#Reduce Capital Gains Tax on Investments

[reasonandempathy]

The weird radical/revolutionary politic larpers on this site are so allergic to political pragmatism I swear lmao. I am definitely left of the Democratic Party and I am certainly voting for Joe Biden in November. Not because I like him (I don’t). He is absolutely horrific on Gaza and that’s only the top (and priority considering there is a genocide going on there) of a list of complaints I have about him. I even voted uncommitted in my state’s presidential primary (the Pennsylvania one; I had to write it in) to protest. However, I’m still thinking pragmatically. Trump has said things that make me credibly think he will be worse on Gaza (insane that being worse on Gaza than Biden is possible but it is unfortunately), and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Project 2025, the potential for him to appoint more deeply conservative justices, more of his aggressively screwing over poor and middle class people with his tax policies. And does anyone else remember the spike in hate crimes after the race was called for him in 2016? Before he was even inaugurated? Whether people vote or not in November we will still have to deal with one of these two men in office come January unless all of the internet ancom larpers overthrow the government by then (doubt), so I’d rather deal with the one who will be marginally less bad and who didn’t try to overthrow the government. Can’t have your revolution if nobody’s alive cause you kept pushing off politically participating because there was no perfect option. 👍

Political pragmatist anon, sorry for ranting in your askbox but I feel like I lose brain cells watching these people talk. The other day I saw someone say Biden is bad because Roe v. Wade fell under his administration… even though the reason for that was Trump appointed justices. 💀 (2/2)

Fucking insane. Sincerely.

It's a completely, flatly binary choice for anyone with a brain stem and sincerity. It's distilled into the two below images:

Where all major third party candidates are even on the ballot

How many electoral votes the largest of those (green party, a.k.a. Jill Stein) would win if they won every single state they're on the ballot for.

They are literally, legally, incapable of winning the election. They are not on enough state ballots to win and Jill Stein would need to somehow win California and Texas to even "win" all the states they're on the ballot for. Which, again, would still not be enough to win the presidency and throw it to the currently existing Republican House of Representatives. Which would put Trump in office.

It's that straightforward. That simple. That BLARINGLY obvious to literally everyone except these people.

On the one hand you have:

Significant and continuous support for Israel and it's genocide

Record levels of pardons for low-level drug offenses

the gearing up of the strongest anti-trust regime since the early 20th century

the most aggressive NLRB I've seen in my lifetime, with massive wins and institutional changes to help workers

Including getting Rail strike workers a week of sick-leave that gets paid out at the end of the year, which is better than NYC and LA sick leave laws

Millions of people (not enough) getting student debt forgiveness

Some trillion dollars (not enough)of investment in renewable resources and infrastructure

Proposed taxes on unrealized capital gains (a.k.a. how billionaires never have any money but can still buy Kentucky, Iowa, and Twitter)

Effectively an end to overdraft fees

The explicit support of leftist world leaders like Lula de Silva. Who he has explicitly worked with to expand worker rights in South America.

Has capped (some, not enough, only a tiny amount really but it's something) some drug prices, including Insulin.

Reduced disability discrimination in medical treatment

Billions in additional national pre-k funding

Ending federal use of private prisons

Pushing bills to raise Social Security tax thresholds higher to help secure the General Fund

Increasing SSI benefits

and more

vs

Said Israel should just nuke Gaza and "get it over with"

Personally takes pride in and credit for getting Roe v Wade overturned

Is arguing in court that the President should be allowed to assassinate political rivals

Muslim Ban Bullshit, insistently

Actively damages our global standing and diplomatic efforts just by getting obsessed with having a Big Button

Implemented massive tax cuts on ich people, tax hikes on middle class and poor people, and actively wants to do it again

"Only wants to be a dictator for a little bit, guys, what's the big deal"

Is loudly publicly arguing that the US shouldn't honor its military alliances after-the-fact

Tore up an effective and substantial anti-nuclear-proliferation treaty with Iran

Had a DoEd that actively just refused to process student debt forgiveness applications that have been the law of the land for decades now

Has a long record of actively curtailing and weakening the NLRB and labor movement, including allowing managers to retaliate against workers, weakened workplace accommodation requirements for disabled people, and more

Rubber stamped a number of massive mergers building larger, more powerful top companies and increasing monopolistic practices

Fucking COVID Bullshit and hundreds of thousands of unnecessary deaths

Openly supporting fascists and wannabe-bootlicks ("Very fine people" being only the beginning of it

It's really not fucking close.

[mbta-unofficial]

If your city is a Brand, it’s already too late

Long post time. What is it that drives gentrification? Also, what is gentrification? Is it when a city gets blue hair and pronouns? No, it probably already had those.

Gentrification is the result of concentration of wealth in the hands of business owners, including landlords, over and above the hands of residents.

Let’s start with rent. Rent, like any good, is priced according to the laws of supply and demand. Supply of available rental housing is primarily determined by construction costs and estimated return on investment for new construction, and property management costs and estimated return on investment for existing units.

Breaking that down a bit, the higher construction costs get the higher the rent needs to be to break even on new construction. Construction costs include labor (which can always go down but you want it high for moral and practical reasons), materials (highly variable depending on the project) and bureaucratic costs. A bureaucratic cost is a cost that is based on how projects fit into the legal and practical environment, and are usually non-negotiable. Dig Safe, a program which requires three days of surveying local records before breaking ground, is an example where the function is to prevent crews from flattening a neighborhood by puncturing a gas main. Environmental Impact Statements, Fire Codes, Habitability Guidelines, and other regulations increase costs to projects. These programs are good and need to exist, but do stop smaller projects from happening at all because the capital investment required just to actually break ground on a new house might cost as much as the land and materials put together at which point you might as well build another 120$/sqft luxury midrise.

Property management costs for existing units are largely dependent on age and wear. A unit with no occupant is going to depreciate little, and may also appreciate in value. Depreciation and appreciation here are sort of unintuitive because they can happen at the same time. Imagine an old luxury sports car with a high resale price. Driving depreciates the value because it’s literal condition is poorer, even as the resale value goes up over time. The appreciation needs to beat both inflation and the value of depreciation for it to go up in real value. For companies with large capital holdings however, losses such as through the upkeep of empty apartment buildings are useful to a point because they reduce these organizations’s tax burdens. A company that makes a killing on the stock market only has to pay taxes if they keep it: if they buy houses they then don’t rent, they can claim they “lost” their stock market earnings with “bad investments” and then pay no tax while saving the real estate to rent later. Again, this favors the largest possible projects and the largest possible operators because small companies can be killed by an unprofitable quarter or 4 while large ones explicitly benefit from unprofitability in reducing their tax burden.

Expected ROI is the final piece of this, which affects both new and existing units. Every private developer and landlord wants to make as much money as they can, unless they are explicitly are renting as a service. An example of renting as a service would be families, who will rent to each other at favorable rates or for free, privileging people with large and/or wealthy families that are friendly with each other. Now, ROI is also subject to supply and demand. Everyone wants to build 120$/sqft luxury apartments but once everybody does nobody can sell/rent for those prices without setting a price floor and waiting for buyers to catch up. If you are a small developer, you can’t afford to do this. Your expenses will eat you alive. If you are a big developer, though, those expenses are offsetting the gains you make and serving to reduce you tax bill. Units at prices nobody can pay are effectively furloughed, meaning off the market, and, so long as they remain cheap to maintain, will remain that way, artificially restricting supply. It doesn’t matter if it’s for sale or not when it’s at a price you can’t afford. (Sidebar, anyone who tells you that the minimum wage depresses hiring because it artificially restricts demand is lying to you. It’s not strictly false, but like the above it’s a multi-variable equation and blanket statements about cost of labor are aimed at killing wages.)

What this alludes to also is a need for greater income equality. In order for rental to be a competitive option with furlough, not only does the price of furlough have to be increased, the real value of wages have to be increased in order to create opportunities for people to splurge. This is a twofold strategy, of both increasing the rewards of putting units on the market and increasing the costs of keeping them off. If real wages barely cover cost of living, or don’t cover cost of living, nobody can realistically spend more real wages on rent regardless of the percentage of their income it is. (Real wages here refers to the political power implied by dollar wages. A dollar is really worth whatever it can be exchanged for, whether that is a candy bar or a square inch of a 144$/sqft condo) The real value of everything except time and land are also constantly going down because of constant improvements in manufacturing. The cost in acres of land and hours of labor of a pound of beef, a bolt of cloth, or a pint of beer have dropped dramatically in the last century. Unfortunately, land is one of the few things that remains in marxist terms uncommodifiable, because it cannot be fully abstracted from the physical properties that make it valuable and we can’t make more of it just by making a better machine. This means that as the real value of things goes down because of supply and demand, the value of land only goes up because the supply is hard capped. If the value of everything under capitalism must go down because of increased production, while the value of capitalist assets must go up, or the system collapses, it makes sense that land would become a fixed point in that equation, the marxist speed of light observable from all reference points. The best approximation of land as commodity is, what else, apartments, which make available as living space the empty air above us. Because production never stops, the value of everything but land must go down. Therefore, as time passes, the price of land, and hence the price of housing, must tend upwards. Therefore, in order for housing to remain affordable, real wages must grow. This is the opposite of what is currently happening, as real wages have gone down for decades.

This income inequality which is one facet of capitalism is not new. For as long as people have lived in urban areas there have been issues between the abject class, the working class, the ruling class, and the professional class, a four part distinction I will seriously argue for in opposition to a lot of marxist theorists. The ruling and working classes ought to be familiar, or at least self explanatory. However, the other two classes I identify, the professionals and the abject, are useful to this analysis because they fill both a racial gap in the primarily marxist analysis I put forward and identify the two most likely groups to rent, which is to say the worker who works to produce but owns without governing and the professional who works to govern but does not own. The ruling class both governs and owns, but its court is full of courtiers who are there to push various agendas from within the rule of law without per se producing. Likewise, the working class pensioner exists in opposition to the abject who is denied the opportunity or the resources to be productive explicitly as a means to manufacture a threat against which inter-class solidarity between the workers and the rulers is developed. The textbook nazi conspiracy theory about “elites” doing a great racial replacement picks out perfectly what I mean by both the racial character of the professional and the abject and their utilization to foster solidarity between your plumber uncle and Elon Musk. This is relevant to both the broad theme of gentrification and the narrow theme of rent because gentrification is a wedge issue that divides the working class and the professional class far more than its impact on any other. The working class’ disidentification with doctors, lawyers, PMCs and other yuppie types, as well as the professional class’ disidentification with union politics, illegalism, and radicalism in general is brought to firecrackers in virtually any conversation about gentrification which seems in passing to be more about tapas bars than about real politics. Likewise, these groups shared distrust of and disdain for the abject, who are explicitly labeled by the state as constitutionally guilty, is the basis for the very broken windows policing strategy that empties neighborhoods of minorities regardless of class. The Rent is Too Damn High, and excluding homeless people from the “working” working class is a big part of how we got here specifically because the interests of small time owners and small time government functionaries, carried to their conclusions, are necessarily self defeating. These two groups eliminate the presence of the abject from their spaces at their own financial peril.

