Two months and counting, your yearly burden of supporting the government made twice as hard. First, the turmoil of the transformed form:
US News — The new cosmetic look of the 1040 form belies all the changes within. The redesign squishes what used to be 79 lines of information into just 22, on two half-sheets of paper.
But things did not get streamlined and simplified. All of those missing lines now correspond to six new numbered schedules and several worksheets. And that is in addition to the existing alphabetical schedules (A for itemizing deductions, B for interest and dividends, etc.)
[…]
Phyllis Jo Kubey, an enrolled agent in New York, has basically given up trying to process the changes visually. Her tax software even comes with a “1040 reconciliation worksheet,” which takes everything on this year’s tax form and makes it look like an old 1040.
“It’s easier for me to find things on the old form than to look at six different schedules,” Kubey said.
Kubey is especially concerned for senior citizens, who might be among the last of those who fill out the 1040 by hand.
“Can you imagine if you have been doing taxes every year of your life on paper, and then all the sudden you get this? I’d go nuts,” Kubey said.
For taxpayers who file electronically, the new form might not have that much of an impact. A professional tax preparer will take your information the same as always and deal with the changes for you.
DIY tax software will prompt you for the information needed in a similar manner to previous years, with just a few new questions.
It is when the results are printed out that most people will notice the difference.
Second, the thought of your hard-earned treasure going down the Trump administration hole.
*
wapo:
IRS says average tax refund is down nearly 9 percent so far this year
Trump Administration confirms that fewer tax refunds will be issued this year.
[…]
The IRS estimated that several million tax filers would go from getting a refund last year to not getting one this year or even owing some money.
About 5 percent of Americans are paying more in taxes after the GOP tax bill, so their refunds are also declining or disappearing entirely.
Many people with higher tax bills live in expensive urban areas where they pay high property and state and local taxes. The GOP tax bill capped the deduction for state and local taxes. The Republican bill also eliminated some popular tax deductions for business expenses, including mileage.
Greedy old perverts making new Dems every day they strip the middle class of income to give to billionaires.
another book, another peek behind closed doors
wapo:
He didn’t read intelligence reports and mixed up classified material with what he had seen in newspaper clips. He seemed confused about the structure and purpose of organizations and became overwhelmed when meetings covered multiple subjects. He blamed immigrants for nearly every societal problem and uttered racist sentiments with shocking callousness.
This isn’t how President Trump is depicted in a new book by former deputy FBI director Andrew McCabe. Instead, it’s McCabe’s account of what it was like to work for then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The FBI was better off when “you all only hired Irishmen,” Sessions said in one diatribe about the bureau’s workforce. “They were drunks but they could be trusted. Not like all those new people with nose rings and tattoos — who knows what they’re doing?”
It’s a startling portrait that suggests that the Trump administration’s reputation for baseness and dysfunction has, if anything, been understated and too narrowly attributed to the president.
The description of Sessions is one of the most striking revelations in “The Threat,” a McCabe memoir that adds to a rapidly expanding collection of score-settling insider accounts of Trump-era Washington. McCabe’s is an important voice because of his position at the top of the bureau during a critical series of events, including the firing of FBI chief James Comey, the appointment of special counsel Robert S. Mueller, and the ensuing scorched-earth effort by Trump and his Republican allies to discredit the Russia probe and destroy public confidence in the nation’s top law enforcement agency. The work is insightful and occasionally provocative. The subtitle, “How the FBI Protects America in the Age of Terror and Trump,” all but equates the danger posed by al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to that of the current president.
[…]
McCabe is a keen observer of detail, particularly when it comes to the president’s pettiness. He describes how Trump arranges Oval Office encounters so that his advisers are forced to sit before him in “little schoolboy chairs” across the Resolute Desk. Prior presidents met with aides on couches in the center of the room, but Trump is always angling to make others feel smaller.
McCabe was known as a taciturn figure in the bureau, in contrast to the more garrulous Comey. His book reflects that penchant for brevity, with just 264 pages of text. Even so, he documents the president’s attempts to impair the Russia probe and incessant attacks on the institution, describing the stakes in sweeping, convincing language.
