At least many of the ones near the highway did.

 

Ultimately, the point was that even though they are not necessarily linked together, they have become so intertwined that it would be next to impossible to get rid of the step up basis without getting rid of the estate tax and vice versa. What most people do not understand about the estate tax is that while the tax is steep, the step up basis can be more lucrative. Back in 2010 when Steinbrenner died and there was no estate tax, the family would have been better off if there were because they did not get the step up in basis on their long term assets (Yankees) and their basis is pretty much valued at an early 70s value of like 10 million. Whenever they are sold, the government is going to get a huge windfall, or when the current heirs die and are subject to estate tax at the lower basis.

^yes, our farm is far enough from wide road R/Ws, has enough ribbon development, trailer parks and is in a township whose zoning is hostile to anything that doesn't involve TONS of jobs that the land value is still crop-based. This is despite being very close to Rickenbacker and its millions of square feet of warehouses.

 

Re: Steinbrenner, who had an extensive history at Rickenbacker himself as Sports Director... yeah you don't get to re-appraise a business like you do at the farm. Perhaps we should have keyed him into that when he was spending all that time next to it in the '60s. He did OK anyway.

No surprise -- Trump wants to completely eliminate the federal estate tax:

http://www.bostonglobe.com/news/politics/2017/04/26/trump-tax-cut-biggest-all-time-treasury-chief-says/XQveUEGYzZwvjuFENNqcCL/story.html

^ His worthless kids need to eat.

FYI -- you can do your Ohio state taxes on the state's website for just a $1.50 fee.  Only takes about 10 minutes. 

 

Turbotax, etc., often offer "free" federal tax filing and then charge $75~ for the state return. 

The most basic TurboTax might not come with a free state filing, but Deluxe and up come with one free state. If you have income from multiple states though, like I did when I lived in Cincy but worked in NKY, look out.

The most basic TurboTax might not come with a free state filing, but Deluxe and up come with one free state. If you have income from multiple states though, like I did when I lived in Cincy but worked in NKY, look out.

 

I attempted to do my taxes by hand this time for the first time since...1998?  It was harder than I remembered and gave up! 

 

FYI -- you can do your Ohio state taxes on the state's website for just a $1.50 fee.  Only takes about 10 minutes. 

 

Turbotax, etc., often offer "free" federal tax filing and then charge $75~ for the state return.

 

Ohio I file is free:

https://www.tax.ohio.gov/ohio_individual/individual/faqs/ifile.aspx

 

FYI -- you can do your Ohio state taxes on the state's website for just a $1.50 fee.  Only takes about 10 minutes. 

 

Turbotax, etc., often offer "free" federal tax filing and then charge $75~ for the state return. 

 

I usually do the cheapest Turbotax option which I think ends up being maybe $20 or $30 for federal. (You just have to be careful because Turbotax constantly keeps nagging you to "upgrade" to one of their "premium" options.) It also calculates your state taxes but won't file them unless you pay the much higher fee for state taxes. So then I cancel out of the state return and do them manually via the Ohio I-File website.

It only took 20 years but the loophole that enabled consumers to avoid paying sales tax on out-of-state web orders has been closed.  B&H Camera in NYC - the place where I made my first "web" order way back in 1997 or 1998 - thrived because they were able to undercut local camera shops across the country with the sales tax loophole.  For major purchases, the sales tax savings easily outstripped shipping costs.  They have come up with a pretty clever way to encourage repeat business.  

 

Quote

 

Dear Customer,

Everybody likes to save money! I am excited to share B&H’s new way to save you money.

One year ago, the Supreme Court ruled that out-of-state retailers must collect sales tax on online sales. As a result, on August 2nd, B&H will start collecting tax on shipments to Ohio, as required by state law. We have been working hard to develop a solution to eliminate the impact of this ruling on our customers.

Our solution is named Payboo! When you use the new B&H Payboo Credit Card*, you can save the equivalent of the tax — you pay the tax, and we pay you back instantly! Make any purchase at B&H with Payboo, and you will receive an instant reward equal to the sales tax you paid. And at B&H, instant means instant — no expiring points, credits, or coupons to worry about. It’s that simple. (B&H collects and remits state sales tax in accordance with state laws, so all required tax is collected and paid, and B&H issues the instant savings credit to you.)

Payboo is an exciting store credit card with, we believe, the most valuable benefit in the industry — the instant credit equal to the sales tax. As long as you pay your bill on time, you will not incur any interest or other costs. I invite you to apply today at www.BandH.com/payboo.

