2017 Christmas - Just received my 2017 Xmas Bonus - 40% went to taxes

[Dave D]

No bonus from Sears and Roebucks.

Just be glad your store location isn't closing bro.

[ZeroPatience]

Stunt,

I have read some reviews of the Circus Circus off of Expedia's website. Some are good, some are not. Would you say it is clean there? I do not mind if it is old and outdated like many of the reviews suggest, but dirty is something i will not be happy about. Also, how do you feel about the Golden Nugget? I am looking there based on the pool within an aquarium and the water slide that goes through the shark tank. They also have a kid's arcade.

[SF1900]

Just be glad your store location isn't closing bro.

It might be in the near future.

[polychronopolous]

FWIW I know a guy who moved to Vegas years ago and he told me once that the Circus Circus steak house was his favorite one in town.

[NelsonMuntz]

ZERO, Circus Circus is probably best for the kids but I avoid it like the plague except for an occasional visit to the Steak House which I believe is still among the  best in town.

Back in the day when CC was brand new the casino floor was kind of like an actual three ring circus with the trapeze artists flying directly above your head over the craps and blackjack tables.

I even had a baby elephant stop beside me while playing and begged for a peanut or something to eat which the trainer usually provided.

It was a class act circus show back then ... but times have changed and so has Circus Circus.

But the room rates are among the best along the Strip and I think they still provide free parking .... but I'm not positive about that.

BTW ... Many of us locals avoid any casino that requires a parking fee  and to the best of my knowledge SLS is the only Strip Hotel/Casino that I'm sure about that welcomes guest with a free parking space.

LOL, Stnut, would you have noticed the irony had the baby elephant dropped a shit while you are at the "craps" table?

[Dave D]

It might be in the near future.

For what it's worth I've gotten my hands on several 100 copies of the final run of the Fall/Winter of 94 Sears catalogue.

I'll send you some copies to give to your best customers as a novelty gift to thank them for their support.  I'm sure they'll be great  discussion pieces.

I want to send a copy to ratherbebig but he won't give me his address.

[pkaz]

ZERO, I don't know if you are familiar with VEGAS, but if you want some good advice about hotels, food, gambling, night life and other activities ... RANGERWILL, WIGGS and myself are available .

An unsolicited few recommendations:

1. Be aware that almost all the hotels now charge what they call a 'Resort Fee' so figure adding on another $25 or so to the advertised nightly hotel rate. And try not to laugh when you ask the check-in clerk to point you to the resort! (Hotels.com is pretty damn good to take a look at!)

2. Don't play BJ in any casino that pays even money for a Blackjack.
They are ripping you off. And avoid all BJ tables that use the continuous shuffling machine.

3. If you want a decent cheap place to have a decent meal .... try Ellis Island, open 24 hours! Best Fish and Chips in town! And Ellis  has a separate restaurant that serves the best Baby Back Ribs I've ever had!

4. Take full advantage of the comps by using a Player's Club Card. I receive an endless supply of Christmas gifts and buffets  (about 6 a month) and hotel stays even though I am a damn cheap gambler.

5. Avoid driving down the Strip at night! if you are in a hurry to get someplace.

and DO NOT EAT AT THE SW STEAK HOUSE!!

Sorry to be off track!

And Stunt, lets not forget about paid parking now, at least in most places...

[El Diablo Blanco]

I got a one year subscription to flex and they took away 4 months. Fuckers.

[stuntmovie]

ZERO,  Although I’ve stayed at Circus Circus a good number of times, I only stayed there because I wanted a cheap place to pass out over night.

Clean? Yes but not real eye-appealing.

It was great years ago but right now I would considered it to be one of the worst places to stay on the Strip if I had to compare it with all the other Strip hotels.

The check in area is somewhat similar to a cold dank cave with a wide variety of people milling around waiting for something to happen.

It seems to be the only hotel on the Strip that welcomes kids … so the pace is filled with them … sometimes running wild, running loose and  yelling for Krispy Cream cupcakes.

I would only recommend Circus Circus if you are looking for a cheap place to stay and like those doughnuts.

AND … There is absolutely no comparison between CC and the Golden Nugget. vcx
The GN is one of the better hotels in Las Vegas and definitely the best hotel in the downtown area on Fremont Street….. and the kids will love the pool and the slide that goes through the shark tank.

As far as I am concerned the GN pool is one of the best pools in town for kids and possibly for grown-ups as well with one of the best steak houses in town … VIi and Anthony’s … rated in the top ten within the USA.

But Vegas is not kid oriented so it’s best to limit your stay and then head over to Disneyland providing you don’t lose them and your house and your shirt at the Craps table.

