Weekly News & Views by Reporter: Dick Bourne
Photographs by: Ken Firestein
Can you believe we are ending the first quarter of 2018? The Ides of March have become the end of March, and as today’s taxing topic attests, we are heading for the Ides of April. In this spirit, one’s of piano man Dave Morse’s songs was “Taxman,” the forgettable lead song from the Beatles 1966 “Revolver” album.
As Dave’s keyboard wound down and President of the Week Will Portello called for our A Cappella song set, it was hard not to notice the absence of Chuck Snipes. We don’t quite “Smile” as broadly or celebrate America as Beautifully without Chuck’s lusty vocal leadership!It was a rare day with no visiting Rotarians, but we had two guests: Manny Carbahal’s assistant Emily Ziser, Carolyn Stiver’s guest Alex Camacho- also with Edward Jones.
Did this scribe completely miss announcements? Suddenly Sergeant Gretchen Peralta was up, calling for a special tax-free seasonal event- our FIRST PITCH of the 2018 baseball season. As our aged-out starting pitcher for this event in 1995 (with courageous catcher Jay Gerber), your reporter felt a bittersweet nostalgic pang as youthful battery-mates Tom Cross and Mike Read lined up for this annual ceremonial ball toss. Tom threw, Mike caught, and all applauded; baseball has begun again!
Next flowed the Happy Bucks, starting with Don Morrill for attending his 50th reunion at Cal, simultaneous with Cal’s 150th! Then tablemates Dave Morse and Ray Sullivan stood and these three “Bezerkely” alums shouted a loud “Go Bears”. Stanford grads were not given an opportunity to retaliate.
Don Saylor was happy about a 3 week-old granddaughter, yours truly (Dick Bourne) gave “mixed feelings” bucks for a wonderful 4-day bike tour marred by a last-day crash for Bill Bernheim’s wife Linda. (Latest news for Linda is good; her broken collarbone and other injuries will likely heal in time for their June cycle tour through Denmark.)
Mack Walker gave for the successful Progress Ranch work fencing party, with special thanks to John McNamara and Vanessa Errecarte; Rose Cholewinski was thrilled to have participated and had her first experience using a chop-saw. On request from Dave Heard, Rose held both hands high to confirm that all fingers are still attached.
Gretchen then turned to sports, calling first on John Morgan for the latest on March Madness (which won’t be fully decided until April). She attempted to pair off the semi-finalists (Don Saylor/Villanova vs. Chuck Cunningham/Kansas and Andrew Newman/Michigan vs. Dennis Lindsay/Loyola Chicago).
It appeared that our greedy-for-good sergeant wanted to set up an auction of some kind, but the scheme seemed to dribble away so she started to pitch baseball instead. All rabid fans stood and identified favorite teams in exchange for small fines; Cubs and A’s appeared to be the most popular, and no doubt will meet in October!
I thought I had dodged a bullet last week when my Davis Enterprise Op Ed that pitched all-electric Zero Net Energy (ZNE) homes for Davis, visible in the sergeant’s hand but un-used. But it was back this week, though clearly un-read by our sergeant-of-the-week. Somehow my innocent neighbor Don Morrill was also caught in this maw, just for living in our ZNE building.
Out of order, let’s blame Will! Bob Poppenga had been passed up by the sergeant, but strode forward next, to induct new member Tom McHale. Tom is interim principal
at Davis High, and has been a frequent visitor for our student-of-the-month program. Bob noted that Tom came to Davis in 1994 to teach at DHS; he knows Japanese and presumably confessed to us in that tongue that he likes bacon. Bob expressed hope that Tom will reinvigorate the Rotaract club.
at Davis High, and has been a frequent visitor for our student-of-the-month program. Bob noted that Tom came to Davis in 1994 to teach at DHS; he knows Japanese and presumably confessed to us in that tongue that he likes bacon. Bob expressed hope that Tom will reinvigorate the Rotaract club. Further embellishing the ceremony, Bob professed to have speed-read the huge and visibly displayed California Education Code last night, and then discussed several questionable definitions in the Code. The first claimed gender-wise that men include women. We couldn’t take some of these sitting down, so after the swearing-in we all stood in line to shake Tom’s hand. Welcome Tom- we will relish your company more often now!
Apparently our well-known speaker didn’t need any introduction, and now before us stood our own Manny Carbahal to talk taxes; specifically last year’s last minute “Tax Cuts & Jobs Act”. Since taxes aren’t funny, Manny did Star Wars. First came ewoks, who “don’t pay taxes” (who knew ewoks were so wealthy?) and then...our own Lucas Frerichs photo-shopped into Skywalker Luke. Manny whined about CPA pain and suffering every time we have new tax laws, beginning with his early “Reagan” years; but of course we all know that these events are the biggest reason ordinary citizens (whoever they/we are) even need CPA’s.
Manny’s slide presentation with lots of cute Star Wars references was easy to follow and extremely helpful in concisely conveying the essentials of the new tax code, to be used for tax years 2018 through 2025. Many tax considerations are unchanged. The following list summarizes the key changes, though this scribe bears no legal responsibility for accuracy; check with one of our excellent CPA’s!
- Mortgage interest: you can no longer deduct interest on home equity loans unless the borrowed funds are spent to improve the home.
- The deduction for state & local taxes is limited to $10,000.
- The standard deduction for a couple is now $24,000 not 12,700; increased for senior couples to $26,500 (thanks to Bruce Wolk for pulling out this factoid).
- No more personal exemptions, but child credits are increased.
- No more deductions for moving, miscellaneous, casualty, theft, alimony.
- The alternative minimum tax (AMT) is gone.
- The estate tax exemption is increased to ~$22 million for a married couple (i.e. the “death tax” is dead- how nice for the offspring of the fairly wealthy!)
- Most meals and entertainment deductions are gone.
- Sexual harassment costs are no longer deductible.
- Depreciation: 5 years for cars, 15 years for non-residential real estate improvements; more personal property can be expensed.
- 1031 exchanges now apply only to real estate.
- Small businesses get a 20% deduction of income, except for architects and engineers (what have we done wrong?).
- The new corporate tax rate is a flat 21%.
Manny went through numerous examples showing impacts of the new tax code. It turns out we will all be wealthier! It’s magic. Thanks Manny, for making us all feel so good.
Offered the opportunity, Dan Carson asked whether we will all need Manny for our 2018 tax planning, and it’s possible that his subtle response mentioned our full slate of competent CPA’s. Bill Kopper offered a too quiet up-front question that Manny characterized as “whining about deficits.” And with that, POTD Will closed us down with a call for Draw-of-the-Day. While Dave Heard mobilized, Will presented for Manny’s signature Amazing US Navy Facts as the children’s library donation book.
Quickly mobilized, Dave announced a $587 pot, and asked newest member Tom McHale to draw. Ticket 032 won Rose a Free Breakfast! War Fan Will urged us all to “Go forth and Conquer!” and we spread far and wide, hopefully for fine weekends.