only, and marginalizing the windows world.
I will definately look into this with my CPA. I have no misconceptions that I could be mistaken on this, so I want to determine if this is true or not, uh... from someone who I can sue if I do this and get dinged by the IRS.
If this is legal, it's a pretty huge deal. Most contracting agencies will pay you as a 1099 corp-to-corp at $5 less than their billing rate. As a W-2 employee they typically pay you 50%-70% of their billing rate to cover the employer portion of FICA, insurance and what-not. So, when one does the math it is typically a wash as to whether to bill the agency as a 1099 or get paid as a W2 because there aren't any tax benefits. If you're not having to pay self-employment taxes on 70% of your salary, it's a huge loophole.
The big issue is if you have a corporation and you can claim business losses or expenses, then you come out ahead by having your agency pay you as a 1099. But most people don't have those expenses or other sideline losses (wife's business, for example) so just go ahead and get paid via W2 because there's no paperwork and you don't have to create invoices or pay quarterly taxes.
Your explanation sounds extremely fishy to me though. If you are an S-corp and are the sole employee and stockholder, your $30 / hour payroll to yourself and the $70 / hour income from the corp that is also on your income tax sure seems like self-employment income to me. You must have a "made" accountant (like John Edwards surely does, ha, ha) that can slip things like this through.
I am definately going to check this out more thoroughly and will push my timeline up for my own incorporation if true. I have a need for a corporation for my next career, but if I can take advantage of this tax shelter now, I'll just do it immediately.
Ha, this is good info, but you're totally off base, man!
With only a few exceptions, under the Subchapter S election for taxation as a partnership the S corporation pays no income taxes and corporation income or loss is passed through direct to the stockholders.
So, in your original example, that $100,000 of income is passed directly to your personal income tax statement. You don't get to pay yourself a measly $30,000. You'll get taxed on the full $100,000 as income and you'll pay at the 35% income bracket.
Earnings representing "return on investment" (interest, rental payments, etc.) are not subject to self-employment tax as long as stockholder-employees receive adequate compensation for labor and management of the business.
Your corporation's earnings from your programming contract is decidely NOT ROI, so your entire $100,000 of income WILL be subject to self employment taxation. Yes, it's no longer called "FICA" but, it's the same $$ amount (and that's not a coincidence).
If you're talking about forming a corporation for the purposes of renting out property, well then, that's an entirely different beast, but your example was about forming an S-Corp as a programmer with a 1099 contract. In your example, a C-Corp would be much better, where you were only paying yourself $30,000 per year on your $100,000 per year corporate income. What you're doing with the leftover $70,000 per year is extremely relevant to the question but you didn't specify that in your example. You are STILL paying taxes on $100,000 with an S-Corp, and since your income is not related to ROI, you're subject to self employment tax.
You can believe SS will go broke if not attended to, but the facts are, it will be a little bit short in 2040 and only able to pay out 80% of the benefits that current retirees enjoy. That is a minor problem and can easily be fixed. Once the baby boomers die off, everything levels off again. it's NOT a ponzi scheme by any means. Also, I agree with your statement about able-bodied people who can work should not be able to get Social Security Disability, but that's the way it is now. People retire and get a benefit because they paid into it with FICA taxes (work more, get more). Nobody is saying that there's a right to the good life, you've got your facts royally screwed up.
Dude, you don't get social security benefits unless you work and pay into the system, so your statement about "I don't like my money being forceably taken to support some bad luck or ignorance" is totally off-base. You may be complaining about SSDI but there are already rules, regulations and penalties for able-bodied people who cheat the system and try to get those benefits. SSDI is *not* what the Rethuglicans are trying to modify, by the way (and add 2 TRILLION dollars in debt to the system... Doh!), they're modifying the social security retirement benefit.
Sorry, I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative. Actually I have done the research on S-corps and C-corps and am currently putting together my own paperwork for my own incorporation, and I plan on filing as an S-corp.
The problem is, you cannot avoid the "SS monster." At some point you have to take the money out of your corporation if you want to enjoy it and there's really only two ways to do that:
1) Dividends - taxed at Self Employment rate (which is the FICA tax, doubled)
2) Employee Compensation - where FICA taxes are withheld by the corporation
Sure, you can have the corporation buy your house and lease your car and all sorts of other things like that, but that bring up a host of other tax issues. It can be done, but it's a pain in the arse and you do risk "piercing the vail" of liability. If you have millions of dollars in revenues, OK, but that's a totally different situation.
I believe you are confusing S-Corps with C-Corps. Don't forget that as an S-Corp, all the income from the corporation is poured directly into your 1040 - which will push you up into a higher tax bracket. Everyone's situation is different, so everyone must figure if the higher tax bracket is better for them, mainly related to being able to write off business losses (which you probably don't have in your computer consultant example). When you are referring to an "S" corpororation, you really mean "C" corp, which is taxed at it's own tax rate.
All corporations have certain benefits such as providing liablility protection and some tax benefits, just not for the reason you're referring to.
You'll get taxed in other ways one way or another and you just can't avoid it. You can delay it, but you can't avoid being taxed. You can probably avoid paying some of your FICA, but that money will be taxed another way in the end, so you're not really gaining anything.
There are a great many other benefits of having one's own corporation, but by all means, consult with a tax advisor and a CPA! This stuff is slightly complicated, especially if you're starting out confused over S-corps and C-corps!
Unfortunately, there are millions of destitute people in our history that makes our society realize that not everyone is able to take care of themselves in their old age, and for the betterment of society as a whole, we have this social security thing. It appears that in your own situation, you don't feel like it benefits you and you're probably right, but that's part of the responsibility you bare as being a member of this society. The nice thing is, once you reach retirement age, you'll have a nice benefit check coming to you (assuming the Republicans don't kill SS as they would like to). I don't like paying taxes to finance the killing of Iraqi children, or being lied to by my government, but I still have to pay the taxes. At least with SS, I'll get something back in the end.
Oh, and for the record, there is no SS crisis and SS was absolutely, definately, intended as a retirement benefit, and it isn't any different than it was in it's original form. I wonder where you got the idea that it was changed in any significant fashion? Do a little research on that site, before you respond (but please do respond).