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Come join a groundbreaking new podcast that promises to change the way you think, the way you live, and the way you manage your future. Grab a cup of coffee, a 6mg Zyn, some noise-canceling headphones, and get lost in the world of the Fiscal Firehouse. With your co-host Jon Beattie and Louie Barela, the Fiscal Firehouse is your guide to financial freedom. Tailored to union firefighters, we will discuss problems, solutions, and benefits that are unique to our profession. Change your finances, change your life at the Fiscal Firehouse. Brought to you by Local 1309.
Welcome to the Fiscal Firehouse,
a podcast dedicated to promoting
financial literacy to firefighters.
I'm your co-host, John Beatty, executive
board member of Local 1309, a lieutenant,
and also a certified financial planner.
With me, I have the other co-host of the
fiscal firehouse, Louis Barella, executive
Board member of Local 1309 ambulance
driver, and want to be financial expert.
Together, John and I hope to bring
clarity to the world of personal finance,
specifically relating to firefighters.
Firefighting is a
difficult job making sound.
Financial decisions shouldn't be.
In today's episode of the fiscal
firehouse, John and Louis Tackle
the most talked about recent
federal legislation, OBA Standing
for one Big, beautiful Bill Act.
John and Louis will discuss both
the financial and non-financial
implications of this recent federal
legislation and how it will impact
you as a professional firefighter.
John and Louis specifically addressed
concerns around tax rates, tax
deductions, including the infamous no
tax on tips and other financial matters.
Without further ado, let's kick it
over to local 1309 studios and the
recording of the fiscal Firehouse
Jon: welcome back to another
episode of The Physical Firehouse.
I'm with your co-host John Beatty,
with me I've got my partner in crime
here sitting across the table in Local
1309 studios, old LB Louis Barella.
How's it going?
Lb.
Louie: Good buddy.
How are you
Jon: man?
We are ready to rock.
It is, the start of the NFL season.
So we're recording this.
Do, do, do, yeah.
How does it go?
What's the, rest of the jingle?
There you go.
You got it?
Yep.
So today is, what is
it, Thursday, September.
fourth, whenever.
but it's the kickoff.
It's the NFL kickoff.
So we're all excited.
Cowboys, eagles.
What are you thinking?
Who's, who you going on?
You a dirty bird or are you like
Louie: Eagles.
Man, I, I can't stand the
Jon: You can't.
Louie: I don't want them to.
Jon: Hey man,
Louie: I, let's, let's go Eagles.
Anyone who, who goes against the
Cowboys I'm pretty much cheering for
Jon: Exactly, yeah.
Well, they gave me the gift.
Christmas came early at the
Beatty household and they
traded us, Michael Parsons.
Louie: Oh, yeah.
Jon: So for the
Louie: There you go.
Jon: Jones is my new favorite owner.
I really think he's going in the running
to try to be the worst NFL owner.
He's right neck and neck with a Browns
Louie: he's only getting worse.
So if he's not the worst right
now, give it another couple
years and he definitely will be,
Jon: he will definitely be worse.
He's, he's doing his, his best,
to try to take that title.
So, you know, I got a funny story.
So my kids, my, my oldest Ellis is eight
and, he started his own NFL, fantasy
Louie: football.
Fantasy football.
Okay,
Jon: So he is got like eight little
cronies in the neighborhood and
they all kind of set up their,
their teams and, everyone else,
all their seven did auto draft.
So just whatever the computer kicked out.
Ellis decided that he wanted
to, to draft his own players.
I'm like, this is political.
I'm like, this is cool.
So Ellis and my wife Katie, they sat
down and they picked and, let's just
say he's got a few lessons to learn.
So, I don't know, do you ever, do
you, are you in a fantasy league?
Do you, do you do any of that
Louie: we were, we had a, a family
fantasy football league for a long time.
Okay.
Yep.
and bunch of our, bunch of the
guys in our family were, was
in it including, Colin Stookey.
Okay.
Yeah.
who is a great fantasy footballer,
like he's super into it.
But we got toxic.
Like our family started getting
toxic, like there was some.
There was some questionable interactions
that we started having with each
other, and we had to step back.
We were like, for the sake of
the love that we have for one
another, we need to stop this
league and take some, take a break.
So we've been on a break
for a couple years.
Jon: Okay.
You a little hiatus
Louie: now.
Yeah.
We're very competitive in the family.
We all wanna win the
punishments for the losers.
We're getting.
Pretty little excessive.
Yeah.
I mean, they were pretty bad.
So we took a break.
We might start it back up.
We call it the Sons of Genevieve.
Genevieve was my grandmother.
Okay.
The Sons of Genevieve
Fantasy Football League.
I don't know.
I might make an appearance in the
next year or two, but not this year.
Not this year, no.
Jon: Yeah.
So I mean, so you've got strategy,
so you've played, and honestly,
I've never been in any league.
I actually, after kind of.
You know, going through this with
Ellis, it's really kind of intrigued me.
I'm like, oh, maybe I
should do that next year.
Like it's, I, I see why so many
people are obsessed, oh my God,
with this thing because it's, it is
very, I mean, and there's the highs
and the lows, but, I don't know.
From a strategy standpoint, what do
you think his number one pick was?
Or who is his number one pick?
If you, thinking about this from a league
owner, and you've obviously played in
fantasy leagues, like, I mean, wide
receivers I heard are valuable running
backs, quarterbacks are valuable,
Louie: quarterbacks are not.
I guess it depends on if you're
in a point per reception.
Okay.
Or a half point
Jon: But typically, wide
receivers, running backs, those are
Louie: Those are the,
those are who you go with.