In addition to class, there is also a specific historical movement that is crucial to the understanding of gentrification as it exists, which is the movement of factories in search of cheap labor. The United States is not a good place to find cheap urban labor. You build a factory and suddenly everyone complains about air quality and labor violations and you can’t just kill them because everyone has lawyers. You kill one (us citizen) organizer and the NLRB is trying to get you in court for intimidation. What’s the country come to? But a shipping container costs a quarter cent per mile and the goods aren’t perishable so you go to Guangzhou or Cape Town where you can kill union bosses in peace. But for the American city, that’s a loss of what once made land prime real estate. What jobs can replace the insatiable demand for labor that a 24 hour paper mill once produced? Service labor, which crucially is site specific and therefore not outsourceable, is what the US has predominantly turned to. (and arms manufacturing which is not outsourced for very different reasons) However, service labor is only in demand if there is already a stable population that can be served, which requires a constant influx of capital holders in demand of service. This is why Airbnb exists and is hollowing out rental availability, why Boston as a college town is the way it is, and why there are in fact so many damn tapas bars. Fred Salveucci talked about being able to go north of the expressway in the 70s and being able to get a plate of mac and beans for half a buck. I went looking for a 5$ slice of pizza on my lunch break today around Government Center and found two places that were boarded up and ended up spending 20$ at Chilacates. Cities are being slowly turned into Cancun, complete with the fences to keep out the homeless.

What can be done about this? Obviously the factors we’ve discussed that favor consolidation of housing are mostly either contained within a gordion’s knot of tax policy or intrinsic to capitalism/goods as commodities. But, given that we narrow our objectives to making the rent lower, some obvious weaknesses jump out: increasing the cost of vacancy forces units out of furlough, because companies are no longer able to justify the losses, and increasing real wages increases the availability of capital for workers to spend on rent. These are the prongs I talked about earlier.

Legal means to pursue each prong exist. Both a minimum wage and a maximum wage, depending on their implementation, can potentially increase real wages, and vacancy taxes directly increase the costs of vacancy. The government can also ignore the market and directly mandate maximum rents within certain parameters. This tends to decrease the long term supply of housing for the reasons discussed at the outset, given that if the revenues from house building don’t cover the costs of building, less gets built. However, any political movement that exists exclusively within the white lines of the law fails to genuinely threaten change. Landlords, like bosses, break the law constantly with the impunity that a lawyer provides them against consequence. This is why a healthy dose of illegalism is an important part of any effective political movement. The most direct action one can take is property occupation, or squatting. Squatter’s rights are nearly non-existent in the United States. The most leeway that any state grants to any unknown persons occupying a dwelling is 60 days notice to vacate the property, and there are states that allow no notice evictions or lack statutes governing squatting at all. Every single state regards the occupation of owned property as trespassing, meaning most kinds of squatting are prosecutable offenses. However, squatting, even temporarily in ways that don’t expose the squatter to liability provided they don’t get caught, can seriously impact the value of properties. You have heard of rent lowering gunshots. This is the serious version of that. At the same time, illegal action needs legal defense, both in terms of non-compliance with police to protect those willing to take illegal actions from arrest and in terms of legal, 1st amendment protected disruption to keep focus on the issue. The most effective movements have a radical wing and a institutionalist wing who do not acknowledge each other but share the same tactics and objectives.

If you are housed, you need to be willing to protect and support homeless people because they are your front line. Start or join an Occupy movement, where they are your peers in occupying a public space illegally in a way that is too public to prosecute. Give to people on the street, and smash anti-homeless architecture if nobody is watching. Be willing to distract cops if you see someone doing something dodgy so they can get away. Remember that following the law is a tactic, and so is breaking it.

The case for this being on my transit blog is arguably weak, but I felt compelled after a particularly hateful experience looking at facebook memes about homeless people on the T. You should want those people there. You should want those people breaking down the doors of luxury apartments and setting up shop. You should want them keeping your city safe because the cops you hire to separate you from them will train their guns on you next.

And for gods sake, don’t let your city become a brand. Branding is marketing. Branding is clean, and bloodless, and a gloved hand around your throat that leaves no fingerprints.

[sourcreammachine]

GREEN PARTY MANIFESTO 2024 SUMMARY

tldr: there's a feeling of tension in this manifesto, between youthful zennial climatic ecosocialism and old-guard hippy-liberal environmentalism. this year the greens may well go from 1 MP to the dizzying heights of 2 (there's whispers on the wind that they may even get 3...), and the green council delegation is at 800-odd now, so this could easily be a changing-of-the-guard moment

with the great Berry and the ok Denyer in parliament the party could have more momentum in battling the starmerite government, and with that, it has the ability, the possibility to pick up more momentum. this is a big opportunity in the party's history - over the next five years it can and could be pushed into a holistic ecosocialist movement by the centrally influential mass party membership, and remove the last dregs of its tunnel vision to provide a lefty movement for everyone, green and pink, a Newfoundland coalition. with votes at 16 on the cards and this potential evolution of the party, 2029 could be a big moment for this country's left. whether or not the greens play the role of keystone is up to them

it is also the only manifesto to use the term 'neurodivergent'

💷ECONOMY

wealth tax of 1% on individuals with assets over §10m and 2% for assets over §1b (an extremely humble proposal), reform capital gains and investment dividend taxation to be at the same rates as income taxation, remove the income-based bands on national insurance contributions, ie raising total income taxation by 8% at §50k/a, – altogether raising government revenues by upwards of §70b/a

stratify VAT to reduce it for consumer stuff and hike it for stuff like financial services

permanent windfall tax on banks for whenever they get windfalls

perform a holistic land survey to get the data needed for a new, effective Land Tax

abolish the tax relief on existing freeports and SEZs

heavy carbon tax to raise a boatload of billions, rising progressively over a decade to allow industrial adaptation, for a ~§80b state windfall for five years that'll be for green investment as this windfall starts to recede

renationalise water and energy

§15 minimum wage, 10:1 pay ratio for all organisations public and private (ie §150 sort-of maximum wage, ~§300k/a), mandatory equal pay audits, 'support' lower hours and four-day weeks [clarification needed]

unambiguously define gig workers as workers with contract rights from day one, repeat offenders of gig-slavery will be banned from operating in the country

every City bank required to produce a strategy with a clear pathway to divestment of all fossil fuels "as soon as possible and at least by 2030", every City non-banking organisation simply to be banned from having fossil fuel in their portfolios, credit to be banned for repeat City climate offenders, mandate the BoE to fulfil the funding of the climate transition and climate leadership of the City, FCA to develop measures to ban fossil fuel share trading in the City and immediately prohibit all new shares in fossil fuels

"we will explore legal ways for companies to be transformed into mutual organisations"😈

develop regional cooperative banks to invest in regional SMEs, coops and community enterprises

diversify crop growth, promote local agricultural cooperatives and peripheral urban horticultural farms, give farmers a sort of collective bargain against grocers

aim towards a circular economy: require ten-year warranties on white goods, rollout of right-to-repair

tighten monopoly laws on media with a hard cap preventing >20% of a media market being owned by one individual or company and implement Leveson 2

🏥PUBLIC SERVICES

abolish tuition fees and cancel standing debt

surge nhs funding by §30B, triple labour's spending plans for everything, the entire budget, the entire state, everything

free personal care, with occupational therapy being part of this

35h/w free child care (eg seven hours over five days, or seven days of five hours)

renationalise many academies under local authorities, abolish the "charity" status of private schools and charge VAT

surge funding for smoking-cessation, addiction support and sexual health service

surge funding for public dentistry with free care for children and low-earners

free school breakfasts in primary school and free school lunches for all schools

one-month guarantee of access to mental health therapies

online access to PrEP

let school playing fields be used in the evenings by local sports clubs

greater funding for civic sports facilities and pools

🏠HOUSING

unambiguously-under-the-law nationalise the crown estate for an absolute fuckton of land and assets for housing and for green energy and rewilding for FREE

rent control for local authorities, ban no-fault evictions and introduce long-term leases, create private tenancy boards of tenants

local authorities to have right of first refusal on the purchase of certain properties at aggressive rates, such as unoccupied or uninsulated buildings

all new homes to be Passivhaus standard with mandatory solar panels and heat pumps

§30B across five years to insulate homes, §12B of which is for social homes, and §9B more for heat pumps, and §7B more for summer cooling

planning law reform: council planning mechanisms to priorities little developments all over the place rather than sprawling blobs, demolitions to require as thorough a planning application as erections, new developments required to not be car dependent

planning laws to require large-scale developments feature access to key community infrastructures such as transport, health and education, often mandating the construction of new key infrastructures, support nightlife and local culture in planning regulations

exempt pubs and local cultural events from VAT

building materials to be reusable, builders' waste rates to be surged to encourage use of reuse

750k new social homes in five years

🚄TRANSPORT

'a bus service to every village', restore local authority control and/or ownership of their busses

renationalise rail via franchise-concession lapsing, slowly assume ownership of the rolling stock (currently leased, and would continue to be so under labour's implementation of renationalisation) by buying a new train when the stock needs to be replaced

electrification agenda across the rail network, strategic approach to rail line and station reopenings

bring forward (sorta, the tories suspended it but labour says they'll reinstate it) the new petrol car ban from 2030 to 2027, existing petrol cars targeted to be off the road by 2034, investigate road-price charges as a replacement for petrol tax, hike road tax proportionally to vehicle weight, drop urban speed limits from 50kph to 30kph (or from 30mph to 20mph if you only speak Wrong), mass funding for freightrail and support logistics firms transitioning away from lorries