I know you have many choices where to buy creative tech gear, and I truly appreciate your business. With Payboo, I believe B&H will become an even clearer choice for all your technology needs.

I look forward to a continued great business relationship. Please remember, at B&H the customer always comes first. That’s why we’ve created Payboo to eliminate the impact of sales tax for you.

Please visit us today and start saving!

Thank you,

Menashe Horowitz
CEO

 

 

How do they do this?  Aren't they just eating the sales tax?

I think they bank they're partnering with is betting that people will carry a balance and that the interest rate the buyer pays will offset the sales tax. It's also probably a bad deal with a name as juvenile as "Payboo"

Edited July 30, 20195 yr by GCrites80s

54 minutes ago, jam40jeff said:

How do they do this?  Aren't they just eating the sales tax?

 

Yes and no.  If you buy $100 worth of merchandise in Ohio, they put $7 in your account but you don't get it in cash.  It is applied to your next order.  B&H now sells all sorts of things so people will think to buy whatever that might be (home audio, TV, etc.) from B&H instead of Best Buy since they have that small amount of money in the account.  

 

Now, if you make a truly big purchase, like a new DSLR camera & lenses totaling $4,000, you aren't going to walk away from $280 carried forward to your next purchase.  

 

I do worry that there might be some stipulation that we're not seeing here to discourage people from splitting up their orders in order to take advantage of the...payboo.  Say you want an extra battery for your $1,000 camera, and that battery costs $70.  If you split the order into two orders, you could get the battery for free.  

 

So I suspect there is a 30-day wait or something like that.  

 

 

7 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

Yes and no.  If you buy $100 worth of merchandise in Ohio, they put $7 in your account but you don't get it in cash.  It is applied to your next order.  B&H now sells all sorts of things so people will think to buy whatever that might be (home audio, TV, etc.) from B&H instead of Best Buy since they have that small amount of money in the account.  

 

Now, if you make a truly big purchase, like a new DSLR camera & lenses totaling $4,000, you aren't going to walk away from $280 carried forward to your next purchase.  

 

I do worry that there might be some stipulation that we're not seeing here to discourage people from splitting up their orders in order to take advantage of the...payboo.  Say you want an extra battery for your $1,000 camera, and that battery costs $70.  If you split the order into two orders, you could get the battery for free.  

 

So I suspect there is a 30-day wait or something like that.  

 

 

 

The reward is applied instantly, not on your next order.

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards

 

What are the B&H Payboo Credit Card benefits?

B&H issues instant Payboo Card Savings on all non-tax-exempt purchases shipped to eligible states paid for with the Payboo Card in the form of a reward concurrently issued and redeemed directly on your order during checkout.

How does the Payboo Card benefit really work?

When you use the Payboo Credit Card to pay for purchases made in our SuperStore or shipped to eligible states, B&H will charge the total of the merchandise plus applicable fees and taxes; but we will instantly issue and apply a reward at checkout (you will see "Payboo Card Savings"). Thus, the benefit will be automatically applied, and the Payboo Card will only be charged the net amount.

2 hours ago, jam40jeff said:

 

The reward is applied instantly, not on your next order.

 

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/credit-cards

 

 

 

 

 

Well damn I didn't actually follow the link.  I was just going by the email. 

 

So instead of what I was thinking, it looks like they try to force you into using their store credit card by applying the sales tax discount if and only if you use their card.  Which means you aren't getting the rewards points on your normal credit card. 

 

 

 

Yeah, and they must be banking on people not paying their boo on time with that loan-sharkish 29.99% APR.

Edited July 31, 20195 yr by jam40jeff

19 minutes ago, jam40jeff said:

with that loan-sharkish 29.99% APR.

 

Thanks, Obama Delaware. 

"Payboo" sounds outdated, they should have lured millennials by calling it "paybae."

Paybae is lit!

Californians will vote in November to eliminate their crazy property tax loophole for the renting of inherited properties:

https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2020-10-19/#

 

So people who live in homes left to them by deceased parents will still enjoy ridiculously low property taxes but the taxes will adjust to market rate if the house is rented to renters.  The increases are staggering for beachfront rentals and other hi-end properties.  

Sounds bad for renters overall but good for people sick of dealing with beach bums around town who have been living for cheap in these rentals for 25 years or whatever.

4 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

Sounds bad for renters overall but good for people sick of dealing with beach bums around town who have been living for cheap in these rentals for 25 years or whatever.

 

Those complainers are the same type of people who, if they were able, would not hesitate to turn the beach neighborhoods into a gated community. 