Like, I think a lot of, expert.
Fantasy footballers.
They don't draft quarterbacks
until very, very late.
Jon: The very
Louie: I'm talking like sixth
round or something like that.
Okay.
People just stock up on wide receivers
and running backs, and that is generally
considered the best advice, I think.
Jon: Okay.
so, his number one draft,
what do, what do you think?
Louie: Oh, is it a running
backer, a wide receiver?
Jon: it was the Broncos defense.
Oh no.
He picked as his number one draft pick.
Louie: I mean, they might
be the best defense.
This, they, that's a good pick from a
defensive perspective, but definitely not.
Jon: Definitely not.
Louie: He's got, he's
got a learning curve.
Jon: He's got a little learning curve and
it was a teachable moment and he is like,
oh, okay, I start to understand this.
So the other kids that did the
autodraft, they were not as lucky to
have this from a teachable moment.
So, Ellis, I know he listens to this
occasionally in the car, so yeah.
Son, when you're thinking
about, who you wanna draft.
Wide receiver or running back should
be your first couple draft picks.
Nice.
don't save your second
pick for the kicker.
Oh, geez.
Louie: He went like in
reverse order of important.
Those are the, what you
should say for the very end.
He
Jon: did.
He did.
So at the very end it's, it's
kind of q it, it tells 'em like
what their grade score is like
based on what the algorithm says.
did you get an A?
Did you get a b?
He got an F minus,
Louie: He's probably
gonna win the whole thing.
Jon: thing.
You know what, it's probably
one of those things.
It's like picking stocks.
Yeah.
Like honestly, like they do those, they
do this all the time where they just
have some random algorithm generator
just kick out a name and then they put
that against a stock picking professional
and nine times outta 10 who wins.
The random
Louie: random generator?
Yeah.
Jon: like, I'll just see
what sticks on the wall.
So we're always gonna tie this back to,
to something fiscal in the firehouse.
But, and we know we've got a lot
of DGN listeners, so, ease off
on some of those fantasy drafts.
Don't, don't be parlaying on anything.
You know, we will put up
the gamblers anonymous.
phone number or website on this.
But, all in good fun though.
But I definitely see
what the excitement is.
And man, I'm excited.
I'm excited for the NFL.
It's just something in the air.
Yeah.
This time of
Louie: in general.
Jon: Oh, love it.
Louie: Let's go.
Jon: it.
All right.
as we promised, we are
gonna talk about the BB.
B.
Big.
Louie: Beautiful.
It's the biggest, the beautiful list.
Jon: It is, it's the big beautiful bill,
or I guess it's one big beautiful bill
Act is technically what it's called.
But yeah, this is the legislation that,
a lot of people are talking about.
I know for those of you, if you do have
a financial professional or advisor,
they've probably sent you a, a newsletter
or maybe a webinar or something,
highlighting some of these changes.
But, Louis and I thought it was
important that we talk about this.
both fielded quite a bit of
questions regarding this.
and there's a lot of things that will
affect us, not only as just regular
taxpayers, and people with incomes,
but specifically within our own
industry, firefighting, talking about
overtime and some of the other things.
So we're gonna do some quick
highlights on some of these things.
Once again, we wanna make this
tailored, to professional firefighters,
so stay tuned for all the updates.
Louie: and I think, John, and I feel
like we're the kings of disclaimers,
so it probably goes without saying,
but we're not tax professionals, so we
don't know the implications to every
tax situation or every firefighter.
And the truth is like,
this is a massive bill.
We can't even discuss all of
the different changes and all
the things that it touches.
We're just kind of hitting the highlights.
Like John said, that
applies to firefighters.
but it might not be.
Specific to your situation,
and that's okay too.
This is just more general knowledge
and things that we found interesting.
I think another important thing to
remember is that some of this stuff
is still kind of up in the air.
Like the way Congress loves to operate
is they pass a bill and then they leave
it for other people to figure out like
how it's implemented and what it's
gonna look like, and is it feasible.
it's a really weird way that, We do
things, at a, at the federal level,
but that's just kinda how it works.
So we think we kind of have an
understanding on how some of these
things are gonna work, but it,
it, who's to say it doesn't change
or some court doesn't overrule a
certain aspect of it or something.
So just keep that in mind as
we talk about these different
aspects that it's going to impact.
Jon: Yeah, no, that's, that's
definitely well said, Louie.
And this is something that, I looked
it up and, you know, a lot of sources
say that this is o this is over 1100
pages of legislation, so there's a lot
of one-offs and outliers, and we're
not gonna talk about all those things.
Most, specifically though, we
want to talk about what's gonna
affect people around the firehouse
table and, and your families.
And honestly, overall, from a financial
standpoint, this is, and, and.
You know, most people's best interest
from a tax perspective, it is gonna
keep tax rates low and there's
some additional credits and some
benefits that we'll talk about.
But, before we talk about the financial
aspects, that's really what's been
highlighted in this bill, but there's
a lot of other things that the
federal government did, in order to
help offset the cost of what this is
gonna be over the next decade or so.
and the one that is the
most important, I think.
From, once again, from the firefighter's
perspective and something that will
affect most firefighters, is this
Medicaid restructuring and funding.
And most of you are probably like,
well, who cares about Medicaid?
Honestly?
They're like, I've got insurance.
I've gotten good insurance.
I'm not on Medicaid.
My family's not on Medicaid.
I got good insurance
through the department.
Why does this matter to me?
Well, it matters to you for kind
of a, a two-pronged approach.
the first is most people
probably listening to this, do
some type of fire based EMS.