§2.5b/a for footpaths and cycleways, target of 50% of urban journeys to be extravehicular by 2030

frequent-flyer levy, ban on domestic flights within three-hour rail distance, remove the exemption of airline fuel from fuel tax, prioritise training of airline workers into other transportational jobs

👮FORCE

abolish the home office, transfer its police/security portfolio to the justice ministry and its citizenship/migration portfolio to a new migration ministry separate from the criminal justice system

abolish the kill the bill bill and restore the right to protest

recognise palestine, push for immediate ceasefire and prosecution of war crimes, back the south africa case, "[support] an urgent international effort to end the illegal occupation of palestinian land"

grant asylum-seekers the right to work before their application is granted

end the hostile environment

abolish Prevent

end routine stop-and-search and facial recognition

commission to reform 'counterproductive' drug regime, decriminalise personal possession

amend the Online Safety Act to "[protect] political debate from being manipulated by falsehoods, fakes and half-truths", ie actually protecting 'fReE sPeEcH' and not everything that rightists imply by that phrase

decriminalise sex work

reform laws to give artists IP protections against ai

cancel trident and disarm

push for nato reforms (in its and our interest, they're not russophiles, they're not galloway, it's ok): get it to adopt a no-first-use nuclear policy, get it to prioritise diplomatic action first rather than military reaction, get it to adopt a stronger line on only acting for the defence of its member states

right to roam🚶‍♂️

🌱CLIMATE

zero-carbon by 2040, rather than the ephemeral ostensible government target of 2050

stop all new oil/gas licenses, end all subsidy for oil/gas industries, regulate biofuels to end greenwashing, end subsidies for biomass

decarbonise energy by 2030, minimum threshold of energy infrastructures to be community owned, "end the de facto ban on onshore wind" with planning reform

massively expand the connections between the insular grid and the UCTE continental grid to increase electricity import and export and prevent the need for energy autarky

more targeted bans on single-use plastics

"give nature a legal personhood" ok grandma let’s get you to bed

§2b/a to local authorities for local small-business decarbonisation

"cease development of new nuclear power stations, as nuclear energy is much more expensive and slower to develop than renewables. we are clear that nuclear is a distraction from developing renewable energy and the risk to nuclear power stations from extreme climate events is rising fast. nuclear power stations carry an unacceptable risk for the communities living close to facilities and create unmanageable quantities of radioactive waste. they are also inextricably linked with the production of nuclear weapons. green MPs will campaign to phase out existing nuclear power stations." because some people just can't let go of the seventies. nuclear is good. nuclear is our friend

invest in r&d to find solutions to decarbonise 'residual' carbon in the economy, such as HGVs or mobile machinery

increase unharvested woodland by 50% (no time frame given), grants to farmers for scrub rewilding, rewet Pete Boggs, make 30% of the EEZ protected waters and ban bottom trawling

§4b/a in skills training to stop gas communities getting Thatchered, prioritising shifting these workers into offshore wind

a.. licensing scheme for all pet animals? you guys sure about that one

regulate animal farming with a goal of banning factory farms, ban mass routine antibiotics, ban cages/close confinement and animal mutilation

ban all hunting including coursing and "game", ban snaring, ban hunt-landscaping such as grouse moors, end the badger cull, mandate licensing of all animal workers with lifetime striking off for cruelty convictions, compulsory hedgehog holes in new fencing, 'push' for 'ending' horse and dog racing [clarification needed], new criminal offences for stealing and harming pets, 'work towards' banning animal testing

🗳️DEMOCRACY

proportional representation for parliament and all councils

abolish voter ID

votes at sixteen

votes for all visa'd migrants

restore the electoral commission's prosecutory powers and remove the cap on fines it can impose on parties

increase Short Money, especially for smaller parties

create a manifest legal category of organisation for think tanks, to allow better enforcement of lobbying and funding restrictions

consider fun new measures for political accessibility such as MP jobsharing and allowing public provision of offices for all parliamentary candidates

🎲OTHER STUFF

Self-ID including nonbinary recognition, including with an X passport marker

"work towards rejoining the eu as soon as the domestic political situation is favourable", join the eea now (with restored free movement)

let local authorities invest shares in sports teams, including professional ones, dividends ringfenced for public sports facilities and coaching

right to die

[theambitiouswoman]

Hi!

Thanking for answering my ask,

If you don’t mind I would love it if you could get into the tax part, I just want to know as much as I can. 😆

Ok this is fun, prepare to have your mind blown.

I have to disclose that I am not a financial advisor or an accountant <3

Trusts: You want to consider purchasing the properties under a trust. Tax implications can vary under trusts. Revocable living trust will allow you to be treated as the owner, but in an irrevocable trust, it is a separate entity. In some structures, you would only pain capital gains, which can also be transferred to a separate trust, and you do not end up paying capital gains on the property. You do this with a charitable remainder trust. Generally, if a property is held in a trust, rental income generated from that property is typically subject to income tax. The trust itself may be responsible for paying those taxes, or the tax liability might pass through to the beneficiaries, depending on the type of trust and its specific provisions. This will change the amount you would pay in taxes. If the property was purchased as a primary home, there could also be capital gain exceptions depending on the trust. Your income affects the rates you pay on specific trusts. Before I continue, I want to suggest speaking to an actual attorney, not an accountant. Most are not knowledgable or equipped to properly guide you here. Same as with traditional, in a trust you can deduct property related expenses like mortgage interest, property taxes, maintenance costs, and depreciation, from the rental income. This can help reduce the taxable income generated by the property.

IRA's: You can use a self directed IRA or other retirement accounts to invest in real estate. The gain from these investments grow tax deferred within your account. This is something you should also consider doing.

Depreciating assets: Real estate can depreciate overtime. This doesn't include land. But when it depreciates, you can deduct the properties cost. This would offset the income you would pat taxes on.

1031 Exchange: Filing a 1031 will allow you to defer paying capital gains on an investment property when it's sold, as long as another "like kind" property is purchased with the profit gained from the sale.

Mortgage Interest Deduction: Interest paid on mortgages for investment properties can be deducted.

Carry Forward: If your expenses exceed your rental income, you could have a net loss. Some of these losses can be used to offset other taxable income, while others might be carried forward to future years.

Living in the property: If you live in the property for 2 years. you can exclude a portion of the capital gains from your taxable income when you sell.

Opportunity Zones: Opportunity zones offer tax incentives, including deferring and potentially reducing capital gains taxes.

Expenses: All repair expenses can be deducted.

Installments: You can structure your sale to receive payments over time. This spreads out the capital gains and reduces tax impact.

Tax Credits: There are a ton of tax credits for investors. Would research in your state.

More deductions: Interest on a mortgage for an investment property is typically tax deductible, as are property taxes and many other expenses related to the property like Insurance premiums.

Cost segregations: You can hire someone to reclassify certain areas of your property to accelerate depreciation. This will give you a significant upfront tax deduction.

Pass throughs: Certain pass through entities (like LLCs, S Corporations, and partnerships) may be eligible for a deduction of up to 20% of their business income from rental properties.

I can keep going on this, but strongly recommend you read these books:

Loopholes of the Rich: How the Rich Legally Make More Money and Pay Less Tax 

Tax-Free Wealth: How to Build Massive Wealth by Permanently Lowering Your Taxes 

[darkmaga-returns]

Will Donald Trump Eliminate the Department of Education?

by Benjamin Seevers | Nov 25, 2024

Hardly a minute has gone by without the media sounding off about President-elect Donald Trump’s cabinet nominations. However, one department has garnered more attention than others: the Department of Education).

Trump has stated that eliminating the Department of Education and devolving governance of education to the states would be one of the first actions of his second administration, and his choice for secretary, Linda McMahon, may or may not share Trump’s goal. The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has also called for the elimination of the Department of Education

This alarms leaders of teacher advocacy organizations. The president of American Federation of Teachers (AFT)—the second largest teacher’s union in the country—stated, “Donald Trump and Republican elected officials have said they want to eliminate the Department of Education, which oversees programs that invest in low-income schools and help fund education for students with disabilities, but if they listen to what the voters have said, they will work to strengthen public schools, not dismantle them.”

Given Trump’s comments, the AFT has good reason to fear the incoming administration. If the Department of Education is eliminated, then the stranglehold teacher unions have on education policy would be greatly diminished. This reform promises significant benefits.

William Fischel, in his seminal paper entitled, “Homevoters, Municipal Corporate Governance, and the Benefit View of the Property Tax,” highlights the fact that centralization in public school funding has led to worse education outcomes. Why? Fischel states:

“Local funding provides a benefit-cost discipline on local voters who own homes in the district. Consider a local superintendent’s proposal to improve schools by adding more teachers. Under local property tax funding, this has a positive and a negative effect on voters. If the additional teachers raise the quality of education, home values will rise, which pleases most homeowners in the same way that capital gains please stockholders. But the additional need for funds will raise property taxes, and it is widely established that higher taxes will reduce home values. Thus local voters have an incentive to adopt cost-effective school measures, which makes their schools more efficient.”

This same effect is not felt at the state level. Fischel explains:

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

September 4, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Sep 05, 2024

Long tonight, folks, but it’s been quite a day. And even still, I did not mention the day’s horrific shooting at a Georgia school.

Today, Vice President Kamala Harris announced a series of proposals to help entrepreneurs create small businesses. Like President Joe Biden, she and her running mate, Minnesota governor Tim Walz, argue that small businesses and entrepreneurs are the “engines of our economy.” In a statement today, they noted that “small businesses employ half of all private-sector workers in America—creating 70 percent of net new jobs since 2019—and do trillions of dollars of business every year.”

The Biden administration has boasted of the record number of new businesses created since Biden and Harris took office. There have been 19 million new business applications in that time. Harris said she and Walz are setting a goal of 25 million new business applications in their first term. Their plan, they say, is to “kickstart…more young, small, and innovative firms.”