DEFINITELY …. GN is one of the best in this town! Kids or not!

[stuntmovie]

I forgot to mention that I believe that all LV Hotel pools are closed through the winter months and begin to re-open sometime in May.

NELSON. Re That elephant craps situation .... there was a guy with a bucket and a shovel usually following that little elephant but I don't think that the elephant spent too much time in that casino due to unexpected haphazards and his problematic teen age years.

POLY, I haven't been to CC Steakhouse for a number of years now, but I do hear that it's still good but most likely not as popular as it once was due to people's interest in 'Celebrity Chefs".

PHAZ, I think I mention the pay for parking situation someplace above. I refuse to pay for parking so my time is spent in the local's casinos such as all the Station's (the Palms being close and one of the best), South Point,  Ellis Island, Silverton, Will Wild West and most other joints away from the Strip.

[Agnostic007]

Yea, AGNOSTIC!  Times have definitely changed here in Vegas, but to be honest with ya the LV casinos don't get as much traffic as they use to get back about 12 ago when you actually had to wait a while to get a seat at a BJ table and could not find an open spot at the Craps table.

I was here in the good old "years" when all the casinos were jammed packed and no Strip hotel would allow you to rent a room for more than three nights so you had to find another hotel if you planned to stay longer.

And back then there were a couple of dozen motel type places on East Fremont Street (Downtown LV) where  you could stay when all the other LV hotels were sold out.

And they have all been torn down now except for a couple that house the hookers.

And sometimes if your came to LV without a room reservation, you were fooked. That's why you'll never find a couch nor a big comfortable chair on a casino floor nor in a hotel lobby.

And the gang who owned the casinos (before they were incorporated) would greet your as you came in and walk throughout the slot area and say, "Thanks for playing at Binions!" and hand you a roll of two of nickels or an invite to have a dinner on the house.

It was only a couple of years ago that I would walk through any casino blind-folded and never bump into another blind-folded gambler.

Business was honestly that bad.

So in an effort to recover from that lost revenue .... they charge for parking, change the game of Blackjack in the casino's favor, tell you that you have to pay a resort fee when you check out their ain't no resort, and raise buffet prices while cooking cheaper chicken.

I fight changes but it ain't working too damn well because the college kids who arrive in town today have no idea how BJ was intended to be played and thereby allow the casinos to take them to the cleaners.

FREE THINGS are given today because those free things are what bring a lot of the local to the casinos  and make the out of town visitors think that LV business is alive and well.

I get about 8 gifts a week from three different casinos for a  total of 32 gifts a month ..... and I wrap them up and give them away as Christmas gifts .... T-shirts, sweat shirts, hats, jackets, dinnerware, wine, whiskey, etc. plus a good number of free buffets and free slot play, etc.

Today I get  free electric can opener! OH BOY!

But I don't play big enough to get free tickets to fights nor the concerts ...  except for the rodeo events which I seldom use.

Good luck at the tables! If you hear someone bitching to one of the bosses about the pay-outs.... Say "Hello"!.... It's probably me!

If you play the slots and want to win a little bit... try Buffalo and Kitty Glitter in one of the local casinos.

Back in the late 80's I used to go the LV about every 4 months. I didn't have a lot of disposable cash so I have stayed at Circus Circus a couple times, I recall the buffet costing about $2.35 and I would fill up on seafood Newburg. Then the Frontier started giving out room tokens for suited black jacks and I would stay there for free most of the times. Often times I would have 6 or 7 tokens in a day. Just got back this evening and the $44 a day resort fee per night was a joke. While the rooms at the Venetian or nice, a bottle of generic water in the room costs $5. Nickel and dime you for everything. Want a drink at the bar? Average $16 a piece. $18 for a chopped salad at Carnevino. I don't mind paying for quality but it gets down right insulting. Luckily I had a good run on Sunday at the tables and offset much of the trip cost but that doesn't happen often enough.     

[calfzilla]

FWIW I know a guy who moved to Vegas years ago and he told me once that the Circus Circus steak house was his favorite one in town.

I know the Circus Circus in Reno had an excellent steakhouse. Haven't been there in 15 years not sure if it's still there. 

[Mr Anabolic]

Just be glad your store location isn't closing bro.

Sears is finished.  In 1-2 years it won't exist.  I used to enjoy looking at their catalog every year when I was a kid.  Macy's, JC Penny, Nordstrom and will also be gone. 

