pelika O Opinion
A6 Jan. 29, 2020
Individual mandate is gone, the new deal with Form W-4
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he 2017 Tax Cuts & Jobs Act repealed the penalty for not having medical insurance all year (the “individual mandate”), but it did not go into effect until 2019. That means there is no tax penalty to be paid this year if you were not covered! The 2018 penalty was $695 per adult and $347.50 per child on your tax return, or 2% of your annual income (whichever was greater). That penalty has been zeroed out, so non-covered taxpayers have reason to celebrate this year as they will no longer have to pay that additional tax. The individual mandate technically still exists, but lack of a penalty likely means most people will ignore it. Filling out a new W-4 One of my favorite services to clients is delivering a nice tax refund, followed immediately by an increase in take-home pay through withholding adjustments. That is typically accomplished through analyzing the taxpayer’s withholding tax, and filling out a new Form W-4 (“Employee Withholding Certificate”) to deliver to their employer. Last fall, the IRS put a twist on the legacy W-4 that has been in place for more than 30 years. If you have started a new job, want to update
Breakfast, from A2 Seymore then focused on the data and trends OHS has seen during the last few years. “Advanced Placement courses are college level courses that are offered at the high school level,” Seymore said. The numbers of those enrolled have grown tremendously over the past
Jackson, from A4 with them (I still marvel at Taddy delivering papers he could hardly read) and tell how they became American citizens without forgetting what they once were. Taddy, Ted came to this country hoping for
your tax withholdings or just do a withholding checkup, you have probably noticed the new form. While your existing tax withholdings are grandfathered in, any changes to your withholdings or starting a new job will now require an entirely new form to be filled out and turned in to your employer. The IRS updated the form to help reduce its complexity, and it has entirely eliminated the scheme of selecting personal allowances. Now, taxpayers simply fill out their personal information such as name and address, along with their filing status (single/married filing separately, married filing jointly, or head of household), the number of jobs held, and dependents. The form is designed to more accurately calculate taxpayer withholdings, which may lead to lower refunds at tax time. You have the opportunity to withhold more or less through withholding adjustments and can use an earnings worksheet to calculate tax-
payer/spouse withholdings to help determine what each individual should have withheld through their job. Generally, you should have more tax withheld if you hold multiple jobs, have a working spouse or earn extra income from other sources such as investments, rental real estate and self-employment. You may choose to have less tax withheld if you are eligible for credits or deductions like student loan interest, college tuition or child care. If you’re not sure where you stand, grab a recent paystub and visit the IRS’ tax withholding calculator, available free online through the IRS Web site. It has been reprogrammed using the new form, and is more user-friendly than the prior version. The site will even fill out a new W-4 for you. The form was tailored for the 2017 tax reform, which has many provisions currently set to expire after 2025. More changes are likely to come, so it’s always a good idea to do a paycheck review at least annually. Justin Smith is a licensed certified public accountant in Opelika, specializing in individual and small business tax and accounting. He can be contacted at 334400-9234 or Justin@ JSmithCPA.net. His web site is www.jsmithcpa. net.
eight years. In 2019, 257 students were enrolled in AP classes, the highest level of enrollment OHS has seen. OHS partners with Southern Union State Community College to allow students to participate in dual-enrollment courses. Some of these courses are offered at the high school while others are offered solely at SUSCC. The school also has a dualenrollment agreement with the University of Alabama.
Three emissaries from Opelika High School joined Seymore at the end of his presentation. These emissaries, student ambassadors for the school, spoke on how Opelika City Schools have prepared them for the next step in their lives. Powers-Smith, along with a Metro City Bank representative, concluded the event by awarding Full Moon BBQ with the Small Business of the Quarter Award.
better than what he left behind. He sought a place to fit in and found it; he adopted America and America adopted him; he served his country, worked hard, weathered problems at home and on the job and, in the end, found peace and happiness in retirement. Reading his letter brought back to me the
hope I expressed in that first column, the hope that wherever Taddy went, he would “live out the American dream.” All things considered, I think he did. Harvey H. (“Hardy”) Jackson is professor emeritus of history at Jacksonville State University. He can be reached at hjackson@ cableone.net.