To make this happen, they propose raising the deduction for startup expenses from its current level of $5,000 to $50,000, noting that the average amount a new business spends to get set up in its first year of operation is $40,000. They also propose funding a network of new and existing “federal, state, local, and private incubators and small business innovation hubs” that will make it easier for small business and local suppliers to get technical assistance, funding, customers, and so on. 

They also promised to make low-interest and no-interest loans available for small businesses, to protect and expand the support of the Affordable Care Act for small business owners, and to guarantee that one third of federal contract money will go to small businesses. They promise to make it easier for small businesses to file taxes, reduce excessive occupational licensing requirements, and urge state and local governments to cut the red tape of burdensome regulations by streamlining them across jurisdictions. 

Harris and Walz said they are committed to making the investments that will build the economy while also paying for them and reducing the deficit. “They also know,” their statement said, that “we need to support America as a locus of innovators, entrepreneurs, and workers coming together to create a better future.  

Harris calls this a New Way Forward, but it is curiously close to the old Republican reforms of the Progressive Era, when entrepreneurs joined forces with workers and farmers to demand access to capital and a fair economic playing field after decades in which a few wealthy industrialists stacked the system in their own favor. When we look at that era, as well as the New Deal reforms of the 1930s, we tend to emphasize reforms designed to benefit workers and farmers, but members of those groups always allied with entrepreneurs shut out of the system by wealthy industrialists. The demand for securities and exchange law in the 1930s, for example, did not come from western farmers, but from entrepreneurs who knew they could not break into the system if established businesses made up the rules amongst themselves.

Harris recalled that Republican reform impulse when she said we must make the tax system fairer. She called for rolling back Trump’s tax cuts and implementing common-sense tax reforms for corporations and the richest Americans. She calls for setting a minimum income tax for billionaires, the corporate tax rate to 28% (it was 35% before the Trump tax cuts), and quadrupling the tax on the stock buybacks that overwhelmingly benefit the wealthiest Americans.

She emphasized that no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes under her plans, and called for a tax rate of 28% on long-term capital gains for those who earn more than a million dollars a year. This is up from the current 20% rate, but less than the 39.6% rate Biden proposed in his 2025 budget. 

A Fox News Channel host applauded some of Harris’s ideas, saying, “When a political candidate comes up with what I think is a good idea, I have to call it a good idea. And a fifty thousand dollar…tax credit for startups or small businesses, coupled with less red tape, I’ve got to say, that is a good idea, regardless of her other tax ideas.” 

This was a nice endorsement of Harris’s policies, coming as it did after yesterday’s assessment by economists for the Goldman Sachs Group saying that the nation’s economic growth would take a hit if Trump wins, but will grow under a Harris presidency if she also has the support of a Democratic House and Senate.  

In her statement about economic policy, Harris called out Trump for supporting “himself and the biggest corporations” and noted that sixteen Nobel laureates have said that Trump’s policies would ignite inflation and trigger a recession by mid-2025. That recession, economists project, would cost more than 3 million jobs, explode the deficit, and raise costs. Harris pointed out that Project 2025 would cut funding for the Small Business Administration and make it harder for small businesses to get access to money. 

For his part, Trump has doubled down on the idea that the United States is a failing nation. For the past week he has been telling a story about a residential building in Colorado taken over by a gang from Venezuela. But it appears the story is entirely made up. Similarly, Trump on Friday said at a right-wing Moms for Liberty event that public schools in America kidnap children and operate on them to change their sex. This is bonkers, but it is bonkers in a way that deliberately demonizes Trump’s opponents.

Trump’s vision of the United States is one of darkness and carnage. As Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz said today, “It is a deliberate effort by some people to make them believe that our political system is broken. To make them believe that things are pessimistic. My God, every time I hear Donald Trump give a speech, it’s like the next screenplay for Mad Max or something. They are rooting against America.”

That bleak version of the United States, it turns out, echoes the talking points Russian handlers gave to their operatives working in the U.S. in an effort “to steer the U.S. public opinion in the right direction.” The Russians directed their U.S. employees to emphasize the following “campaign topics”: “Encroaching universal poverty. Record inflation. Halting of economic growth. Unaffordable prices for food and essential goods”; “Risk of job loss for white Americans”; “Privileges for people of color, perverts, and disabled”; “Constant lies of the [Democratic] administration about the real situation in the country”; “Threat of crime coming from people of color and immigrants”; “Overspending on foreign policy and at the interests of white US citizens”; “Constant lies to the voters by [Democrats] in power.” 

The target audience of the campaign was “[Republican] voters,” [Trump] supporters, “Supporters of traditional family values,” and “White Americans, representing the lower-middle and middle class.” The focus was in particular on “[r]esidents of "swing states whose voting results impact the outcomes of the elections more than other states. 

This information came out today when the Departments of Justice, State, and the Treasury announced sanctions against 10 individuals and 2 entities, and criminal charges against two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, who allegedly funded a company in the U.S. to hire right-wing social media influencers to push Russian propaganda before the 2024 election. 

While the indictment does not name the Tennessee-based company the Russians funded, it appears to be Tenet Media, a company registered by Liam Donovan and Lauren Tam, who is associated with The Blaze and Turning Point USA, as well as RT. The two appear to be married. The indictment alleges that the company’s two founders knew they were working for the Russians, but suggests the six commentators—Lauren Southern, Tim Pool, Tayler Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, all staunch Trump supporters—did not know where their massive paychecks originated. After the story broke, five of the commentators denied any knowledge of the source of the company’s funding; some insisted their words were entirely their own. 

One of the videos the company pushed at the request of the Russians was what appears to have been right-wing host Tucker Carlson’s visit to a grocery store in Russia where he praised the low prices (which even the company’s founders thought “just feels like overt shilling”).

Separately, the Department of Justice seized 32 internet domains that “the Russian government and Russian sponsored actors” have used to influence the 2024 election. In a malign influence campaign called “Doppelganger,” these domains produced fake articles that appeared to be from major U.S. news sites, to which influencers and fake social media profiles on Facebook, X, Truth Social, and YouTube then drove traffic. 

Russian operatives called in bold type for Russia “to put a maximum effort to ensure that the [Republican] point of view (first and foremost, the opinion of [Trump] supporters) wins over the US public opinion. This includes provisions on peace in Ukraine in exchange for territories, the need to focus on the problems of the US economy, returning troops home from all over the world, etc.”

One of the documents produced in the affidavit justifying the seizure of the internet domains called for trying to stir up a conflict between the U.S. and Mexico in order to distract from the fact that the U.S. economy is “very healthy” under Biden.

Tonight, in an interview with Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity, Trump appeared to think he is running against Joe Biden. An internal email leaked to the press from the Trump campaign showed managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles warning staff not to communicate with the press and suggested anyone doing so would be fired.

Today, Steph Curry of California’s Golden State Warriors basketball team and former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY) endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for president. “Endorsing Kamala Harris is important for me and my family,” Curry said. “Knowing Kamala and having been around her, I understand she's qualified for this job."

“There was never a doubt that the courageous Liz Cheney would endorse Vice President Harris,” conservative judge J. Michael Luttig wrote, “because  Liz Cheney stands for America.  She is the very embodiment of country over party and country over self.  And she fears no one—least of all the former president.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[dailyanarchistposts]

B.2.2 Does the state have subsidiary functions?

Yes, it does. While, as discussed in the last section, the state is an instrument to maintain class rule this does not mean that it is limited to just defending the social relationships in a society and the economic and political sources of those relationships. No state has ever left its activities at that bare minimum. As well as defending the rich, their property and the specific forms of property rights they favoured, the state has numerous other subsidiary functions.

What these are has varied considerably over time and space and, consequently, it would be impossible to list them all. However, why it does is more straight forward. We can generalise two main forms of subsidiary functions of the state. The first one is to boost the interests of the ruling elite either nationally or internationally beyond just defending their property. The second is to protect society against the negative effects of the capitalist market. We will discuss each in turn and, for simplicity and relevance, we will concentrate on capitalism (see also section D.1).

The first main subsidiary function of the state is when it intervenes in society to help the capitalist class in some way. This can take obvious forms of intervention, such as subsidies, tax breaks, non-bid government contracts, protective tariffs to old, inefficient, industries, giving actual monopolies to certain firms or individuals, bailouts of corporations judged by state bureaucrats as too important to let fail, and so on. However, the state intervenes far more than that and in more subtle ways. Usually it does so to solve problems that arise in the course of capitalist development and which cannot, in general, be left to the market (at least initially). These are designed to benefit the capitalist class as a whole rather than just specific individuals, companies or sectors.

These interventions have taken different forms in different times and include state funding for industry (e.g. military spending); the creation of social infrastructure too expensive for private capital to provide (railways, motorways); the funding of research that companies cannot afford to undertake; protective tariffs to protect developing industries from more efficient international competition (the key to successful industrialisation as it allows capitalists to rip-off consumers, making them rich and increasing funds available for investment); giving capitalists preferential access to land and other natural resources; providing education to the general public that ensures they have the skills and attitude required by capitalists and the state (it is no accident that a key thing learned in school is how to survive boredom, being in a hierarchy and to do what it orders); imperialist ventures to create colonies or client states (or protect citizen’s capital invested abroad) in order to create markets or get access to raw materials and cheap labour; government spending to stimulate consumer demand in the face of recession and stagnation; maintaining a “natural” level of unemployment that can be used to discipline the working class, so ensuring they produce more, for less; manipulating the interest rate in order to try and reduce the effects of the business cycle and undermine workers’ gains in the class struggle.

These actions, and others like it, ensures that a key role of the state within capitalism “is essentially to socialise risk and cost, and to privatise power and profit.” Unsurprisingly, “with all the talk about minimising the state, in the OECD countries the state continues to grow relative to GNP.” [Noam Chomsky, Rogue States, p. 189] Hence David Deleon:

“Above all, the state remains an institution for the continuance of dominant socioeconomic relations, whether through such agencies as the military, the courts, politics or the police … Contemporary states have acquired … less primitive means to reinforce their property systems [than state violence — which is always the means of last, often first, resort]. States can regulate, moderate or resolve tensions in the economy by preventing the bankruptcies of key corporations, manipulating the economy through interest rates, supporting hierarchical ideology through tax benefits for churches and schools, and other tactics. In essence, it is not a neutral institution; it is powerfully for the status quo. The capitalist state, for example, is virtually a gyroscope centred in capital, balancing the system. If one sector of the economy earns a level of profit, let us say, that harms the rest of the system — such as oil producers’ causing public resentment and increased manufacturing costs — the state may redistribute some of that profit through taxation, or offer encouragement to competitors.” [“Anarchism on the origins and functions of the state: some basic notes”, Reinventing Anarchy, pp. 71–72]

In other words, the state acts to protect the long-term interests of the capitalist class as a whole (and ensure its own survival) by protecting the system. This role can and does clash with the interests of particular capitalists or even whole sections of the ruling class (see section B.2.6). But this conflict does not change the role of the state as the property owners’ policeman. Indeed, the state can be considered as a means for settling (in a peaceful and apparently independent manner) upper-class disputes over what to do to keep the system going.