Palos Verdes

15 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

Palos Verdes

 

It's amazing how lonely so much of Los Angeles feels.  Palos Verdes is terrible as is much of Malibu, Bel-Air, and so on.  The Hollywood Hills is a good place to waste 15 years of your life doing pills. 

 

The last time I was in LA you could see how Venice was starting to go yuppie tech bro.  Oh well, I'm glad I got to experience it years ago before the riffraff showed up. 

 

 

This guy is going to save $28,000/mo by moving his youtube business to Las Vegas:

 

 

With Americans being "entertained" more and more by user-created content, including Youtube and video game people on Twitch, the number of people watching studio-produced content is going to continue to fall.  The solo creators of this stuff are going to increasingly move out of California and move to the low-tax states like Nevada and Texas.  I think we're going to see Hollywood more or less collapse like the record business and exist as a shell of its current self by 2030. 

 

On 10/19/2020 at 10:38 PM, jmecklenborg said:

 

It's amazing how lonely so much of Los Angeles feels.  Palos Verdes is terrible as is much of Malibu, Bel-Air, and so on.  The Hollywood Hills is a good place to waste 15 years of your life doing pills. 

 

The last time I was in LA you could see how Venice was starting to go yuppie tech bro.  Oh well, I'm glad I got to experience it years ago before the riffraff showed up. 

 

 

 

It drives me insane how much the "nice" neighborhoods of LA are all hidden behind giant hedges. I get it, if you're a movie star or whatever you don't want people bothering you all the time, but it really does make Beverly Hills etc look super desolate compared to the wealthy neighborhoods of the Midwest and East. If I'm building a cool house, I want to show that off to the world, not hide it behind a 10 foot privacy fence. 

 

That's why West Adams is probably my favorite neighborhood in the city. Mainly because it feels like Clifton or something instead of a hedge maze. 

Doug DeMuro moved to San Diego because of rain. Filming in the rain obviously sucks and people didn't want their cars out in it. California might lose people to taxes but California picks up others because of rain.

7 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

This guy is going to save $28,000/mo by moving his youtube business to Las Vegas:

 

 

With Americans being "entertained" more and more by user-created content, including Youtube and video game people on Twitch, the number of people watching studio-produced content is going to continue to fall.  The solo creators of this stuff are going to increasingly move out of California and move to the low-tax states like Nevada and Texas.  I think we're going to see Hollywood more or less collapse like the record business and exist as a shell of its current self by 2030. 

 

A number of years ago my wife's grandfather used to winter in Florida every year. He was an accountant by trade. On one of the trips my mother in law was frustrated with the long drive she had to make to drop him off in Florida and she asked why he just did not move full time to Florida and make that his permanent residency instead of living in small town Northern Ohio where he really knew nobody anymore.  After going through his head, as an accountant would, how much extra tax he was paying by keeping his permanent residence in Ohio, he changed his residency to Florida the next week. 

8 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

With Americans being "entertained" more and more by user-created content, including Youtube and video game people on Twitch, the number of people watching studio-produced content is going to continue to fall.  The solo creators of this stuff are going to increasingly move out of California and move to the low-tax states like Nevada and Texas.  I think we're going to see Hollywood more or less collapse like the record business and exist as a shell of its current self by 2030. 

 

It took the record business a decade to figure out streaming, but it's slowly creeping back to its 1998 peak. 

 

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

 

We will always need content creators, and let's face it, no one is going to make Star Wars in their basement anytime soon.  So yes, Hollywood will feel some effects, but I can't seeing it collapsing, or becoming a shell of its current self.  

1 hour ago, Cleburger said:

 

It took the record business a decade to figure out streaming, but it's slowly creeping back to its 1998 peak. 

 

The video game industry is already 2x larger than the movie business and much of that is due to streaming revenue.  The overwhelming majority of movie revenue comes from box office receipts, not renting or streaming.  People won't pay as much to stream a movie in their home as they'll pay to watch it in a movie theater, and streaming can't control how many people are watching in a living room.  If movie theaters disappear, the movie industry will not have any idea how many people actually watched a particular movie.  

 

As for music, the American youth population is 25% larger in 2020 than it was in 2000.  The "rebound" of the music industry is a lot less impressive when that is taken into account.  

 

 

 

The music business is spread out over so many acts as compared to the old days too so nobody gets rich except shareholders.

The other thing with video games is that they get $50-60 a piece new and are still worth something used. This isn't going to last much longer though. A new DVD can still get $25 in the right setting but that plunges to $3-4 once it is opened.

40 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

The music business is spread out over so many acts as compared to the old days too so nobody gets rich except shareholders.

