Hey all! Yesterday was a turbulent time in our country with the Presidential Debate - which is what’s at top of mind this morning, so I leave you with this quote from Viktor Frankl.
In the News
Pelosi, Mnuchin propose a $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill which includes another round of stimulus checks + reinstate $600 per week unemployment benefit. Needs to be voted on by the House now.
Disney is laying of 28,000 people. Most of these are park-workers who are part-time, but amid the pandemic, they’re trying to slow down losses.
Who are the Proud Boys - and who are Antifa? A brief article by the BBC gives a good summation of the two radical groups.
Blog Post: Your Time Scale. We make a lot of decisions each and every day, but a lot of our decisions and expectations are driven by our “time scale”. Tynan does a great job in explaining how changing your perspective can make a deep impact in your day-to-day life and goals.
Personal Finance: How did Trump only pay $750 in taxes?
This article by the NY Times details exactly how this occurred.
Here’s what you need to know:
Trump earned $373k in wages in 2017. $6.7 million in interest income, $7.5 million in capital gains for a total income of $14.79 million. He was able to carry forward losses from business expenses in prior years to offset his income to negative $12 million (so he had $14.79 million income, -$26 million in losses). So he owed no income tax since he didn’t “earn” any income - he was negative.
He was still subject to AMT in 2017 (alternative minimum tax), his AMT tax bill would have been $7,435,857. There’s a tax law that allows one to reduce their tax bill with a General Business Tax Credit.
“The credit is a smorgasbord of tax incentives and givebacks to business owners, and in Mr. Trump’s case they ranged from credits of $322,926 for Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on employee tips to at least $1.5 million related to rehabilitating the Old Post Office in Washington.”
This reduced his taxable liability to roughly $750.
WFH Station of the Week
White, wooden. Another desktop PC setup. I need some laptop setups for this segment, so if you have any - send them my way!
In Case You Missed It (11:35)
What is Palantir? Who are their customers? What’s the long term outlook?! See below.
Hopefully you enjoyed today’s newsletter! As always, I love seeing likes and comments, leave me one!
- Humphrey