This subsidiary role, it must be stressed, is no accident, It is part and parcel capitalism. Indeed, “successful industrial societies have consistently relied on departures from market orthodoxies, while condemning their victims [at home and abroad] to market discipline.” [Noam Chomsky, World Orders, Old and New, p. 113] While such state intervention grew greatly after the Second World War, the role of the state as active promoter of the capitalist class rather than just its passive defender as implied in capitalist ideology (i.e. as defender of property) has always been a feature of the system. As Kropotkin put it:

“every State reduces the peasants and the industrial workers to a life of misery, by means of taxes, and through the monopolies it creates in favour of the landlords, the cotton lords, the railway magnates, the publicans, and the like … we need only to look round, to see how everywhere in Europe and America the States are constituting monopolies in favour of capitalists at home, and still more in conquered lands [which are part of their empires].” [Evolution and Environment, p. 97]

By “monopolies,” it should be noted, Kropotkin meant general privileges and benefits rather than giving a certain firm total control over a market. This continues to this day by such means as, for example, privatising industries but providing them with state subsidies or by (mis-labelled) “free trade” agreements which impose protectionist measures such as intellectual property rights on the world market.

All this means that capitalism has rarely relied on purely economic power to keep the capitalists in their social position of dominance (either nationally, vis-à-vis the working class, or internationally, vis-à-vis competing foreign elites). While a “free market” capitalist regime in which the state reduces its intervention to simply protecting capitalist property rights has been approximated on a few occasions, this is not the standard state of the system — direct force, i.e. state action, almost always supplements it.

This is most obviously the case during the birth of capitalist production. Then the bourgeoisie wants and uses the power of the state to “regulate” wages (i.e. to keep them down to such levels as to maximise profits and force people attend work regularly), to lengthen the working day and to keep the labourer dependent on wage labour as their own means of income (by such means as enclosing land, enforcing property rights on unoccupied land, and so forth). As capitalism is not and has never been a “natural” development in society, it is not surprising that more and more state intervention is required to keep it going (and if even this was not the case, if force was essential to creating the system in the first place, the fact that it latter can survive without further direct intervention does not make the system any less statist). As such, “regulation” and other forms of state intervention continue to be used in order to skew the market in favour of the rich and so force working people to sell their labour on the bosses terms.

This form of state intervention is designed to prevent those greater evils which might threaten the efficiency of a capitalist economy or the social and economic position of the bosses. It is designed not to provide positive benefits for those subject to the elite (although this may be a side-effect). Which brings us to the other kind of state intervention, the attempts by society, by means of the state, to protect itself against the eroding effects of the capitalist market system.

Capitalism is an inherently anti-social system. By trying to treat labour (people) and land (the environment) as commodities, it has to break down communities and weaken eco-systems. This cannot but harm those subject to it and, as a consequence, this leads to pressure on government to intervene to mitigate the most damaging effects of unrestrained capitalism. Therefore, on one side there is the historical movement of the market, a movement that has not inherent limit and that therefore threatens society’s very existence. On the other there is society’s natural propensity to defend itself, and therefore to create institutions for its protection. Combine this with a desire for justice on behalf of the oppressed along with opposition to the worse inequalities and abuses of power and wealth and we have the potential for the state to act to combat the worse excesses of the system in order to keep the system as a whole going. After all, the government “cannot want society to break up, for it would mean that it and the dominant class would be deprived of the sources of exploitation.” [Malatesta, Op. Cit., p. 25]

Needless to say, the thrust for any system of social protection usually comes from below, from the people most directly affected by the negative effects of capitalism. In the face of mass protests the state may be used to grant concessions to the working class in cases where not doing so would threaten the integrity of the system as a whole. Thus, social struggle is the dynamic for understanding many, if not all, of the subsidiary functions acquired by the state over the years (this applies to pro-capitalist functions as these are usually driven by the need to bolster the profits and power of capitalists at the expense of the working class).

State legislation to set the length of the working day is an obvious example this. In the early period of capitalist development, the economic position of the capitalists was secure and, consequently, the state happily ignored the lengthening working day, thus allowing capitalists to appropriate more surplus value from workers and increase the rate of profit without interference. Whatever protests erupted were handled by troops. Later, however, after workers began to organise on a wider and wider scale, reducing the length of the working day became a key demand around which revolutionary socialist fervour was developing. In order to defuse this threat (and socialist revolution is the worst-case scenario for the capitalist), the state passed legislation to reduce the length of the working day.

Initially, the state was functioning purely as the protector of the capitalist class, using its powers simply to defend the property of the few against the many who used it (i.e. repressing the labour movement to allow the capitalists to do as they liked). In the second period, the state was granting concessions to the working class to eliminate a threat to the integrity of the system as a whole. Needless to say, once workers’ struggle calmed down and their bargaining position reduced by the normal workings of market (see section B.4.3), the legislation restricting the working day was happily ignored and became “dead laws.”

This suggests that there is a continuing tension and conflict between the efforts to establish, maintain, and spread the “free market” and the efforts to protect people and society from the consequences of its workings. Who wins this conflict depends on the relative strength of those involved (as does the actual reforms agreed to). Ultimately, what the state concedes, it can also take back. Thus the rise and fall of the welfare state — granted to stop more revolutionary change (see section D.1.3), it did not fundamentally challenge the existence of wage labour and was useful as a means of regulating capitalism but was “reformed” (i.e. made worse, rather than better) when it conflicted with the needs of the capitalist economy and the ruling elite felt strong enough to do so.

Of course, this form of state intervention does not change the nature nor role of the state as an instrument of minority power. Indeed, that nature cannot help but shape how the state tries to implement social protection and so if the state assumes functions it does so as much in the immediate interest of the capitalist class as in the interest of society in general. Even where it takes action under pressure from the general population or to try and mend the harm done by the capitalist market, its class and hierarchical character twists the results in ways useful primarily to the capitalist class or itself. This can be seen from how labour legislation is applied, for example. Thus even the “good” functions of the state are penetrated with and dominated by the state’s hierarchical nature. As Malatesta forcefully put it:

“The basic function of government … is always that of oppressing and exploiting the masses, of defending the oppressors and the exploiters … It is true that to these basic functions … other functions have been added in the course of history … hardly ever has a government existed … which did not combine with its oppressive and plundering activities others which were useful … to social life. But this does not detract from the fact that government is by nature oppressive … and that it is in origin and by its attitude, inevitably inclined to defend and strengthen the dominant class; indeed it confirms and aggravates the position … [I]t is enough to understand how and why it carries out these functions to find the practical evidence that whatever governments do is always motivated by the desire to dominate, and is always geared to defending, extending and perpetuating its privileges and those of the class of which it is both the representative and defender.” [Op. Cit., pp. 23–4]

This does not mean that these reforms should be abolished (the alternative is often worse, as neo-liberalism shows), it simply recognises that the state is not a neutral body and cannot be expected to act as if it were. Which, ironically, indicates another aspect of social protection reforms within capitalism: they make for good PR. By appearing to care for the interests of those harmed by capitalism, the state can obscure it real nature:

“A government cannot maintain itself for long without hiding its true nature behind a pretence of general usefulness; it cannot impose respect for the lives of the privileged if it does not appear to demand respect for all human life; it cannot impose acceptance of the privileges of the few if it does not pretend to be the guardian of the rights of all.” [Malatesta, Op. Cit., p. 24]

Obviously, being an instrument of the ruling elite, the state can hardly be relied upon to control the system which that elite run. As we discuss in the next section, even in a democracy the state is run and controlled by the wealthy making it unlikely that pro-people legislation will be introduced or enforced without substantial popular pressure. That is why anarchists favour direct action and extra-parliamentary organising (see sections J.2 and J.5 for details). Ultimately, even basic civil liberties and rights are the product of direct action, of “mass movements among the people” to “wrest these rights from the ruling classes, who would never have consented to them voluntarily.” [Rocker, Anarcho-Syndicalism, p. 75]

Equally obviously, the ruling elite and its defenders hate any legislation it does not favour — while, of course, remaining silent on its own use of the state. As Benjamin Tucker pointed out about the “free market” capitalist Herbert Spencer, “amid his multitudinous illustrations … of the evils of legislation, he in every instance cites some law passed ostensibly at least to protect labour, alleviating suffering, or promote the people’s welfare… But never once does he call attention to the far more deadly and deep-seated evils growing out of the innumerable laws creating privilege and sustaining monopoly.” [The Individualist Anarchists, p. 45] Such hypocrisy is staggering, but all too common in the ranks of supporters of “free market” capitalism.

Finally, it must be stressed that none of these subsidiary functions implies that capitalism can be changed through a series of piecemeal reforms into a benevolent system that primarily serves working class interests. To the contrary, these functions grow out of, and supplement, the basic role of the state as the protector of capitalist property and the social relations they generate — i.e. the foundation of the capitalist’s ability to exploit. Therefore reforms may modify the functioning of capitalism but they can never threaten its basis.

In summary, while the level and nature of statist intervention on behalf of the employing classes may vary, it is always there. No matter what activity it conducts beyond its primary function of protecting private property, what subsidiary functions it takes on, the state always operates as an instrument of the ruling class. This applies even to those subsidiary functions which have been imposed on the state by the general public — even the most popular reform will be twisted to benefit the state or capital, if at all possible. This is not to dismiss all attempts at reform as irrelevant, it simply means recognising that we, the oppressed, need to rely on our own strength and organisations to improve our circumstances.

