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Show The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand February 24, 1977 The Utah Independent Page 7 TAX CHECKLIST SURFACE MINING REGULATIONS were not for the support test together contribute more than half of the dependents support. 2. Any one of those who individually con- tribute more than 10 of the mutual dependents support, but only one of them, may claim the dependency deduction. 3. Each of the others must file a written statement that he will not claim the dependency deduction for that year. The statement must be filed with the Income tax return of the person who claims the dependency de- duction. Form 2120 (Multiple Support Declaration) may be used for this purpose. Sale of Personal Residence by Elderly A taxpayer may elect to exclude from gross income part or, under certain circumstances, all of the gain from the sale of hie personal residence, provided: 1. He was 65 or older before the date of the sale, and 2. He owned and occupied the property as his personal residence for a period totaling at least 5 years within the period ending on the date of the sale. Taxpayers meeting these two requirements may elect to exclude the entire gain from gross income if the adjusted sales price of their residence is $20,000 (this amount will increase to $35,000 for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1976) or less. (This election can only be made once during a taxpayers lifetime.) If the adjusted sales price exceeds $20,000 (this amount will increase to $35,000 for taxable years beginning after December 31, 1976), an election may be made to exclude part of the gain based on a ratio of $20,000 (this amount will increase to $35,000 for taxable years Tax-paye- rs. 8-y- ear over the beginning after December adjusted sales price of the residence.. Form 2119 (Sale or Exchange of Personal Residence) is helpful in determining what gain, if any, may be excluded by an elderly taxpayer when he sells his home. Additionally, a taxpayer may elect to defer reporting the gain on the sale of his personal residence if within 18 months before or 18 months after the sale he buys and occupies another residence, the cost of which equals or exceeds the adjusted sales price of the old residence. Additional time is allowed if (1) you construct the new residence or (2) you 31,-1976- ) were on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. Publication 523 (Tax Information on Selling Your Home) may also be helpful. Credit for the Elderly. A new, expanded, and simplified credit for the elderly has replaced the former more complex retirement income credit. A taxpayer may be able to claim this credit and reduce taxes by as much as $375 (if single),. or $562.50 (if married filing Jointly), if the taxpayer is: (1) Age 65 or older, or (2) Under age 65 and retired under a pub- lic retirement system. To be eligible for this credit, taxpayers no longer have to meet the income requirement of having received over $600 of earned income during each of any 10 years before this year. For more information, see instructions for Schedules R and RP. Earned Income Credit. A taxpayer who maintains a household for a child who is under age 19, or is a student, or is a disabled dependent, may be entitled to a special payment or credit of up to $400. This is called the earned income credit. It may come as a refund check or be applied against any taxes owed. Generally, if a taxpayer reported earned income and had adjusted gross, income (line 15c, Form 1040) of less than $8,000, the taxpayer may be able to claim the credit. Earned income means wages, salaries, tips, other employee compensation, and net earn(generally ings from amount shown on Schedule SB (Form 1040) line 13) . A marled couple must file a joint return to be eligible for the credit. Certain marled persons living apart with a dependent child may also be Eligible to claim the credit. For more information, see instructions for self-employm- ent Form 1040 or 1040 A. God is our refuge and strength, a very present Psalms 46:1 help in trouble. The American Voice THE FLABBY BODY World War was formally initiated at Yalta of pens shaky by Roosevelt and Churchill, who celebrated the victory by handing out concessions: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, from Poznan to Canton. But Westerners will need a great of deal of strength, resolution, to see and accept the the evidence i of implacable tide of violence and bloodshed that had Moldavia, methodically, steadily, triumphantly radiated out from a single center for nearly 60 years, and to Third Mongolia, millions of Soviet citizens forcibly handed over to face death or the camps; and soon Yugoslavia, Albania, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, were East Germany abandoned to unrestrained violence. The Third World War came inevitably boring into the flabby body of the Since Yalta, an world. unbroken descent towards en fe eblement and The victors of decadence. 1 9 4 5 transformed the into vanquished, having totally ceded more countries and peoples than have ever been ceded in any surrender in any way in human history. The situation as I have described it is clear to any average man in the East, themselves locate the countries already lined up for the next holocaust. -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The sad state of economic knowledge in the United States is nowhere more visible than in this public debate. No one dares mention ment that unemploy- is a pricing in the labor phenomenon market. At free market The Utahns the following specific suggestions to the Bureau of Land Management: (1) field hearings be held; (2) a second set of regulations issued; (3) then, after the end of the upcoming made field season, final regulations become effective. We would like to emphasize that a clear statement is needed stating that the regulations will not be effective until this season is ended. Operators need the certainty such a statement can provide. Not giving that assurance would be unfair to the miners and operators all across the country. The two Republicans went on wage rates everyone willing find can work to employment. But when government or labor unions in their comments to challenge the legal basis for the regulations. Noting that specific authority to mandate restoration and bonding forcibly raise labor costs above free market rates, all workers whose costs exceed must their productivity inevitably be unemployed. requirements had been included in the senate version of the BLM Organic Act, they pointed out that it had been specifically dropped from the version which became Should the regulations law. become final roughly as they are now, there would certainly be legal challenges on those grounds. The specific provisions of the regulations which appear to be most important to Utah miners are those dealing with the plan of GUN CONTROL MYTH The Myth: Washington - Senators Jake Garn and Orrin Hatch today filed detaikd comments with the Bureau of Land Management on the Proposed regulations governing Surface Mining on Unpatented Mining Gaims. The regulations wen: slated to go into effect early this year, but because of the excessive problems with the regulations, the comment period has been The extended sixty days. proposals have been a source of trouble and confusion in the Utah mining industry. The noted the senators tremendous impact of the federal government on the lives of individuals in a letter to Curtis Berklund, Director of the Bureau of Iand Management: We would like to take this opportunity to reiterate our concerns about the need for adequate public input into the formulation of regulations which are so critical to the lives and wellbeing of regulated individuals. The impact of federal regulations often means the success or failure of small businesses, and can cause massive disruption in the lives of individuals and families. Federal regulations are not academic - exercises. They affect real people with jobs, families, and homes with We can mortgages on them. is it almost say that not possible to have too much consultation with these a fleeted individuals before promulgating regulations which so closely affect their lives. We therefore repeat our call a for more extended process for development of these surface mining regulations. Handguns scare me. FACT: Nuclear weapons in the hands of third rate (or any rate) nations scare us. Police states scare us (as Massachusetts would become under a handgun confiscation program). Revolving-doo- r justice that turns criminals back to our streets in automobolies scare us. The death rate Drunks scares us. from motor vehicle accidents is twenty times that of firearms accidents! the bonding requirements, the vagueness of certain definitions, and the requirement that roads and structures be removed as soon as pos- operation, Should these requirements actually be imposed on mining, the Senators concluded, it is not an exaggeration to say that they will mean the end of miningas we know it. sible. FACT: What does not scare us is an inanimate object, the handgun, if it is kept by a responsible person. With knowledge comes respect, not fear. Get to know and use a handgun under competent supervision and it will not scare you. Full 99 percent of all legitimate handgun owners do not use them improperly. Of the 70 murders committed with handguns in Boston in 1973, not one was committed by a licensed gun owner. -- Manchester Union Leader A quitter never wins and a winner never quits. Alfred Tennyson |