arch_8ngel

Checking Google Maps, it looks like they are mostly down on the southside nowadays. There are a couple on the peninsula that are combined with gas stations/convenience stores, and one stand-alone down near the old Sears, that I'm not sure is actually still open despite the Google Maps listing. But it looks like over a dozen between Va Beach, Norfolk, Portsmouth, and Chesapeake. (I don't get down that way, much, so any down there weren't on my radar)

Been awhile since I have felt the need to block a buyer, but one of my listings that had been sitting around awhile has elicited some post-sale harrassment. Basically, this guy hit me with a low-ball offer that I simply ignored. He followed up with a more acceptable offer via the eBay message system -- to which I replied that offer would work for me. But then he waited 6 hours to actually make his offer official -- and in the meantime someone else beat him to the punch. I didn't see either offer until the morning, so felt that the logical and fair thing to do was to accept the actual first acceptable offer. Now I have this dude peppering me with emails complaining about it. You would think if he had cared this much about the item, he would have given his actual acceptable offer in the first place instead of lowballing me. But I'm pretty sure I need to put him on my blocked list now, so that he doesn't cause me any trouble going forward.

LIDL sells a glass jar of chili pepper relish that works pretty well for this purpose. And yes -- Zeros Subs is great -- though I'm not sure if any of them are still around. There might still be one up in York County, but most of the rest of them gradually shut down over the past 10 years.

As long as Teela still has her thighs...

I'm definitely interested to see how this one turns out.

I didn't see this story pop up until later -- pre-market, I definitely only saw the earnings miss -- but it was a "small" miss, IMO, so no way it was going to have been the only factor on a huge drop.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/arry-alert-shareholder-rights-firm-151500341.html Hoping you did some reading on why it was dropping so much. Down 40% at the moment.

She was an idiot, because that is "structuring" if you're doing it on purpose.

I agree that it's a really silly example that he picked -- but you can still use it to explain that the point of taxing barter is that you are taxing any appreciation and in exchange you get a change in cost basis.

Exact like-for-like isn't really a barter, assuming you're talking about identical loaves of bread. But if you're trading baguettes for sourdough loaves, or something, then yes, you're paying taxes on the gain in USD of your loaves on the day of the trade, from the time you bought them -- and that value is your new cost-basis in the new loaves you traded for. Basically, even in a like-for-like barter -- you are basically setting a new cost-basis and paying taxes on the gains to get to your newly established cost basis.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/virtual-currencies Current official language from the IRS for anyone in the USA wondering about this subject. From the FAQ Q–1: How is virtual currency treated for federal tax purposes? A–1: For federal tax purposes, virtual currency is treated as property. General tax principles applicable to property transactions apply to transactions using virtual currency. ... Q–6: Does a taxpayer have gain or loss upon an exchange of virtual currency for other property? A–6: Yes. If the fair market value of property received in exchange for virtual currency exceeds the taxpayer’s adjusted basis of the virtual currency, the taxpayer has taxable gain. The taxpayer has a loss if the fair market value of the property received is less than the adjusted basis of the virtual currency. See Publication 544, Sales and Other Dispositions of Assets, for information about the tax treatment of sales and exchanges, such as whether a loss is deductible. So switching from one virtual currency (a type of property) to ANOTHER virtual currency ("other property") is a taxable event. and with respect to miners: Q–8: Does a taxpayer who “mines” virtual currency (for example, uses computer resources to validate Bitcoin transactions and maintain the public Bitcoin transaction ledger) realize gross income upon receipt of the virtual currency resulting from those activities? A–8: Yes, when a taxpayer successfully “mines” virtual currency, the fair market value of the virtual currency as of the date of receipt is includible in gross income. See Publication 525, Taxable and Nontaxable Income, for more information on taxable income. So mining is taxable at the time of mining.

Intentionally evading the deposit-reporting is a felony called "structuring".

Part in bold is 100% incorrect - at least in the USA. You owe taxes based on the value at time of conversion/transaction for cryptocurrency. (converting one to another type is a taxable event at the time of conversion) Other countries may handle this differently -- but for US taxes "barter" (one commodity directly for another) is a taxable event.

