Tax Avoidance

Posted by LionelHutz 12 years, 2 months ago to Economics
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I started this as a reply to the TAX TAX TAX TAX TAX post, but it took on a different direction and I felt it worthy of a new post.

I have made it my policy, since the Nov election, to do my best to starve the govt of any tax revenues wherever possible.

I have found the following useful:

1. No eating out at restaurants, EVER. Not even a Mcdonalds coffee. Buy only groceries, which are untaxed where I live.
2. Though my car is a decade old, I will not buy another car. I will keep the one I have running until it dies. When it dies, I will buy a used one in a person-to-person exchange with someone that is willing to be paid in silver or gold, plus $1 in federal reserve note. The registration will duly note that I paid $1 for the car.
3. I will not take my car in for maintenance at a mechanic. I am learning to do all my own repairs.
4. Anything I purchase, wherever possible, is purchased used (but tax-free) from Craigslist.
5. Anything I purchase new, wherever possible, will be purchased online from an out of state company, thereby denying my state the sales tax.
6. The home phone bill has been cancelled. I refuse to pay a USF fee so overweight women in Cleveland can rant about how great it is that Obama gave her a cell phone, when the money to pay for it was collected from me.
7. The cell phone contact expires soon. I have, for the past few months, been running Skype on this phone. My phone bill will soon be reduced to a data-only plan, eliminating USF. I send/receive calls by virtue of the wireless access points around me. When there are no wireless access points, I reach Skype via my 3G/4G data connection.
8. I intend later this year to take an unpaid two week leave of absense from work, deliberately to deny the government that tax revenue. From here on out, as my taxes go up, the amount of taxable work I do in a year will go down.

What are you all doing? Let's pool brainpower here!


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  • Posted by khalling 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    also, be careful. do not give in to pirating. that is wrong. and eventually will lead to less new provocative things to watch, also less creative, also more indoctrination- pay for your watch and listen
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  • Posted by khalling 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    well, I understand this. people want to be clean. except the occupiers. uncommon, are you running detergent? :)
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I like that. Mine is his own boss, too. Local garage, honest guy, and he does great work. I'm happy to pay him. When he replaced the clutch in my VW a few years back, he charged $1,200. LESS than I was quoted at the place where I bought my 'dub.
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  • Posted by 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for sharing.
    Growing your own food sounds like a great idea as well. I've thought of this, but as the groceries here are tax-free, it wouldn't meet my objective of tax avoidance. Although I'm sure you're happy knowing the freshness on what you're eating.

    Good for you leaving that state. Vote with your feet, people!

    I am moving to Texas this year, even if I have to sell my house for a loss. I will make up any loss quite quickly by virtue of no state income tax.
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  • Posted by 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thanks for sharing. I'll have to read up on Trac Phones. I hadn't heard of them.

    On the TV front, I'm also without cable. I do over the air HDTV through an attic antenna, although I agree about most of the stuff not worth watching. I have a Netflix streaming connection, which I think is a steal at $7.99/month. They even have the Atlas Shrugged movie on there :-) Unfortunately, this service is taxed at state sales tax rates. But it's way cheaper than a cable TV bill, so the tax is similarly much lower.

    I've got a decent collection of old movies and TV series on DVD to keep me occupied when I want to idle the brain. Plus, you can get a HUGE volume of this stuff on Craigslist because everyone seems to be ditching their physical media these days.
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  • Posted by Non_mooching_artist 12 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Very impressive to both of you. Where we live, CT, there is personal property tax. So you pay tax on your initial purchase, then yearly, on a diminishing scale. So as your car gets older and loses value, your taxes go down as well. I hate it. As soon as it's possible for us to leave, we will. My car is paid off and has been, and it's 4 1/2 years old. My husband's is newer, but diesel, which he needs for gas mileage, as he travels 1 1/2 hours each way, to and from work. We refuse to live in MA, though. I utilize local businesses almost exclusively, and shop markets that sell products from the local farms. Grow veggies and fruit in the summer, can as much as possible.
    Where we live, it's not possible to go without a land line. No cell service. Wish we were at the point of a shrug, though. Not quite.... Sigh......
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  • Posted by UncommonSense 12 years, 2 months ago
    One vehicle is 12 years old and running strong, the other is 10 years old and doing just as fine. BOTH are paid off and shall remain in mine until I can't get parts for either of them. (Got Toyota? :) )

    No homephone, Trac Phones only. Yes, sometimes paying the $$ for the cards are annoying, but NO taxes going to the Fed or utility companies. Plus, I no longer get Phishing calls, like the last call I ever had, back when I used to have a home phone.

    Also, I do not have a smartphone, though it would be nice since I do have a couple of requirements that trac phone doesn't meet. BUT, until a REAL company STANDS UP and can provide me with TRUE SERVICE without BS "fees" for this and for that, often several MONTHS after I signed the agreement AND THE PHONE DOESN'T DIE BEFORE THE END OF THE CONTRACT, I will continue to use trac phone.

    No cable, dish, satellite TV at all. Been like this for over 5 years. Other than a handful of shows, most of the stuff on TV is junk, I have better things to do with my time. Everything I need is through the internet, and through meetings with my fellow conservatives. Those afraid of guns need not apply.

    Here is something you may want to keep in the back of your mind concerning silver and gold. Depending on how exactly civil manner is cast aside once the crap hits the fan, dealing with them via those two commodities won't get you much except to get mugged. For example, did you know that in areas of St. Louis (north side and in East St. Louis), huge bottles of laundry detergent is being used for barter? THAT IS HAPPENING RIGHT NOW. This isn't any different than back in the days of the Roman Empire that Honey was used as a form of currency.

    Fixing your own vehicle is great, if you have the tools, the garage, and the time to do it. I use known, LOCAL talent. Yes, the stupid State gets tax, but I enable continued employment of good people. I don't go to National companies, local only.

    My family and I eat out, but only at known conservative resturants. Yes, we have had to stop going at several places after we found out they either didn't support the military and/or were very open about their support of Ovomit and his stupid death care bill.

    There's my .02.
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