2018 Capital Gain Dist will affect my ACA costs

[ivinsfan]

I said Wow because I couldn't really say what I was thinking and remain civil.

The world obviously looks different from a high horse.

Best to you,

VW

You know, people always trot out that high horse comment when they disagree with someone. Try putting into nice words what I am saying that is so offensive to you.

 

[ivinsfan]

While some of it may have been hurried lawmaking or carelessness, I think the lack of means testing was simply that it was administratively much easier to only include an income test. While we debate the means testing issue here in the whole scheme of things the number of those of substantial means receiving subsidies are the proverbial angel on a pinhead so it wasn't worth the effort and complexity of including a means test and chance losing a crucial vote because of the added complexity it created.

On the second point, while people with higher incomes do get higher payments under SS because they paid in more, because of bend points, those who pay in less get higher benefits in relation to what they paid in and people who paid in more get less in relation to what they paid in... so SS benefits are definitely skewed to favor the less fortunate at the detriment of the more fortunate... to content otherwise is just ignorant of how the bend points work.

These are good points and in fact the SS point is an argument for the unintended consequences of the in your face unmeans tested ACA laws. The SS payments are a well thought out part of the system that is basically under the radar yet tries to boost those on the lower income scale. It's relatively uncontroversial. You in fact have tiered payment on SS but it's spread over a lifetime of payments so it's kind of baked into the cake. In fact if you are higher income your tax burden on SS will be higher too. Another argument that this cliff all or nothing number on ACA is not a good solution.

 

[Dtail]

@ivinsfan:
Theoretically if you were worth 2mm and had MAGI of 45k and were under 65 yo and retired, would you take the ACA subsidies?

 

[MRG]

Glad I hadn't opened this thread before.

 

[ivinsfan]

@ivinsfan:
Theoretically if you were worth 2mm and had MAGI of 45k and were under 65 yo and retired, would you take the ACA subsidies?

Dtail you are missing the my point too, it's not the using of the subsidy that bothers me it's posters saying well I'm going be XXX thousands over the cliff and I want the max so tell me a good way to manipulate my income...as if it's Christmas and you want extra presents from Santa. there is no Santa.

If you were LBYM and have 10 years of after tax income to live on kudos to you take your subsidy but people who are in the booming market and want to have their cake and eat it too, well not a fan...

 

[Dtail]

Dtail you are missing the my point too, it's not the using of the subsidy that bothers me it's posters saying well I'm going be XXX thousands over the cliff and I want the max so tell me a good way to manipulate my income...as if it's Christmas and you want extra presents from Santa. there is no Santa.

If you were LBYM and have 10 years of after tax income to live on kudos to you take your subsidy but people who are in the booming market and want to have their cake and eat it too, well not a fan...

Okay so you effectively agree with my specific example, but here's the potential catch.
If one is at 45k MAGI, how does one know whether they ALREADY managed their income to get to that level vs. just being a natural LBYM person to be at that level?
So in the end, it is the same subsidy for the different types of folks at the same MAGI level.

 

[RunningBum]

There are a lot of threads where people ask and share ideas on how to legally reduce their tax bill. This is one of them. That is all. Don't like the law? Make your point and move on. There's no need to continually berate people for doing it.

 

[braumeister]

There are a lot of threads where people ask and share ideas on how to legally reduce their tax bill. This is one of them. That is all. Don't like the law? Make your point and move on. There's no need to continually berate people for doing it.

And with that rather neat summary, we think this thread has run its course. Thanks for an interesting discussion.