Sunday Support Group: Sails Catch the Wind

Great news about my book project. I kept slogging, kept slogging, and it stayed in the mud, stayed in the mud. But now it seems that finally, finally, my sails have caught the wind. Scenes are tumbling to mind. The bow carves the waves: plot takes care of itself. Just gotta grab on, grab on, grab on! Hold the tiller hard against the heeling wind.

Otherwise, life right now seems full of...

...Waiting. Manuel wrote, "You know, Mike, all these articles about the iPhone are getting a little tiresome." Well, that's because I'm still waiting for the Sony A7III. Waiting. Day after day. Wait, wait.

Spring is elusive. Four mornings in a row now I've awakened to find the ground white with snow. Just a layering, and it evaporates as fast as frost, but Spring stays away. Wait for it.

Dreading Tax Day. Taxes are going to slaughter me this year. Stun me like a body blow from Joe Frazier. I depend on the holiday months to help with taxes and TOP had a terrible holiday season this year. Waiting for April 17th feels like sitting under the Sword of Damocles.

...Although that's not quite right as a metaphor. The tale supposedly comes down to us from Timaeus of Tauromenium through the Roman orator Cicero:

According to the story, Damocles was pandering to Dionysius, his king, and exclaimed to him that Dionysius was truly fortunate as a great man of power and authority, surrounded by magnificence. In response, Dionysius offered to switch places with Damocles for one day so that Damocles could taste that very fortune firsthand. Damocles quickly and eagerly accepted the king's proposal. Damocles sat down in the king's throne surrounded by every luxury, but Dionysius arranged that a huge sword should hang above the throne, held at the pommel only by a single hair of a horse's tail. Damocles finally begged the king that he be allowed to depart because he no longer wanted to be so fortunate, realizing that with great fortune and power comes also great danger. (Wikipedia)

But my sorry state has nothing to do with power. Maybe a better metaphor would be the condemned man waiting for the blow of the axe? Nope, hyperbolic. The tax bill isn't going to literally kill me. Am I just whimpering? Very well then, then I am*. April is the cruellest month....

I'm sure a lot of you out there are in the exact same boat. Some of the richest people out there and some of the poorest people out there. Nobody likes tax day. Most people don't. Some of you kept all your receipts and paid your quarterlies and had your taxes filed by the end of January, all signed and neat, but a lot of you are just like me, quivering heaps of terrified jelly quaking and weeping and waiting for the end to come, knowing you're going to be all bruised and desolate at the beginning of May and eating macaroni and cheese and so forth. Taxes knock us down flat.

Anyway, everything feels like waiting. Waiting. Something is imminent. Everything is. Wait for it. Wait. Hurry up please, it's time....

When the A7III comes, then Manuel can get tired reading about that. And we'll probably blink and a blistering Summer heat will set in, and we'll long for these refreshing Spring snows. Right now, though, everything's in a state of suspension.

...And you know, come to think, despite his great popularity with the people, who repeatedly protected him, Cicero was beheaded. His severed head was nailed to the Rostra in the Roman Forum, where Antony's vindictive wife Fulvia pulled out the tongue and pierced it repeatedly with her hairpin in revenge against Cicero's power with words.

(Maybe I should just say, "There is nothing proper about what you are doing, taxman, but do try to kill me properly." Paraphrasing from Cicero's last words to the soldier who slew him. Woe!)

Heh. I'm in a silly mood this morning. My thoughts are zinging around like a bullet in a metal room. So how's your project coming? I need to go "touch" my book. Today my protagonist is going to the city morgue, to see whether a bruised and broken body is the woman he loves...the wind blows....

Mike

*"Can't complain, but sometimes I still do." Heh.

Original contents copyright 2018 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

B&H Photo • Amazon US • Amazon UK
Amazon Germany • Amazon Canada • Adorama

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

William Schneider: "For your initial Sunday Support Group post, I described how I was digitizing of all of my father's Kodachrome slides. That work concluded two weeks ago, and I purchased and mailed flash drives, with all the files on them, to family. I got a few heart-felt 'thank you' emails in return, making the effort worthwhile. I am a bit adrift thinking about what my next project will be though."

