U.S. Fiscal Cliff

[Salodin]

Waiting till next week to see my paycheck =( dreading what I see...

[Callisto]

Get my first today, this plus 20% raise in insurance costs plus 12 hours unpaid sick time from last week is going to sting lol

[Ragnus]

Kinda wondering how my change in withholdings will affect my paycheck also. Going from two withholdings to none. It may impact some or all of the trips I want to take this year.

[Callisto]

wonder if I can write EVO off as a mental health trip and throw my HSA at that shit

[Ragnus]

How much did that cost ya last year anyway because that's the trip that's under jeopardy for me now.

[Talint]

By pork, do you mean money that representatives bring to their districts or states?

I generally refer to it as unwanted/unrelated spending that only benefits a certain area/state/district.

[Callisto]

How much did that cost ya last year anyway because that's the trip that's under jeopardy for me now.

We got a budget deal on the room/flight, I think total including food/spending there we dropped $1k for two people

[Ragnus]

Oh wow. That's way more affordable than I thought it was going to be. Might even be able to bring the fiance along as a cheerleader for when I get bodied to kingdom come. <_<;

[tyven]

vegas is mad cheap to stay in, the casinos make all their money off the gambling so rooms are cheap as fuck. everything else is expensive as fuck tho. but you can generally do a trip there hella through expedia or whatever

[Callisto]

11.7% to insurance(high-deductible single coverage), 22.16% of what remained to combined taxes, shoutouts to only taking home 69% of gross, lol.

Still not too huge of a change though.

[Salodin]

Saddened how all the middle and lower class people in this thread are changing plans and generally going "sigh" over the changes. Really didn't think it was gonna be like this, and its only with 2% increase in taxes. Not even including the get out of jail free card businesses get blaming the higher taxes to cut raises, benefits, whatever they want with every one just having to take it cause they need the job.

[Callisto]

Saddened how all the middle and lower class people in this thread are changing plans and generally going "sigh" over the changes. Really didn't think it was gonna be like this, and its only with 2% increase in taxes. Not even including the get out of jail free card businesses get blaming the higher taxes to cut raises, benefits, whatever they want with every one just having to take it cause they need the job.

2% of a middle-class income(I'll go with 50k gross, though that's substantially more than I make) is a solid grand, that's easily a month's mortgage, or a vacation, or a downpayment on a new car for that bracket where those things can be a luxury. '2%' sounds minuscule on paper, but easily enough to feel it. That's the entire year of electric utility service to me.

[Acevalefor]

'2%' sounds minuscule on paper, but easily enough to feel it. That's the entire year of electric utility service to me.

Damn...That's 3.5 months of electric for me. I think I am getting robbed by PGE...

[Jaybar]

Question, shouldn't everyone's checks that are going out today be for the pay period prior to 2013? As in, the last week of December? So why are there increases already? Some weird fiscal loophole? My paycheck didn't seem to change yet (direct deposit), but I will have to compare the taxes when I go in tomorrow and collect the check.

Reason I ask is that our pay period ends/starts on Mondays (so, Dec. 31st) and we don't collect until later that week. Wasn't sure if that's similar to others that are reporting already.

[Callisto]

Damn...That's 3.5 months of electric for me. I think I am getting robbed by PGE...

Depends if you have a house, I have an apartment the size of a shoebox and gas heat/stove fwiw

[Seraph]

Saddened how all the middle and lower class people in this thread are changing plans and generally going "sigh" over the changes. Really didn't think it was gonna be like this, and its only with 2% increase in taxes. Not even including the get out of jail free card businesses get blaming the higher taxes to cut raises, benefits, whatever they want with every one just having to take it cause they need the job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog

[Callisto]

Question, shouldn't everyone's checks that are going out today be for the pay period prior to 2013? As in, the last week of December? So why are there increases already? Some weird fiscal loophole? My paycheck didn't seem to change yet (direct deposit), but I will have to compare the taxes when I go in tomorrow and collect the check.

Reason I ask is that our pay period ends/starts on Mondays (so, Dec. 31st) and we don't collect until later that week. Wasn't sure if that's similar to others that are reporting already.

I believe you're right, I need to press bosses hard on that raise next week lol

[Kuya]

I generally refer to it as unwanted/unrelated spending that only benefits a certain area/state/district.

Oh i get it. It's unwanted/unrelated when it's pork for a district/state that isn't the one you live in. And even if that's not what you mean, most people who complain about pork are idiots.

This happens all the damn time. Constituents want money to be brought into their districts/states for a variety of reasons, and when representatives do that, constituents like it. But constituents tend to feel that money brought into other districts/states that aren't theirs is a waste. It's also the same reason why people consistently rate their own representatives positively, but they rate Congress overall negatively, because in essence they don't like every other Representative except their own representative.

Everytime i see someone complain about pork i can't help but roll my eyes. It never seems to occur to them that pork is also the money that goes into their own towns to create the jobs and fix the infrastructure they keep asking for. Worse still is the politician that rails against pork publically because they know the public hates the word pork.

[Tyche]

Taxes aren't based on pay periods, it's based on when you collect the income. This is why you can actually do most of your taxes based off of your last check. That's what your W2 information is derived from; if you worked for 3 or 4 days after your last paycheck but in the previous year but get paid for those days in the new year, that income is reported in the new year because...well, because that income is collected in the new year even though it's earned in the previous year.

[Cyn]

I think that actually depends. My fiancee is an accountant and she was explaining to me the other day that a lot of businesses report the income when it's earned, not when payment is rendered. Not sure if you have the option of doing it that way for personal income taxes though unless you're self employed. /shrug