 

And that's a problem.  Top musicians need to be rich for them to have broad pop influence.  Everyone from the Rolling Stones onward to Fred Durst was getting rich and dating supermodels.  Now the best a young guitar player can hope for is appearing on a Guitar Center podcast.  

There's also no motivation to pick one genre over another since none are dominant and everything is available to everybody.

17 minutes ago, Cleburger said:

 

It took the record business a decade to figure out streaming, but it's slowly creeping back to its 1998 peak. 

 

https://www.riaa.com/u-s-sales-database/

 

We will always need content creators, and let's face it, no one is going to make Star Wars in their basement anytime soon.  So yes, Hollywood will feel some effects, but I can't seeing it collapsing, or becoming a shell of its current self.  

Hollywood will always be there to some extent, but it is not going to remain as the concentrated power base it is today. taxes play a role in things, but the bigger thing is places like Netflix and Amazon and their own production companies. Yes, Netflix is in CA, but not Hollywood, they are taking influence away from the Hollywood area. 

The big change I think that will be happening is that the new technology lowers the cost of production of material and YouTube and the other streaming competitors out there provide more channels for distribution than were previously availalbe and only available through Hollywood connections. Now, you can set up a small studio in a garage or even a basement, have much cheaper labor costs elsewhere, including lower taxes, and still produce high quality work and have it distributed on a national platform. 

1 hour ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

The video game industry is already 2x larger than the movie business and much of that is due to streaming revenue.  The overwhelming majority of movie revenue comes from box office receipts, not renting or streaming.  People won't pay as much to stream a movie in their home as they'll pay to watch it in a movie theater, and streaming can't control how many people are watching in a living room.  If movie theaters disappear, the movie industry will not have any idea how many people actually watched a particular movie.  

 

As for music, the American youth population is 25% larger in 2020 than it was in 2000.  The "rebound" of the music industry is a lot less impressive when that is taken into account.  

 

 

 

Much to your point Jake, I remember reading an article a few years ago talking about how Spotify, Itunes, Pandora, etc. have made it harder for the struggling musician to break into the market and get acceptance of their music. People used to buy albums and it propped up other music and created a following. Now they buy the one song, that song is much cheaper than the album and the musician does not receive as much from a download than they would if they sold an entire album. There is less of a demand for a tour if the general public only knows the singer as a one hit wonder and it depresses their ability to market themselves on tour as much. The article indiciated that big acts like Taylor Swift benefitted from the new model but becoming the next Taylor Swift was going to be a lot harder. 

Hmmm, I can imagine that Amazon especially wants to be in the movies so it can have lots of Hollywood-style losses to apply to other business entities. Probably why Gulf-Western bought Paramount BITD.

35 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

 Now, you can set up a small studio in a garage or even a basement, have much cheaper labor costs elsewhere, including lower taxes, and still produce high quality work and have it distributed on a national platform. 

 

A ring light used to be an exotic photo and video light tool.  The very cheapest one I can remember from 20 years ago was bout $500 and a real pro-quality one was over $2,000.  Now everyone and their stepmom has an $88 ring light with variable color temp and other features that didn't exist before LEDs:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1490918-REG/gvm_gvm_hd_18s_gvm_hd_18s_55w_bc.html

 

 

 

32 minutes ago, Brutus_buckeye said:

Much to your point Jake, I remember reading an article a few years ago talking about how Spotify, Itunes, Pandora, etc. have made it harder for the struggling musician to break into the market and get acceptance of their music. People used to buy albums and it propped up other music and created a following. Now they buy the one song, that song is much cheaper than the album and the musician does not receive as much from a download than they would if they sold an entire album. There is less of a demand for a tour if the general public only knows the singer as a one hit wonder and it depresses their ability to market themselves on tour as much. The article indiciated that big acts like Taylor Swift benefitted from the new model but becoming the next Taylor Swift was going to be a lot harder. 

 

The problem is that a few things do break through every year (i.e. Old Town Road) which give hope to everyone else. 

 

What's really crazy is that in the 90s quite a number of people who started indie or punk record labels made *a ton* of money - some of those guys made over $10 million.  But indie labels aren't possible at all anymore because there is no physical product to sell other than 7" vinyl records and there is no indie streaming method.  

 

 

 

 

50 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

Hmmm, I can imagine that Amazon especially wants to be in the movies so it can have lots of Hollywood-style losses to apply to other business entities. Probably why Gulf-Western bought Paramount BITD.

 

 

I thought the way it works is the movie takes huge paper losses while the real profits flow up to the parent co, in order to screw over the actors/writers/etc on royalties.

