Ciao, Bella Biz Whiz:
Last year, I paid $37,234 in income tax even though as a furniture bike courier (wardrobes are killers!) I made only $12,980 - I should probably have a talk with my accountant, but he hasn't returned my calls since I hit him over the head with a Rosh Hashanah brisket a few years back. Don't ask. He deserved it. But, other than that, don't ask.
I just read the New Yoricknuhemwell Times' report on President McDruhitmumpf's taxes. Well, okay, I didn't read the whole thing: that mofo goes on and on and on! And, on! It's like Jason - just when you think it's over, it pops up and eviscerates more teenagers! So, I...I read the headline and the first three paragraphs. But, that was enough to cue the outrage.
For ten of the last 15 years, the President paid no income tax. The year he entered office, he paid $750. To put that in perspective, the last time I paid $750 in income tax, it was on sales on the lemonade stand I ran on weekends in front of my house when I was 12! (It was damn fine lemonade, but still. My troubles with my accountant go way back. Don't ask.)
I voted for McDruhitmumpf in 2016 and will again in 2020. Twice if I have to. He is the most successful businessman in the history of capitalism. Notwithstanding the year he claimed to have lost over a billion dollars. Or, all those other years he lost tens or hundreds of millions of dollars. That happens to every successful businessman, right? Right?
Tell me that happens to every successful businessmen.
The Biz Whiz:
It happens to every successful businessman...named Ronald McDruhitmumpf.
We have a term for people like him: con man. This is not the term as you might casually use it. In economics, a con man is somebody who knows how to work the system to maximize his personal profit. It is a term of endearment you hear frequently at $1,000 a plate fundraisers and fraud trials.
Should the President have been allowed to claim $73,000 in hair care products as a business expense? Those who complain about this are just jealous they didn't think of it first. They should probably be talking to their accountants. And, stop buying the downmarket brands at Walmart. To be successful at business, you have to think - and mousse - big.
Should the President have been allowed to claim millions of dollars in tax writeoffs because of depreciation on his name? In business, your name is everything - especially when it is displayed in six foot tall letters on the thirtieth floor of mixed use apartment/office/spinal surgery buildings. When you take a sandblaster to those letters, you are also sanding down, in the most intrusively noisy, attention-getting way, the owner's reputation. You can't put a price on that, but, for tax purposes, you can certainly make one up.
You may quibble about the morality of the President's actions, but they were all within the letter of the law. And, that's good enough for economics.You really approve of the President's tax strategy? Really?
At the time he was claiming (relative) poverty, he was talking up his properties to get bank loans. There's no such thing as quantum bookkeeping! Your finances don't get to be either positive or negative as long as nobody at the IRS tries to measure them!
Not only that, but in the Reduhblicans' tax cut legislation, somebody inserted a clause that would give breaks to New Yoricknuhemwell land developers. The President is a New Yoricknuhemwell land developer. Conflict of interest much?
I didn't vote for Ronald McDruhitmumpf in 2016, and I wouldn't vote for him in 2020 if Pennsyleorgia hadn't struck my name from the voter's rolls over a parking fine I could have sworn I paid in 2013. I wouldn't vote for him twice, I may not know anything about economics, but I know a con man in the common sense of the term - how can anybody vote for one for President?
The Biz Whiz:
Jealousy is such an ugly emotion.
The economy is too important to be left to economists! If you have a work, financial or otherwise money-centric question, quiz the Biz Whiz at questions@lespagesauxfolles.ca. Emotions have no place in markets. Except for panic selling. But, that only happens on a 12 year cycle, and the only people it affects are the cops and teachers whose unions have invested their retirement funds heavily in the market, so it's not like it inconveniences anybody important.