So you have ambulances and you
transport, and because of those
transports you get reimbursed by
either Medicaid or Medicare or private
payer or whatever that insurance looks
Louie: like.
And let's be real, most of the people you
transport are on medic, are on Medicaid.
They're not paying with their
private Cadillac health insurance.
Those are not the people
calling 9 1 1 for transport.
Jon: And I actually wish I had
the stats to, to talk about
that, but it is primarily funded
through Medicaid or Medicare
Louie: mm-hmm.
Jon: what the majority of our,
our, what our patients that
we take to the hospital have.
So why this is a big deal in order to help
fund some of these tax cuts is, basically
the federal government is restructuring
Medicaid and they're slashing it.
I mean, that's probably the easiest
Louie: way.
They're slashing.
Jon: They're slashing it.
what I've got is there's somewhere between
600 to 800 billion over the next decade is
gonna be removed from the Medicaid funding
status, which is a crap ton of money.
Alright?
And why that matters is.
currently when you're getting reimbursed
is we get a certain percentage and
then most states have been back filling
that percentage to basically make the
department whole, speaking for us,
west Metro, that's almost to the tune
of $6 million shortfall this year that
we're gonna receive from Medicaid that
we had planned on receiving before
this legislation took a took effect.
So that's a huge, that's a huge impact.
Louie: direct, it's directly impacting
us because now we have, like you said, $6
million less in our budget for next year.
Jon: For next year.
And we don't know what that
will look like for the following
year and everything else.
So you can probably extrapolate
that over the next, several years.
And that's a significant hole that we're
gonna have to try to plug with additional
revenues or other funding streams.
So that's part one.
Part two is, because of this
restructuring, there's gonna be a lot
of people that are not gonna be covered.
All right, for insurance.
Now, they're not gonna qualify
for Medicaid or they're not
gonna be able to afford Medicaid.
a lot of this has to goes
with the providers and how
they're getting reimbursed.
The long story short is, the
insurance companies are already
trying to price, for next year what
this is going to, what, what this is
going to affect as far as premiums.
We just, got our bill basically
for what next year's gonna be,
and they're anticipating about
11% increase from last year.
if you look at the, if you look
at the, the private market or the
affordable care market, they're talking
anywhere between like 15 to 35%.
Premium increases in health insurance.
So this affects everyone.
This is gonna affect everyone.
So if you, working for an FD or a
municipal, government or a fire production
district, any of that stuff, like I
can guarantee you next year that the
insurance premiums are going to go up.
It's just a matter of how much and
that hits everyone's bottom line.
that hits the department's bottom line.
That hits you as a, as a
firefighter's bottom line.
So that's a big one.
And I just wanted to put that out there
so there's not like the silver bullet.
This is not just all puppies and rainbows.
There's gonna be some things that
we're gonna have to work through in,
in order to, in order to cover some
of these costs, for, having some of
these long-term, tax reductions, right?
So on top of that, there's a whole host
of other things, but that is really the
one I think is most pertinent, for our
listeners to just consider and just.
Kind of, have in the back of your mind,
if you're looking at budgets for next
year or if you're negotiating or whatever
that looks like, moving forward, that's
definitely something that's gonna,
that's gonna affect your negotiations.
Alright, so let's talk about now, really.
The big benefit though, like I said, that
you're gonna receive as a firefighter or
if your spouse works or anyone else's,
is basically when they made this one
big, beautiful bill is they had made
the 2017 tax cuts, the Trump tax cuts
originally, they've made those permanent
because they were getting ready to sunset.
At the end of this year.
Alright, so that was, causing a whole
lot of volatility in the stock market.
a lot of financial planners and
advisors were trying to figure out
how to, forecast this or do some
risk management in order to, if they,
they reset back to what was before.
But now we know moving forward
that these tax cuts are permanent.
So those tax brackets, those percentages
are gonna be permanent as of as of,
July 4th is when they signed this in.
But most of this stuff retros
back to January 1st of this year.
Yeah.
Louie: And so John, it kind of,
it seems like almost a long time.
It was such a long time ago because
this was Trump's first term in office.
He had this tax cut and
part of that was to.
Lower tax rates, right.
Dur in, in each of the tax
brackets, or at least most of 'em.
I shouldn't say all of
them, but in most of them.
and then he also raised a significant
amount in the standard deduction.
So much so that, I mean, even many
people who were itemizing now didn't
make sense to, and instead they
were, it was more beneficial for
them to take the standard deduction.
So those.
Those tax cuts, those rates are
permanent now, and the increased higher
standard deduction is also permanent.
Jon: Yeah, exactly.
So that's, most people now, I can't, I was
meaning to look up at the IRS, at least
for last year, but I think it's upwards
of like 90% of tax filers now pretty
much all claim the standard deduction
and they no longer have to itemize.
So if you're doing your taxes,
you're thinking about doing
your taxes for next year.
most of you are probably on board with
that and I'm, and I'm willing to go
out on a limb and say the majority of
our members do the standard deduction.
So for this year, they've act, and
this will be inflation adjusted.
Alright?
But for this year, if you're
single, it's gonna be 15,750.
It's gonna be the standard deduction.
And if you're married, so if
you file jointly, it's gonna
be $31,500, which is a lot of
Louie: a lot of money
for a standard deduction.
Jon: That's a lot of money.
the other thing, that this bill did
is, and this is once again, this
is for a finite amount of time.
it's gonna be effective starting
this year, and I think it goes
through 2028, if I'm not mistaken.
Is there going to have an increase in.
Basically what they're
calling a senior deduction.