I bet they like that too.

22 minutes ago, mu2010 said:

 

 

I thought the way it works is the movie takes huge paper losses while the real profits flow up to the parent co, in order to screw over the actors/writers/etc on royalties.

 

Correct.  It's called Hollywood Accounting:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_accounting

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

And that's a problem.  Top musicians need to be rich for them to have broad pop influence.  Everyone from the Rolling Stones onward to Fred Durst was getting rich and dating supermodels.  Now the best a young guitar player can hope for is appearing on a Guitar Center podcast.  

 

And top musicians will continue to be rich--from touring.   The Rolling Stones would have made hundreds of millions this summer if their tour had happened.   The young guitar player?  He needs to build a fan base and get on the road. 

In my opinion if we lose a few music venues due to the pandemic it's actually a good thing for live music overall (obviously bad for the venue owners and the people who work there). There were far too many shows scheduled per week with nobody at them ever since Couchlock began kicking in around Y2K. Now with Couchlock turbocharged into Universal Couchlock by 2010 by limitless in-home entertainment options and DUIs For Everyone the number of venues and shows booked remained almost the same as it was in the '90s when you had to leave your home for entertainment that wasn't sitcoms! Each show needs more people at them post-pandemic.

Edited October 23, 20204 yr by GCrites80s

On 10/22/2020 at 1:15 AM, jmecklenborg said:

The solo creators of this stuff are going to increasingly move out of California and move to the low-tax states like Nevada and Texas.

 

Well, it probably makes sense for a clickbaity real estate investment YouTuber bro to make a big deal about moving out of California and "getting a house for free!" Just think of how much content this stunt will generate for his channel!

 

However I think many smaller YouTubers/podcasters/etc. are already living in lower cost of living places, working from their basement, and probably don't make enough money that moving to another state to save some money on taxes would be worth their while. And I don't think most normal people decide where to live based on tax rates. For most people it's probably last on the list after proximity to friends/family, job opportunities, livability, culture, etc.

 

Also, notice that the only thing he mentioned in that video was income tax. No mention of property taxes, sales tax, or even cost of living differences. I am always puzzled why some people get so livid about income taxes specifically but never seem to talk about the total tax burden or total cost of living.

^Because The Right constantly pushes the income tax narrative but stays mute on "hidden" taxes since they vary so much per location and are more likely to be regressive.

6 minutes ago, taestell said:

Also, notice that the only thing he mentioned in that video was income tax. No mention of property taxes, sales tax, or even cost of living differences. I am always puzzled why some people get so livid about income taxes specifically but never seem to talk about the total tax burden or total cost of living.

Totally agree. I feel it’s because math is hard and tax at source is easier to see and comprehend. It’s also easier to make it support your ‘smart life choices’ narrative that these people get so enamored with. Consumption taxes are kinda hard to avoid unless you stop consuming. 

1 hour ago, roman totale XVII said:

Totally agree. I feel it’s because math is hard and tax at source is easier to see and comprehend. It’s also easier to make it support your ‘smart life choices’ narrative that these people get so enamored with. Consumption taxes are kinda hard to avoid unless you stop consuming. 

 

Well this guy bought a much more expensive house than he needed to.  The average cost of a 3-bedroom home in Las Vegas is around $300,000.  The larger home means his property tax dues are much higher and he will have higher eventual maintenance costs on the house.  

 

The guy is making about $100,000/mo with 2 million subscribers, so he can afford the big house until YouTube changes its pay structure and it takes 15 hours of original content per day to pay as much as 15 minutes per day currently.  

 

I couldn't believe it but I brought this guy up with some new people I met last night and they had all heard of him.  

 

 

 

13 minutes ago, jmecklenborg said:

 

 

The guy is making about $100,000/mo with 2 million subscribers, so he can afford the big house until YouTube changes its pay structure and it takes 15 hours of original content per day to pay as much as 15 minutes per day currently.  

 

 

And that can happen at ANY time. Or they just make up some rule to de-monetize you, like you're too popular with people that have adblockers, or too many protected corporate logos showed up in your stuff.

3 minutes ago, GCrites80s said:

And that can happen at ANY time. Or they just make up some rule to de-monetize you, like you're too popular with people that have adblockers, or too many protected corporate logos showed up in your stuff.

 

A guy I worked with for five years quit about three months ago to stream video games on Twitch full-time.  When he quit he had about 200 followers and was making about $1,000/mo.  

 

The guy is such a hot head that I heard he was gaining followers who joined just to harass him.  So all he has to do is say the wrong thing once and he's done and begging for his old job back.