Taxing discussion
CEEight-Oh sends us a link to Slate‘s Alec MacGillis who thinks that veterans’ pensions should be taxed and he rails against measures in the states to exempt at least a portion of veterans’ pensions from taxes. Alec MacGillis particularly doesn’t like new Republican governor of Maryland Larry Hogan’s plan. Currently in Maryland, the first $5000 of a military pension is exempt from state taxation;
“When these folks come in from another state, they’re going to buy homes and … and some are going to be entrepreneurs,” says Minnesota state Sen. Paul Gazelka, a Republican who is pushing a full exemption. “It’s about recruiting, just like we recruit businesses … There are going to be states that are winners and losers, and I’d rather have more retiring veterans in Minnesota than less.”
Yes, Minnesota and Maryland need more veterans in their communities than they types that are moving in these days. But, MacGillis writes;
One can retire and collect a military pension after 20 years of service, so there are plenty of 42-year-old “retirees” who are collecting pensions of, say, $50,000 per year while making a good living as military contractors or management consultants, two common second-career destinations.
Yeah, OK, if you want to put a cap on tax-exempt portions of pensions (West Virginia caps it at $20k) that’s fine, but don’t start telling people that we’re all making $50k/year and working a six-figure contracting job to boot. I’ll bet that more veterans are getting under $20k/year and working the same jobs as the rest of America.
And so what if they are getting $50k. You had the same opportunity, Mr. MacGillis, but you couldn’t be lured away from your neck beard and your skinny jeans for twenty years. Jealous much? If you want to really tax someone, try taxing the SSI recipients, or remove the exemptions that illegal immigrants are getting (individuals’ state taxes are figured from the Federal personal income), rather than the producers and the law abiding citizens.
Category: Veterans Issues
They are already trying to change the whole process of retiring out of the military to where we won’t be seeing a cent of our pension until we’ve hit the actual retirement age.
Slate is so far from reality they don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to military. I’m having to transition out here in a few months and I’m already getting hosed on many of the benefits that I was promised. If the states want to get more vets in, they need to look at what and why veterans don’t move there.
What? Do you REALLY think that a state that is so TOTALLY hosed, and isn’t attracting veterans (and other producers & businesses), would REALLY stop and take a look at why it’s not attracting them?
Well if they were smart and some common sense they would. Course that would mean they’d also have to stop pandering to one side of the table and actually listen to the people that live in that state as well.
Bingo! “Smart” and “common sense” left the table, the room, and the state if the PsTB have to ask, “Why can’t we get vets to move to our state?”
As for listening, I think we can answer the question, who they actually listen to. And it ain’t vets.
Sadly, as much as I love Minnesota, I am looking to move simply because the taxes and cost of living are brutal.
Any word in how GEN Petraeus got his bronze star with V in 2003 iraq?
Only thing I could find is he got near mortared, but that ain’t enough for V Bronze.
Also, the most hated man in the Army, GEN Dempsey, got a Vronze star. Stolen valor?
MacGillis can eat a bowl of dicks.
Or, to summarize.. “Slate… dipshit liberal ranting…” next? They are a tad to the left of V.I. Lenin most of the time, and seem to have no grasp of any reality more than 50 miles from either coast.
The only reason why I am staying where I retired, despite the state collecting taxes on my retirement, is because it was an easy job transition. I’m already trying to figure out how to get back to tax free New Hampshire, but Tennessee and Texas are also on the short list for when this contracting gig craps the bed.
You mean Slate’s writers can’t grasp the concept of earning something. Shocker. Really.
O’Malley was forced to offer Maryland retirees a bone, and the first $5K untaxed was the very least he could do. Veterans were leaving the State in droves, and taking their marketable skills and tax dollars with them.
Didn’t work; MD is still hemorrhaging Vets, including this one when able, and other professionals, to Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, for friendlier tax rates. Among many other reasons.
And MacGillis can kiss my ass.
And don’t forget those asinine gun regulations that O’Malley passed regarding gun regulations. That is why I temporarily relocated to the gin friendly environment of the North Philadelphia Public Housing Projects.
Only two day left until Paul’s 59th birthday. If you don’t wear Spandex on March 18, you get pinched.
Shit, I have to remember to proof read prior to submitting. I really Wickred that above post. I double tapped on “gun regulations, and the second line should read ‘”gun friendly”, though “gin friendly” may also be appropriate. Hack Stone Publishing regrets the error.