[stuntmovie]

AGNOS,  YES! I also remember Circus Circus and the rest of the Strip hotels back in them good old days (I stayed in each of them) , I would check in and always got a room in the old motel part of CC and then I’d go find a BJ table at the little joint on the south side of the hotel where they had numerous $1 tables with large metal chips and a decent bar in the back.

But I go back a while longer when the buffet was $1.99 and the circus performers (plus the little elephant) were on the casino floor or directly above the tables.

And any room on the Strip was $40 or less per night with a slight increase on Fridays, Saturdays, and holidays unless there was a big convention in town.

And it was damn near impossible to get a room over the weekends if you did not make a reservation before you arrived.

That’s when you were forced to search for a place to stay in one of those little motels on East Fremont Street.

And you could only stay in a LV hotel for three nights. They wanted your room for the next sucker who came to town and figured that they had already gotten all the money that you had brought with you anyway.

Those were  the good old days when Vegas was a BOOM-TOWN, but the corporation took control and ruined it for everyone except themselves,

I always tell friends and family to stay away from the Strip and stay no more than three nights in one of the “locals hotels” to get a better room rate and free parking and  a better chance to win whe gambling … but even those hotels are ruining this town with those so called “resort fees’'!

The "kids" who arrive in town these days sit they asses at blackjack tables in those Strip casinos that only pay 6 to 5 and have no idea that they are being robbed ... and it's perfectly legal.

And the pay for parking scam  ....... !!!!

Next year I’ll probably tell everyone  to stay home or fly off to Hawaii.

[el numero uno]

Same here.


....Ron was generous to the mods this year

As you know, I'm a mod in the Spanish Board. Things there are a little bit slow, so my bonus is not as good as yours, but whatever. I'm not doing it for the money anyway.

Thanks Ron!

[Grape Ape]

ZERO, I don't know if you are familiar with VEGAS, but if you want some good advice about hotels, food, gambling, night life and other activities ... RANGERWILL, WIGGS and myself are available .

Thanks for the suggestion, but there's ZERO percent chance I'll be soliciting travel tips from rangerwil.

[Ron]

So with the new tax plan for 2018, how much taxes would of been taken out?

[ZeroPatience]

So with the new tax plan for 2018, how much taxes would of been taken out?

Great question. Will someone smarter than me and with more knowledge of the tax plan give an answer? Straw Fag and Assnostic need not respond.

[residue]

So with the new tax plan for 2018, how much taxes would of been taken out?

largely unchanged unless your bonus is over 1 million

[Princess L]

So with the new tax plan for 2018, how much taxes would of been taken out?

Everyone's rate is going down.

The old high end tax rate was 39%.  It's been reduced to 37%

If you were in the 25% bracket, it's been reduced to 22%-24%

If you aren't an "itemizer" and use the standard deduction, it's been DOUBLED!  A family standard deduction WAS $12,000.  It will now be $24,000 (was $6k for individual - now $12K)

Mortgage interest (up to $750K) continues to be deductible

Most states allow you to deduct state income tax from your federal return. Your property tax combined with your state income tax up to $10K is deductible.

[stuntmovie]

PRINCESS< Thanks! Are the new Tax Forms available yet??

With all those new deductions, who's paying more to make up for the loss?

[Princess L]

Use this calculator to see how the tax bill affects you.

http://taxplancalculator.com/

[Princess L]

PRINCESS< Thanks! Are the new Tax Forms available yet??

With all those new deductions, who's paying more to make up for the loss?

According to the lefties, it's all of us 

[stuntmovie]

PRINCESS, Thanks! That Tax Plan Calculator page is GREAT and should be looked at by all GetBiggers!

I do Fed Taxes for family members and friends and it appears right they will all save a couple of thousand dollars this year. Their fed tax obligation will decrease.

So I gotta assume that those in the higher income bracket will be paying more to make up for those IRS losses.

At what income level do the 'heavy hitters' enter the picture to pay more taxes this year than previously?

If you know ..... Thanks ....

[residue]

Everyone's rate is going down.

The old high end tax rate was 39%.  It's been reduced to 37%

If you were in the 25% bracket, it's been reduced to 22%-24%

If you aren't an "itemizer" and use the standard deduction, it's been DOUBLED!  A family standard deduction WAS $12,000.  It will now be $24,000 (was $6k for individual - now $12K)

Mortgage interest (up to $750K) continues to be deductible

Most states allow you to deduct state income tax from your federal return. Your property tax combined with your state income tax up to $10K is deductible.

That is only for income, bonuses are supplemental (which I'm assuming what Ron was asking about) is actually increasing from 25 to 28 federally so the op would have paid more. That is unless his bonus is over 1 million then it goers from 40% to 37%