HUGE fan of the Fair Tax, however I've defaulted to the fact that it will never happen here. Too many people would loose money, and it would remove the federal government's ability to pull money directly from individual earnings at the point of distribution.

Not many people want to talk about the multi trillion dollar loan the federal government borrows every year without paying a cent of interest on.

Yes.

You know you're an audit target when you're deducting a $60M corporate jet. You've got to be able to justify what you're doing with the jet is business related if you want it to be deductible. I've talked to several people over the years since leaving corporate flying and I basically can say this is how much out of pocket you'll spend for this size of a plane and so on, but if you want to use it as a tax write off scrap all of that and go to an aviation tax attorney and start there before you think about make, model, cost and interiors. Just dont buy a jet and shoe horn it to meet your tax deduction dreams, go the other way.

Also, I think there is a clause to say your safety and ability to do your job requires you to use a corporate jet over airlines when there are airline options available to you. I think Tiger would qualify.

And buy something that costs half of what you are capable of paying.

On my bosses $22M jet we paid $360,000 to Gwinnett County Schools. Stuff ads up, I mean that would pay for two administrative types right there! :D

Seriously, I dont know if this is true or not but our attorney said AirTran tracks their airplanes stay on the ground to the minute for state by state tax requirements. Never have spent time in AirTrans tax offices so I dont know id that's true.

I hate architect... I mean architect, fetish, I mean greenish, GEEISH, I HATE AUTO CORRECT

Are we placing bets on when they post the AE?

I'm in for 1659:59 on 3/8. :D

I can't help but notice the crew resources memo hasn't been released yet. I'd be willing to bet that will come out coinciding with the bid.

Base Housing Gearhead Alert!
 

Any Peachtree City gear heads who like the USA version of Top Gear can enjoy free Pizza and Beer tonight:

Hey, Atlanta! Let Us Buy You Some Beer and Give You a Sneak Peek of Gizmodo's Upcoming TV Special

Chuck,

The Simpson-Bowles commission recommended doing away with the mortgage interest deduction. Believe it or not I'd be okay with that, provided other loopholes/tax breaks were similarly closed, tax rates in general were lowered and everyone paid income taxes, even if at a low rate. Everyone needs to have some "skin in the game".

By the way, renters don't directly pay property taxes, yet those renters with children go to the local schools. Aren't the "uber rich homeowners" subsidizing those children's education?

BTW, the home mortgage interest deduction is not absolute. The deduction phases out at higher income levels, providing a greater tax benefit to lower- and moderate-income earners.

Completely agree!

I read somewhere that when Leon Panetta was offered a job by Obama (Head of CIA or SECDEF, I can't remember which) he got Obama to agree that he could fly home to California every weekend in a government jet. And he didn't pay a dime for it. That's a heinous waste of taxpayer money.

But the money paid out from the corporation in the form of dividends has already had taxes paid on it! Why should it be taxed twice?