[jessbrownz]

Investment Property Loans Made Simple

Investing in property holds the promise of financial freedom, yet navigating the world of investment property loans can seem daunting. With NZ Mortgages as your guide, you can embark on this journey with confidence. Let’s delve into the fundamentals of investment property loans, so that you get  clarity and insight to get  on the path to realising your financial goals.

Understanding Investment Property Loans

Investment property loans differ from traditional home loans in several key aspects. While both involve borrowing money to purchase property, investment loans are specifically tailored for properties that are not occupied by the owner. These loans typically have higher interest rates and stricter eligibility criteria due to the increased risk associated with investment properties.

Types of Investment Property Loans

Fixed Rate Loans:

With a fixed-rate loan, the interest rate remains constant throughout the loan term, providing stability and predictability in repayments. This option is ideal for investors seeking protection against potential interest rate fluctuations.

Variable Rate Loans:

Variable rate loans are subject to changes in interest rates, which can either increase or decrease over time. While this option offers flexibility and the potential for lower interest rates, it also carries the risk of higher repayments if rates rise.

Interest-Only Loans:

Interest-only loans allow investors to pay only the interest portion of the loan for a specified period, typically five to 10 years. This can provide short-term cash flow benefits by reducing monthly repayments, but borrowers must be prepared for higher repayments once the interest-only period ends.

Eligibility and Requirements

Before applying for an investment property loan, it's essential to understand the eligibility criteria and requirements set forth by lenders. Key factors that lenders consider include:

Credit Score:

A strong credit score demonstrates a borrower's ability to manage debt responsibly and is a crucial factor in determining eligibility for an investment loan.

Debt-to-Income Ratio:

Lenders assess the borrower's debt-to-income ratio to ensure they have sufficient income to cover loan repayments. Lower ratios indicate less financial strain and may improve loan approval chances.

Loan-to-Value Ratio (LTV):

The LTV ratio compares the loan amount to the property's value, with lower ratios typically resulting in more favourable loan terms. Lenders may require a higher deposit for investment loans to mitigate risk.

Benefits of Investing in Property

Investing in property offers numerous benefits that can contribute to long-term financial stability and growth:

Rental Income:

Investment properties generate rental income, providing a steady stream of cash flow that can be used to cover loan repayments and expenses.

Capital Appreciation:

Over time, property values tend to increase, allowing investors to build equity and potentially realise capital gains on selling the property.

Tax Advantages:

Property investors may benefit from tax deductions on mortgage interest, property depreciation, and other expenses, reducing their overall tax liability.

While investment property loans offer opportunities for wealth creation, it's crucial to be aware of potential risks and considerations:

Market Volatility:

Property markets can be subject to fluctuations in supply and demand, economic conditions, and government policies. Investors should conduct thorough market research and risk assessments to mitigate exposure to volatility.

Vacancy and Cash Flow:

Vacancies in rental properties can disrupt cash flow and impact loan repayments. Investors should budget for potential vacancies and have contingency plans in place to cover expenses during lean periods.

Property Maintenance and Management:

Owning an investment property entails responsibilities such as maintenance, repairs, and tenant management. Investors should budget for these expenses and consider outsourcing property management services if needed.

Interest Rate Risks:

Variable rate loans are susceptible to changes in interest rates, which can affect borrowing costs and cash flow. Investors should assess their risk tolerance and consider strategies such as fixing interest rates or creating buffers to mitigate interest rate risks.

Working with NZ Mortgages

NZ Mortgages specialises in helping investors navigate the complexities of investment property loans. With our expertise and personalised approach, we empower clients to make informed decisions and achieve their financial objectives. Our services include:

Loan Comparison:

We offer a wide range of loan options from various lenders, allowing clients to compare rates, terms, and features to find the best fit for their investment strategy.

Expert Advice:

Our team of mortgage professionals provides personalised guidance and support throughout the loan application process, ensuring a smooth and seamless experience from start to finish.

Ongoing Support:

Beyond securing financing, we remain committed to our clients' success, offering ongoing support and resources to help them maximise the return on their investment property portfolio.

Strategies for Success

To maximise returns and mitigate risks when investing in property, consider the following strategies:

Diversification:

Diversifying your investment portfolio across different property types, locations, and asset classes can help spread risk and enhance long-term returns. Consider investing in residential, commercial, and mixed-use properties to diversify your portfolio.

Research and Due Diligence:

Conduct thorough research and due diligence before investing in a property. Evaluate factors such as location, property condition, rental demand, and potential for capital appreciation to make informed investment decisions.

Financial Planning:

Develop a comprehensive financial plan that accounts for your investment goals, risk tolerance, cash flow projections, and exit strategies. Consider working with financial advisers and mortgage brokers to optimise your investment strategy and financing options.

Regular Review and Monitoring:

Regularly review and monitor your investment portfolio to assess performance, identify opportunities for optimisation, and make necessary adjustments to your strategy. Stay informed about market trends, regulatory changes, and economic developments that may impact your investments.

Conclusion:

Investment property loans represent a gateway to financial freedom, and with NZ Mortgages by your side, the journey becomes simpler and more rewarding. By understanding the nuances of investment lending and leveraging the expertise of our team, you can confidently pursue your investment goals and build a brighter financial future. Contact NZ Mortgages today and unlock the potential of property investment.

[mariacallous]

During the last two decades, it has become commonplace for presidential candidates on both sides of the aisle to pledge to not raise taxes on at least some income groups. For example, in 2008 John McCain promised to not raise taxes on any income group, whereas Barack Obama pledged to not raise taxes on individuals earning less than $200,000 and on families earning less than $250,000. Likewise, in 2016 Donald Trump pledged to reduce taxes for the middle class, and Hillary Clinton pledged to not raise taxes on individuals earning less than $250,000. Most recently, in 2020 Joe Biden pledged to not raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000, and in 2024 Kamala Harris re-affirmed this commitment.

These pledges are clearly made to insulate “middle-class” households (and middle-class voters!) from increases in their taxes. Therefore, they are also a statement about who should bear the burden of financing federal spending and how progressive the tax system should be.

But these pledges also complicate the development and implementation of good tax policy. By design, they place a large share of the tax base “off the table,” making it harder to raise revenue. Less obviously, these pledges also make it harder to raise revenue from higher-income households because they effectively exempt a portion of higher-income households’ income from taxation. This makes it harder to increase the progressivity of the income tax. Finally, these pledges can make it politically or practically difficult to enact and implement new tax or spending programs. This has caused some awkward episodes in the past and could make it difficult to negotiate a future deficit reduction deal by taking certain policies off the table before the discussion even starts.

To illustrate the revenue and distributional effects of these types of pledges, we estimate the effect of increasing statutory income tax rates by 10% under different income exemption thresholds using the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center microsimulation model. We consider the effect of five salient thresholds: $0; $100,000; $250,000; $400,000; and $1,000,000. In this exercise, the function of the pledge is to exempt taxpayers under the threshold from the tax increase. Specifically, we assume the threshold applies to married couples filing jointly based on adjusted gross income. The threshold for non-married filers is set to be half as large as that of married filers.

We apply the 10% tax increase to all individual income tax rates, including those that apply to capital gains and under the Alternative Minimum Tax (but not other taxes, like payroll taxes or the net investment income tax). In each simulation that we estimate, the change in tax rate for any group over the threshold is exactly the same—a 10% increase in all rates over the threshold. In other words, the only differences in revenues and tax rates across simulations arise from the change in thresholds. (To focus on the main points of this paper, we are assuming there is no change in behavior under alternative tax regimes.)

We assume these tax rate increases affect the 2025 tax year. We choose this base to ensure that the lower individual tax rates provisioned by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are still in effect. The TPC microsimulation model predicts that total tax receipts will be $4.8 trillion in 2025 and that the average federal tax rate paid by Americans will be 19.8%.

Note that our policy example, even without a threshold, would increase tax rates more in absolute terms for higher-income taxpayers because it is a proportional increase in tax rates within a system already characterized by steeply progressive tax rates. For example, under this policy the lowest bracket tax rate rises by just one percentage point (from 10 to 11%), whereas the rate facing those in the top bracket increases by 3.7 percentage points (from 37 to 40.7%).

[sankhlaco]

Consultation Audit Services in Delhi: A Pathway to Financial Precision

Delhi, the capital city of India, is not just the heart of the nation but also a bustling hub of business activity. From startups to established enterprises, organizations in the Delhi area are increasingly relying on consultation audit services to ensure financial transparency, regulatory compliance, and optimized operations. Here’s an in-depth look at why consultation audit services are essential and how they can benefit businesses in the region.

Understanding Consultation Audit Services

Consultation audit services go beyond traditional financial audits. They encompass a comprehensive review of a company’s financial records, operational processes, and compliance frameworks to provide actionable insights for improvement. These services can include:

Statutory Audits – Ensuring compliance with legal and financial reporting requirements.

Internal Audits – Evaluating operational efficiency and risk management practices.

Tax Audits – Verifying compliance with taxation laws and optimizing tax strategies.

Process Audits – Reviewing and enhancing workflows for better productivity and cost-efficiency.

Management Audits – Assessing the effectiveness of leadership and decision-making processes.

Why Businesses in Delhi Need Consultation Audit Services

Regulatory Environment Delhi is home to numerous businesses operating under stringent local, national, and international regulations. Regular audits ensure compliance with laws like the Companies Act, GST laws, and various sector-specific regulations.

Competitive Advantage A thorough audit helps identify inefficiencies, reduce costs, and optimize resource allocation. These insights allow businesses to remain competitive in Delhi’s vibrant market.

Investor Confidence For businesses seeking funding, robust audit practices reassure investors of financial integrity and sound management.

Risk Mitigation With businesses in Delhi facing challenges such as cyber threats, fraud, and fluctuating market conditions, audits provide a safeguard by identifying and addressing vulnerabilities early.

Key Benefits of Consultation Audit Services

Enhanced Compliance: Avoid penalties by adhering to legal and regulatory standards.

Financial Accuracy: Ensure error-free records and improved budgeting.

Strategic Decision-Making: Leverage insights to make informed business decisions.

Improved Credibility: Build trust with stakeholders, including customers and investors.

Cost Efficiency: Streamline processes to save time and resources.

