I love it when I can overhear my coworkers on the phone. A lot of our calls are routine, but you know you've got a doozy when the librarian says, "Well ma'am, this is the public library..." (and now, we did not call you this morning to offer you a discount on your electricity bill.)
The best call ever was when my boss said to the caller, "Well, I think manna is a spiritual food, so I can't tell you the nutritional content of it." (Which led to me looking up manna in Wikipedia and discovering there were intellectual debates about whether people who survived on manna pooped or not.)
The gift tax is horrendously complicated. I read a lot about it to make sure my mother wouldn't have to pay tax on the money she's been giving me. The person who gives the money, not the recipient, owes the tax. Amounts above $14,000 a year are classified as "taxable" and should be reported on their own special, incomprehensible form. However, and it's a big however, the current lifetime exemption for gifts is $5 million, so the taxable amount only kicks in after someone has given away $5 million. It's a tax designed to keep rich people from using gifts to reduce the estate tax.
No, you're right. I was relying on my memory instead of looking it up again.
I didn't mean to provide anyone with bogus info.
From tales of
"my manager actually understands me":
we had our post-release review meeting, and one of the items in the GOOD column was "Witchcraft is alive. Don't piss off the witch".
If you google it, it's amazing how many sites simply say, "Gifts over $14,000 are taxable" without saying to whom or noting that there are exceptions, much less that lifetime exemption.
Probably the people who have over 15k to give are assumed to have lawyers and accountants?
I want to refinance but don't want to have to put the rent money my roommate gives me on my taxes. Dilemma.
Probably the people who have over 15k to give are assumed to have lawyers and accountants?
They'd be wrong, at least in my case.
Al these stories are convincing me that renting continues to be a good idea.
What do I wear to my date on Saturday?? We met last week and have been texting since. We are going to a fairly nice restaurant. My wardrobe is not filling me with confidence. Agh.
Any credit reports pulled in the last 6 months they'll want documentation, on, they told me.
When we were dealing with BofA they took this to absurdist levels. BofA and their affiliates did hard credit checks on us 12 times. Then they sent us a letter requiring us to explain the excessive number of credit checks. You know, the ones that they had performed. So we had to write a letter explaining each of the 12 credit checks. Yes, a letter to Bank of America, explaining to Bank of America, that Bank of America had asked for a credit check in regards the mortgage application that is currently in process.
Al these stories are convincing me that renting continues to be a good idea.
This had been my thought process until I started looking at 3-bedroom rentals outside of the community I'm currently living in. I actually want to move to a less affluent area. And the rents are crazy. Much more than I'm currently paying. If I can find a house or townhouse (my preference) for a certain price range, my mortgage, taxes, insurance will be less than what I'm paying now for a 2 bedroom apartment. Houses/townhomes in the price range I want are out there, so I have a good shot at finding what I want.
