I Would Have Preferred Some Help On The Tax Bill, Flake!

He got a seat next to T, as a reward for voting for the tax bill? There must be a lot of deal making.

It probably goes without saying, (and we saw this with our own Mayor Ed Lee with Jane Kim’s lil housing roommate legislation) but if you really feel strongly against a policy, speak up and do something about it if you can since that is what your constituents would want you to do. Don’t just go with the freaking party line!!!

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It’s interesting you still think it’s going to be bad for you. All the evidence is mounting that it’l be good for most of us.

Well, I def haven’t looked into it as much as you cats (thinking it is not etched in stone yet, so why worry about it) but things like the capital gains exclusion change from 2 out of 5 to 5 out 8 might very well impact me. I def itemize quite a bit so I am worried I might get hit there. Anything that on the surface that has the potential to make home buying less attractive should be a concern to us as a collective, no? Sure, if you are a landlord you may come out ahead. I am thinking along the lines of how the stock market behaves: certainty or no rocking of the boat is great, but once questions or uncertainty about the future arises then you see markets taking dives. We had it pretty good…

Lower taxes = higher corporate earnings which is bullish for stocks.

I think this will be good for RE investors. Might need to get a little creative in structure and use LLC or S-corp. You should be able to get taxes at the 20% corporate rate vs the much higher personal rate. Granted, I think most landlords try to show very, very little profit. That’s one of the great advantages of RE investing.

Right, so then now I have to look into doing a LLC and get boned up about that. Yes, change in life is inevitable but frankly I got accustomed to our current tax laws. It is like that cozy, old bathrobe. Sure, you can afford a brand new spanking one, but why? What for?

You’ll be able to file your taxes on a postcard then. :slight_smile:

Short term the GOP tax bill is good for capitalists aka stock and home owners but long term it’s bad for economy and America. I want a sustainable future for me and my kids not just save a few K’s a year for the next 5 to 10 years.

I think is good for my Nevada property.
I think a flood of people will seek a Nevada address to establish a Nevada residence… Where they can pretend to live outside California for at least 6 months

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Generally agree with you except I’m not sure it’ll be good for RE prices for high priced areas such as BA

I think it will reduce housing supply thus push up home prices. With higher prices you can get a bigger HELOC line for example. Although you have to wait 5 years before you can use the 500K tax-free quota. That’s not as big a problem as people think. Most people stay in their houses longer than 5 years anyway.

I also don’t buy the argument that lower property tax deduction will hurt house prices. If you look at how much each house gets overbid that dwarfs whatever property tax people have to pay. It’s not a big deal for rich people, and you sort of have to be rich to buy a house here anyway.

Analysts such as Moody’s don’t agree with that view.

However, I wish & hope you’re right.

Who do you think creates the companies and jobs your kids will probably work?

Moody’s also said subprime MBS were AAA. How accurate are their last forecasts?

It could hurt the second home market…

We do not lack company and job creation before this bill. Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook etc were all formed in the “high tax” era before this bill landed.

To flip the question, why do you think all these companies that kick the world’s ass happened to be American companies? There are many other countries with lower tax rates.

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The foundation of America’s greatness was laid a long time ago. We became the world’s largest economy around 1900. That set the foundation for generations of success. We became #1 without income tax and government spending less than 5% of GDP. Silicon Valley didn’t invent the American entrepreneurial spirit. That happened back in the industrial revolution. It happened back when the West was settled. It happened back when people came here for the chance to own land.

The hitech industry mostly does not compete on tax rates. Rate is a little higher or lower, does not change the big picture. But some other industries do compete on tax rates (or the tax rate is more critical in influencing decisions) and they are what the tax cut is targeting, although it remains to be seen whether the tax cut can really bring manufacturing back.

On the budget deficit front, in the end it may not be a bad thing. It brings closer the time the nation has to face the budget deficit issue and find a long-term solution, instead of kicking it down the road like what’s been happening. Everyone knows it’s not sustainable, but the right amount of political will to make changes is never reachable until the pressure really mounts and it becomes the mother of all crisis’s. Maybe the solution is to reduce spending, or maybe the solution is to raise taxes. The sooner we can put a solution in place the better it is for the nation.

So at the very least 100 years of income tax didn’t hurt America. In fact it kept on getting stronger.

I draw a different conclusion. Foundation of Silicon Valley itself was laid in the 50s by the defense contractors. Without more revenue from taxes USA won’t have a world beating military, and without that no need for defense R&D. America also benefits a lot from the GI Bill and world class research universities. Most of today’s infrastructure like highway and the UC system were built in the 50s and 60s with tax dollars.

Maybe you could play revisionist historian and argue everything could have happened with no government spending. All I know is they were in fact funded by tax dollars.

Looking globally, I see countries like China which is not shy at all throwing government resources at problems. I have to wonder if we are losing our competitiveness by our lack of investment.

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Honest question. Which part of the tax code will help bring manufacturing back? Our labor unit cost is still much higher than say China. I think some companies are bringing back manufacturing to be done by robots though.