Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/29/trump-takes-on-fat-cat-teacher.html
Tom the Dancing Bug, IN WHICH President Trump takes on those selfish teachers and their tax avoidance schemes!
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Something something rampant anti-intellectualism…
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This is such a one-sided depiction of the GOP tax plan. For example, it completely ignores the fact that teachers will now be able to deduct the cost of any private jets they buy for educational purposes.
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It’s funny because - /breaks down crying
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Double the deduction if it’s for a field trip to a Trump branded property.
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Young Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones is far superior to him as Han Solo. Just sayin’. :3
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I’m in the same boat- musicians tend to have high expenses as we’re expected to buy our own instruments and pay for their maintenance and such.
However, unlike the author of the comic, I spent at least 1 1/2 minutes thinking about this. The higher standard deduction will, most likely most of the time, cover the same amount. Basically now everyone gets the same deduction without doing the favored behavior. We have high employee expenses and live in CA (mentioned because of the interest/local tax deduction) and I just glanced back through my records- all of our Schedule A will be swallowed up by the increase in the standard deduction from 12 to 24k.
I’m generally seeing on google teachers spending and average of around $500/year on school supplies. Even if we take outliers that spend 5k, that will easily be swallowed up by the increase in the standard deductible. So no, teachers are not losing their deduction for those supplies, it’s in that additional 6-12k.
Not that I’m happy about it, my preference would be to go the opposite way and remove the 2% AGI subtraction from Schedule A. But we are exactly the profile of people who should be getting shafted by this and at least according to what I’ve read we’re simply not.
He kind of sucked as an archaeologist though. He destroyed at least 2-3 UNESCO World Heritage sites in every movie.
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You’re not in exactly “the same boat” unless your musical instruments are used solely towards educating our nation’s youth…
The current plan provides some specific relief for teachers who spend their own money to further the education of their students. The proposed plan does not. The fact that it increases everyone’s standard deduction is beside the point.
Also - the increase in standard deduction is actually far from doubling -
Here’s how that math works. Let’s say you are single with no dependents, and you have a moderate income. Currently, you get to take the standard deduction ($6,350) and one personal exemption ($4,050). If you are 65 or older, you also get to take an additional standard deduction ($1,250). That adds up to $10,400, or $11,650 if you’re over 65.
The Republican plan would replace all these provisions with a single deduction of $12,000. That’s a 15% increase — except for seniors, who get a 3% increase.
For married couples, all the relevant amounts are doubled under the current tax code and under the Republican proposal, so the percent changes would be the same
If you have children, your fate is uncertain. The plan would abolish the $4,050 exemption you get to take for each of your dependent children. But it would also increase the child tax credit — by an unspecified amount. Once that amount is specified, you’ll be able to figure out whether you face a tax increase or a tax cut or what.
Meanwhile, taxpayers who itemize their tax deductions for things like mortgage interest and state and local taxes would pay tax on more of their income under the Republican plan. The proposal says “most” itemized deductions would be abolished anyway, but those for mortgage interest and charitable giving would be retained.
Currently, you get to take the personal exemption even if you also itemize deductions, but you get to take the standard deduction only if you forego itemized deductions. Combining these provisions into a single, standard deduction would mean itemizers lose their personal exemption and get nothing back — meaning they’ll typically pay tax on an extra $4,050 of income if they’re single, or $8,100 if they’re married.
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Teaching - where we steal supplies from home and bring them to work.
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These have stopped being funny, and not because of any drop in quality.
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So, the new tax plan provides a disincentive for teachers to subsidize their classrooms with supplies? Either creating deficiencies in the classroom that’s now missing supplies or driving up the school expenses to actually provide those supplies. Which means having deficiencies, since if the school could provide the supplies it would already be doing that.
So, instead of teachers getting back a small percentage of the money they spend on school supplies for their classrooms, they’ll just not buy any.
Not the same at all.
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[quote=“jtiii, post:10, topic:111826”]
The current plan provides some specific relief for teachers who spend their own money to further the education of their students. [/quote]
Ah, I was unaware that the deduction was taken from AGI directly on the 1040 and not on schedule A. The stupid subtract-2%-of-AGI would normally wipe out such a small amount, which is why I suppose they got a carve out on AGI. That 2% pisses me off, so I guess good for them?
I also didn’t realize the personal exemption was going away. That does change the math, but to the extent that is partially offset elsewhere it’s fine with me, I disagree that we give tax deductions for kids in the first place. That chart shows that this disproportionately affects families with more kids, but that deduction shouldn’t have existed in the first place, and that’s an issue that isn’t specific to teachers.
One of the things that makes it so hard to rationally discuss taxes (and of course that goes double for anything involving teachers, for other reasons) is that everyone reacts according to the current baseline . It reminds me of the saying “removal of privilege feels like oppression”- removal of a break feels like getting screwed. There is a lot to dislike about the tax bill and I sure felt a lot better when it looked like they didn’t have the votes. But this particular thing is such small potatoes that I think both sides look petty- I’m guessing the average increase in dollars-out-of-pocket for a teacher taking the maximum deduction will be somewhere around $40. And that’s only if they have 2 or more kids. Individual teachers and couples with 1 or less kids won’t be affected at all. (AFAICT).
[quote=“mmascari, post:14, topic:111826”]
So, the new tax plan provides a disincentive for teachers to subsidize their classrooms with supplies? Either creating deficiencies in the classroom that’s now missing supplies or driving up the school expenses to actually provide those supplies. Which means having deficiencies, since if the school could provide the supplies it would already be doing that.
So, instead of teachers getting back a small percentage of the money they spend on school supplies for their classrooms, they’ll just not buy any.[/quote]
Did they not buy any before 2002? The deduction was put in to reflect that teachers were doing so, even without the deduction. Every article I’ve read where they interview a teacher they essentially say it’s just a nice gesture, not something that alters their behavior.
Of course schools should be providing what teachers need. But school funding is a completely different problem from structuring federal revenue. Which is another reason this whole kerfuffle is dumb.
Also, there is nothing preventing state governments that have income tax from doing this at the state level. How this is a federal thing I just don’t even.
Only to the extent that their unreimbursed employee expenses were deemed more special than everyone else’s, which IMO is nonsense.
Attacking teachers. Slashing school funding. Cutting back on days of schooling for public schools [1].
You’re eating the seed corn, and have been for years.
http://www.ncsl.org/research/education/school-calendar-four-day-school-week-overview.aspx
[1] Full of poor/PoC kids. The white middle class schools aren’t doing this.
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