On Sunday David and I had our "companionship inventory." We discussed our children, upcoming calendar items, and FINANCES. David is a general contractor and owns his own business. (Bad news in the current economy.) I've never had much involvement in his business with the finances or operations, but with the current state of things David felt like it was time I had a clear picture of how things stood. I won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say it takes far more to operate a business than I ever appreciated and things don't look good. One of the biggest expenses he has every month is taxes. I found out that between personal and business taxes he pays almost $2000 MORE a month in taxes than our take-home pay. That's right. We pay more in taxes than we even make. There is something wrong with that system. And with all of the celebrations surrounding Obama's inauguration I'm sick with fear that he's going to raise our taxes even higher. Yes, we need taxes. I appreciate some of the things that taxes can do. But when you tax people to death you limit their capacity to truly grow and prosper. The money David pays in taxes could be spent growing his business and creating new jobs. Do we want to help people less fortunate than us? Absolutely. But with the tax burden we carry we're not able to make that choice. The government makes it for us. And I don't think that's right.
About Me
- Jessi
- Mom of five lovely daughters, wife of one dashing man. Born in Utah, grew up in Oregon, live in Georgia.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
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7 comments:
Oh how I agree with you 100%!! Doesn't it make you sick!??? I hope that we will have change... in that dept and he won't raise them!! We can only pray! I am sorry Jessi!
Email your blog to the White House. If they're going to help Joe the Plumber, then they also need to help David the Contractor!
Loved Michelle's comment.
I'm sorry you had a burdensome financial discussion. They are the worst. I've been working through the finances for the past weeks in our house, since B is far too occupied with work and school to manage them anymore. Just when I got things figured out, his company cut everyone's salary considerable to cut costs. Now I'm juggling the impossible, which saddens me since we live very frugally. I'm concerned for all those employees who don't.
i have many fears about what this man will do to our country. He esteems himself as the "savior"- if you will-- of the united states, when in fact he really has little to do with boosting the economy, other than putting asinine policies into place that only further pull us towards socialism and drag us further into debt! Just something about the fact that his inauguration seemed more like a scene out of Hollywood says to me "something is really wrong here!" To say nothing of the insulting quips on George Bush and during the benediction.
We are all praying!
Oh Jessi, I'm so sorry! I wish money didn't cause us so many problems! I can relate to your frustration! I hope that the changes are such that the real struggling Americans don't get hurt anymore! Can we get a bail out of our financial struggles? Just kidding! I wish Obama the best of luck- he is becoming President at such a rough time and wow, is the pressure on! A lot of people have such high hopes and I would say its the people more than anything that have made him larger than life! I'd be nervous if I were him because you just can't please everyone. I just hope people can put their differences aside and support him so we can make some changes for the better of our nation. I'm hopeful. Just the historic significance of this election alone is pretty amazing. Anyhow, I wrote more than I expected! Just wanted you to know that I feel your pain!
Amen Sister! When I looked at year end pay stubs and realized that we paid more in Taxes this year than we use to bring home in an entire year I was shocked! I realized that having a raise really isn't a raise for us it was a raise for the government to collect more taxes! We worked harder and longer hours that made our raise pennies on the dollar. I can only hope we get some of that hard earned money back and that Obama doesn't raise our taxes more. We get paid on a commission only bases which means if we don't work we don't get paid but, then we get taxed at higher rate because it is commission. Doesn't make any sense if you ask me? I do agree that I'm all for helping people and sharing the wealth but, I would like to be the one who decides what I do and how I share it. The way this tax system is set up is backwards because you get penalized for working harder. The more money you make the higher the percentage of tax...just makes sense why the Law of Tithing is 10% for everyone despite what you make and taxes should be set up the same way. Oh and if we do end up getting money back we get taxed again on that same money on the next years taxes! Crazy!
Boy do I Hear you. Morris the plumber sure could use some breaks also. That's one of the reasons, we went from a big company to a one man operation. It is a very scarey time and those of us who would like to retire soon cannot because our Retirement has lost so much we will have to continue working until we die.
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