SUV Lophole gets BIGGER

like tracee, i use the sh. c to allow my expenses to offset the money i make from suzuki. i only claim expenses up to the amount i earned so it simply cancels out the taxes i would owe on that amount. and it's considered hobby income


kyle

 

well i am a small business owner with two kids and a wife that stays home to keep the kids and run the business. how many times can i write off my f-350?

 

Ask a CPA.

 

Re: Whooo boy!!

I find it ironic that someone that worries so much about the environment / oil would drive a polluting, gas guzzeling truck hundreds of miles to a race track, where then they would unload their non emission controled racebike, fill it with leaded gas, and burn it all weekend just for fun....

Think of the children.....

The "thinly veiled payback" is just another Vast, Right Wing Conspiracy....

 

go Repo!
go Repo!

 

Re: Re: Whooo boy!!

I'm sorry, did you try to say something intelligent?

1.) Yeah, I race motorcycles and that is the *only* reason I have a truck. If it weren't for that, I'd still be driving my Honda Civic which gets 33mpg. If there was a car styled hybrid vehicle that could tow a trailer decently or a hybrid truck, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

You can bet, though, that those types of vehicles won't be an alternative if we keep subsidizing things like SUV's. And that's a shame. So for lack of better alternatives, I drive a truck. That does not mean I throw up my hands and say "Oh, well! Let's just forget about all of it and screw the environment all together!".

2.) I have looked into building an electric motor powered, 125GP chassis racebike. If you take the time to do the research you'll find it's actually pretty doable. That's the joy of having friends with masters in applied engineering who work for Lockheed Martin. They love thinking about shit like this.

The biggest issue is finding SLA batteries that will fit the bill. It's a weight issue more than anything else. I figure in about two years that industry will have made enough advances to make it possible.

The cost? This was last year, mind you, but the cost was less than a brand new in the crate 125gp from the factory in Japan.

No, it's common sense. How about you try thinking for once instead of closing your eyes?

It's like this. Ready? I'll try to go rreeeaaaallll sllllooowwww fffoooorrr youuuuu.

Only the rich can run for public office. The costs associated with running a campaign are astronomical. Even the rich, in order to do it, take money from special interests and corporations in order to do it.

With me so far?

Take for example Enron. Here's what they contributed to GW.

Enron Corp $100,000

Jeffrey Skilling $100,000

Kenneth & Linda Lay $100,000

So, 300k during the last presidential campaign. Did they do this out of the goodness of their hearts? Um...no. They did it to get things like Lay being appointed to GW's energy advisory comittee. The end result? Everything Enron (via Lay) had wanted, to the letter, became public policy.

You can bet, looking at Enron's business practices, that they sure weren't looking out for the public good.

It's not a Right Wing Conspiracy(tm), it's not a Liberal Agenda(tm). It's American Politics(tm). In my ever so humble opinion, it's also complete Bullshit (not TM). So how about you pull your head out of your ass and try thinking a little, hey?

Source of campaign contribution information on pretty much every politician around, irregardless of party affiliation:

http://www.opensecrets.org/

Take a look, it's pretty damn interesting stuff. Try trackin your congressman's voting record against who gave them money. I'd put good odds that they vote pretty much in that line.

 

First of all everything costs more if you run a small business. Lets take this for example. Lets say you have a SB that grosses 160K per year. Costs of goods and services sold is 80K (BTW that would be a a VERY good margin, most businesses have to sell WAY more than 150K to make 80K). In order to perform basic accounting functions the business owner has to purchase say Peachtree Accounting for $400.00, hire a CPA to do returns for $1400.00, hire a book keeper to come in once a month at $500 a month. Now the business has made $72200.00. The business needs a business phone line and DSL to operate which comes to $2400 a year before long distance (yes business phonme services are MUCH more exspensive). In order to get people in the door the company takes out an add in the yellow pages for $5000 a year. They have a E-Commerce web site that runs $1500.00 per year. They have a small office that costs $17,000 per year. Now the SB owner has $46,300.00. The business owner needs business cards, stationary, envelops, etc. that come to $1000.00 per year. Being single the SB owner also needs medical insurance at $1800 per year. Legal advise comes to $2000 per year. Now the SB owner needs a vehicle that can haul products to customers. The business owner gets an SUV with a note of $9600 per year. The insurance on this vehicle is 2X what the nornal insurance on it would be becasue it is a commerical vehicle. That costs $2400 per year. Corporate liablity insurance is another $2400 per year. After everything is said and done the business owner gets to "Live" off of $24,000.00 a year before taxes. Now if this business owner was taxed at a AGI of 80K /year he would make about -$10,000.00 per year. If the AGI was even $33,600.00 the taxes would be unreasonable. Take in to account this person also has to have some place to live, a personal mode of transpartation, food, etc. A SB owner takes risks that some one who is employeed can not even imagine. The work involved in running a SB is much greater than that of a normal employee. And it is damn near impossible to get any personal or business credit exteneded to you for the first 2 years of running your own business. Oh yea, and remember that 24,000.00 is taxed 2X. Once like someone who gets a w2 and is also subject to "self employement" tax. So just add another 17% tax charge. And God help them if they are a C-Corp. Then they are taxed at the corporate level and at the personal level.

