Or maybe we should recognize that multi-ton incendiary missiles capable of travelling at a hundred miles per hour on a level surface should be required to have at least 3 manual systems: Shifting, braking, and emergency shutoff.
So. No automatic transmissions, then? No anti-lock brakes? I'd argue a manual shut off should be all that's needed.
Why would they have to pay "yet again" to switch to IE7 or IE8? Both are compatible with XP which most companies are still running and it's not like Microsoft charges for the browser.
I think the reason for the Charity Contributions deductible to the individual is so the government doesn't have to pay the tax. If we had the same thing in the US as you have, we'd probably reduce our tax contributions by our tax brackets so the amount the charity receives is the same.
Your ISA sounds like our Roth IRA. Then again, we have the regular ones as well. I guess this would be a 'private pension', but I'm not sure I'd call it a 'pension' as it doesn't necessarily have a fixed pay out at the end.
Rather than getting deductions for having children, anyone with children no matter what they earn gets Child Benefit, and then you get Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits on a means assessed basis, which phase out as you earn more like you say there too.
For this, I think we have the same thing. It's just a matter of describing it all.
I agree that the US has a more complex tax system - the UK isn't simple, but I think HMRC has done a better job of integrating the various parts so that for most people their monthly deductions come out right at the end of the year.
I don't think the IRS could get it right unless it knew everything you were going to do in the year. I'm filing for about a $465 return from the Federal Government this year. My state refund will be about $245. That's with only having withholding on my jobs income and from no where else.
I really do wish we had a sane tax system and I really would push for a flat tax. As I've said elsewhere, if we had a flat tax it would only need to be 12.7% to collect the same amount of money as we have now (possibly less).
Ok, I've got a couple of questions for you related to some of the things you've said and some further comments/information.
How does the bank know which bracket you are in? Or do they take out %20 by default?
Is the company dividend withholding tax the same for all types of companies? Some dividends in the US are taxed at the 'capital gains rate' (probably the same as 'company dividend witholding') and some are treated as 'ordinary income' (just like your regular paycheck).
I see how refunds to charities work, but that is still a tad different from the US, where the Government sends the rebate back to you, not the charity. It would be interesting if it worked the same way as the UK.
In the US we have Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) accounts. These are not pensions, they are something else. People can have both of these accounts in addition to a pension fund. The IRAs are not usually taken out of our salary, the 401(k)s usually are. Contributions are voluntary but are capped at a certain amount each year. Depending on the type of IRA/401(k), they can be pre-tax or post tax. The pre-tax ones are just like the pension you mention. However, the post tax ones (Roth) are treated the opposite. You pay tax on the money you put into the Roth accounts, but do not (currently) pay tax on the money you withdraw from the accounts. If you contribute money to a pre-tax IRA during the year (which is not taken from your salary), you file it on your tax return and get a portion of your money back from the government. This is separate from anything your employer does for pensions.
So far, what I'm seeing is that the US has a much more complicated tax code than the UK. By the way, the deductions I listed are only a small number of the total. You also get deductions for dependents (think children) and there are many other things that increase or decrease your deductions and some deductions phase out as you earn more income (i.e., you may only be able to deduct $4000 instead of $8000 because you make too much).
For businesses, I'd just prefer we eliminate the income taxes altogether. It comes out of the price of goods they sell anyway so the customer is the one paying it. It's just a hidden sales tax. (please see end before complaining about this)
For individuals, part of the thing is to just eliminate deductions. Problem solved.
What I'd prefer is just a straight sales/consumption tax. This way, we tax goods imported from other companies (and made by companies that do not pay US income taxes) and it doesn't screw us by making imports cheaper than US made goods. I also like the idea of everyone seeing what percentage of their money is going to the government every time they make a purchase. It really drives home the idea that government services cost money.
The IRS will also penalize you under current law if you follow their advice and they were wrong. Shouldn't it also be their responsibility to get their understanding of the tax code right? Even an IRS Commissioner admits it's too complex for him.
Can't we just bring some sanity to the tax code? Something like this: ((AmountEarned*X)-AmountPayed)=AmountOwed where 0
I see no reason the tax code should be so complex that we have to have multiple tax forms.