Trevor Johnson: "I have a few projects at present. Firstly, two systematic reviews in healthcare, one of which I am leading, now well over 100 pages. Secondly, I have been asked to record the keyboard works of Handel. The last time I played the six 'great' fugues live was in London, on a Yamaha CFX. IMHO a better piano than a Steinway Model D, which I grew up with. A book of photos in Paris, from film Leica, film OM to digital Ricoh GR. And a book set in the South of France, where Shirley, my wife, and I, spend our summer holidays. A story within a story, like Possession by A S Byatt or Das Glassperlenspiel by Hermann Hesse."

Comments

[Rob de Loe]

Good for you Mike. Feeling some momentum on a project is always uplifting.

Projects are a really good idea. I find I need them to stay focused and make any kind of progress. I just submitted one I've been working on all winter. In the finest tradition, I immediately was consumed with regret and thought of all the ways it could have been improved... But, if we don't press (or throw them in the mailbox, or whatever we do to call them done and submitted), then they have no chance of seeing the light of day.

[John Krumm]

Ah, taxes. I've been slow on filing as well, knowing we either just about broke even again, or owe this time. Ever since we moved from Alaska to Minnesota, we owe or come close to it. Gone are the big refunds. But at least we have some decent state services.

I've postponed my project by starting multiple other projects. My most recent is a new website with my Duluth photography featured (not mixed with all my Alaska stuff). I've had to learn how to inject custom CSS in order to get the right formatting. Took a lot of experimenting. I don't have every section full. What's funny is the one remaining section to fill is supposed to be the subject of my next photo book project. I'll get it done, though, and it will help me organize the start of the book.

Here's the site, if you are interested:

https://www.hereinduluth.com/

[T. Edwards]

Mike

IIRC, they are shipping the A7Riii to you with the Zeiss 55mm lens.

I think you should also rent the Batis 25 and the Sony 35mm so you can spend hours debating which is the best walking around lens.

(That's what I have been doing the past month and I cannot reach a conclusion.)

[Gary]

Somehow I had never heard the origin story of the expression, "Sword of Damocles." The meaning is akin to another expression, "Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown."

[Paulo Bizarro]

I can highly recommend Robert Harris' 4 book set about the rise and fall of Cicero.

[Ernest Zarate]

My approach to airing my complaints publicly: 1) I’d complain, but no one listens; 2) (if someone asks how I’m doing) Do you really care?

Consequently, I don’t air my dirty laundry. No one cares; they’ve all got their own problems. I understand. (And I understand that you, Michael, have a unique take on this - your complaints can be fodder for greater extrapolations on various themes.)

Keeps things between others and me smooth sailing. No hardtacking port or starboard.

[Steve Higgins]

Ah, taxes. This year, especially next month, will be interesting for me.

Here, the tax year starts on April 6th. This year I hit the grand old age of 65, on the 25th of the month, so I start to get my state pension. The first chunk of which is paid on the 15th May. Oh, and to make life more interesting, it is paid every four weeks, as opposed to monthly. Two payments in October!

As it is paid un-taxed, my tax code will be altered to take the increase in my income into account. This will be administered by the people who pay my company pension – the Pay As You Earn system does make life easier. But the new code will only come into effect with the company payment at the end of April, though it will be slightly high to cover the three weeks or so of April that are in the new tax year. So April’s company payment, and those that follow, will be noticeably reduced.

Not that that really matters as I will be able to get by easily until the state pension amount hits my bank account.

What does matter is that it all entails my pension people liaising with Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Department of Work and Pensions in an effective way. Retired friends who worked at the same company tell me it all went smoothly for them. However, this is me, so all bets are off.

The other problem is, of course, that the significant increase in income could cause a GAS relapse...

[Alois Mueller]

Dear Sir,
I really cannot understand your wailing about Taxes. Are not US Taxes the lowest
in ( almost) all the World, even lower from this Year?