“Between the world of chaos and the world of order stands the rule of law,” McCabe writes. “Yet now the rule of law is under attack, including from the president himself.”
Inevitably, the book includes disturbing new detail about Trump’s subservience to Russian President Vladimir Putin. During an Oval Office briefing in July 2017, Trump refused to believe U.S. intelligence reports that North Korea had test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile — a test that Kim Jong Un had called a Fourth of July “gift” to “the arrogant Americans.”
Trump dismissed the missile launch as a “hoax,” McCabe writes. “He thought that North Korea did not have the capability to launch such missiles. He said he knew this because Vladimir Putin had told him so.”
[…]
But for all of the understandable alarm and indignation that McCabe registers, he seems, like other Trump dissidents, never to have found reason or opportunity to stand up to the president. There are paragraphs in “The Threat” that recount in detail McCabe’s inner outrage — but no indication that those thoughts escaped his lips in the presence of Trump.
What is it that makes otherwise proud public servants, Comey included, willing to subject themselves to Trump-inflicted indignities?
Deference to the office? A determination to cling to power? A view of oneself as an indispensable institutional savior?
At one point, McCabe puts his odds of getting the FBI director’s position at “one-in-ten-million,” but he goes through a job interview with Trump that feels like a charade from the outset.
[…]
McCabe’s disdain for Trump is rivaled only by his contempt for Sessions. He questions the former attorney general’s mental faculties, saying that he had “trouble focusing, particularly when topics of conversation strayed from a small number of issues.”
Logs on the electronic tablets used to deliver the President’s Daily Brief to Sessions came back with no indication he had ever punched in the passcode. The attorney general’s views on race and religion are described as reprehensible.
Sessions “believed that Islam — inherently — advocated extremism” and ceaselessly sought to draw connections between crime and immigration. “Where’s he from?” was his first question about a suspect. The next: “Where are his parents from?”
[continues]
With the changed form this will be a challenging tax year for us. Mrs. P spent 8 years as a tax attorney in the Big 8, 7, …. and we do our own taxes by filling information in on the schedules and worksheets – she compiles the stuff and I input it through Turbo Tax. I’m one of those old people who has been using the same forms for over 45 years – although the first 12 or so were on the short form. Unless I miss my guess I’ll have a more difficult time finding where to input stuff this year without using the incredibly annoying hand-holding Q&A approach that TT makes available. I tried it one year and was ready to throw the damn computer out the window after about 30 minutes. We tend to snipe at each other during the process, but this year I can see a need for frequent quiet time if we are going to remain a loving couple through the process.
OMG, and Sessions considered himself to be Supreme Court material!
Republican logic. If they’re filling out more forms they won’t realize that they’re paying more taxes.
if there is a hotter place than Hell I hope Paul Ryan and his ilk spend eternity there. tax cut? My ass!
Jace, I looked at a pre/post tax rate schedule done by the Tax Somethingoranother Institute and it looks like depending on deductions, etc. most people, or at least the average in income ranges, reflect somewhere between 2 and 4% tax rate reductions, with the lowest income bracket remaining unchanged. My understanding is that certain things, like charitable giving will not give any tax advantage but I’m really not sure how that and how the changes in standard deduction and exemptions will affect the amount of tax a given taxpayer will be on the hook for. Depending on your family constellation you could benefit or be hurt by the deduction/exemption changes. The mortgage interest cap probably won’t affect anyone I know – but I’m a little unclear on the import of that change (from $1,000,000) but I imagine that means a taxpayer can only deduct mortgage interest on $750,000 of debt. That ain’t a problem for me.
Here’s a summary from TaxAct.org that gives a little insight into the changes.
And here’s a summary of the differences between 2017 and 2018 compliments of Fidelity Investments.
Pogo,
Thanks for that.
We have usually reiceved a refund in the two to three hundred dollar range with the move We have not had time to even look at our taxes but I suspect that a refund will be non existent and we may even owe a little. That said the feds have operated on very little of my money this year and somehow or another it always seems to even out.
Thanks for all your concerns and best wishes from last night. Rick did get checked out by a doctor yesterday and it was determined the slight bump on the side of his head was just on the surface. He had a very peaceful sleep last night and says he’s feeling ok this morning. He was told that his seatbelt really did save him from serious injuries.
