A Potpourri of Central Planning-Created Energy Tax Credits

The picayune details required to qualify for energy credits introduced under the so-called "Inflation Reduction Act" of 2022 have overwhelmingly complicated this area of tax law. We have long viewed tax credits as indirect government subsidies to favored industries, which do not align with customers' preferences (the proof is in the subsidies), and is a form of central planning gone amuck. However, we must deal with the system as it is, not as we might wish it to be. To help you understand these tax credits, we have included flowcharts on pp. 2-7 which, by necessity, include excruciating, mind-numbing details. Reviewed carefully, these should help you identify costs in need of tracking for this and coming years (assuming the law stays the same) and, crucially, to help you structure the timing of home improvement purchases to help you qualify for larger credits.

Note in particular the annual income limitations for the "Clean" Vehicle Credits, and much lower limits for Used "Clean" Vehicle Credits. The MAGI referred to in the flowchart is Adjusted Gross Income, line 11 of Form 1040, Modified by otherwise excluded foreign earned income, which few have. There is a complicated yearly $1,200 maximum credit for most of the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Credits. If you follow the flowchart, you will see by doing "too much" in any one year you might cheat yourself out of an additional $1,200 credit over a two-year period, or $250 for each additional exterior door up to the yearly two door maximum.

In fact, you might increase your total credits from $1,200 to $12,000 or more by stretching purchases out over a decade. While likely not practical, spreading out purchases might be worth considering for work done near year-end, when you might do some before and some after December 31st, paying for the improvements as the work is done. Say you buy new windows costing at least $2,000, four new doors costing at least $833 each and a new electric panel costing at least $2,000. If you complete and pay for the work in one year, you get the maximum $1,200 credit. Spread out and paid over two calendar years, you may increase your credits to $1,100 per year, or $2,200 over the two-year span.

As you review the flowcharts (see PDF version), consider that the Tax Code and the "nudges" in which Congress is engaging (i.e., central planning) is far more than a disgrace. It is an abomination.

Stamp Collector Wanted

Although overall snail-mail volume has shrunk substantially, we continue to receive a considerable amount of such mail. While a majority of mail is sent with machine postage, we still come across unique stamps, usually cancelled but occasionally not.

We tossed clients' envelopes containing multitudes of stamps until a couple of decades ago, when a client asked us whether we would send her stamps. I responded, "Of course!" and berated myself for not having thought of it before.

Sadly, our dear client is no longer in a position to enjoy collecting and sharing her collection with her philatelic community. We would love to find someone to take her place. If interested, please let us know.

Notable Quotes

"There's this scene at the end of 1984 where Winston Smith, who's the protagonist, finally gets betrayed. He winds up in the basement of the Ministry of Truth and they torture him.

"What they are trying to make him do is pretend that something he knows that's not true is true.

"Why is that? Why not just kill him? Because it's easy to kill people, but the true test of omnipotence is to control someone's mind. Stalin did the same...he killed them all, but before he killed them, he made them read fake confessions of their crimes against him. Why even bother? Why not just kill them?

"Because that was sign that he controlled them as people. That they had no free will, that they were purely puppets of him."

— Tucker Carlson in an interview with Glenn Beck, July 2023

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience."
— C. S. Lewis, Spectator Magazine, "Is Progress Possible," August 1, 1958

"The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies." — Robert Conquest, Historian with a focus on the Soviet Union, who was among the first to report on the horrors of Stalin, while the N.Y. Times extolled the virtues of Stalinism

"The State takes the place of God...the socialist dictatorships are religions and State slavery is a form of worship."
— Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self, 1957

Doug's Deep Dive

In my spare time I do "deep dives" into subjects that fascinate me. By doing the research, I have become fairly expert in a tiny sliver of human knowledge. Topics you may be aware of include economics, taxation and tax strategies, Type and Temperament, and behavioral indications of psychoactive drug addiction.

Beginning in 2020, I became intrigued by everything related to "the Virus," including virology, vaccines, and masks. Discovering viewpoints completely at odds with much of what I previously believed became riveting. I increasingly felt compelled to save and organize the best of what I discovered for future use. I began compiling my research into searchable Word documents (copying and pasting while reading does not take long, and aids "active learning"). These documents currently contain close to 25,000 pages, initially covering topics such as the ineffectiveness of masks, cures and treatments for "the Virus," economic fallout from the lockdowns, the Wuhan lab, Anthony Fauci, the World "Health" Organization, mass hysteria, vaccine risks, and the history of vaccines and pandemics. I gradually realized additional seemingly unrelated topics were relevant, including integrity, propaganda, the war on cash, Central Bank Digital Currencies, cryptocurrencies, monetary systems, the survival of Western Civilization, the psychology of obedience, the administrative state, climate change, "The Great Reset," fascism, totalitarianism, and more. It would be a shame to keep all this to myself; I would be delighted to share any of these compendiums with any of you. Simply ask for any specific topic(s) in which you have an interest. I can also send you a complete list of topics from which to choose.

During my research, I discovered Substack, a single convenient web and e-mail based newsletter platform supporting an extraordinary community of deep thinkers, investigative journalists, innovative researchers, and creative writers. The platform includes a huge variety of topics; not just the ones in which I am interested. I subscribe to more than 100 Substackers, most of whom post many if not all articles at no charge.* You can get summaries of articles using either the Substack app and/or email, and click straight through either of these to read the full article and comments. Many post incredible in-depth essays, while others often make their points with a meme and a few short, explanatory paragraphs. The comments are frequently as interesting and educational as the main article. You may soon be able to find my work on Substack under the title, Exposing Lies and Deceptions. My current top Substackers include:

• Margaret Anna Alice Through the Looking Glass by Margaret Anna Alice
• The Forgotten Side of Medicine by A Midwestern Doctor
• Steve Kirsch's newsletter by Steve Kirsch
• Who is Robert Malone by Robert W. Malone MD, MS
• bad cattitude by el gato malo
• uTobian by Toby Rogers
• Bill Rice Jr.'s Newsletter by Bill Rice, Jr.
• Outspoken with Dr Naomi Wolf by Dr Naomi Wolf
• Coffee & Covid by Jeff Childers
• Where are the numbers? by Norman Fenton and Martin Neil
• Build Back Better by Mathew Aldred
• Lies are Unbekoming by Bekoming
• Igor's Newsletter by Igor Chudov
• Eugyppius: a plague chronical by eugyppius

Please keep in mind that most of these Substackers may present views that wildly conflict with "mainstream" ideas. Please keep an open mind. Happy reading!

* I choose to pay many of them because some require payment in order to post comments, and some to read all of their work. And I choose to pay gratitude to several particularly brilliant Substackers who provide tremendous value.

A Note on Vaccines

If you or someone close to you has been injured by the "vaccine," I urge you to save health-related documentation both before and after taking the "vaccine". I believe the Vaccine Trials will be to the tobacco trials what a trial of a serial murderer would be to a trial over a parking ticket. Having good records may be crucial in the event you want to pursue legal action later and collect compensation for injuries or deaths. For once, I support the trial lawyers.