Yours sincerely

Alois Mueller

[James Weekes]

Alois,

Do you know anyone who doesn't whine, even only a little, about taxes? It is the human condition.

[adamct]

FWIW, I suspect that how you feel about tax day has a lot to do with whether you are self-employed or not. In some respects, I don't (or wouldn't) care about my taxes, as long as (a) they are fair (meaning that people who are wealthier don't pay a lower tax rate than I do) and (b) they are relatively stable (big changes in taxes cause a lot of problems).

Unfortunately, those two things aren't true these days. And anyone who is cheering the recent federal tax cuts should be aware that those cuts are having an immediate impact on my state and local taxes (which are rising) and will almost certainly come back around and bite us when deficits rise.

But putting those two things aside, because I am NOT self-employed, my taxes are generally taken out of my paycheck and therefore I never feel like the money was mine in the first place. I view taxes as a condition of living and working in this country (and most other countries). The money that is paid to the government by my employer was really never mine at all. Complaining about the fact that I don't receive it sort of feels to me like complaining about the fact that my neighbor's salary doesn't go into my checking account. Or a retailer feeling like it should be entitled to pocket sales taxes. That money was never the retailer's in the first place -- the retailer was just collecting that money on the government's behalf.

But if you have to accrue for taxes on your own, then pay them in one big slug at the end of the tax year, then I can understand the emotional response.

HOWEVER, while I don't mind paying taxes (even when I owe substantial amounts of money), I absolutely DESPISE preparing and filing tax forms. Staggeringly confusing if you itemize your deductions or have anything other than a dead-simple return. The worst part is that it is a ton of work and worry on my part to tell the government what it already knows. Almost everything on my tax return has already been reported to the government by my employer and various financial institutions. (Again, different if you are self-employed. Or a mobster.) Preparing my taxes causes endless anxiety and stress that seems to stretch over the whole year. If the government just told me what to pay, I would write them a check and just move on...

Best,
Adam

[Manuel]

Thanks for the quotation... I guess. ;)

So now we all get to know you're not a millionaire. Such a shame: if you were, maybe you'd benefit from a tax cut, who knows.

And I'm glad to share with all TOP readers that I kept a project throughout last year, and it will pay off very soon. I wrote a book! A legal monography about photography, no less. And I found a publisher that's interested in it. Sure, it could be a bit boring for non-Law professionals - probably even more so than TOP texts on the iPhone -, but it is necessary. You see, the copyright laws of my country are based on the principle that photography is the mere reproduction of real-life objects through mechanical means, therefore there's no creation; and if there's no creation it's not "art", thus it isn't worth being copyright protected. There are provisions on photography, but they rule the photographic work in the same way the US Copyright Act rules the work made for hire - which is nonsensical. I found this so gruesome I felt I just had to say something about it. It took me seven months of hard study, but it was worth it. I know a lot more now than I did a year ago.

Yes, it's nice to keep a project. It keeps you focused and sharp, and helps you establish clear goals. Accomplishing it is even nicer: it means your efforts weren't in vain.

[adamct]

Alois,

As someone who has lived in the U.S., Germany, France and England, I thought I would share my perspective. Which, to summarize, is: it depends.

Part of the problem is that it is so hard to know what it is that you are comparing. Are you just comparing federal income tax? That is what most people refer to when comparing taxes internationally. And part of that is because a lot of countries don't have the crazy tax system that the U.S. has.* In the U.S. you can have a federal income tax, a state income tax, a local/city income tax, a real property tax, a car tax and sales tax (similar to VAT). On top of that there are (or can be) deductions from your paycheck to cover Social Security (like a government pension), Medicare (government-paid health insurance for retirees), workers compensation, and health insurance. Which of those should be included when comparing international tax rates?

Then there is the question of what you get for your money. In many European countries, higher education is -- if not quite free, then very low-cost, because it is funded using tax dollars. Whereas in the United States, many parents save a significant portion of their income in order to afford higher education for their children. So should U.S. tax rates be adjusted upward to adjust for the cost of saving for higher education? Or should European tax rates be adjusted downward to exclude the implied cost of higher education?