All right, so once again, I know we do
have some listeners that are retired
and they are, over the age of 65.
so you guys are gonna get a little bonus.
Louie: The, the boomers
have struggled so bad.
I'm glad that they get something
Jon: They're, they got, they got their,
Louie: The wealthiest generation
in history gets a little tax break.
Extra tax break.
Really happy for you
Jon: Yeah, I could see that on your face.
Yeah.
So if you, if you're 65 and over,
once again, Christmas is coming early.
Let it rip.
live it up a little
Louie: man.
The rich get richer.
Jon: You guys are all going to get,
a long, as long as you qualify.
for, the phase outs for this, you're
gonna get an extra $6,000 deductions.
so what that is, if you're single, if
you make, less than $75,000, you'll
qualify, without getting phased out.
And if you're married,
if you claim $150,000.
Or less of income, you're
gonna qualify for this.
So potentially, you think about
this 31,500 standard deduction.
Plus, if you and your spouse, so
you're filing, married, you're
filing jointly, you're both
gonna get an additional $6,000.
So $12,000 on top of the 31,500, that
is a crap ton of a standard deduction.
What do you, what do you have
to say about that, Louis?
Louie: Good for you guys.
I mean, good for you.
That's if you, if you have the
deduction, obviously take it, use it.
it's a big benefit.
I mean, that, that is,
that's a huge benefit.
But even if you're not a senior,
and even if you're not that much and
you're married, let's say you're a
young married couple and you have
a $31,500 base standard deduction,
I mean, that's a, that's huge.
Like, that's, that's great.
And with the lower tax
rates, John, I think.
Maybe now is the appropriate time to talk
about our, one of our favorite retirement
accounts, or one of our favorite ways
to contribute to retirement accounts.
And that's through the Roth option, right?
So the Roth option, just a little
quick, reminder for you guys, the, the
Roth contribution, whether it's to a
4 57 or to an IRA, means that you pay
post-tax, you pay taxes on the money.
Now you put it into a Roth
account, and then that money.
Grows and is spent tax free because
you've already paid taxes on it.
John and I have both mentioned in
previous episodes that that's like
our favorite account and we think most
people should contribute to, their
retirement accounts on a Roth basis.
So I would say that if you look at,
there's just, if you look at the history
of tax rates in the United States, or
at least in the last a hundred years,
we are at historic lows for tax rates.
They don't get lower than this.
These are like.
Bargain basement prices here.
So if you can lock in that,
those low tax rates of what
you're paying, that is wonderful.
That is amazing, right.
John, I know you kind of had this maybe
planned to talk about a little bit later,
but there's massive deficits that this
bill as every other bill runs, so I
think it's a reasonable expectation to.
Assume that tax rates eventually
are going to increase, right?
Jon: Yeah, I mean they're saying,
conservatively, they're saying about 3.4
trillion is what this is gonna add to
the deficit over the next, 10 years.
yeah.
On top of already trillions
and trillions and trillions.
So at some point, with every great
empire, they're eventually you gotta
pay the piper and someone's gonna have
to pay the piper and it's gonna be us
and our, our kids that will end up.
Paying for all these cuts.
Yeah.
But yeah, I mean, I think, and you talk
to most, tax professionals, most advisors,
most planners, you know, looking, we
don't have a crystal ball, but you look
5, 10, 15, 20 years into the future.
And we just have to figure at some point
we can't grow our way out of this, that we
are eventually gonna have to pay for this.
and I think that at some point is
just gonna revert back to previous
tax brackets and rates where, it's
gonna be very common if you're in the.
Or upper echelon, it's gonna be
upwards of 40% or maybe more.
And just even for middle income earners,
it's gonna be higher than the 22 or
24 4% that you're doing right now.
So you never say always,
and you never say never.
most people, I would say, if you're in
that 24 under bracket, boy, you'd really
have to convince me why a Roth account
would not be in your best interest.
Honestly.
it
Louie: is.
I mean, I, I'm just gonna say
it has to be, it has to be.
'cause these, it's not gonna go lower.
Tax rates are not gonna go lower.
They're only gonna go higher.
Jon: That's, that is
what the consensus is.
If you listen to a lot of people that do
this for a living, and they've been in
the industry for a long time, and they
can just do basic math and arithmetic.
You extrapolate this out over
time and it's just gonna get
worse before it gets better.
Louie: I don't, I don't know if
you've noticed this, but I, you know,
well, you and I have talked about
all the podcasts that I listen to.
I listen to so many
nerdy financial Oh yeah.
Podcasts.
Love it.
But I can see, a very distinct
change in a lot of these financial.
Podcast hosts and experts, versus
what they talked about 10 years ago.
So 10 years ago, 15 years ago, when
I was really listening to a lot of
these people in the fire movement,
financial independence, retire early.
There was this huge belief
that you should make all your
contributions on a pre-tax basis.
because they thought when you
retire, you'll be making less money.
There's strategies for doing conversions
and stuff like that to, kind of.
minimize the amount of taxes you pay, so
defer those taxes as long as possible.
That was like the
conventional wisdom mm-hmm.
From all these people is
like, keep deferring, do
pre-tax, don't, don't do Roth.
and now I've seen it all change.
Almost, almost all the podcasts that
I listened to, all the financial
quote unquote experts that I
listened to have now been like,
Hey, it has nowhere to go but up.
You should probably do Roth accounts.
And they've all come over to that.
Basically now they all advocate.
Contributing to Roth accounts.
Yeah,
Jon: yeah.
No, that's definitely, I
think that's very common.
consensus once again, and once
again, it depends on where you're at.
