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By Blair Bedford

After months and months of searching for the right position that fits your level of education, qualifications and abilities, you finally land your first “real” job. This is one of the many crucial steps in beginning your professional life and gaining all that “experience” everyone keeps talking about. Once you finally find that first job worth being called a career, keep in mind these very important things to keep track of and things to do to make the most out of your new opportunity for your future benefit:

(Smart Money) — In a 2011 decision, the U.S. Tax Court ruled that an unmarried taxpayer could not deduct home mortgage interest that she paid until she became an equitable co-owner of the property with her boyfriend and was legally obligated to make the mortgage payments. On her 2007 Form 1040, the taxpayer had attempted to deduct a full year’s worth of interest. However, her name was not added to the property deed and the mortgage document until the middle of 2007. Before then, she was not an equitable co-owner of the property under state law nor did she have any legal obligation to pay interest on the mortgage. Therefore, she was not entitled to any mortgage interest deductions.

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(Daily Finance) — Like many people’s, my biggest expense after my mortgage is child care for my two little demons, er, darlings. And just as with my mortgage, I’ve always made sure to take full advantage of the tax breaks available to offset these massive costs.  So imagine my chagrin when I realized I’ve missed out on $200 in tax savings each year for the past five years!  Yes, thanks to confusing and often misunderstood rules surrounding child-care tax breaks, I’ve overpaid Uncle Sam to the tune of $1,000. Read on to avoid my mistake — unless you happen to enjoy filing mounds of amended returns.

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People all over the world are fighting to regain their right to self-determination, and in many cases their efforts are being bolstered by American tax dollars and the precious blood of our youth. Yet, here in the United States our right to self-determination, right along with our standard of living, is rapidly slipping away, and that’s not by accident. All over the country the GOP is engaged in an aggressive campaign to implement policies that are specifically designed to limit our right to vote, chip away at the middle-class standard of living, and generally suppress our right to self-determination.

Voter Suppression

Joan McCarter points out in her Daily KOS article, Republicans step up voter suppression efforts in run up to 2012. “This year, more than 30 states debated changes to their voting laws. A dozen passed more restrictive rules requiring voters to present state-issued photo IDs, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, although Democratic governors in four states vetoed them. Florida and Ohio will cut nearly in half the number of days for early voting [Black voters are more apt to take advantage of early voting for various reasons, including job considerations], and Florida lawmakers reversed rules that had made it easier for former felons to vote.”

McCarter goes on to point out that “Twenty-five percent of African American voters do not have a valid government-issued photo ID, compared with 8 percent of whites, according to a study by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School. The report also found that 15 percent of voters earning less than $35,000 per year do not have such an ID.”

So in spite of all of the Republican claims of standing steadfast in defense of the Constitutional, the rights of the individual and protecting our personal freedoms, when it comes to their campaign to regain power, their efforts to subvert any and all of those ideals are limitless.

Attack on the Middle Class

As I’ve pointed out in previous articles, the business community is no longer a friend of the American people. At one time business and labor were partners in a symbiotic relationship. Business provided employees a secure, lifetime of employment at a livable wage, and in return, employees supported the business community by spending their money on goods and services. This arrangement promoted economic stability, because middle-class consumers felt secure enough in their lives to invest in homes, cars, and purchase the goods and services that the business community produced. It also provided the government with a stable tax base from which to draw its operational revenue.

But now, in the new global economy, what were previously considered American corporations are now international conglomerates. So they have no sense of patriotism toward any particular country, and thus, no vested interest in either the United States as a country, or the American middle class as a people. In fact, since they now have to compete with countries who pay their workers slave wages, the American middle-class standard of living has made us a liability. So the only time these corporations give the American people a second thought is when they gamble on the world market and lose. Then they fall back on us as their piggy bank.

That’s what we saw in the 2008 Wall St. meltdown. The corporate community was robbing the American people blind, with absolutely no sense of patriotism, nor any sense of responsibility for either the country, the American people, or the American economy. But when they shot snake eyes in the global market they came running back to us saying, “Remember us? We’re American companies. We belong to you. You can’t let us fail. For God’s sake! Where’s your sense of pride?”