Ok. How does that work if you have outside sources of income or deductions? In the US, interest on your bank account is taxable. Dividends from stocks you own are taxable. Interest from Student Loans, House Mortgage or charitable donations are tax deductible. We also have retirement account contributions that are tax deductible until we start withdrawing them when they are taxable. (or vice versa depending on the retirement account) Does the UK have as complicated a scheme that is not based purely on income as the US has?
Not only have they, they also have a point based on current IRS rules/laws. Currently, if the IRS tax software screws up, it's your fault. The burden is always on the tax payer, not the IRS even if the IRS is the one that is at fault. So, who are you going to trust? The IRS who would prepare your Tax Return AND is the one who will penalize you if the Tax Return is wrong? Or the third party that guarantees their software is correct and backs it up with cash if it is wrong?
That said, I wish we could go to a simpler system that means we wouldn't need to wrack or brains in frustration every year. We could replace the entire Federal Income Tax with a 12.68% flat tax and still collect the same amount of money as we are now. See Cell B 57
I suggest the CDMA networks change over all their towers and join the real world.;)
I'm going to address this on a serious note, as a lot of people do feel this way. CDMA is being replaced by LTE. LTE is the equivalent of HSPA from what I read. So, I guess you could say they are joining the real world.
That said, do you want everyone on the same technology or the companies trying out what they believe is the best technology and having the customers deciding which network they like the best? Seriously, I'm not sure of any better migration plans.
Disclaimer: I use my phone as a phone. I do not use it as a PDA/Music Player/Laptop/Tricorder/Web Surfer/Game Boy/Instant Messenger or anything beyond voice communication.
Would this be the higher incomes who get SS benefits reduced to zero because they have other income sources? These two will probably never see a penny from Social Security, even if they were contributing now.
So, flooding a larger area makes sense than letting the smaller floods occur once every 500 years? How does that make sense? And it wasn't a mountain canyon, it was 4,000 square kilometers. That's larger than most cities.
Sabotage? That's your claim? Where's your source? And shouldn't a utility take steps to ensure that it can provide services regardless of what should happen? I notice Brazil hasn't had any news reports of water shortages lately.
No, it wouldn't, for two reasons given in the article. First is that it is possible someone has two entries in the database. The only way to discover this is to find a matching pair of DNA sequences and then look at the personally identifiable information to figure out if you have a duplicate or not. Second, is the possibility the information in the database was entered wrong, and that someones profile does not match what their DNA is.
So it protects against floods by permanently flooding a larger area?
El-nino is Climate Change now? Really? And the utilities lack of preparation has nothing to do at all with a socialist government nationalizing everything under the sun and causing shortages?
One such considered above criticism, sacred as motherhood, is TVA. This program started as a flood control project; the Tennessee Valley was periodically ravaged by destructive floods. The Army Engineers set out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500 years there could be a total capacity flood that would inundate some 600,000 acres (2,400 km2). Well, the engineers fixed that. They made a permanent lake which inundated a million acres (4,000 km). This solved the problem of floods, but the annual interest on the TVA debt is five times as great as the annual flood damage they sought to correct. Of course, you will point out that TVA gets electric power from the impounded waters, and this is true, but today 85 percent of TVA's electricity is generated in coal burning steam plants. Now perhaps you'll charge that I'm overlooking the navigable waterway that was created, providing cheap barge traffic, but the bulk of the freight barged on that waterway is coal being shipped to the TVA steam plants, and the cost of maintaining that channel each year would pay for shipping all of the coal by rail, and there would be money left over.
That being said, why does anyone still want a land line?
A) Some people don't get Cell Reception (or it costs more than the land line)
B) A few of us live in places where the cell phones have gone down after mother nature had a fit, but the land lines were still working perfectly.
Another issue is that encryption does not work unless you're a carrier and share a secret with the phone's SIM, which means that invariably your calls will be broadcast in the clear when you're using this device.
This is no different than most household wireless phones or blue-tooth headsets for cellphones.