Should there be adjustments to account for the differences in U.S. Social Security (which was never intended to be a full pension, just a supplement, and therefore is quite limited) vs. a European pension (which traditionally was relatively generous, although years of failing to keep up with inflation have recently made them less generous)?

What about adjusting for the differences in capital gains taxes and taxes on small, owner-operated businesses? Or accounting for the effective tax rate at different income levels and occupations?

If you earn $65,000 a year [i.e., on the lower end of middle class] in Connecticut [a high-cost state with a fairly high state income tax] by working for a corporation [no pass-through tax treatment], own your own home (by borrowing heavily) [i.e., have to pay property taxes] and live in an area with good public schools [i.e., have to pay HIGH property taxes], then you probably think your taxes are quite high.

If you are a private equity fund manager earning $1.5 million a year and structure your income to qualify as carried interest at the lower capital gains rate, then your taxes are quite low. Same applies if you live in Texas or New Hampshire, where there is no income tax (but higher sales tax).

How should we compare those tax rates to taxes in Germany? What about in France where there is a "wealth tax"? How do you adjust for differences in sales tax in the U.S. (which can be very low -- 3.5%) vs. VAT in Europe (which is often over 20%)? Bear in mind that if you don't spend any money, you don't pay any sales tax or VAT... ;-)

Subjectively, I can say that when I was working as a young lawyer in Germany, England and New York City, my taxes "felt" pretty similar, though they were slightly lower in England. Roughly speaking, I figure that if you work for a living (meaning you don't live off investments), you're going to pay about 1/3 of your gross income in taxes. But what you get for your money can feel wildly different...

Best regards,
Adam

* Don't get me wrong...their tax systems are also crazy, just in a different way!

[peter schrager]

Mike and trevor..im on a warpath making handmade books

[David Dyer-Bennet]

While we're not much better organized than you, it sounds like, I don't feel the same dread of taxes that you describe. I object somewhat to the process, but I rather approve of the costs of civilization being spread in a somewhat controlled rather than random fashion across the population, and charged more heavily to those who benefit more.

[cdembrey]

"You know, Mike, all these articles about ¡photography! are getting a little tiresome."

How about articles on writing the Great Novel. Maybe something on Penn Yan regional cooking—anything except ¡photography! Isn't it time to stop beating a dead horse, and make some money? Myself and many other old-timers, have already bought their last camera, but are still foodies. Now-a-days I spend my time looking at recipe and cooking gear sites.

I'd like to congratulate Kirk Tuck for following the Psycho Killer Philosophy When I have nothing to say my lips are sealed, Say something once, why say it again?

[bandbox]

You had poor holiday sales but are going to be slaughtered by taxes. Well, I guess that means the rest of 2017 more than made up for it, your tax liability will be higher than you anticipated, and you didn't pay enough in your quarterly payments. As someone who has a very uneven income stream, I know the feeling! Anyway, congratulations on your 2017 results. It's fun to run your own business and make money at it.

[kirk Tuck]

I could talk about my taxes, supervising the accounting for my dad's taxes, or the high cost of a private university education for my kid, but I don't have enough Kleenex and I might ruin my keyboard with the torrent of tears each of these subjects elicits from a poor and underpaid professional photographer. I seem to hemorrhage money these days. Thank God I know where to buy lottery tickets. Someday...my ship is certain to arrive.

[John Ironside]

Two of my late father's favourite sayings:
1) "Pay your taxes gladly, but no more then you should" and
2) "Tax systems can be simple or fair, but not both".
He was a tax practitioner and during semi-retirement collaborated with some eminent folk in writing about tax reform.

As far as I can see, as a UK observer with US resident offspring, the US is unique in being somewhat unfair and ludicrously complex.

The UK system is designed to preclude most employees and retirees from doing a tax return, and our tax forms are models of clarity, beautifully designed. Still have to pay them.