It very definitely stacks on top. Otherwise, imagine a scenario where you have $0 in earned income but $500,000 in long term capital gains. Do you actually think those LTCG are taxed at 0% in that case? They stack on top of ordinary income rates and then follow their own related bracket structure. https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/taxes/capital-gains-tax-rates#:~:text=Long-term capital gains tax is a tax on profits,term capital gains tax rates. ^^^ Here is a link to a simplified calculator that shows you how this works. Basically your LTCG rate is considered "on top of" your non-capital-gains income. So comparing two scenarios: 1) You have $79,999 of ordinary income and $100,000 of long-term capital gains -- only $1 of your LTCG is at the 0% rate -- the other $99,999 is at 15% 2) you have $0 of ordinary income and $180,000 of long-term capital gains -- $80k of gains are at 0%, the next $100k of gains are at 15% Hopefully that makes it more obvious how these stack up, and how the LTCG brackets work.

I've read a little more about it, and basically, if any of these places get into financial trouble (or the people THEY lend money to get into trouble), the people who were trusting them to hold their funds and pay interest are at the very end of the line for who gets paid. So the "trade" is that you, as the "lender" are getting compensated for some amount of counterparty risk. The question then comes down to whether you think that is enough compensation for the risks, or not. While not quite the same thing, this reminds me of pre-GreatFinancialCrisis when people were going apeshit for savings account rates in Iceland. That didn't end well.

This potentially changes things. If you're self-employed -- talk to a CPA and see what they think about your ability to run the sale through your business so that you can max-out a solo-401k (lets you defer up to $57k, or so, between your contribution and "employer match"). Not saying that is definitely possible -- but worth asking a pro about, given how much you'll save from the 28% bracket with that amount of deferral. And Long-term and short-term gains all stack up when determining your various brackets (they just have different tax rates within their respective brackets).

No offense intended -- but "want to be safe" and then advice on buying crypto (to hold at places that pay improbably high interest rates) don't strike me as compatible statements. Seriously wondering what those places have to gain by offering interest rates that high? EDIT: just to be clear, I don't have anything against someone making high risk investments. Just understand that you're making high risk investments

"Outsider" categorization is more likely to be valid and objective, IMO, due to a lack of emotional investment (especially when it comes to how fast and loose Chicagoans are with food terms like "pizza" )

No, you pay the taxes NOW as quarterly withholding -- otherwise you owe interest on failing to adequately withhold. Turbotax (or other software) will handle quarterly estimates just fine, too -- so yes, a CPA isn't strictly required -- but if they didn't want to go it alone, losing 0.2% of their gain to professional help isn't the worst thing that could happen to them.

If you have a 6 figure sale offer, your tax is going to be higher than 15%, because the sale is going to be marginal income on top of your current income. So you'll fill up the 15% bucket, and then up from there. If you won't already -- this would be a good year to max out your 401k, since that shaves $19,500 off of the top of your income. Similarly, if you have access to an HSA, be sure to fill it up to knock down your taxable gross. But a 6-figure sale is WELL into "call a professional" territory, since even an expensive CPA ($500/hr) is cheap compared to screwing up and paying interest and penalties for not properly withholding income.

A hot dog is definitely a type of sandwich. Even a taco is a type of sandwich.

There is no way to legally avoid paying taxes on it. (as a US citizen -- other countries, you could potentially change venue and dodge taxes in some fashion) If your marginal tax rate is going to be 15%, that is about the lowest practical tax rate you would ever pay on a large sale like this. (though keep in mind, you'll also have state taxes, depending on where you live) If you attempted to sell it through a business (as a sole prop), you're also going to owe self-employment taxes -- so for a one-off sale, unless the expenses of selling are very high, you're almost certainly best off selling it as a collectible with long term capital gains. The biggest "problem" you're likely to run into is if you sell early in the year, but then end up owing taxes when you file next April. You'll owe penalties and interest -- so make sure you take care of your quarterly tax withholding for the one-off sale. If you're talking about mid-5-figures+ on the sale, and you aren't comfortable with sorting out the tax implications, tacking on the few hundred bucks to have a pro handle that year's taxes isn't really that big of a deal in the scheme of things.

Unfortunate choice of words, IMO, since I wasn't being rude or antagonistic.

No, it didn't matter if it was on its side, or not. That was the whole silly point of the cube rule -- it only mattered how many faces were covered in "structural starch".

Yeah, I read further and see it now. Certainly amusing. I especially like the distinction of which pies are "toast" versus which pies are "tacos".