A tax expert joins to field listener questions, where does LA stand on homelessness and what can we expect in 2018? The flavor of LA in a holiday drink.
Talking taxes: your questions answered
Over the past few days, we've been covering a lot of different aspects of the massive tax reform that is set to take effect next year. We've covered the basics, we looked at how it will affect the Southern California economy specifically, whether the state's GOP lawmakers will face political backlash over their support for it, and how it will affect non-profits.
But now, it's time to take on YOUR questions about the bill, which passed both houses of Congress Wednesday. Accountant Eva Rosenberg, also known as the Tax Mama, has some answers.
Gaming your taxes
Now that it's passed, the tax bill is heading over to President Trump's desk for his signature. In the meantime, Rosenberg had these tips on how to 'game your taxes' in the coming year.
- If you have sales taxes that you need to prepay, get those out of the way.
- Charitable contributions - Make as many as you can. That will be a huge help.
- What else can you prepay? If you have things like union dues or things like that that you're going to have to pay next year anyway, go ahead and do that.
- When it comes to businesses this is a good time to meet with your tax pro. "All of us are scrambling to come up with great planning ideas," said Rosenberg, "but wait until next week after we figure it out."
Listener questions
How will student debt fare?
"Well, Crystal, I have good news for you. There was a lot of talk back and forth between the house and the Senate about abolishing this. It ended up that they didn't touch this. So you can still deduct the student loan interest just as you did before."
Los Angeles is a city of freelancers, and the will be greatly affected by this new tax bill. It's something we've looked into before, but we received a couple questions from listeners that asked for more specifics.
"All of these people who have unreimbursed business expenses will not be able to deduct any of them in the future."
And though this is not ideal for freelancers, Rosenberg lists out a couple of options:
"Renegotiate your contract with your employer to have them pay your expenses for you so you don't have unreimbursed business expenses or start your own business and negotiate a contract with your employer because businesses can still take most of these deductions."
"Entertainment expenses are gone entirely, whether you are the employer or the employee, [EXCEPT] the meals and the travel expenses...if the employer pays them can be deducted and the meals are still reduced by 50 percent, but they can't be deducted by the employee. So we're back to renegotiating our contracts."
The short answer to this big picture question? It's complicated.
"They've brought the corporate tax rate down so that could be a good thing. The alternative minimum tax on corporations was completely eliminated, but they didn't eliminate it on people, they just raised the limits on alternative minimum taxes...we've got all these pass-through entities that most people have like partnerships or 's corporations' and so we have these new little deductions that apply to some businesses and not some businesses. "
Some bonus info
Rosenberg left us with these last few important tidbits of info regarding Obamacare penalties.
"Last year for the 2016 tax return, the IRS had this 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. So if you didn't answer the question, they didn't charge you the penalties."
This year, that's not the case.
"They eliminated the Obamacare penalties for not having insurance starting in 2019, not 2017 or 18. So, everyone filing their 2017 tax returns will still be facing some pretty nasty penalties if they didn't have insurance."
We'll continue closely covering the tax bill in the coming weeks. We're always open to questions, so if you have any, be sure to tweet us or leave us a message on Facebook.
Despite housing efforts, LA homelessness is getting worse
The struggle to help and house LA County's homeless population was one of the biggest stories we covered at KPCC in 2017, including the new money voters decided to direct toward homeless projects.
KPCC's social safety net correspondent, Rina Palta, spent much of the year talking with homeless youth, veterans, and displaced families. Her work included "Broke," a documentary on homelessness she developed with KPCC's Priska Neely.
Palta said homeless numbers increased in 2017, despite the county housing a record number of people the prior year.
"I think more than anything, homelessness is getting worse here. We saw a 23 percent rise in the population from last year to almost 60,000 people in L.A. County."
Palta also said young people between the ages of 18 to 25 were becoming more susceptible to homelessness. Exiting the foster care system and release from hospitals and prison without anywhere to go was a big factor in the group's vulnerability.
Looking ahead, Angelenos will see their money hard at work for measures to fund homeless services. Palta said that bond and sales tax measures were passed in late 2016 and 2017, and their funding is kicking in.
"Local leaders have all this money to work with and they're really trying to ramp up programs and housing to tackle homelessness," she said. "Will it work or not? That's really the question of 2018."
