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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: July 13th, 2023

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  • In the US at least this isn’t really true, at least not in a practical way for most people.

    Charitable donations are tax deductible true, but they are for most people covered under what is called the standard deduction, which is a standardized amount that aims to estimate would a regular person would be able to deduct from their taxes. The standard deduction is applied automatically and is $14,600. This means that if you don’t do anything abnormal on you it taxes, your taxable income is reduced by the standard amount. For most people they wouldn’t typically be able to find $14,600 in tax deductible expenses, so the standard is worth it.

    The catch is that if you take the standard you cannot itemize, as taking the standard deduction is basically saying to the IRS “yea I donated here and there, bought some stuff for work, did this and that”. Itemizing is listing out your individual tax deductible expenses (and justifying why they are deductible) so if for example you had a single year where you donated $20,000 you could itemize that instead of taking the standard deduction for a total reduction in income of 20k plus whatever you could come up with.

    The other reason why that isn’t really applicable is that a deduction is not a credit, that is to say, deductions reduce your total taxable income amount. If you deduct $1,000 (a 1k donation for example) that would have been taxed at 20% you will receive back from the IRS, $200. Meaning that you still had to pay $800 out of pocket for the donation that will not be refunded to you.

    Deductions pretty much never result in getting more than the tax that you would have paid refunded. Even if youanahe to deduct more than you make, the resulting negative would just result in a carry over loss for the next year. You can effectively pay an income tax of 0 but it requires losses and other deductible expenses that are greater than your income, which means you didn’t actually make any net income for the year (on paper and practically)

    Other countries are different of course, but I wouldn’t want someone going out and donating their life savings thinking they will get it back in tax season.





  • That’s just not true, at all.

    Car insurance is mandatory if you have a car in the us and health insurance is mandatory in many states in the US.

    Many landlords require renters insurance, and banks require homeowners insurance.

    In my state workers comp insurance is mandatory if you have more than three employees.

    Banks are required to have fdic insurance. I’m sure there are many more examples, but that is just off the top of my head.




  • I did but it took me a long time, years and years, with occasional dips back into smoking.

    Now though it’s nearly been 2 years no vape or anything and at least three years of no nicotine.

    I went up and down in nicotine levels, I used big huge cloud throwing fog machines and little tiny disposables.

    I eventually settled on a unit with a built in rechargeable battery and pods with replaceable coils (geekvape aegis)

    I don’t think vaping will naturally result in quitting, it I do think it’s the most effective harm reducer out there and as a tool has many ways to help reduce use over time.

    High nicotine disposables (elf bars, juul) I would stay away from if you can though since the nicotine concentration is so high that it can deepen the addiction.



  • But they do need special maintenance, compared to Teflon pans or ceramic pans, they are the most finicky and hard to work with.

    There are a lot of things people have done for centuries. Being old doesn’t make something superior.

    The problem with the people who prostletyze cast iron, is they usually assume that everyone cooks like them, but the reality is that cast iron is generally a pain in the ass. I mean just the fact that you need to cover the entire pan in oil Every time you put it away should be enough of an indicator.