But what they are finding as well
is they're finding a lot of people
that, since these plans, since the
401k was developed, you know a lot
of these baby boomers that you.
Love so much.
they're sitting on, two to four to
$10 million in deferred accounts.
And now the time has come where
they can't defer it anymore and
they have to start taking money out.
Which is,
Louie: minimum distributions.
Jon: MDs required minimum distributions.
And they're just having huge, what
they're calling ticking time bombs.
'cause they gotta take out all
this money now and they're getting.
Taxed on this, and they're, it's putting
'em into the 32 and 37% tax bracket.
So there's a lot of different
strategies with this, but once again,
for the younger folks and even those
that are not that young, think about
where you are in your tax bracket.
And I would really be willing to
say that the majority of our members
would be better suited for Roth
accounts versus pre-tax accounts.
Now every situation is different, so
this is not tax advice and this is not
financial advice, just generally speaking.
Just consider that and, and.
The long term, and it's kind of
know that this is what you pay right
now, but now you let it grow tax
free and then you can take it out,
without any taxes, which is great.
It's good, it's good to
have diversification.
So have a little
Louie: bit of everything.
Yep.
There you go.
Jon: There you go.
So that's standard deduction.
the other thing is, and this might
apply to actually quite a few of our
members too, is the salt deduction.
All right, so this is part of the,
the TCA 2017, taxes that originally
happened as they capped it.
At $10,000, right?
So that is the amount that you could
deduct for, state taxes, for property
taxes, all the things that you pay to
your state and local government basically.
Louie: that's the state and local tax
Jon: That's what SALT stands for.
so that was capped at $10,000.
Well, with the new legislation, and
once again, this is not permanent,
this will also get phased out, but
that has been increased to $40,000.
So once again, if you're paying
a lot of state tax or you,
live in a, a place at the.
The property taxes have gone
up exorbitantly, which a lot
of places around here is.
this might be something that, you know,
might make sense to start to itemize
again versus, do the standard deduction.
But once again, this is
a very personal decision.
it's really gonna depend on what your.
What your tax liability and stuff like
that looks like for, for next year.
But you know, for some of our folks, you
always mention your friends that have,
PAs and physicians, shout out to you guys.
you might be better suited potentially,
to do the itemized deductions.
And because of this increase
in, the salt cap basically being
increased from 10 K to 40 k now.
All right, so this is the one, that
we definitely wanted to highlight.
All right.
And almost everyone at some point.
I don't think I've gone a day or two
with someone asking me b about this.
No tax on tips, no tax on overtime stuff.
So, this is good.
This will benefit our members, for sure.
But we definitely, there's some caveats
with this, and it's not it, I mean, it's
good, but it's not as great as I think
most of our members think it's gonna be.
Yeah, we've
Louie: And we've waited, I, I don't
know, I you probably in a similar boat,
but when the bill was first proposed
and even when it was first passed, I got
got questions and I just kind of told
people, hold on, like let us look into it.
Let kind of think, let the dust
settle and some analysis to come
out before we talk about it.
just 'cause there was a lot of
confusion and like, it's even
misnamed really in the bill itself.
Yes.
So I think we'll address.
that now, knowing that it could still
change and it could still be different
than what we think, but it seems like
it's now congealed enough to the point
where we're comfortable talking with it.
Yeah, so we'll do the
overtime deduction first.
There's a provision in the bill
called no tax on overtime or the
no tax on overtime deduction, and
that's really misnamed because you
still will pay some tax on overtime.
However, the way it works is the
premium portion of overtime pay is now.
Tax deductible.
So what that really means is the half
in time and a half is what's deductible.
So that deduction, is limited to $12,500
per year for a single filer and a
$25,000 deduction for a joint filer.
And that there's phase outs for that.
Like if you're modified,
adjusted, gross is over.
$300,000 for a married couple,
you'll start experience a phase out
where, it's even less than that.
But lemme give you an example, John,
because I feel like this is the best
way to, to make sense of all that.
Just word Yeah.
Alphabet soup that I just threw out there.
So let's say your regular rate, your
regular hourly pay rate is $40 an
hour and you work in overtime, you
get paid a time and a half, which
means you would get paid $60 an hour.
While that extra $20 an
hour is your premium.
That's the premium portion of your
overtime and that is what is deductible.
So John, we have an example
here that we think kind of
drives it home for firefighters.
If you're a first grade firefighter with
10 years, your shift hourly wage is 41 64.
Your overtime rate when you
work at your time and a.
Is 62 46.
So the premium pay of that
would be $20 and 82 cents.
And that's the amount
that's tax tax deductible.
So in order to max out the max of
12,500, this firefighter would have
to work 600 hours or 25 shifts,
Jon: 25, 24 hour shifts in order just
to meet that threshold for the 12,500.
So if you're just single, so if you
were one of these people that were
really trying to break records, right,
and work as much godly over time as
you could, so you wanted to max out
and you're married, so you could go
the full $25,000 deduction, you're
talking 1200 hours of OT or 50.
24 hour shifts.
And the thing is, and I hope
you guys appreciate this, it's a
deduction so you don't get this
offset until you file your taxes.
It will reduce your tax
liability the following year.
So you're still gonna be taxed on
that originally with your pay stub.
So it's not like you're gonna just get
this free money right out of the chute.
You're gonna have to defer
that until you actually file
your taxes the following year.
Right.
by April 15th or whatever it is for next
year, whatever that Monday that it falls
on, that's what you're gonna have to do.
So it's not this instant thing that
you're gonna see right away for one.
And then when you start actually
putting into like, man, how
much is this really gonna take?