MagicJack is designed to work with existing land-line type phones. It's quite a bit different than what you're talking about. It's a USB device you plug into your computer, the phone goes into the device and the software connects to the VOIP server. From one of the guys I know who has it, it's possible to plug the MJ into your household outlet and have your phones around the house as well. There is a power limitation on how much the phones can draw, but most phones made today do not have a problem with that.
For one thing, look at what the totals are for the rest of the world and also look at the past history. Russia has exported more in dollar value than the US before and generally it has been a lot closer. Look at more than just 2007.
I'll also still say dollar value is irrelevant when you look at what is exported and to whom it is exported. Again, which is more? A single US fighter plane or 100,000 AK-47s with ammunition? Both cost about the same.
You'd have to take up the position that Lockheed and Boeing would create half billion dollar stealth aircraft and put them out on the open market without those contract guarantees.
What contract guarantees? The B-2 was originally specified for almost 200 aircraft and then cut down to 22. There is not guarantee, there is always a termination for convenience clause. Nor did they put them on the market. Lockheed and Boeing were contracted to develop the aircraft and build them by the DoD. The most they ever did was submit an RFP after being asked to by the government.
We sell more weapons than any other country by a large margin.
Only by dollar value and it's hardly a large margin. Look at what Russia and China export. For the equivalent price of one US fighter aircraft, they export 100,000 AK-47s with boxes of ammunition. Seriously, the AK-47s are more destabilizing than a single F-18.
Sales are regulated by their own office inside the State Department, and I can guarantee you that no defense contractor has ever dealt with a foreign nation without going through the State Department, unless they are selling items not considered to be munitions by the State Department.
If you're going to try to put words into my mouth, at least have it make sense. The US DoD payed Lockheed and Boeing money to develop the bombers and the DoD retained the rights to the technology that was developed, as was specified in the contract. If you're going to accuse it of subsidies or dictating the economic policy, I'd like to at least see where it's coming from.
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Or maybe we should recognize that multi-ton incendiary missiles capable of travelling at a hundred miles per hour on a level surface should be required to have at least 3 manual systems: Shifting, braking, and emergency shutoff.
So. No automatic transmissions, then? No anti-lock brakes? I'd argue a manual shut off should be all that's needed.
Why would they have to pay "yet again" to switch to IE7 or IE8? Both are compatible with XP which most companies are still running and it's not like Microsoft charges for the browser.
Woops, sorry, to clarify something I said before:
I think the reason for the Charity Contributions deductible to the individual is so the government doesn't have to pay the tax to the Charities.
It probably makes it simpler on the part of the government.
Your ISA sounds like our Roth IRA. Then again, we have the regular ones as well. I guess this would be a 'private pension', but I'm not sure I'd call it a 'pension' as it doesn't necessarily have a fixed pay out at the end.
Rather than getting deductions for having children, anyone with children no matter what they earn gets Child Benefit, and then you get Child Tax Credits and Working Tax Credits on a means assessed basis, which phase out as you earn more like you say there too.
For this, I think we have the same thing. It's just a matter of describing it all.
I agree that the US has a more complex tax system - the UK isn't simple, but I think HMRC has done a better job of integrating the various parts so that for most people their monthly deductions come out right at the end of the year.
I don't think the IRS could get it right unless it knew everything you were going to do in the year. I'm filing for about a $465 return from the Federal Government this year. My state refund will be about $245. That's with only having withholding on my jobs income and from no where else.
I really do wish we had a sane tax system and I really would push for a flat tax. As I've said elsewhere, if we had a flat tax it would only need to be 12.7% to collect the same amount of money as we have now (possibly less).
Ok, I've got a couple of questions for you related to some of the things you've said and some further comments/information.
How does the bank know which bracket you are in? Or do they take out %20 by default?
Is the company dividend withholding tax the same for all types of companies? Some dividends in the US are taxed at the 'capital gains rate' (probably the same as 'company dividend witholding') and some are treated as 'ordinary income' (just like your regular paycheck).
I see how refunds to charities work, but that is still a tad different from the US, where the Government sends the rebate back to you, not the charity. It would be interesting if it worked the same way as the UK.
