Death and Taxes
It's not even that the tax bill was voted on in the middle of the night, in such a hurry that key provisions were scrawled in the margins, other elements were hidden on one page and contradicted scores of pages later, and that senators had somewhere between 60-180 minutes to try to digest the 497 pages of it. That's just cowardly, and shows that our elected representatives knew full well that they should be ashamed of the bill.
It's that this bill decimates all that Patrick and I have worked for.
Gladhill Rhone LLC is a small, 2-person company. We don't make a lot of money, but I know we do a lot of good. Each year we work with 30-50 small businesses, mainly non-profits, to help them do better at what they do. In terms of the impact that leveraged, it's priceless.
Almost every dollar we make we put directly back into the economy, supporting other small businesses. I am confident that our tiny, two-person company has more of an effect on our community than if you averaged the per-employee effect of a large corporation like Ecolab (though I am by no means saying that these are not important companies as well). More importantly, for years I have firmly felt like small businesses like ours are the way forward for the innovative, creative future this country needs. As the economy changes and jobs in large factories get eliminated, nimble, service oriented businesses should be the thing this country excels in.
This tax bill disallows our business expenses, crippling our company, while the new tax rates keep our company and personal taxes virtually the same.
Personally, we pay about $20,000 a year in property taxes that support our city's schools, fire and safety, roads, and other services (an amount that is not unusual for the people we know). In general, the bill eliminates or curtails the ability to deduct those from federal taxes; originally, it was no longer going to allow those to be deducted. A last-minute (and rather uncertain) deal with Senator Collins allows partial deductions of up to $10,000.
It eliminates the individual mandate, crippling the ACA, which we rely upon for health care.
It eliminates the personal exemption, and changes deductions, reducing the incentive to donate to charity that my clients rely upon.
And it sells out his country for over a TRILLION dollars in deficit.
Sure, some of that will change in committee. The Senate version includes some elements the House bill does not, like allowing you to deduct medical costs that exceed 7.5% of income (the House bill is 10%, but remember the deduction rules are changing dramatically anyway) — but I expect those to generally get eliminated in reconciliation anyway.
Maybe tomorrow I can suss how to fight this. But today, I'm just despondent, and really really angry.
It's that this bill decimates all that Patrick and I have worked for.
Gladhill Rhone LLC is a small, 2-person company. We don't make a lot of money, but I know we do a lot of good. Each year we work with 30-50 small businesses, mainly non-profits, to help them do better at what they do. In terms of the impact that leveraged, it's priceless.
Almost every dollar we make we put directly back into the economy, supporting other small businesses. I am confident that our tiny, two-person company has more of an effect on our community than if you averaged the per-employee effect of a large corporation like Ecolab (though I am by no means saying that these are not important companies as well). More importantly, for years I have firmly felt like small businesses like ours are the way forward for the innovative, creative future this country needs. As the economy changes and jobs in large factories get eliminated, nimble, service oriented businesses should be the thing this country excels in.
This tax bill disallows our business expenses, crippling our company, while the new tax rates keep our company and personal taxes virtually the same.
Personally, we pay about $20,000 a year in property taxes that support our city's schools, fire and safety, roads, and other services (an amount that is not unusual for the people we know). In general, the bill eliminates or curtails the ability to deduct those from federal taxes; originally, it was no longer going to allow those to be deducted. A last-minute (and rather uncertain) deal with Senator Collins allows partial deductions of up to $10,000.
It eliminates the individual mandate, crippling the ACA, which we rely upon for health care.
It eliminates the personal exemption, and changes deductions, reducing the incentive to donate to charity that my clients rely upon.
And it sells out his country for over a TRILLION dollars in deficit.
Sure, some of that will change in committee. The Senate version includes some elements the House bill does not, like allowing you to deduct medical costs that exceed 7.5% of income (the House bill is 10%, but remember the deduction rules are changing dramatically anyway) — but I expect those to generally get eliminated in reconciliation anyway.
Maybe tomorrow I can suss how to fight this. But today, I'm just despondent, and really really angry.
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