I think about people that do like the
wildland deployments or FEMA deployments
where they're getting, big chunks, six,
$8,000 paydays or overtime for that.
Like, I, I think this is really where
it's gonna be well suited for those of you
that work an occasional 24 here and there.
Now you're obviously gonna see a
little bit of savings, but it's,
you can't go buy that new truck.
You can't buy that new
house on this deduction.
It, it definitely will help and
don't look a gift worth in the mouth
kind of thing, but it's not gonna
be something that's gonna reset
the needle on a lot of this stuff.
Louie: Yeah.
I think a lot of people were like, oh man,
no tax on overtime, so I'm gonna work a
bunch of shifts and I'm gonna get paid.
Jon: They thought they were gonna
work their $1,500, overtime shift
and clear $1,500 and that is just
not the way that this is gonna
Louie: work not even close.
Jon: So, so as far as how this is gonna
work, at least for this year, I believe
that the IRS, it's basically going to
be on the taxpayer to prove that you
had this overtime, because it's not
really gonna be segmented out in our,
in our, Payroll software and a DP is
not gonna segregate all the stuff out.
I think in the following year it will,
but basically you're just going to have to
claim that this is what the overtime was.
and then, if you do get audited,
you're just gonna have to
prove how you got to these.
Louie: how you calculated the premium.
I
Jon: the premium and all this other stuff.
I think moving forward next year and so
forth, this will be a little bit clearer.
But as far as the payroll software
right now, they will not do that.
at least from, the higher ups
that I've talked to, said that
that will not be for 2025.
It will start in 2026,
but this is effective.
Starting January 1st, 2025.
So if you've worked any overtime
this year, there will be a certain
portion of that premium pay, that
will be deductible when you file your
Louie: And there's a few firefighters who
are gonna get close to that 600 hours.
Man, I feel like we always have a few
firefighters that are close to that.
I know Dan Schultz, man from my academy,
works a ton of overtime and he's
always pushing, he's almost, almost
always leading the list or close to it.
So he might get that full deduction.
Jon: There might be some full deductions.
All right.
so now this is probably
the second crowd favorite.
and they're going to, we just had our
dead episode last go around Louis.
So we're gonna parlay this
right on top of that one.
And, now we've got, thanks to
the, one big beautiful bill act,
no tax on car loan interests.
All right,
Louie: But no one has car loans anymore.
'cause they listen to
the fiscal firehouse.
They want to be financially responsible
Jon: They're getting a good deal, man.
Someone's got a sweet deal.
You
Louie: about the good deals.
Jon: I mean, it's basically costing
you money by not getting a new truck.
Of course.
All right, so what are, what are
some of the caveats with this one lb?
Is it as good as it sounds, or?
Louie: Yeah.
Well, once again, as most things
from the federal government,
it's not as good as it sounds.
Okay.
But there is still a, a, a deduction.
Once again, it's called no
Tax on Car Loan Interest.
That's the name of the
provision in the bill.
And there's some very specific
things that you have to do to
qualify or that, that have to be the.
The situation in order for you to qualify.
So interest paid to recruit on a loan
to purchase a qualified passenger
vehicle for personal use after 2024 is
basically saying it has to be a new car.
This has to be a new car.
It can't be on a used car.
and the vehicle.
it has to be assembled
in the United States.
So I think there's a
way to figure that out.
It's like if your VIN number starts
with a one, a four or a five, I believe.
Okay, it's either 1, 4, 5, or 1 5 6.
if you're, if it starts with any of
those three numbers, then that's how
you know it's been assembled in the us.
So it has to meet that to
Jon: qualify.
And the car dealers are gonna
advertise the crap out of this.
Oh, they're gonna advertise like, Hey man,
you basically, you get up to this much.
So, and they will, they will
take this, from a marketing
strategy standpoint, and they will
highlight this to the nth degree.
I can guarantee you that.
Louie: Mm-hmm.
Yeah, exactly.
And, and the, so if your car meets
those qualifications, you can
deduct up to $10,000 per year.
and that's an above the line
deduction is what it's called.
and then there's phase outs that are still
relevant, similar phase outs, 150,000
for a single person, $300,000 for, which
Jon: a very common theme that
you'll see, or a common thread that
you'll see that that one 50 k for
single and 300 k for married apply
to a lot of these, deductions.
Yeah, to
Louie: That makes things easy.
And the good news on it is that
you can claim this deduction
whether or not you itemize.
So you can take the, the, the,
standard deduction that we talked
about earlier, and you can still
also claim this deduction in your.
Interest paid in this car loan.
Jon: Yeah.
So if you ever hear that, if you
ever see it written or you hear
people talk about above the line
versus below the line, deductions
above the line is always the best.
if you're looking for a deduction or
credit or anything else like that, you're
always, the best ones will always be
above the line because you're right.
Then it doesn't matter whether
you itemize or you do the standard
deduction, little tax tip on that one
and how to keep those things straight.
So I don't know.
I guess if you were already
in the market and you already
bought one, I guess kudos to you.
I still don't think this changes
my thought process, and what we
talked about before, car loans
Louie: doesn't change the math for me.
Jon: or anything else like this.
I, I wonder if this is just another
one of those incentives that might
actually be more harmful to our
members than beneficial, because
they're gonna take this and they're
gonna fit, they're gonna look at this
as like a free loan or a 0% loan.
but they're, the cost of ownership
is still gonna be the same.
your taxes are still gonna be the same.
Your insurance is still gonna
be the same for a new vehicle.
Registration is still gonna be the same.
Like,
Louie: yeah, and, and to be clear,
it's not the, the government is
not paying the, we talked about the
price of debt is the interest that
you pay it and the opportunity cost.