Don’t know what crack pipe he’s smoking with that 50k figure. Retired as an E-7 and before taxes I’m getting just under 22k/yr. Which just bearly covers my morgage.
Needless to say yes I am working, but my civilian salary is also based on the fact that I have 2 Master’s degrees in my field and was lucky that my military career field had a direct tanslation to the outside. (Isn’t always the case with miltary specialties) Which means I’m making the industry standard for someone with my education level and years of experiance. This also doesn’t take into account that I have a busted shoulder, bad back and at 34 years old was told the question wasn’t if I’m going to need both knees replaced it’s how long can they delay doing it. Of course MacGillis probably also supports the ‘rain tax’ in MD but would also support a tax on breathing if they could find a way do do it.
Wakeup call for Mr. MacGillis:
I retired (longevity) 23 years ago in the pay grade of E-7, with 20 years service, effective 31 Dec 1991.
My gross retired pay for calender year 1992 was $11,940.00.
My gross retired pay for calender year 2014 was $20,443.00.
Now I’m not a master mathematician, but my rough calculations say that my retired pay won’t reach the 50K mark for another 59 years (provided the COLA increases stay the same).
50K? I wish.
Signed: Average US Service Member Retiree
cc: POTUS
See, I told you that I was not a math master.
Further calculations reveal that it will take 76.5 years for my retired pay to reach the 50K level, based on current/continuing COLA rates.
Again, cc:POTUS
My point being:
Attention POTUS and all you other poly ticks involved in the funding legislation arena – Start putting up some crooked numbers on the COLA increase scoreboard instead of 0’s or 1’s.
End of rant.
GodDAMNIT. FFS, MacGillis, do you not realize that the ’42-year-old “retirees”’ gave not only their service, not only their bodies, and not only their risk to life/limb/eyesight for 20 years, they also gave up civilian careers they otherwise would have had?!?!? At 42 years old, most civilians are really hitting their earnings stride – I was pushing 20 years in the IT field, tapped for management, able to choose between staying in place or bouncing around for more money, etc. My reserves career has sidetracked that career path, between training, Iraq, schools, etc., but I was well-established enough to overcome it. But a guy hitting the job market for the first time at 42 years old, even if he’s got job skills that transition easily, is NOT walking into a six-figure job, unless he finagles an overseas contracting gig – and those are rare, and hardly the same as a 9-5 office gig.
And furthermore, even in an IT-type MOS, if you’ve got 20 years in the service, you’ve probably been out of the loop on the technical side for years now, because your job became managing a detachment, platoon, company or higher. You may be a 25B, but you haven’t managed a server in years.
So your privileged 42-year-old retiree may be taking down his $20K-$30K in retirement benefits, and then entering on a career path in some other field, but he would be a LOT better off financially to have established that career in his 20’s, built his experience in his 30’s, and hit 42 with another twenty years of peak earnings in his future, rather than just BEGINNING a career at mid-life.
Is giving retirement benefits tax-free status a good policy? Fuck if I know. But don’t you dare pretend these 42-year-old retirees are somehow gaming the system. They’ve sacrificed more than you could imagine, probably more than even they imagine.
What a turd.
Alec MacGillis has no idea what he’s talking about on this subject, in terms of what military pensions pay, or the type of job the average vet gets after leaving the service.
Sounds like an anti-military, leftist punk, who contributes nothing of any real value to society himself.
WTF is that dickbag Alec MacGillis smoking?
The moment you take another job, or receive any other taxable income, your military retirement income is considered part of your Federal taxable income and your tax rate is adjusted upwards accordingly.
I make between 15-20k in my second career working part time, but I pay taxes based on the rate that combines my Military retirement with that other income in total.
The only portion that is considered non-taxable after that is any portion that is VA disability related.
Apparently this MacGillis fella figures everybody that retires after 20 is either an E-9, W-5 or at least on O-6.
I echo Green Thumb’s comment: MacGillis is an odorous deposit of fecal matter.
50K my ass…I barely hit 27K and that’s E-7 after 24 years.
MacGillis needs to get beat severely with a clue by four.
Does MacGillis post on TAH under the handle “Commissar?”
MacGillis is an idiot.
Regardless of where I live, I’m going to pay taxes, its just a matter of how they take the money. I’m currently living in a no income tax state, but they get their share anyway (10.5% sales tax in my area).
I’m currently looking at a position in the DC area. The tax difference between residing in VA or MD is almost $3K a year, which makes it a real consideration on my part.