Today we hear from the adjustor and find out if the insurance will total the truck. We are already looking at used trucks maybe 2-3 yrs old from dealers online.
We have our taxes done professionally by someone local. Things can get more complicated by living off of investments once someone retires. And of course… there is my business. We’ve always said she is worth every penny we pay. Sounds like we’ll be thankful for her again this year.
Oh and last night’s question…. I like Brown, Klobuchar, Harris, Castro and Beto.
RR,
Glad to hear Rick is doing well. ?My best to both of you.
For whatever reason, the Trumpers reduced the amount of withholding -that also decreases the return.
they did that without telling people so it looked like they were getting more money on their paychecks
KC, my withholding went up about $40 per month without me making any changes on my W-4.
SFB thinks appearance is more important then anything
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/14/gop-national-emergency-declaration-trump-1170697
OMG!! Having marched in lockstep with Trump for two years the GOP is shocked shocked I tell you that he would declare a national emergency.
These are either the stupidest bastards that ever came down the pike or the most disingenuous. Neither possibility does them any credit. How dare they insult the intelligence of the average person in such a manner.
On the bright side however I have a number of good used bridges currently in stock and am having a huge Presidents Day inventory reduction sale. It appears that republican congressmen will be some of my best customers. Please feel free to contact your republican congressman and let them know that the perfect bridge for their state or district is now available at unheard of low prices. Don’t forget Jace’s ten percent discount for repeat customers.
All major credit cards accepted, financing available with approved credit. All sales final.
and it hurts those who can no longer deduct their state & local taxes to the fullest extent.
was it just me or was the twit even more incoherent than usual at his nat’l emergency presser today?
wonder what his pro-lifer friends are saying about his shoutout for death penalty to drug pushers. also wonder what purdue pharma & the sackler family feel about it.
Trump Admits: ‘I Didn’t Need’ to Declare National Emergency ‘But I’d Rather Do it Much Faster’
[…]
“I went through Congress, I made a deal.”
“I got almost $1.4 billion when I wasn’t supposed to get one dollar,” Trump said. “Well, I got $1.4 billion, but I’m not happy with it…I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster.”
renee, give rick an extra hug for us.
so glad he was checked over by the doc. even a mild concussion can mean traumatic brain injury.
more on “I didn’t need to do this, but I’d rather do it much faster”
mother jones:
Trump’s remarks seem almost certain to appear in a lawsuit challenging his decision to use emergency powers to access the wall money that Congress has refused to provide. They were certainly appreciated by Omar Jadwat, the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
@OmarJadwat
keep talking mr president
George Conway, the husband of White House senior Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway and a vocal Trump critic, also highlighted Trump’s claim.
@gtconway3d
This quote should be the first sentence of the first paragraph of every complaint filed this afternoon.
Trump also said “I made a deal…but I’m not happy with it,” making clear that he sees the emergency declaration as a way to get around Congress. Jadwat tweeted that admission as well.
[continues]
Wow! SFB was practically incoherent today. Did someone forget to give him his meds.?
Separate from the presidential campaigns, the Democrats need to find someone or some group with enough credibility to really plant the seeds of insanity around Trump.
X-R, another alternate LIL building upon your LILLY could be (now that twit is termed technically obese) OILily, short for obese incoherent lazy incompetent lying yellowbelly.
here’s more from the medical report fun with Rachel last night
Trump’s bewildering national emergency press conference, annotated
If I may translate SFB’s latest load of crap
Everything I do is for you my loyal base. I’m the only one who can protect you from the catastrophic outcome of Democrat polices. Democrats hate you and your life. Protect your way of life from Democrats
the hill:
The federal judge overseeing Roger Stone’s criminal case in the District of Columbia issued a gag order Friday, barring Stone, his attorneys and prosecutors from discussing the case in public or with the media.
Judge Amy Berman Jackson, on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, further ordered that all parties in the case must refrain from talking to the media or the public when they are entering or exiting the courthouse, or near the building.
Berman Jackson, who was appointed by President Obama, said there will be no additional restrictions imposed on Stone’s ability to make public statements or appearances at this time, but she warned that the order can be amended in the future
Jace, if you have that bridge from England in Arizona available I might be interested.