We not only went for that nonsense and dug deep to save these corporations, but thanks to “our representatives,” who the corporations have in their pocket, we bailed them out without putting any provisos in effect regarding their future conduct. As a direct result, once they regained their stability, they thumbed their collective noses at us, slapped each other on the back with ridiculously outrageous bonuses, and went right back to business as usual, which included sending our jobs overseas as leverage to get even more concessions from us.

So this is why we find ourselves in the situation we’re in today. After nearly bankrupting the country to bailout corporations that initially got into trouble in the first place by trying to swindle us, now that they’re not only back on their feet, but in many cases, doing better than they’ve ever done in their history, they’re sitting on trillions of dollars and refusing to hire in order to extort still further concessions out of us – and the irony is, their most valuable ally in this scam is our very own representatives.

The Republican Party is leaving no stone unturned to make absolutely certain that the American people remain miserable, hungry, and divided until after the 2012 election, in hope that by keeping us in this condition it will help them to regain power. Then, if they’re successful, they and their corporate partners intend to lower the standard of living of the American middle class in order to make these corporations more globally competitive.

And part of that plan means, abolishing Social Security, and Medicare, then destroying both our unions and our educational system. That will drag the nation back to a time prior to the Great Depression, and create a permanent underclass, because these actions will make us totally dependent on the corporations. By destroying Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicare, not only will every family have to pay for the care of their sick and elderly family members, but if they’re fired from they’re job for any reason, they’d have nothing to fall back on, so they’ll instantly fall from being merely poor, to homeless. That gives the business community a tremendous amount of leverage over the people.

The primary reason we find ourselves in this situation is because we’ve allowed ourselves to become distracted and apathetic hedonist by the mainstream media. They’re using MTV, BET, ESPN, and various “reality shows” to keep us so focused on dreams of what life could be, that we’re completely oblivious to what life is, and what’s being taken away.

In addition, the media has turned our politicians into celebrities – so much so, in fact, that we’ve lost sight of the fact that these people are our EMPLOYEES, not our leaders. As a result, one of the most contentious political arguments in our political environment is which one of them we should support, when the argument should be which one of them is supporting us. So they’ve successfully turned our political thinking on its head. It’s one of the most graphic examples of the tail wagging the dog.

Just consider this. While many of us are suffering and trying to hang onto our homes, jobs, and put food on the table, the lowliest representative in congress makes $174,000 a year plus perks. And if that’s not enough, during the depth of the recession they voted themselves an additional $93,000 in what they called “petty cash” – and the people didn’t say a word.

So while many of us are complaining about our political system, it’s clear that the system is not the problem. We’re the problem, because we’re failing to control the system. We’re knee-deep in a class war, and the people we’re depending on to protect us are a part of the class we’re fighting. Thus, it’s no wonder that we keep coming up short. How can we expect to be represented effectively by people who identify more closely with the people who seek to enslave us than they do their own constituencies? The short answer is, we can’t. So this is an issue that we need to pay serious attention to. If we fail to do so, we’re going to find ourselves constantly being told to tighten our belts by politicians who seem to think they’re wearing suspenders.

Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and several other publications. He’s also a staff writer for Veterans Today and the author of “A Message From the Hood.” 

(Washington Examiner) — The D.C. Council narrowly approved an income tax increase on high-earning residents even as the city’s top financial adviser says the District will end the year with an $89 million budget surplus.  In a 7-6 vote Tuesday, officials approved an 8.95 percent income tax on residents who earn more than $350,000 annually, up from 8.5 percent. The new rate, one of the highest in the nation, affects roughly 6,000 residents in the city and will expire in four years unless officials move to extend it.  The tax was instituted in place of applying a new tax on purchases of out-of-state municipal bonds to current bondholders.

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Read more at the Washington Examiner:

(MONEY Magazine) — Next April may feel light-years away, but December will be here before you know it — and many of the benefits you can reap on tax day require you to act well before the end of the year.  ”The further ahead you start your tax planning, the more strategies you will have to save money,” says Indianapolis accountant Kevin Aaron. The early-bird tactics that follow can together keep thousands of bucks in your pocket.