The Ride: Hydrogen fueling stations are hard to come by, but LA has the most
Hydrogen fuel cell cars are a tiny fraction of the vehicular mix on the nation's roadways. But in anticipation of that tiny fraction growing, the California Fuel Cell Partnership is helping to build the refueling infrastructure that will encourage more drivers.
As with plug-in electric vehicles, which came on the market seven years ago, it's a chicken and egg scenario. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles exist, but people won't buy them unless they feel confident they'll be able to find the fuel.
Right now, there are 31 hydrogen fueling stations in California-- the most of any state in the country. Of those, 12 are in L.A. County; 5 are in the city of Los Angeles, the most of any city in the country.
Take Two's John Rabe joins motor critic Sue Carpenter for a ride in the Toyota Mirai hydrogen fuel cell vehicle and visits one of the newest hydrogen stations in South Pasadena to find out how it works.
Come, all ye thirsty: A holiday gin and tonic, LA style
The relatives are in town for Christmas, and as a proud Angeleno, you've spent the day taking them to The Getty, The Huntington, Watts Towers and Olvera Street. Now, you all need a drink. Why not enjoy a cocktail that is also all about Los Angeles?
No, it doesn't taste like sunshine and traffic; think Sichuan peppers and ancho chiles. Juniper berries and an array of citrus.
Flavors from L.A.'s vibrant and diverse communities mix and mingle in a new take on an old cocktail from Greenbar Distillery in Downtown LA. It's called the Chinatown G&T.
At the heart of this gin and tonic is, of course, its gin: Greenbar's new City Bright Gin, in which, ostensibly, the entire spice aisle at World Market is expertly blended to create a liquor that is indeed unlike any other.
Greenbar co-founder Litty Mathew stopped by KPCC to mix up a batch of holiday beverages for John Rabe.
How to make a Chinatown G&T:
- 1 oz CITY Bright gin
- 3 oz tonic water
- Wedge of lime, lemon, and orange
- Sichuan peppercorn, crushed or ground (optional)
Instructions:
Muddle citrus in a glass. Add ice, gin, and tonic. Sprinkle with Sichuan peppercorn.
Enjoy.
The Binge: the best of 2017
As we end the year of 2017 we thought we’d have in our very own
look back on all that streaming entertainment and discuss the ten best streaming titles for 2017.
Of that list, we've discussed many of them in past episodes, and in no particular order ... here are the runner-ups.
Patriot (Amazon Prime)
Alias Grace (Netflix)
Ozark (Netflix)
Manhunt-Unabomber (Discovery Channel)
Genius (National Geographic Channel)
Goliath (Amazon Prime)
The Crown (Netflix)
But here are two titles that we haven't discussed before:
GODLESS (NETFLIX)
It's an incredibly well done show with fantastic performances -- definitely one of the best new series of the year. The writer/director is Scott Frank, who as a screenwriter adapted Out of Sight and Get Shorty.
Set in the 1880s, a small frontier town has lost most of its male population in a terrible mining disaster. So the women have been running things, but everything changes when an infamous outlaw and his vicious gang ride into town looking for someone. Jeff Daniels is absolutely mesmerizing as outlaw Frank Griffin -- a dangerous religious zealot with a quick trigger finger.
Godless is an intelligent Western. It takes its time and expects the audience to pay attention. The rest of the cast is superb. Downtown Abby’s Michelle Dockery is outstanding as an independent woman who lives on the outskirts of town, but Merritt Wever as Mary-Agnes steals the show.
THE DEUCE (HBO Go)
From David Simon, the creator of The Wire comes this gritty drama about Times Square in 1971 and all the different people who were there -- the cops, the politicians, the criminals and the prostitutes just as the porn industry began to take off.
Now the subject matter can seem unappealing, but the writing is so good and the ensemble cast so electrifying that this absorbing powerful drama pulls you in and you find yourself caring deeply about these characters. James Franco plays a dual role as twin brothers Frank and Vincent Martino. But one of the truly excellent performances comes from Maggie Gyllenhaal. She plays a streetwalker named Candy, who refuses to have a pimp. She’s independent and looking for a way out.
But as for the BEST title, Mark thinks that honor belongs to none other than Big Little Lies.
BIG LITTLE LIES (HBO Go)
This magnificent series starts with a murder and then goes back to show you what led up to the shocking crime in this wealthy seaside town in Northern California. Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley & Reese Witherspoon are all fantastic but one of the best things the series does is put this elite community under a microscope.
It's deeply absorbing and enlightening as well as entertaining.