SFB incoherent? Say it’s not so. I heard some of his ramblings yesterday and I swear to god the man cannot form a sentence conveying a thought.
Ms Pat, thank you. Here’s a building on your building
OILY LIAR
Obese Incoherent Lazy Yellowbelly.
Lunatic Incompetent Asshole republican.
Mr Jace, I’ll take that FL Keys 7 Mile Bridge, thank you. I intend to turn it into a sunbathing facility or small craft runway or both. Maybe I’ll just run a railroad down to Key West.
When I have to speak with a trumper on the job I just bitch about the tax cut and then if they press it I say, “That boy don’t act right.” and change the subject .
Pogo,
Sorry the Arizona bridge is spoken for. I just sold it to Louis Ghomert. Needless to say he bought it sight unseen.
XR,
will you be paying the shipping or should I arrange that for you?
Hello Sturgeon,
Where you been? Technical difficulties corrected?
Nice to have you back.?
How do, Mr Sturgeone ? I missed the news from the tidewater.
Mr Jace, just wrap that baby up in silk bows and send it par avion.
C.O.D. of course.
Out Solar’s way :
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/6-dead-including-shooter-and-5-officers-wounded-in-attack-at-illinois-manufacturing-firm/ar-BBTEtMg?ocid=spartanntp
manafort’s sentence should be what mcvey got. It should be carried out with a slower acting drug, and his head put on a pike at the White House gate for a year.
grrrrrrr. Me play tuff guy. grrrrrrrrrrp.
Good news about Rick if not the truck. All concerned please stay safe and well.
palm beach post:
a blogger on quora back in the 1st year of trumpence queried about the 25th voting requirement “a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide” and noted:
have been wondering myself about what this means now in 2019 if the cabinet again becomes peopled by several acting (non confirmed) heads. also, has this been an incentive for the twit to stall nominations and drag out appointments to replace the ever increasing turnover.
I’m doing my best to remain calm in the face of the National Emergency. I think I’ll go out to lunch with Ms. P and have a burger and a couple of beers and keep an eye out for illegals or caravans or something. Hope I don’t get indigestion from all the worry about being overrun by brown skinned criminals and rapers.
Everyone have a nice day. ?
Hello everyone. I have a question regarding the “national emergency”. Could this lead to say a Democratic President calling “Gun violence” a national emergency? And, if so, could they use this declaration as a way of doing an end around Congress or does the constitution, specifically, the 2nd amendment prevent this? Thanks!
Corey, great question. SFB’s challenge is twofold- declaring an emergency that is demonstrably nothing of the sort and using the declaration to misappropriate, ummmm, redirect, funds previously appropriated by Congress for other purposes. He’s got a separation of powers challenge.
Not sure how a demonstrable national emergency like gun violence that would be used to effectively impose regulations not underlaid by legislation would fly.
“No. @POTUS can’t claim emergency powers for non-emergency actions whenever Congress doesn’t legislate the way he wants.” – Justin Amash on January, 28th.
corey & pogo, the next move will probably come from
joaquin castro:
“I am prepared, if the president does declare a national emergency to build his border wall, to file a joint resolution under the National Emergencies Act that would essentially terminate his declaration,” Castro continued.
Castro added that he does not believe that Trump is fit to make such a declaration, and that Congress could override him.
“We would have a vote either on my resolution or somebody else’s on the House floor, and it is my understanding that that resolution would have to be voted upon in the Senate,” Castro said. “And there have been very critical comments that have been made by senators, including Republican senators, about the president’s ability and the wisdom of declaring a national emergency for this purpose.”
Am I supposed to dress-up in my ancient uniform, grab a shotgun and a .45, and head to the white horse or Mary Lego, or his podiatrist?? That young man has me so confused.
flatus, charge on! forthwith to battle! the enemy is ours!
Andrew McCabe in the atlantic – In an exclusive adaptation from his book, The Threat, to be published next week by St. Martin’s Press, McCabe describes his encounters with President Trump
On Wednesday, May 10, 2017, my first full day on the job as acting director of the FBI, I sat down with senior staff involved in the Russia case—the investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. As the meeting began, my secretary relayed a message that the White House was calling. The president himself was on the line. I had spoken with him the night before, in the Oval Office, when he told me he had fired James Comey.