Justin Smith
Markley, from A4 more than a quarter of U.S. adults (27%) say they did not read a book in whole or in part in 2019. That means not one printed book, nada electronic book and not even a book in audio form, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey. I stressed in this space before that viewing, listening to, or best of all, reading from a variety of viewpoints and ideologies will make you a better citizen and an effective advocate for your side. To that end, I subscribe to two traditional conservative publications: National Review and Wall Street Journal Weekend Edition. On the Left side, I read The New York Times, especially because of its long-form journalism—the stories are not USA Today miniatures but often many pages long, allowing for more facts and analysis. The small, 4-page High-
Dietrich, from A4 in a special class called “remedial class.” Nobody knew what remedial meant; even the word sounded like a rare form of medieval torture. Either way, we slowish kids knew we were the village idiots. Thus, Mrs. Shields would knock on our classroom door at 8:30 a.m. every weekday, and a few of us would rise and happily accompany her to the remedial class. I have read before that lambs go happily to the butcher. Each time we left the grade school classroom, I would hear snickering from other students. It wasn’t fullon laughter. Just soft chuckling. In remedial class there was Jon, who was taller than anyone in school; his mother packed his lunchbox with two sandwiches instead of one. And Allie, who was Native American, the sweetest soul you’d ever meet. And me. We would sit in a
tower Lowdowner spotlights campaign finance scandals and corruption among the privileged class. Living relatively close to Atlanta, Birmingham etc., Lee Countians get many chances to attend book signings. (When the two new bookstores get settled in, we can expect more signings.) In 2008, I went with a friend to The Carter Center to get the former president’s latest book signed, “A Remarkable Mother.” It was a splendid day for me because I was an archives intern there and took advantage of a tour of his private office at the center. He was on his way back from the Middle East so was not present to host the three interns who went. Miss Lillian, as she was affectionately called, spent eight years as the dorm mother for students of a particularly unruly fraternity. It was Kappa Alpha, and they were students at Auburn University. I had hoped to see more than the four pages that mentioned Auburn, but
with a small 208-page book, cuts definitely had to be executed. At the book signing, here was this 83-year old man, who has just made the long trip back from the Middle East. The ex-president whisked away so many books past him, signing them all, that I was stunned. He greeted us with a strong “War Eagle.” As I presaged in the introduction, I plan to read “Where the Crawdads Sing” in February. One of the merits of this book is a survey confirmed that respondents who read “Crawdads” come from across the political spectrum, with 55% identifying as progressive, 30% as conservative and 15% as centrists. “Crawdads” appeals to a wide spectrum of American readers. And apparently dogs love it, too. Markley has lived in Lee County for 18 of the last 23 years. An award-winning journalist, he has master’s degrees in education and history. He has taught as an adjunct in Georgia and Alabama.
little backroom while Mrs. Shields talked to us like we were hard of hearing. I know she wasn’t trying to act ugly toward us, but sometimes that makes it even worse. So, when I got the chance to drop out of school in the seventh grade after my father died, I did. I regret that now. But now maybe you understand why. Still, I never quit reading. In fact I read more often than I should have. I read more library books than some of my friends. I became so fast at reading that I was zipping through several books per week. There are swatches of my adolescence when I was rarely seen without a book. There’s a photograph of me standing with my mother and sister in Disney World. I am holding the book “Sphere,” by Michael Crichton. What a dork. But literature saved me. And even though my life story reads like a roll of used toilet paper, two years ago I started writing my story down. I’m too young to write a
decent memoir. I have too much to learn about life still. But I did it anyway. The publisher sent me an early copy. I got to hold it. A book about the size of a VHS tape. “By Sean Dietrich.” It is a moment I’ll never forget. And do you know what I hope more than anything? I hope that somewhere in the world, perhaps in a dark and dingy remedial classroom, some kid who feels like a complete screw-up is reading this very sentence right now. I hope he realizes that even though some might say he’s slow and not as smart as the others, these people are flat wrong. Because to me, he’s 007. Dietrich is a columnist, and novelist, known for his commentary on life in the American South. His work has appeared in Southern Living, the Tallahassee Democrat, Southern Magazine, Yellowhammer News, the Bitter Southerner, the Mobile Press Register and he has authored seven books.