In the US we have Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs) and 401(k) accounts. These are not pensions, they are something else. People can have both of these accounts in addition to a pension fund. The IRAs are not usually taken out of our salary, the 401(k)s usually are. Contributions are voluntary but are capped at a certain amount each year. Depending on the type of IRA/401(k), they can be pre-tax or post tax. The pre-tax ones are just like the pension you mention. However, the post tax ones (Roth) are treated the opposite. You pay tax on the money you put into the Roth accounts, but do not (currently) pay tax on the money you withdraw from the accounts. If you contribute money to a pre-tax IRA during the year (which is not taken from your salary), you file it on your tax return and get a portion of your money back from the government. This is separate from anything your employer does for pensions.
So far, what I'm seeing is that the US has a much more complicated tax code than the UK. By the way, the deductions I listed are only a small number of the total. You also get deductions for dependents (think children) and there are many other things that increase or decrease your deductions and some deductions phase out as you earn more income (i.e., you may only be able to deduct $4000 instead of $8000 because you make too much).
For businesses, I'd just prefer we eliminate the income taxes altogether. It comes out of the price of goods they sell anyway so the customer is the one paying it. It's just a hidden sales tax. (please see end before complaining about this)
For individuals, part of the thing is to just eliminate deductions. Problem solved.
What I'd prefer is just a straight sales/consumption tax. This way, we tax goods imported from other companies (and made by companies that do not pay US income taxes) and it doesn't screw us by making imports cheaper than US made goods. I also like the idea of everyone seeing what percentage of their money is going to the government every time they make a purchase. It really drives home the idea that government services cost money.
The IRS will also penalize you under current law if you follow their advice and they were wrong. Shouldn't it also be their responsibility to get their understanding of the tax code right? Even an IRS Commissioner admits it's too complex for him.
Can't we just bring some sanity to the tax code? Something like this: ((AmountEarned*X)-AmountPayed)=AmountOwed where 0
I see no reason the tax code should be so complex that we have to have multiple tax forms.
Ok. How does that work if you have outside sources of income or deductions? In the US, interest on your bank account is taxable. Dividends from stocks you own are taxable. Interest from Student Loans, House Mortgage or charitable donations are tax deductible. We also have retirement account contributions that are tax deductible until we start withdrawing them when they are taxable. (or vice versa depending on the retirement account) Does the UK have as complicated a scheme that is not based purely on income as the US has?
Intuit is evil anyway. Charging $50 for the same software every year..
The tax laws change every year. So I don't see how you can say it is the same software every year.
Not only have they, they also have a point based on current IRS rules/laws. Currently, if the IRS tax software screws up, it's your fault. The burden is always on the tax payer, not the IRS even if the IRS is the one that is at fault. So, who are you going to trust? The IRS who would prepare your Tax Return AND is the one who will penalize you if the Tax Return is wrong? Or the third party that guarantees their software is correct and backs it up with cash if it is wrong?
That said, I wish we could go to a simpler system that means we wouldn't need to wrack or brains in frustration every year. We could replace the entire Federal Income Tax with a 12.68% flat tax and still collect the same amount of money as we are now. See Cell B 57
I suggest the CDMA networks change over all their towers and join the real world. ;)
I'm going to address this on a serious note, as a lot of people do feel this way. CDMA is being replaced by LTE. LTE is the equivalent of HSPA from what I read. So, I guess you could say they are joining the real world.
That said, do you want everyone on the same technology or the companies trying out what they believe is the best technology and having the customers deciding which network they like the best? Seriously, I'm not sure of any better migration plans.
Disclaimer: I use my phone as a phone. I do not use it as a PDA/Music Player/Laptop/Tricorder/Web Surfer/Game Boy/Instant Messenger or anything beyond voice communication.
Verizon uses CDMA and EV-DO/LTE for the cell network. The AT&T iPhone uses HSDPA (Edge for backup). They are incompatible with each other.
Would this be the higher incomes who get SS benefits reduced to zero because they have other income sources? These two will probably never see a penny from Social Security, even if they were contributing now.
So, flooding a larger area makes sense than letting the smaller floods occur once every 500 years? How does that make sense? And it wasn't a mountain canyon, it was 4,000 square kilometers. That's larger than most cities.