A call like this was highly unusual. Presidents do not, typically, call FBI directors. There should be no direct contact between the president and the director, except for national-security purposes. The reason is simple. Investigations and prosecutions need to be pursued without a hint of suspicion that someone who wields power has put a thumb on the scale.
The Russia team was in my office. I took the call on an unclassified line. That was another strange thing—the president was calling on a phone that was not secure. The voice on the other end said, It’s Don Trump calling. I said, Hello, Mr. President, how are you? Apart from my surprise that he was calling at all, I was surprised that he referred to himself as “Don.”
The president said, I’m good. You know—boy, it’s incredible, it’s such a great thing, people are really happy about the fact that the director’s gone, and it’s just remarkable what people are saying. Have you seen that? Are you seeing that, too?
He went on: I received hundreds of messages from FBI people—how happy they are that I fired him. There are people saying things on the media, have you seen that? What’s it like there in the building?
This is what it was like: You could go to any floor and you would see small groups gathering in hallways, some people even crying. The overwhelming majority liked and admired Director Comey—his personal style, the integrity of his conduct. Now we were laboring under the same dank, gray shadow that had been creeping over Washington during the few months Donald Trump had been in office.
I didn’t feel like I could say any of that to the president on the phone. I’m not sure I would have wanted to say it to him in person, either—or that he would have cared. I told him that people here were very surprised, but that we were trying to get back to work.
The president said he thought most people in the FBI voted for him—he thought 80 percent. He asked me again, as he had in his office, if I knew that Comey had told him three times that he was not under investigation. Then he got to the reason for his call. He said, I really want to come over there. I want to come to the FBI. I want to show all my FBI people how much I love them, so I think maybe it would be good for me to come over and speak to everybody, like tomorrow or the next day.
That sounded to me like one of the worst possible things that could happen. He was the boss, and had every right to come, but I hoped the idea would dissipate on its own. He said, Why don’t you come down here and talk to me about that later?
After we agreed on a time to meet, the president began to talk about how upset he was that Comey had flown home on his government plane from Los Angeles—Comey had been giving a speech there when he learned he was fired. The president wanted to know how that had happened.
I told him that bureau lawyers had assured me there was no legal issue with Comey coming home on the plane. I decided that he should do so. The existing threat assessment indicated he was still at risk, so he needed a protection detail. Since the members of the protection detail would all be coming home, it made sense to bring everybody back on the same plane they had used to fly out there. It was coming back anyway. The president flew off the handle: That’s not right! I don’t approve of that! That’s wrong! He reiterated his point five or seven times.
I said, I’m sorry that you disagree, sir. But it was my decision, and that’s how I decided. The president said, I want you to look into that! I thought to myself: What am I going to look into? I just told you I made that decision.
The ranting against Comey spiraled. I waited until he had talked himself out.
[…]
I wrote a memo about this conversation that very day. I wrote memos about my interactions with President Trump for the same reason that Comey did: to have a contemporaneous record of conversations with a person who cannot be trusted.
People do not appreciate how far we have fallen from normal standards of presidential accountability. Today we have a president who is willing not only to comment prejudicially on criminal prosecutions but to comment on ones that potentially affect him. He does both of these things almost daily. He is not just sounding a dog whistle. He is lobbying for a result. The president has stepped over bright ethical and moral lines wherever he has encountered them. Every day brings a new low, with the president exposing himself as a deliberate liar who will say whatever he pleases to get whatever he wants. If he were “on the box” at Quantico, he would break the machine.
[continues]
The Aurora shooting shows the danger of half-ass background checks and non-enforcement.
I’ve been a subscriber to Atlantic for fully sixty years along with the New Yorker, Journal, my local/regional paper and other publications more specialized, and ones that were simply so good that their publishers’ couldn’t afford producing them. But, I’ve not gone beyond the first and last paragraphs of Atlantic’s work on Trump; why waste my time when I’ve read their sentiment on the man several years ago? Not that I disagree with them.
I bet Craig has had a fun-filled day…sigh