Become a Patron! With the end of the year in sight and tax season around the corner, I've been brushing up on the rules for IRA contributions and deductions. Remember IRA contributions can be made for the 2019 contribution year until April 15, 2020. Most large IRA custodians make it easy to designate your contribution for the appropriate year, but if you use an independent … [Read more...] about How to think about the Spousal IRA deduction gap
self-employment
California’s AB 5 is about benefits, not wages or unions
Become a Patron! I've been following with interest the development and passage of AB 5, California's attempt to end the misclassification of employees, especially at app-based and platform companies including household names like Uber and Lyft. What I found is that there's a high degree of confusion surrounding the need for the bill, whom it will affect and how, and why … [Read more...] about California’s AB 5 is about benefits, not wages or unions
Why workers should fight for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, too
Become a Patron! Even though this blog is committed to promoting entrepreneurship, I often say I don't think everyone should become an entrepreneur, for the fundamental reason that not everyone wants to become an entrepreneur. Plenty of people want to go to work, do their job as well as they can (or as badly as they can get away with), and get paid a predictable amount on a … [Read more...] about Why workers should fight for entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship, too
Means-testing and Appalachian roots
In October, 2017, the Washington Post published a very strange series of articles about the recipients of disability benefits in the United States. The entire series is worth reading for various reasons, but I want to direct your attention to one particular entry: After the check is gone. The principal character in the article, Donna Jean Dempsey, collects aluminum cans … [Read more...] about Means-testing and Appalachian roots
What’s the optimal amount of self-employment income?
Because of the antipathy of American politicians to low-income people, who mostly don't vote and mostly don't make large campaign contributions, we've been blessed with a fractured and dysfunctional welfare state, designed to make income support as cumbersome and difficult as possible to receive, even or perhaps especially for those people who are, in fact, entitled to … [Read more...] about What’s the optimal amount of self-employment income?