Here it is the end of the year. The end of 2012. Time to celebrate, I guess.
I waited until the last minute to write this entry to see what Congress would do with the "fiscal cliff". It seems they are not too concerned about slowing the U.S. growth and then the whole world. That is if predictions are true. Predictions are often not true.
Recently my daughter asked me about economics. That is a very difficult subject. I took a class in economics when I was in college at the University of Tennessee. All I remember was a lot of formulas and graphs trying to predict how people would make purchases. Supply and demand.
But it seems to me that economics is all that and more. The "more" are people. Who could have predicted a run on pet rocks? We all know if we have the patience to wait, the newest electronic device will drop in price. It will certainly drop in price right before the newest model is released. But if we all wait for this price drop, if no new devices are sold as we all wait patiently for a good buy, then there won't be a new one because the old one didn't sell. That's also economics.
So, what did I tell my daughter? I told her economics was an attempt to explain by numbers the emotional buying behavior of large groups of people. I think that's what it is. Blind men groping around in the dark looking for the sharpest item while wearing very thick gloves. It's a guess what will happen on January 1, 2013.
Well, not completely a guess. Taxes are going to rise. Spending cuts are going to happen. Congress will act in January and claim they have saved us all and don't we want to re-elect them to do more of this same job? I don't want to get political. That's not the purpose of this blog, so I'll change the subject in the next paragraph. It will be an abrupt transition so I'll prepare you for it here.
Right now go out and check the odometer on your work vehicle. If you don't have a work vehicle then you can skip this task. But if you do have a work vehicle you will need to know this number. If you keep accurate and detailed travel records then you'll have this number already recorded in your log.
If you haven't yet purchased W-2 forms, then you don't need to. You can file your W-2s directly with the Social Security Administration. The added benefit of this is that you'll know immediately if the employee name and Social Security number match because the web site won't let you enter the information if it doesn't.
This coming year of 2013 will see massive new changes - in many ways - but I mainly speak of taxes. This year the New Health Care Act will begin to be fully implemented. That will change so many things I can't begin to predict what they might be.
I will leave you with this. Your next major tax dates are January 15, 2013, to make your final estimated tax payment for 2012 if you are self-employed. And January 31, 2013, is the deadline to file and pay the 4th quarter and year end payroll taxes. But I'll speak more about that in January.
As always, if you have any questions or suggestions for future blogs, let me know. Happy New Year.
