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The author has 3 children, and that's a _household_ income of $150000. 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids; as a country, we gi

The author has 3 children, and that's a _household_ income of $150000. 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids; as a country, we give people tax breaks to encourage having children and to help support people who make that choice. Calling this "Houdini-like" (author's words) tax hacking seems like a bit of a misunderstanding of deliberate social policy!

chooseaname 5y ago
>>150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids An awful lot of families are doing this on 1/3 of that amount.
- ksherlock 5y ago
  When you subtract all the retirement savings, they're doing it on half that ($73,000).
  - masklinn 5y ago
    Having the money to invest and deciding to do so does not mean you don’t have the money. A family on the median household income would have negative net income with that level of investment.
- tudorw 5y ago
  About 46% of US families apparently, https://www.statista.com/statistics/183807/number-of-households-by-household-income-2009/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/183807/number-of-househo...
- Booktrope 5y ago
  Small point, but the average household size in the US is 2.5, on half of the 5 people in this household, so you really can't compare their family income to family income statistics for much smaller families.https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-households-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-h...
- pembrook 5y ago
  Yes, and an awful lot of families in Africa and Southeast Asia are doing this on 1/150th that amount. With more kids. Your point? The existence of more extreme poverty doesn’t change the fact that 150k/yr is not a ton of money to support a family of 5 in most American metro areas.
dehrmann 5y ago
> 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids This could be anywhere between solidly upper middle class to struggling to make ends meet depending on where you're at in the US.
masklinn 5y ago
> 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids It's more than double the median household income.
- birdyrooster 5y ago
  This is highly dependent on where you live obviously, so if we are speaking about a particular individual this line of reasoning is not relevant.
RobRivera 5y ago
there is no such thing as loopholes and tax hacking, simply 'THE LAW' noone is beholden to pay more taxes than the tax code requires. anyone who uses emotional appeal to say otherwise wont help me when i need their help anyway so they can pound sand.
- rileymat2 5y ago
  I think this will become a pedantic argument, but without defining loophole, we can’t say they exist or don’t. Presumably a law is written with some intent. When that intent or spirit is broken because of poor construction or poor foresight in the text of a law, a lot of people call that a loophole. I think it is a fair definition.
  - RobRivera 5y ago
    along this line of thought, using a library written for one use case for a separate use case could pedantically be considered a 'hack'. I simply share the opinion that the people writting tbe laws should recieve the heat, not those doing what they are legally allowed to
duped 5y ago
That's about 2.5 times the median family income. It's a huge family income relative to that.
knz_ 5y ago
It's more than $8000/mo take home. Anyone who can't afford to feed and house 5 people on that budget is probably a degenerate gambler or drug addict.
- milesvp 5y ago
  Childcare for 2 children under the age of 5 in my area will cost roughly $4000. Mortgage for a very modest 4 bedroom house is another $2500. $1500 for all the rest starts to get very tight. Insurance as a category alone can eat half of that. There’s not much left to gamble or drug with.
sbeller 5y ago
> October 16, 2013 In 2013 150k seemed a lot IIRC as the economy was in shambles and all those paid with these sweet RSUs and ISOs weren't having it.
oliwarner 5y ago
What? You expect a near-complete tax breaks on a $150k family income? That's not a small amount of money. I wish kids were deductible in the UK. We get a tax free allowance on the first £25k (combined earnings) and that's clawed back over £100k.

chooseaname 5y ago

>>150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids An awful lot of families are doing this on 1/3 of that amount.

ksherlock 5y ago
When you subtract all the retirement savings, they're doing it on half that ($73,000).
- masklinn 5y ago
  Having the money to invest and deciding to do so does not mean you don’t have the money. A family on the median household income would have negative net income with that level of investment.
tudorw 5y ago
About 46% of US families apparently, https://www.statista.com/statistics/183807/number-of-households-by-household-income-2009/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/183807/number-of-househo...
Booktrope 5y ago
Small point, but the average household size in the US is 2.5, on half of the 5 people in this household, so you really can't compare their family income to family income statistics for much smaller families.https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-households-in-the-us/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/183648/average-size-of-h...
pembrook 5y ago
Yes, and an awful lot of families in Africa and Southeast Asia are doing this on 1/150th that amount. With more kids. Your point? The existence of more extreme poverty doesn’t change the fact that 150k/yr is not a ton of money to support a family of 5 in most American metro areas.

dehrmann 5y ago

> 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids This could be anywhere between solidly upper middle class to struggling to make ends meet depending on where you're at in the US.

masklinn 5y ago

> 150 grand is not a huge family income to support 2 adults and 3 kids It's more than double the median household income.

birdyrooster 5y ago
This is highly dependent on where you live obviously, so if we are speaking about a particular individual this line of reasoning is not relevant.

RobRivera 5y ago

there is no such thing as loopholes and tax hacking, simply 'THE LAW' noone is beholden to pay more taxes than the tax code requires. anyone who uses emotional appeal to say otherwise wont help me when i need their help anyway so they can pound sand.

rileymat2 5y ago
I think this will become a pedantic argument, but without defining loophole, we can’t say they exist or don’t. Presumably a law is written with some intent. When that intent or spirit is broken because of poor construction or poor foresight in the text of a law, a lot of people call that a loophole. I think it is a fair definition.
- RobRivera 5y ago
  along this line of thought, using a library written for one use case for a separate use case could pedantically be considered a 'hack'. I simply share the opinion that the people writting tbe laws should recieve the heat, not those doing what they are legally allowed to

duped 5y ago

That's about 2.5 times the median family income. It's a huge family income relative to that.

knz_ 5y ago

It's more than $8000/mo take home. Anyone who can't afford to feed and house 5 people on that budget is probably a degenerate gambler or drug addict.

milesvp 5y ago
Childcare for 2 children under the age of 5 in my area will cost roughly $4000. Mortgage for a very modest 4 bedroom house is another $2500. $1500 for all the rest starts to get very tight. Insurance as a category alone can eat half of that. There’s not much left to gamble or drug with.

sbeller 5y ago

> October 16, 2013 In 2013 150k seemed a lot IIRC as the economy was in shambles and all those paid with these sweet RSUs and ISOs weren't having it.

oliwarner 5y ago

What? You expect a near-complete tax breaks on a $150k family income? That's not a small amount of money. I wish kids were deductible in the UK. We get a tax free allowance on the first £25k (combined earnings) and that's clawed back over £100k.