Yeah.
It doesn't change that math.
You're still paying interest to the
bank for that loan, and you're still.
You still have the opportunity
cost of what you could be
doing with that money instead.
So the, I think for John and
I, the math doesn't change.
We still think, the vicious cycle of car
loans every five or seven or eight years
is a, still a dangerous and unhealthy
financial habit for Americans to be in.
Jon: Yep.
and the last point with this
specific one is you can't double dip.
All right?
So if you are using this as a deduction
for a business or something else, like.
That you can't take that
business deduction and then also
take, this deduction as well.
you can't double
Louie: Can't double dip.
Jon: The IRS is, is very creative in
how they, do that and make sure that
taxpayers are not double dipping.
All right, so that's the big one.
There's also this one, on tips as well.
once again, unless you work for a fire
department, I want to see your contract,
but you're allowed to take tips.
probably shouldn't apply
to most folks, but,
Louie: you haven't been in the back
of an ambulance for a while, John.
We take tips now.
We just have a little tip jar there.
We even swing the computer around and
they can choose how much they want to
Jon: tip.
Oh, 50%,
Louie: 20 or 25%.
It's great.
We make a ton of money that
Jon: Oh, I love it.
So if that's the case, you can
deduct up to 25,000 of that, per
income per year for single, filers.
so, that's, you know, that
might actually apply though.
I do know that, there are some
people that do a side hustle.
There's also people that have,
spouses or partners that are
teachers and they do stuff on the
summertime where they might work.
for tips or whatever.
So that's not to, say that that's not
valuable or couldn't be valuable to
some of the listeners, but, as far as
just the straight firefighting gig,
that's not really gonna apply to you.
What I am happy though, that the
federal government did somewhat listen
to the fiscal firehouse, and this is
something that we brought up, last year
and kind of a source of frustration.
And this has to do with the
cost of, dependent care.
So childcare.
but we talked, you know, ad nauseum.
Last year about the dependent care,
flexible spending account, your FSAs
and how it doesn't matter how many
kids you have, it doesn't matter.
how much daycare costs.
It was capped at $5,000,
Louie: which had been the
same for how many years,
Jon: I believe it was like 1984 basically,
since it would've been instituted.
So they did throw us a little bone.
Yeah.
So starting next year, January
1st, they're gonna up that limit.
So it's gonna be $7,500 per year now
that you can contribute to a dependent
care, flexible spending account.
Louie: Long overdue.
Jon: long overdue, and it's a
step in the right direction.
I would've loved to see them double
that, or quite honestly triple that,
and it still wouldn't be enough,
but it is a, a modest increase.
once again though, you know, in
their creative math is everything
else that we've talked about.
For the most part, they've
indexed for inflation.
This one.
solid cap.
7,500 bucks.
So in 2027 it's not gonna be 8,000.
Nope.
They're gonna just keep this, as is so,
Louie: well, hey Don, at least Donny
boy was listening to the podcast
because this was, this was kind
of, one of your pet peeves that we
talked, you talked about last year,
Jon: a big frustration for me, so
it is a step in the right direction.
All right, so just as a quick
re little review though, if you
didn't listen to that one, feel
free to go back and listen to it.
But really, what are eligible
dependent care expenses?
So really quickly, childcare centers or
daycare facilities, those are all legit.
preschool, nursery, or
pre-K programs, all rights.
Before and after school
programs, summer day camps.
if you have a nanny and you
pay 'em on the books, all that
stuff, that is all covered.
What's not covered is
basically private school.
Like private tuition.
If you do some type of overnight camps
or you send your kids away in the summer
for two weeks, that wouldn't qualify.
kindergarten tuition, stuff like
that is not, is not eligible.
Tuition, or tutoring.
all those things.
No joy on that one.
The other thing is who
qualifies as dependent?
your child has to be under the age of 13.
and obviously you claim
them as a dependent.
you could also have a spouse or
someone else that lives in your house
that's a dependent, that is either
physically or mentally incapable
of self-care, they would qualify.
So once again, the key with this one
is though, and I know it affects a lot
of our folks, so I just wanna highlight
this, is you can only contribute.
Up to, basically what you and your partner
slash spouse have earned income for.
So if you have someone that's a
stay at home parent, all right?
and they're not going to school
and there's not some of these
other, eligibility options,
you can't contribute to this.
All right?
Because the purpose of
this, the dependent care.
FSA is to support both working parents.
Outside of the home, and don't get me
started on, you know, a single parent
is, or someone that's staying at home.
Man, that should definitely
qualify as a job.
Yeah.
but that's just the way
that the regulations are.
So if you do have someone that's staying
at home and is not currently working or
earning income, don't contribute to this
one because, they're not gonna let you.
It'll be ineligible.
All right?
But that's the, that's the key with this.
All right.
So in in our president's fashion, there
is a new account that's, being formed.
they're calling it the Trump account
or the Trump, savings account.
and this is something that's
supposed to get kind of a headstart.
and any child that's being born, you
know, for the next several years, it's
supposed to kind of give 'em a leg
up and it really wants to get people,
I, I understand the incentive behind
this and the reasoning behind it is
they want all Americans basically
to participate in the stock market.
'cause there's still 40
to 50% of Americans do not
participate in the stock market.
So they're trying to give everyone
a little slice of the pie.
But, I don't know.
You want to go through
the kind of the Yeah.
the list on this one, Louis?
Louie: Yeah.
So the, the Trump account
is for babies born.
In 2025 has to be born January 1st,
2025 through December 31st, 2028.