Reap green credits:  The tax credits for energy-efficient basic home improvements — including the installation of insulation, certain HVAC systems, water heaters, windows, doors, and roofing — are skimpier this year.

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(AP) — President Obama on Monday will call for a combination of spending cuts and $1.5 trillion in new tax revenue increases that would save $3 trillion over the next decade. And he will warn Congress that if they do not give him a “balanced” package that includes tax increases for the wealthiest Americans he will use his veto and make them start again.  The president will make his pitch in the Rose Garden at 10:30 a.m. and the White House promised to provide details throughout the day. The outlines of the package were disclosed Sunday night by senior administration officials who asked not to be named. They said deficit reductions will total $4.4 trillion when new cuts are coupled with the $1.2 trillion in discretionary spending reductions included in the bill signed into law by the president last month after the debate over raising the debt ceiling.  The additional deficit reduction, said the officials, would come from $1.5 trillion in tax reform; $580 billion in “cuts and reforms across all mandatory programs;” $430 billion from interest savings; and $1.1 trillion from the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, the changed mission in Iraq and caps to limit spending on future overseas contingency operations.

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By Charlotte Young

Last week President Barack Obama proposed a stimulus package aimed to raise about $447 billion over a 10 year period. But how will he pay for this plan? In true Robin Hood style, Obama’s proposes that the funds come by taking from the rich.

According to CNNMoney, Obama will heavily tax those in the two highest earning income brackets. The proposal “would limit itemized deductions and certain other exemptions for individuals with adjusted gross incomes of $200,000 or more.” For married couples, the amount would be raised to $250,000 and more.

Generally, rich households disproportionately benefit from itemized deductions, which include donations to charity and mortgage interest. Under Obama’s new plan, itemized deductions will be capped at 28 percent.

For example, for every $100 in deductions that the rich claim, they would only be able to decrease their tax bill by $28 as opposed to the current deduction decrease of $36 to $39.60 for those in the top two tax brackets. Assuming Bush-era tax cuts would adjust the top two income tax rates from 33 and 35 percent to 36 and 39.6 percent, the new tax rule would be effective starting Jan. 1, 2013.

In addition to heavier taxes on the rich, “carried interest,” which is the portion paid to hedge fund managers and other investment partnerships, would be taxed as normal income under Obama’s proposal. This means it could be taxed as much as 39.6 percent, a substantial difference from the current rate at 15 percent. According to the White House, this measure may possibly create an extra $18 billion over 10 years.

Obama also proposes to tighten and decrease the generous depreciation rule for corporate jet purchases. This move would save about $3 billion. He also plans to repeal oil subsidies which would make for about $40 billion worth of savings.

Altogether, the proposal would raise about $467 billion, White House budget director Jacob Lew calculates, pointing out that the measures “intentionally overachieves” on savings to account for the expected estimate difference that the Congressional Budget Office will make.

The proposal is sure to draw strong opposition and criticism from Republicans who do not wish to see taxes raised and never favored Obama’s jobs plan. The plan, which is similar to all three of his budgets, has not yet made any progress in Congress.

(Chicago News Cooperative) — Facing a budget deficit exceeding $11 billion, the State of Illinois in recent weeks has begun challenging the property tax exemptions of some of its best-known hospitals, saying they should pay more because they are not providing enough charity care.  The Illinois Department of Revenue moved last month to strip property tax exemptions from Prentice Women’s Hospital, a sparkling new medical center in Chicago’s tony Streeterville neighborhood; Edward Hospital, a rapidly expanding medical center in the western suburb of Naperville, and Decatur Memorial Hospital in central Illinois.  If successful with those three, the state is expected to look for other not-for-profit hospitals with low percentages of charity care, with an eye toward challenging their property tax exemptions, too. A Department of Revenue spokesman said the agency was reviewing parcels owned by 15 hospital systems, but declined to say if the tax exemptions would be challenged in each case.

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