Sabotage? That's your claim? Where's your source? And shouldn't a utility take steps to ensure that it can provide services regardless of what should happen? I notice Brazil hasn't had any news reports of water shortages lately.
If you used to sell them, could you tell us what companies make them?
No, it wouldn't, for two reasons given in the article. First is that it is possible someone has two entries in the database. The only way to discover this is to find a matching pair of DNA sequences and then look at the personally identifiable information to figure out if you have a duplicate or not. Second, is the possibility the information in the database was entered wrong, and that someones profile does not match what their DNA is.
So it protects against floods by permanently flooding a larger area?
El-nino is Climate Change now? Really? And the utilities lack of preparation has nothing to do at all with a socialist government nationalizing everything under the sun and causing shortages?
The OP was referring to the "late night Magic Jack" in this case, not the new femto cell.
Oh, and the TVA?
One such considered above criticism, sacred as motherhood, is TVA. This program started as a flood control project; the Tennessee Valley was periodically ravaged by destructive floods. The Army Engineers set out to solve this problem. They said that it was possible that once in 500 years there could be a total capacity flood that would inundate some 600,000 acres (2,400 km2). Well, the engineers fixed that. They made a permanent lake which inundated a million acres (4,000 km). This solved the problem of floods, but the annual interest on the TVA debt is five times as great as the annual flood damage they sought to correct. Of course, you will point out that TVA gets electric power from the impounded waters, and this is true, but today 85 percent of TVA's electricity is generated in coal burning steam plants. Now perhaps you'll charge that I'm overlooking the navigable waterway that was created, providing cheap barge traffic, but the bulk of the freight barged on that waterway is coal being shipped to the TVA steam plants, and the cost of maintaining that channel each year would pay for shipping all of the coal by rail, and there would be money left over.
from the wiki article.
That being said, why does anyone still want a land line?
A) Some people don't get Cell Reception (or it costs more than the land line)
B) A few of us live in places where the cell phones have gone down after mother nature had a fit, but the land lines were still working perfectly.
Another issue is that encryption does not work unless you're a carrier and share a secret with the phone's SIM, which means that invariably your calls will be broadcast in the clear when you're using this device.
This is no different than most household wireless phones or blue-tooth headsets for cellphones.
MagicJack is designed to work with existing land-line type phones. It's quite a bit different than what you're talking about. It's a USB device you plug into your computer, the phone goes into the device and the software connects to the VOIP server. From one of the guys I know who has it, it's possible to plug the MJ into your household outlet and have your phones around the house as well. There is a power limitation on how much the phones can draw, but most phones made today do not have a problem with that.
For one thing, look at what the totals are for the rest of the world and also look at the past history. Russia has exported more in dollar value than the US before and generally it has been a lot closer. Look at more than just 2007.
I'll also still say dollar value is irrelevant when you look at what is exported and to whom it is exported. Again, which is more? A single US fighter plane or 100,000 AK-47s with ammunition? Both cost about the same.
You'd have to take up the position that Lockheed and Boeing would create half billion dollar stealth aircraft and put them out on the open market without those contract guarantees.
What contract guarantees? The B-2 was originally specified for almost 200 aircraft and then cut down to 22. There is not guarantee, there is always a termination for convenience clause. Nor did they put them on the market. Lockheed and Boeing were contracted to develop the aircraft and build them by the DoD. The most they ever did was submit an RFP after being asked to by the government.
We sell more weapons than any other country by a large margin.
Only by dollar value and it's hardly a large margin. Look at what Russia and China export. For the equivalent price of one US fighter aircraft, they export 100,000 AK-47s with boxes of ammunition. Seriously, the AK-47s are more destabilizing than a single F-18.
Sales are regulated by their own office inside the State Department, and I can guarantee you that no defense contractor has ever dealt with a foreign nation without going through the State Department, unless they are selling items not considered to be munitions by the State Department.
Not legally, anyway.
If you're going to try to put words into my mouth, at least have it make sense. The US DoD payed Lockheed and Boeing money to develop the bombers and the DoD retained the rights to the technology that was developed, as was specified in the contract. If you're going to accuse it of subsidies or dictating the economic policy, I'd like to at least see where it's coming from.