In theory, he should be able to hire more kids…if they aren’t spending the summer in educational camps.
Yup. My husband uses this argument for why inflation is a great thing and we should be scared if we don’t have it.
Your husband is right. Inflation is a wonderful thing. Look at the alternative. We almost had it 10 years ago and we were scared to death.
He’d be right if he had a mortgage too. He’s not following his own advice.
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Say whatever you want. The economic results are speaking for themselves, and they are shouting.
i keep hearing very low unemployment is not very good, why is that?
People are worried it’ll cause too high of inflation which will cause faster interest rate increases. Inflation is tricky. You want a moderate amount. Too much or too little and it can be bad for the economy.
Unemployment isn’t the best measure anyway. You only count as unemployed if you’re lookkng for a job. People that give up don’t count. Labor force participation is still historically low. A lot of those people will re-enter the work force if the economy keeps improving. That’ll help keep wage inflation reasonable.
Some taxpayers may be able to employ what is referred to as the “bunching” strategy as a workaround. This strategy has the taxpayer taking the standard deduction one year and itemizing the next. This is accomplished by doubling up charitable contributions in one year and skipping donations the next year, deferring or pre-paying medical expenses where possible, and paying state estimates in advance for the year of itemizing and prepaying all assessed property taxes, while keeping in mind that the maximum deduction for taxes in any year is $10,000. This strategy should only be used if the shifting of deductions results in total itemized deductions being greater than the year’s standard deduction.
This one is unexpected…
Married couples contemplating divorce will have to understand how the law changes will affect their situation and whether they should finalize the divorce before the end of the year. Currently, alimony is deductible by the payer and taxable to the recipient. Tax reform has changed that long-standing rule for divorce agreements entered into after December 31, 2018, or pre-existing agreements that are modified after that date, to include a new provision saying that alimony is no longer deductible by the payer and is not income to the recipient. Of course, the treatment of alimony can be adversarial and can also be a planning issue for 2018.
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On cash out refinance of a rental, is the full interest deductible or only the portion of interest on the original loan balance?