General

Yes, the taxes are done. I remember when my dad was 90 years old and one of his last requests was about his income tax return. He reminded me that it needed to be prepared and filed. Few things in life cause as much stress as income tax compliance. There may be a penalty if the filing deadline isn’t met and there are underpayment penalties too.

Most American workers have taxes withheld from every paycheck. The IRS knows exactly how much W2 workers make.

According to the National Tax Payers Union taxpayers spend $104 billion a year on out-of-pocket expenses associated with preparing and submitting tax forms. Some entail basic costs such as making copies of financial statements, receipts, or forms.

The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), found that complying with the tax code in 2022 consumed 6.55 billion hours for recordkeeping, learning about the law, filling out the required forms and schedules, and submitting information to the IRS.

For those of us who are self-employed, record-keeping is a daily part of running a business. It isn’t just for determining profit and loss it is all about having everything we need at tax time. Income tax compliance costs time and money, time that could be spent making more money.

Taxes are not withheld from any of my revenue. I have to calculate how much I owe and make payments. If I estimate too high and pay too much, it is best to apply what could be a refund to the next year’s taxes. If I pay too little I have to write big checks. I know plenty of people who are interested in self-employment but believe that their taxes would go up or that taxes make self-employment too risky.

I keep records as I go and almost everything is automated it takes me about three hours to gather all of the information I need to file an income tax return. I used to have to spend entire weekends working on income tax returns. Usually, warm sunny spring weekends when the birds are singing and the flowers are blooming.

Once I have all of the forms and documentation put together I pay a professional to do my taxes. Yes, I can do them myself but hiring a pro takes some of the stress out of the process. I learn something new each tax season and that helps me make better choices throughout the year. I actually mostly understand my taxes.

As for using tax preparation software, no thanks. I have used it in the past. I would call it a “bad experience” all the way around.

Supposedly the IRS is understaffed but they always have the time and the staff to find small errors in the tax returns that come from small businesses. I am not going to argue over a few dollars even if I don’t owe it.

When I am on my deathbed bed I am not going to worry about taxes. If I die owing taxes I am OK with that.

In some countries, taxes are paid online using a simple free form. In the U.S. taxes are a multi-billion dollar industry that isn’t going away anytime soon. Neither are the  74,608 pages of U.S.tax code or the 79,000 IRS employees.

Yes, it is President’s Day today. So far there have been 46 presidents of the United States. So far all but one have been white. White men make up approximately 31% of the US population.

Both of my US senators are women as is my state senator. Our Saint Paul City council is all women, but there has never been a female St. Paul mayor or Minnesota Governor. I like to think that at least we are building a pipeline and maybe sometime in the next 100 years we will elect a female president of the United States.

Women have had the right to vote for the last 104 years, but do not have equal rights. The Equal Rights Amendment failed in the Senate again last year. Women’s reproductive rights have been taken away in several states and women are dying because of it. We seem to be going backward. Let’s go forward.

Happy President’s Day!

One of the first things I do when I meet is search for them on social media. I always find it a little disturbing when I can not find someone on social media but some people just don’t use it.

If you are selling your house you might want to take care about posting anything that might weaken your negotiating power. Avoid posting anything about being in a hurry to sell.  Buyers will pick up on anything that sounds desperate and use it to their advantage.

It is best not to answer too many questions or post that the real reason you are selling is because you hate the house and the neighborhood.  Keep everything positive.

Home buyers should take care about what they post on Facebook recognizing that the sellers may see it. They will check you out every way they can before accepting your offer.

There are plenty of scams on social media too and it is a great place for the crooks to collect information they can use for fraud.

Posting that your house is on the market with a link to more information about it is usually a good idea. If you are not being represented by a real estate agent you may receive many messages and comments from local agents.

Personally, I don’t crowd-source advice about anything on Facebook. My friends are wonderful but they are rarely the best source of advice about money, home repairs, or health care.

Remember real estate is local. Advice from friends who have bought or sold real estate in other states may not apply to your situation.

Please be careful out there.

 

In real estate, MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service. When a Realtor lists your house it goes on the MLS and from there it gets fed to real estate portal sites on the internet. Zillow and Realtor dot com and Homes dot com are the largest real estate portals. The listings also get fed to real estate company websites like Edina Realty,

The MLS, NorthstarMLS in our region is the source of homes for sale. Without the service, we wouldn’t know about homes that are for sale. Kind of like in my neighborhood where many homes are sold by word of mouth.

There are people who know people, some have lived in the area since the 1970’s and now their children are adults and they carry on the tradition of helping friends find homes for sale.

The downside for home buyers is that they need to know someone if they want a shot at some of the best housing in the area.

Using the MLS is a great way to promote fair housing. We don’t have to know anyone to find homes for sale on the internet.

If you are paying 6% in real estate commissions you may be paying too much. Commissions are always negotiable. There is no set rate and it is a violation of anti-trust laws for agents or brokers to discuss commissions outside of their own company. In other words, we can not compare our rates or agree to all charge the same amount.

If you do some research you will notice that there aren’t any price lists out there. Most of us will negotiate and as a result, our rates may not be the same across the board.

The reason why real estate agents charge a percentage of the sale price of the home is because even 6% sounds better than 18 or 40 thousand dollars.

Real estate agents will say that you get what you pay for. I haven’t found that to be true. New agents tend to charge as much as experienced agents. Experience really matters. New agents rarely have a clue as to what it is they don’t know.

Negotiate with your real estate agent. If the agent will not negotiate go ahead and assume that they don’t know how to and hire someone who will negotiate.

Also, keep in mind that real estate agents are usually independent contractors who do not make any money until they sell a house and that sale closes.

I have used the fact that many homeowners believe that there is a going rate to my advantage. The rate is often more than I plan to charge and it enables me to start negotiating at a higher level.

Most real estate agents I know do work hard but many make it sound as though they are doing God’s work and selling real estate is the hardest and most important job there is.

It is important to keep our perspective.