In short. If you are bitching about someone who sometimes goes months with out a paycheck and at the end of the year makes about what a short order cook at McDonalds makes for working their a$$ off getting a break from Uncle Sam then you should try running a small business with out the tax breaks and see if you can make it out of the 1st year.

 

If you want to know where the SUV loophole came from...

...just look right here:


http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/cabinet/cabinet.abraham.asp

Politics as usual in the good 'ol US of A.

 

If you are poor and aren't paying any taxes then why should you get a tax break?

 

Maybe they feel that they deserve to be paid by the government to exsist. They feel that they are soooo special that they above all others deserves to get paid to watch TV and lounge around on their couch.

 

If you are rich with enough disposable income to buy a Hummer, why should you get a tax break?

 

Or, if you're a multi-billion dollar corporation, why should you be able to buy your way into governemnt policies at the expense of everyone else?

 

Because you pay tons and tons and tons of taxes a year to support all these other lazy people who don't pay any taxes and still want a tax break.

 

Yeah, that happens a whole lot.

As of 1998 the top 4% of the American population had 59.4% of the wealth. (source: http://www.levy.org/docs/wrkpap/papers/300.html )

At the same time CEO salaries went up 535% while worker salaries went up 32.3%. *

Tell me, did that 4% work that much harder than you, Paige? Did those CEO's have such great ideas? I kind of doubt that.

Say, sdiver...an honest question for you. Every once and awhile I see folks banter around the idea of a flat income tax. What are the pros and cons of that? It's an honest question, I really don't know and am curious.

(*: source - Sources: CEO Compensation: Business Week annual executive pay surveys. S&P 500 Index: Standard and Poors Corporation, quoted in 2000 Economic Report of the President. Corporate Profits: Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Income and Disposition of Personal Income Data. Average Worker Pay: Bureau of Labor Statistics, "Average Weekly Earnings of Production Workers, Total Private Sector." Series ID: EEU00500004. Inflation: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, All Urban Consumers.)

 

Re: Re: Re: Whooo boy!!

Sounds a LOT like Liberal Eleteism (tm) to us hiks out hear.

I thincks my hedd is out of my asss enuff to cee that you is a geenus abouts politiks. and u hav engineer friends!!

Howe kud i bee sew stoopid???

 

Re: Re: Re: Re: Whooo boy!!

Your sarcasm ("think of the children") begot my sarcasm. Don't go crying about it now.

Did you have any real thoughts on my response or are you just going to hide behind knee jerk replies? I mean, hey, if you think it's not that $11,838,542 the Sec. of Energy landed in contributions during 2000, let me know.

 

Families with lower income would be taxed at a higher rate then they currently are. I don't know that a family making 18k/year could afford to live with a 30% flat tax. Not that they can afford to live above the poverty line now making 18k/year...

 

"How many of you have created a business and race for that business? I imagine you setup as a sole proprietor, right? Can you deduct all of your racing related expenses? How are you doing this?"


I did.
Well, I didn't know that I had the option until the CPA told me about it. My trailer, my Expedition payments, bike payments, cell phone, everything goes under the scrutiny and comes out much less than it was to start.

 

Well, according to a couple of posts, if they're making 18k they must be

who want to

 

I thought it was hilarious last year(oops year before last) when all the "poor" people, who didn't pay enough taxes to qualify for the $300/$600 tax refund, complained about not getting a refund. Never mind that they hadn't paid enough in taxes, they still thought they deserved the refund.

If the electric gp bike is a possibilty, build it. Otherwise it's a pipe dream. I hope you have your own solar/wind/hydro electric generator to charge your batteries. Otherwise instead of being gas powered, it will just be coal(small possibilty of hydro/wind/nuclear/solar) powered. Electric vehicles just use a different form of depletable natural resources to run. Don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise.

We are not dependent on foreign oil. We use cheaper, easier to access foreign oil to preserve our(America) enviroment. How much will our oil cost other countrys when we burn all of theirs?

Crusty