Choosing the Right Consultation Audit Firm in Delhi

The effectiveness of an audit depends largely on the expertise of the auditing firm. Here are key factors to consider:

Experience and Specialization: Choose a firm with a proven track record and expertise in your industry.

Local Knowledge: Firms familiar with Delhi’s regulatory landscape can provide tailored solutions.

Comprehensive Services: Opt for firms offering end-to-end audit and consultation services.

Technology Adoption: Modern tools like AI-powered audit software can enhance precision and efficiency.

Leading Consultation Audit Trends in Delhi

Digital Auditing Tools: With the rise of digitization, automated tools are transforming traditional audit practices.

Sustainability Audits: As businesses focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) compliance, sustainability audits are gaining prominence.

Risk-Based Auditing: A shift towards identifying high-risk areas to prioritize during audits.

Conclusion-

In a dynamic business environment like Delhi, consultation audit services are not a luxury but a necessity. By partnering with the right audit firm, businesses can navigate the complexities of compliance, improve financial health, and unlock growth opportunities.

Whether you’re a small business owner or a large enterprise, investing in consultation audit services can set you on the path to financial precision and long-term success.

Looking for Consultation Audit Services in Delhi? Contact our team of experts to get tailored solutions for your business needs. Let us help you achieve financial clarity and compliance excellence!

[lavanyamuj00058]

History of Finance in India

The Evolution of Financial Management in India and Its Impact on the Economy

India’s financial management history is a fascinating journey that has significantly shaped its economy. Let’s explore this evolution in simple terms.

Early Beginnings

Financial management in India has ancient roots. Historically, India was known for its rich in nature trade and commerce. Ancient texts like the Arthashastra, written by Chanakya, provide insights into early financial practices, including taxation and statecraft.

Colonial Era

The British colonial period brought significant changes. The establishment of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in Kolkata 1935 marked a pivotal moment. The RBI became the sole central authority for regulating the country’s currency and credit systems. However, the financial system was primarily designed to serve colonial interests, focusing on trade and revenue and tax collection.

Post-Independence Reforms

After gaining independence in 1947, India faced the challenge of building a robust financial system. The government nationalized 13 major banks in 1969 to ensure financial inclusion and support economic development. This move aimed to extend banking services to rural areas and promote savings and investments.

Liberalization in the 1990s

The 1991 marked a turning point with economic liberalization. The government introduced reforms to open up the economy, reduce state control, and encourage private sector participation. The Multi National Companies across the globe were invited, encouraged to set up their businesses in India for cheap labour. To initiate this government also provided tax benefits to these companies.

These reforms led to significant growth in the financial sector. The stock market expanded, and new financial instruments like mutual funds and insurance products became popular. The liberalization era also saw the establishment of regulatory bodies like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to oversee the capital markets.

Digital Revolution

In recent years, digital technology has revolutionized financial management in India. Initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana aimed to provide banking services to every household. The introduction of UPI or Unified Interface payments made transaction so quick and safe that today India is the largest country with the most number of online P2P and P2M transactions.

Impact on the Economy

The evolution of financial management has had a profound impact on the Indian economy:

Economic Growth: Financial reforms have fueled economic growth by attracting investments and promoting entrepreneurship. 

Financial Inclusion: Nationalization of banks and digital initiatives have improved financial inclusion. The number of users of credit cards, online payments, loans and Bank account holders has increased significantly.

Stability and Regulation: The establishment of regulatory bodies like the RBI and SEBI has ensured stability and transparency in the financial system. 

Innovation: The digital revolution has spurred innovation in financial services. Mobile Banking, Digital loans and Online Serices has made the work easier and efficient.

 Conclusion

The history of financial management in India is a story of transformation and resilience. From ancient practices to modern digital innovations, each phase has contributed to shaping the economy. As India continues to evolve, its financial system will play a crucial role in driving sustainable growth and development.

[haeywaa]

Maximize Efficiency with Expert Cash Management Solutions

In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective cash management is crucial for maintaining financial stability and supporting growth. Expert cash management solutions can help businesses streamline their operations, optimize liquidity, and enhance overall financial efficiency. This article explores how leveraging advanced cash management solutions can maximize efficiency and drive business success.

What is Cash Management?

Cash management involves the collection, handling, and use of cash in a business. The goal is to ensure that a company has enough cash on hand to meet its short-term obligations while optimizing the use of its funds. Effective cash management helps businesses avoid liquidity problems, reduce financing costs, and invest surplus cash wisely.

Key Benefits of Expert Cash Management Solutions

Improved Cash Flow Visibility

Expert cash management solutions provide real-time insights into cash flow. By integrating these solutions with your financial systems, you can gain a comprehensive view of your cash position, including incoming and outgoing funds. This visibility allows for better forecasting and planning, helping you anticipate cash needs and avoid potential shortfalls.

Enhanced Liquidity Management

Managing liquidity effectively is essential for ensuring that your business can meet its obligations without holding excessive cash. Advanced cash management tools help optimize liquidity by analyzing cash flow patterns and recommending strategies to manage working capital more efficiently. This includes managing accounts receivable and payable, optimizing cash reserves, and reducing idle cash.

Streamlined Cash Collection and Disbursement

Automated cash management solutions streamline the collection and disbursement processes. For example, electronic invoicing and payment systems can accelerate the receipt of payments, reducing the time it takes to convert receivables into cash. Similarly, automated disbursement systems help manage outgoing payments, ensuring that bills and payroll are processed efficiently and on time.

Enhanced Fraud Prevention and Security

Security is a critical aspect of cash management. Expert solutions offer robust security features to protect against fraud and unauthorized transactions. This includes encryption, multi-factor authentication, and transaction monitoring. By implementing these security measures, businesses can safeguard their cash and reduce the risk of financial losses due to fraud.

Optimized Investment Opportunities

Efficient cash management doesn’t just involve managing daily transactions; it also includes investing surplus cash to generate returns. Expert cash management solutions help identify and evaluate investment opportunities that align with your company’s risk tolerance and financial goals. Whether it’s investing in short-term instruments or managing liquidity portfolios, these solutions provide insights to make informed investment decisions.

Regulatory Compliance

Adhering to regulatory requirements is essential for avoiding penalties and maintaining financial integrity. Advanced cash management systems help ensure compliance with relevant regulations by automating reporting and record-keeping. This includes managing tax-related cash flows, regulatory filings, and maintaining accurate financial records.

Implementing Expert Cash Management Solutions

To maximize efficiency with expert cash management solutions, consider the following steps:

Assess Your Needs

Begin by evaluating your business’s cash management needs. Identify areas where improvements are needed, such as cash flow forecasting, liquidity management, or fraud prevention. This assessment will help you choose the right solutions that align with your business objectives.

Choose the Right Tools

Select cash management solutions that offer the features and functionality you need. Look for tools that integrate with your existing financial systems, provide real-time insights, and offer robust security measures. Consider solutions that are scalable and can grow with your business.

Implement and Integrate

Once you’ve selected the appropriate solutions, implement them within your organization. This may involve integrating the solutions with your current financial systems, training staff on how to use the tools, and establishing processes for managing cash flow effectively.

Monitor and Optimize

Regularly monitor the performance of your cash management solutions to ensure they are delivering the expected benefits. Use the insights provided by these tools to make data-driven decisions, optimize cash flow, and adjust your strategies as needed.

Review and Adjust

Periodically review your cash management practices and solutions to ensure they remain effective. As your business evolves, your cash management needs may change, requiring adjustments to your strategies and tools.

Conclusion

Expert cash management solutions are essential for maximizing efficiency and achieving financial stability in today’s competitive business landscape. By leveraging advanced tools and strategies, businesses can gain better visibility into their cash flow, optimize liquidity, streamline processes, and enhance security. Implementing these solutions helps ensure that your business can meet its financial obligations, invest wisely, and maintain a strong financial position. Embracing expert cash management practices not only improves day-to-day operations but also supports long-term growth and success.

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[bargold12]

The Growing Popularity of Gold Bar Investments in the UAE

Investing in pamp gold has long been considered a haven for investors worldwide, offering stability and security during uncertain economic times. In the UAE, the allure of gold is particularly strong due to the region’s rich history with the precious metal and its status as a global trading hub. This blog explores why gold bar investment in the UAE is gaining traction and how investors can make informed decisions.

Why Invest in Gold Bars? 1. Stability and Security Gold is known for its ability to maintain value over time, making it a popular choice for preserving wealth. Unlike stocks or real estate, which can be subject to market volatility, buy gold bullion a stable investment that can protect against inflation and currency fluctuations.

2. Tangible Asset valcambi gold bars are a tangible asset that investors can physically hold, providing a sense of security that digital investments cannot match. This tangibility is particularly appealing in a world of unpredictable financial markets.

3. Portfolio Diversification Investing in gold bars can diversify an investment portfolio, reducing risk by offsetting potential losses in other asset classes. Gold often performs well when other markets struggle, providing a balancing effect.

The UAE Advantage 1. Tax-Free Investment One of the key benefits of investing in gold bullion bar price in the UAE is the tax-free environment. Investors can purchase gold without worrying about capital gains taxes, which can significantly impact overall returns.

2. Access to High-Quality Gold The UAE is renowned for its high-quality gold, with Dubai often referred to as the “City of Gold.” Investors can access a wide range of gold bars from reputable dealers, ensuring the authenticity and purity of their investments.

3. Strong Market Infrastructure The UAE’s robust market infrastructure supports gold trading, with numerous exchanges and platforms facilitating the buying and selling of gold bars. This accessibility makes it easier for investors to enter and exit the market as needed.

Factors to Consider Before Investing 1. Purity and Weight When purchasing gold bars, it’s essential to consider their purity and weight. Look for bars that are at least 99.5% pure, commonly known as 24-karat gold, to ensure you are getting the highest quality.

2. Reputable Dealers Choose reputable dealers with a proven track record in the gold market. Conduct thorough research and verify their credentials to avoid potential scams or counterfeit products.

3. Storage and Insurance Consider the storage and insurance of your gold bars. Secure storage is crucial to protect your investment, and insurance can provide additional peace of mind against theft or loss.

4. Market Trends Stay informed about market trends and factors influencing gold prices, such as geopolitical events, economic data, and currency fluctuations. Understanding these trends can help you make informed investment decisions.

