• MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      I would suggest it’s more like a gift, which is only taxed after an obscene amount.

      Also, frankly I’d suggest not looking at it like it’s unfair to give this to them and instead look at it more like, good for them, now how can we help hourly and salaried workers? I’m not going to punch down at service workers, myself.

      There was talk of not taxing overtime (although the details of the plan are such garbage that it wouldn’t actually help very many people). Something like that might help hourly workers similarly.

      Salaried workers and workers like myself who are only nominally hourly ( the expectation is that I will book exactly 40 hours every week) are still left out, but I’m doing alright and would be happy to see others taken better care of first.

        • happybadger [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          2 days ago

          Tips are a small business kulak way to depress the wage they’re paying. I see it as cynical support to keep the minimum wage down and introduce tipping into more retail jobs.

          • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            2 days ago

            The bill explicitly states that the secretary of treasury may declare new jobs as “traditionally tipped”. So not only do tips enjoy legal protection but this will now be used as an anchor to prevent those industries from ever paying reasonable wages.

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          I understand your skepticism. In Michigan they are proposing to exempt seniors (70+) from property tax, which seems good to me, but I’m suspicious as hell that it’s a Republican proposing it.

          Could just be it’s a gimme to their base, but I’m suspicious it’s more nefarious.

          • wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            1 day ago

            It’s to prime the voters to vote a specific way. I lived in Texas for some time and the state constitution was a total fucking mess that had to be amended by ballot measure.

            The pattern was like this:

            1. Tax break for literally 3 widows of veterans who died in this one specific way. OH WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE POOR VETERAN WIDOWS!? (vote yes because you’re a sucker)
            2. Now that you’ve got that pen over the YES button - click “YES” here! This extremely convoluted wording tells you (incorrectly) that by voting yes you will make the big bad government get out of the way of small businesses (by creating a new office and giving that personal crony friend of the governor dictatorial powers over which small businesses win and lose to extract bribes and force loyalty)
            3. bullshit that should be a legislators job
            4. bullsiht that should be a legislators job
            5. Dont you just hate government officials tromping all over your land do do their job? You should obviously vote YES on this one because otherwise mean ol G man will not be able to use your land in extremely rare circumstances that only happen to people with tens of thousands of acres and you feel for that person because you’re wearing your constitutionally mandated Cowboy hat and boots that stand in for RealID
            6. Now that your pen is over YES - here’s another amendment that is so badly worded you don’t know what the fuck it does and you might as well just click YES so you can move on with your life! This amendment would allow billionaires to dam rivers to make their own personal recreational lakes. Fuck the people downstream!
          • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            Exempting the people who own most of the property from having to pay property tax is a great way to bankrupt schools and fire stations…

            • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              Do 70+ year olds own most of the property? I don’t know the proportion of property owned by 70 year olds. You could be right.

              My personal experience is that people are transitioning to assisted living around that time. Also by keeping the property owned instead of allowing it to be moved to a trust, that has inheritance tax implications, and it also is going to require the property to be sold and that money all spent before medicaid will cover a nursing home.

              It’s complicated and interacts with a number of other things going on, which is why I’m struggling to understand all the implications.

      • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        It’s literally part of their wage. The restaurants pay them less than the normal minimum per hour because they are tipped employees.

        • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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          2 days ago

          I’m afraid I’m missing your point. Are you responding to the fact that it’s more like a gift? It was an analogy not a perfect 1:1 mapping. This doesn’t change anything about my response.

          • ExtantHuman@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            My point is is it’s not a gift if it’s basically socially required for customers to directly pay the workers their fair share of their wage (which decreases the amount of payroll taxes the employer owes)

            • MagicShel@lemmy.zip
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              2 days ago

              Okay. Look, we could dig into the nuances, but likening it to a gift was only to invoke the precedent of not taxing cash gifts, but if you don’t like the analogy then don’t worry about the precedent.

              Either way, the point is that service workers are paid shit, even with tips, and I’m not going to begrudge them some tax savings. I have frequently gone out of my way to tip in cash just to enable them to do so.