And The Winner's Are!

‘Money, Money, Money

Must be Funny

In a Rich Man’s World”

              Abba

Well we have winners!  The Mystery Couple was William and Hillary Clinton:

First Congratulations to the following:

  1^st Place Stowe Friend John Del Negro-Emailed me 10:07 PM on 2/7 -$50 Bucks

  2^nd Place    My Sister Susan Hodnot-Emailed me`11:49 AM on 2/9-$10 Bucks

  3rd Place  College Friend Phil Gocke-Posted blog Comment on 2/11-No $ just                                        recognition. 

Prize money will head out tomorrow.  Cash flow issues on my end….

I am going to finish up my Tax thoughts in a post tomorrow or Wednesday (I am still groggy from my golf weekend) but I want to make some comments about my use of the Clinton’s tax returns.

First I did not have our physical tax return from 2007, only my own “Quicken Data”.  Our 2007 return is in my garage attic in Stowe.  I can attest that I am pretty sure my numbers are very close to what I used for us.  I did however want to get some confirmation data and I realized that at least one of the two NY resident presidential candidates released their tax returns.  From there getting the returns was easy.

Second, about the Clinton’s returns, remember that this was after The “Bush” tax cuts something I do not think (but am not sure) Hillary voted for.  I would also add that a quick look at their 2015 return had about 1/4^th of the income that they had in 2007 with a 61% payout to the items I listed in my last post.  Clearly from a tax perspective they are paying some hefty taxes.  I would add that is in their political interest to be transparent and to be good taxpayers.  I have thought that “tax return” politics (for example how Harry Reed vilified an honest man like Mitt Romney in 2012) has made the legitimate desire to know foreign income or illegal income etc. blossom into a push to make political points on honest people who follow the rules.  Fair game I suppose but as a result we had a presidential election where many decided “who cares” and thus our new president showed politically it was smarter not to show his.  Kind of like political Karma!  Anyway my using The Clintons was not intended to use them in a particularly negative or positive sense, just as a “perspective” and coincided with a year that I realized working harder and longer was not worth it to me, a subject I want to FINALLY get to on my next pos

A parting comment: has anyone seen the John Hamm commercials for HR Block?  It touts using the world’s most powerful computer (Watson) as a tool to help the average guy on their taxes. I first saw it on Super Bowl Sunday and thought why could anyone doubt how bad our current tax system is?    I say it must be terrible that its’ complexity is used as a marketing tool for Tax Preparers and Computer Companies.  Dwell on that over your morning coffee!

Meanwhile,

Adieu.