Steps to Invest in Gold Bars in the UAE Research and Education Educate yourself about the gold market, investment strategies, and the factors influencing gold prices. Knowledge is key to making informed decisions.

Set Investment Goals Define your investment goals, whether long-term wealth preservation, short-term gains, or portfolio diversification. Clear objectives will guide your investment strategy.

Choose a Reputable Dealer Select a reputable gold dealer in the UAE with a strong market presence and positive customer reviews. Verify their credentials and ensure they offer high-quality gold bars.

Monitor Market Trends Keep an eye on market trends and economic indicators that could impact gold prices. Stay informed to make timely investment decisions.

Secure Storage and Insurance Arrange for secure storage of your gold bars and consider insurance to protect against potential risks. Proper storage is essential to safeguard your investment.

Conclusion Gold bullion price investment in the UAE offers numerous advantages, from tax-free benefits to access to high-quality gold. By considering factors such as purity, reputable dealers, and market trends, investors can make informed decisions that align with their financial goals. As the UAE continues to be a global leader in the gold market, investing in gold bars remains a viable and attractive option for preserving wealth and securing a stable financial future.

[fininformatory]

Union Budget 2024 (India) Summary

The Union Budget 2024 of India focuses on simplifying tax processes, promoting economic growth, and supporting various sectors. Here are the key highlights:

Simplification of Tax Processes

Income Tax Returns (ITR): The process of filing ITR has been simplified.

Revised Tax Deductions and Rates

Standard Deduction: Increased from ₹50,000 to ₹75,000 in the new tax regime.

Family Pension Deduction: Enhanced from ₹15,000 to ₹25,000.

New Tax Structure:

No tax on income up to ₹3 lakhs.

5% tax on income from ₹3 lakhs to ₹7 lakhs.

10% tax on income from ₹7 lakhs to ₹10 lakhs.

15% tax on income from ₹10 lakhs to ₹12 lakhs.

20% tax on income from ₹12 lakhs to ₹15 lakhs.

30% tax on income above ₹15 lakhs.

Changes in Import Taxes

Gold and Silver: Import tax reduced from 6.5% to 6%.

Support for Start-ups and Entrepreneurs

Angel Tax Exemption: Investors in start-ups are exempt from the angel tax.

Late Payment of TDS: No longer considered a crime.

Changes in Capital Gains Tax

Long-Term Capital Gains Tax: Set at 12.5%.

Short-Term Capital Gains Tax: Increased to 20%.

Industrial and Economic Growth Initiatives

Capital Gains: Increase in capital gain limit.

Industrial Parks: Plug and Play Industrial Park Scheme in 100 cities.

Export Concessions: For mineral products.

Support for Women: ₹3 lakh crores provision.

Cheaper Goods: Electric vehicles, gold and silver jewelry, mobile phones, and related parts.

Agriculture: Priority on increasing production.

FDI Simplification: Simplified process for foreign direct investment.

Interest-Free Loans: To states for 15 years.

Rural Development: ₹2.66 lakh crores provision.

Support for Farmers: ₹1.52 lakh crores provision.

Education Loans: Financial support for loans up to ₹10 lakhs for higher education.

Nine Priorities for Upcoming Years

Manufacturing and Services

Urban Development

Energy Security

Infrastructure

Innovation and R&D

Next-Generation Reforms

Productivity and Resilience in Agriculture

Employment and Skilling

Inclusive Human Resource Development and Social Justice

Employment-Linked Incentives

First-Time Employees: One-month wage incentive.

Manufacturing Sector: Incentives for employers and employees for four years.

Youth Employment: Incentives for 30 lakh youths entering the job market.

EPFO Contribution Reimbursement

Government will reimburse ₹3,000 per month towards EPFO contribution for two years for each additional employee.

E-Commerce and Youth Internship Initiatives

E-Commerce Export Hub: To be created in collaboration with the private sector.

Youth Internship Scheme: Internships for 1 crore youth with a one-time assistance of ₹6,000 and a monthly allowance of ₹5,000 during the internship.

The Union Budget 2024 aims to drive economic growth, support various sectors, simplify tax procedures, and provide robust support for employment and youth development. By focusing on these areas, the budget seeks to create a more inclusive and prosperous economy for all citizens. Click here read more

[buyresidentialpropertiesindubai]

The Ultimate Investment: Why Dubai’s Luxury Properties are a Must-Buy

Dubai’s luxury property market offers exceptional investment opportunities for those seeking high returns and long-term value. The city's vibrant economy, strategic location, and world-class infrastructure make it an attractive destination for real estate investors. This comprehensive guide explores why investing in luxury properties in Dubai is a must for savvy investors and provides essential insights into making a successful investment.

For more information on Dubai's real estate market, visit Dubai Real Estate.

High Returns on Investment

Appreciation: Luxury properties in Dubai have shown significant appreciation over the years, providing high returns on investment. The city’s continuous development and growth attract global investors, driving up property values. Historical data shows that prime locations like Palm Jumeirah and Downtown Dubai have experienced substantial price increases, making them ideal for investment.

Rental Yields: Dubai's luxury rental market is robust, offering attractive rental yields for property owners. With a high demand for upscale rental properties from expatriates and tourists, investors can achieve steady rental income. Areas such as Dubai Marina and Jumeirah Beach Residence are particularly popular for luxury rentals.

Market Stability: Dubai's real estate market is known for its stability and resilience, making it a safe investment choice. Despite global economic fluctuations, Dubai’s market has maintained steady growth due to its diversified economy and strong regulatory framework. This stability attracts both local and international investors looking for secure investments.

For more investment options, check out Buy Property in Dubai.

Favorable Tax Environment

No Property Tax: Dubai does not levy property tax, making it an attractive destination for property investors. This absence of recurring taxes on property ownership significantly reduces the cost of holding real estate in Dubai, enhancing overall returns.

No Capital Gains Tax: Investors in Dubai benefit from the absence of capital gains tax, allowing them to maximize their profits. When selling a property, investors can retain the entire gain from the appreciation, making it an ideal environment for property flipping and long-term investments.

No Income Tax: Rental income in Dubai is not subject to income tax, enhancing the overall return on investment. This tax-free income policy attracts investors from countries with high tax rates, providing a lucrative opportunity to earn passive income from rental properties.

For mortgage services, visit Best Mortgage Services.

Strong Economic Growth

Economic Diversification: Dubai’s economy is diverse and not solely reliant on oil, with strong sectors such as tourism, finance, and trade. This diversification ensures economic stability and growth, supporting the real estate market. The continuous influx of expatriates and businesses drives demand for both residential and commercial properties.

Infrastructure Development: Continuous infrastructure development, including new transport links, commercial hubs, and entertainment facilities, boosts property values. Projects like the Dubai Metro expansion, new shopping malls, and business districts enhance the attractiveness of nearby properties, leading to higher appreciation rates.

Tourism Boom: Dubai is a global tourism hotspot, driving demand for luxury properties among both short-term visitors and long-term residents. The city's appeal as a premier tourist destination ensures a constant demand for high-end accommodations, benefiting property investors.

For property management services, visit Rent Your Property in Dubai.

Prime Locations for Luxury Properties

Palm Jumeirah: Known for its exclusive villas and private beach access, Palm Jumeirah is a top choice for luxury property buyers. The iconic palm-shaped island offers breathtaking views, high-end amenities, and a prestigious address, making it one of the most sought-after locations in Dubai.

Downtown Dubai: Featuring the iconic Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall, Downtown Dubai offers luxurious apartments with stunning city views. This vibrant area is the heart of Dubai, providing residents with a dynamic urban lifestyle and easy access to top attractions.

Emirates Hills: Often referred to as the "Beverly Hills of Dubai," Emirates Hills offers spacious villas in a gated community with lush green landscapes. This exclusive neighborhood is known for its privacy, security, and luxurious living environment, attracting high-net-worth individuals.

For property sales, visit Sell Your Property in Dubai.

Key Features of Dubai’s Luxury Properties

Architectural Excellence: Dubai’s luxury properties are known for their stunning architecture and innovative designs. Many properties feature state-of-the-art technology, smart home systems, and premium finishes, providing a high standard of living.

World-Class Amenities: High-end properties come with a range of amenities including private pools, spas, gyms, concierge services, and private beach access. These features enhance the appeal of luxury properties and provide residents with a resort-like living experience.

Prime Locations: Luxury properties are often located in prime areas that offer breathtaking views, easy access to top attractions, and a prestigious address. These locations include waterfront communities, downtown areas, and exclusive residential neighborhoods.

Tips for Investing in Luxury Properties in Dubai

Research the Market: Conduct thorough research on the property market and specific areas you are interested in. Understanding market trends, property values, and future developments can help you make informed investment decisions.

Seek Legal Advice: Engage a legal advisor to understand the buying process, taxes, and legal requirements. Ensuring compliance with local regulations and understanding your rights as an investor is crucial for a smooth transaction.

Financial Planning: Plan your finances and get pre-approved for a mortgage if necessary. Consider the long-term investment potential and rental yields to assess the financial viability of your investment.

Real-Life Success Story

Consider the case of Ahmed, who invested in a luxury villa on Palm Jumeirah. By conducting thorough research and working with a reputable real estate agent, Ahmed was able to secure a property with a high rental yield and significant appreciation potential. His investment strategy included leveraging the favorable tax environment and focusing on a prime location, resulting in substantial returns.

Future Trends in Dubai’s Luxury Real Estate Market

Sustainability: There is an increasing demand for sustainable and eco-friendly properties. Developers are incorporating green building practices and energy-efficient systems to attract environmentally conscious buyers.

Technology: Smart homes with advanced technology for security, entertainment, and home management are becoming more popular. Features such as automated lighting, climate control, and security systems enhance the living experience and appeal to tech-savvy buyers.

Customization: Buyers are looking for properties that offer customization options to suit their personal tastes and preferences. This trend includes flexible floor plans, bespoke interiors, and personalized amenities.

Conclusion

Dubai’s luxury real estate market offers unparalleled opportunities for investors seeking elegance and sophistication. By understanding the market, researching prime locations, and planning your finances, you can make a successful investment in Dubai’s luxury properties. For more resources and expert advice, visit Dubai Real Estate.