Morningstar - The Modern 529 Plan M* - The Modern 529 Plan
Many limitations or deficiencies of
529 have been eliminated due to various legislations. Many
529 plans have also improved. But many people aren't familiar with these changes.
Timeline
2008 Heart Act
Rollover of unused
529 to
529-ABLE (rules apply).
2010 Small Business Jobs Act
Temporary: Computer equipment became qualified educational expense.
2014 Tax Increase Prevention Act
Extension, 2014: Computer equipment became qualified educational expense.
201
5 Path Act
Permanent: Computer equipment became qualified educational expense.
2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act (TCJA)
$10K/yr for K-12 tuition.
2019 Secure Act 1.0
Limited student loan payments.
Apprenticeship/vocational training expenses allowed.
2022 Secure Act 2.0
Limited Roth Rollovers.
Employer match for
529 contributions.
2024 FAFSA Simplification Act
Grandparent
529 penalty removed.
https://www.morningstar.com/financial-advisors/modern-529-plan
USG delayed farm trade report over deficit forecast Many people of means have hoped for a switch from income based federal taxation to consumption based taxation. This would not bode well with the majority of American people since the majority are working class who spend most of their income on consumption while people of means spend only a small fraction of their income on consumption. Tariffs, with their promise of generating/replacing taxes from income with taxes from "elsewhere", are easier to sell to the unaware than sales taxes. It's all a slight-of-tongue trick with the language of who "elsewhere" is and how a "tariff" differs from a sales tax. When people come to understand it may be too late. Hopefully the workers will still be entitled to union representation and be powerful enough to demand that wages rise to the level of covering the sales taxes, now called tariffs. Otherwise, consider your decendents being used to replace the immigrant worker class in America and increased poverty that is ignored and not subsidized by taxes. I imagine that, if EITC weren't really a subsidy to low wage businesses, they would be on the chopping block too.
I wonder how high tariffs need to go to eliminate the top three or four income tax brackets? (or vastly broaden the bands, which is harder to guess)
Found it! I knew G.Bush's Tax Commission had an estimate of the flat tax type rate. Here it is:
Simple, Fair, and Pro-Growth: Proposals to Fix America’s Tax System
Report of the President’s Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform November 2005
The Treasury Department estimated that a Flat Tax imposed on a broad consumption
tax base would require a 21 percent tax rate to preserve revenue neutrality.
By the way - Chapter 9 of the report estimates that the replacement with a retail sales tax would be 22% and has graphs showing the replacement increasing taxes on lower incomes while reducing taxes on higher incomes. Other scheme, such as VAT, are also discussed in the report.
Another edit for 200
5 perspective:
In 2005, 2.1539T in revenues, and 2.4722T in expenditures
Table 1.3—SUMMARY OF RECEIPTS, OUTLAYS, AND SURPLUSES OR DEFICITS (–) IN CURRENT DOLLARS, CONSTANT (FY 2000) DOLLARS, AND
AS PERCENTAGES OF GDP: 1940–2011
Economists Raise Questions About Quality of U.S. Inflation Data There are (at least) two different concerns raised here:
1) Staffing shortages in the federal government (not just in BLS) affect the ability of the government to do its job. Ditto
@crash 's comment.
2) Lower sampling of data (whether price data as here or other data in different arenas) increases the uncertainty in the accuracy of the average of the samples. Sampling is never exact. (Well, unless you "sample" 100% of the data points.)
The fewer the number of samples taken, the greater the uncertainty. One often hears of polls reporting some result +/- a couple of percent. Those polls also report a certain level of confidence, typically 9
5%. That means that 9
5% of the time such a sampling it taken, the true average falls within the +/- range of the sample's average.
https://www.scribbr.com/statistics/confidence-interval/Take fewer samples, fill in the gaps differently, and that uncertainty range increases. Though taking fewer samples doesn't necessarily skew the sampling result one way or the other. Hence the decrease in quality (accuracy) as reported, but not bias.
Detmeister said it is impossible to tell whether the reliance on different-cell estimates [gap-filling] skewed the data in one direction or the other.
“When you take a sample and reduce the numbers, it’s going to increase the sampling error.”
AAII Sentiment Survey, 6/4/25 AAII Sentiment Survey, 6/4/2
5BEARISH remained the top sentiment (41.4%, high) & neutral remained the bottom sentiment (2
5.9%, below average); bullish remained the middle sentiment (32.7%, below average); Bull-Bear Spread was -8.7% (below average). Investor concerns: Tariffs, budget, jobs, inflation, recession, Fed, debt, dollar, geopolitical, Russia-Ukraine (171+ weeks), Israel-Hamas (67+10 weeks). For the Survey week (Th-Wed), stocks up, bonds up, oil up, gold up, dollar down. NYSE %Above
50-dMA 67.8
5% (positive). Gold-miners rallied. Private sector jobs were weak (ADP). Slow progress on trade deals. #AAII #Sentiment #Markets
Sentiments are CONTRARIAN indicators.
https://ybbpersonalfinance.proboards.com/post/2023/thread
Economists Raise Questions About Quality of U.S. Inflation Data "The Bureau of Labor Statistics, the office that publishes the inflation rate, told outside economists this week
that a hiring freeze at the agency was forcing the survey to cut back on the number of businesses
where it checks prices. In last month’s inflation report, which examined prices in April, government statisticians
had to use a less precise method for guessing price changes more extensively than they did in the past.""Economists say the staffing shortage raises questions about the quality of recent and coming inflation reports.
There is no sign of an intentional effort to publish false or misleading statistics.
But any problems with the data could have major implications for the economy."https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/economists-raise-questions-about-quality-of-us-inflation-data/ar-AA1G5yqt
USG delayed farm trade report over deficit forecast @kings53man- OK, "
collected by the government"... I'm with you.
Ummm... next question:
Paid by who?
Ummm...
Answer:
the American people. That would include you, yes? Be sure to let us know how things are going at Walmart.
USG delayed farm trade report over deficit forecast @kings53manYou, I, everyone will be paying for that (import tax). So, one is really paying the government an additional pass through tax. I'll thank you in advance; and don't forget to start watching the prices at Walmart and other stores, eh?
Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export ban takes hold @Sven- yes, that's true. But
@kings53man said: "
gut environment regulations".
Typical of the present White House administration.
Global alarms rise as China's critical mineral export ban takes hold @kings53man said: "Some of the materials are radioactive that makes the refining expensive and subjected to strict environmental regulations>
We can do this, gut environment regulations and get this on fast track."
Good plan. I vote they build a facility in your backyard.