So if you have a baby that's born
between those years, which a lot of
firefighters will, you can open up a
Trump account for them and the government
will see it with a thousand dollars.
So it's a free.
$1,000 contribution from
the federal government.
and that is kind of cool, like
you could get that money for free
just for opening the account.
Jon: And this is one, not to cut you
off too quick, quickly, but depending,
I think they're still working through
some of this because some of the sources
that I have looked at that are reputable
sources is basically saying that they
are gonna open this up for every kid.
Regardless if you open up for the,
regardless if you open it up for
your kid or not, they're gonna
seed it with a thousand dollars.
Interesting.
I think this is still something
that, like I said, I think they're
Louie: working
Jon: through the logistics
and everything else like this.
Louie: and it might be challenged in
court, like who knows what's gonna happen.
I, I think at, at least early
understanding is that it's for sure for
babies between born between 2025 and 2028,
you, they'll get that a thousand dollars.
Parents can choose to contribute up
to $5,000 per year into the account.
It's on a post post-tax basis
though, so you will pay tax.
You don't get the write off for it.
You have to contribute it after you pay
taxes on whatever amount you put into it.
And then employers can also contribute.
$2,500 per year if they choose to do so.
And that is on a pre-tax basis
that they get to contribute.
So I guess that's good.
If an employer wants to have this
benefit where they say, Hey, we'll
contribute $2,500 for each child you
have, or something, that could be a nice
way to have the account and it would
be totally worth it in that situation.
there's a little bit of,
there's some rules over.
How that money can be invested.
it has to be invested in a diversified
fund that tracks us stocks only.
this is about America baby,
not about, foreign investments.
So they want all the investments from this
money to be in US stocks, which is fine.
As you know, John and I love the
US Total Stock Market Index Fund.
Huge believers in that.
So, I get that it's not a huge deal,
but that is just something to consider.
And then the once you put
money in, neither you nor the
child can touch that money.
Until that child is 18.
And when I say you can't touch
it, I don't mean that there's
penalties for touching it.
I mean, it is locked.
You can't get it if you need it.
I don't care if your kid has
Jon: there's no hardships,
Louie: disease.
Yeah, you, you cannot touch that money.
It is gone.
You just have to assume that it went away.
And that you'll get it back
sometime in the future because
you will have zero access to it
Jon: when
Louie: it does come time to withdraw.
Withdrawals are treated very similar
to a traditional IRA in the sense that
they're taxed when you pull them out.
and it's whatever your income tax
rate is at the time, or whatever your
child's income tax rate is at the time.
I think that's an important
thing to remember is this child.
Or this account becomes the
child's account when they turn 18.
Correct.
So even if your child is not in a
good place financially and they're not
responsible and you've been socking
money in there and they have $150,000
in there when they turn 18, they
can take that money and go blow it.
They can go spend it on whatever they
want and you really can't stop 'em.
'cause it's not your money.
It really is for the child.
Jon: Yeah.
Very similar to what a lot of custodial
accounts are set up as whatever
that age of majority in, in every
state's a little bit differently.
But yeah, once that is a good point.
Once they turn 18, which a lot of kids
will still be in high school, honestly,
at 18, they're gonna have full access
to however much money this is, so they
can take it all out and blow it on.
I dunno.
Something real nice, maybe
a new, maybe a new truck.
Louie: Yep.
and then I think if, and, and
that's, that's if they choose
to take it out at 18, if they.
Choose to wait until their retirement,
retirement age 59 and a half, then
they would just pay the ordinary
income tax rate without penalties.
Yeah.
So if they choose to take it
out before there is a penalty
for that, it's a 10% penalty.
and that's why we kind of
said it's very similar to a
traditional IRA in that sense.
So the one, two exceptions to that is
money can be withdrawn by the owner of the
account for educational expenses, and they
can take $10,000 out penalty free for.
A home purchase and that's
just a one time only thing.
Yeah.
Like you can take $10,000 and that's it.
You can't keep doing it for your next
home or your rental home or whatever.
It's just you can take out $10,000
penalty free before retirement for a home.
and that's kinda how
the Trump account works.
John and I were kind of talking about
this right before the episode, but we were
kind of like, yeah, you know, I don't.
I don't think it's that revolutionary.
I don't think it's that great.
The free money, the a thousand dollars.
Sure.
That's great.
I think if I had a child born, this year,
next year, which I will not, but if I
did, I would probably do it just for the,
the thousand bucks, but I don't think
I would contribute anything more to it.
I think there's other ways
that I could save for my child
outside of that, that are more.
Tax beneficial, if that makes sense.
Jon: Yeah, I, I mean, when I was going
through all these, I, I think initially,
once again, I understand the, the intent
of this and why they are trying to
incentivize people to start contributing
to the stock market, because that
is how people are generating wealth.
It's by owning companies and
shares of companies, so they want.
All Americans to be able
to participate in this.
So I definitely understand
the intent behind it.
I just wish it was a little bit juicier as
far as the incentive from the government,
IE if they continued to contribute,
a thousand dollars per year if you
kept this thing funded or like a match
program or something else like that.
But, I'll be honest, for.
Educational savings, there's
much better vehicles From a task
perspective, from a withdrawal
perspective, way better bang for your
buck 5 29 plan makes way more sense.
but if you're just trying to save
up money for your kids and you
don't know if your kids are gonna
go to school or what they're gonna
do, honestly just like a standard.
Brokerage account.
So a taxable account so you can open up
at Fidelity or Schwab or any of these
other discount brokers 'cause you're
already having to pay the tax on it.
That's the part I don't like about
this Trump plan already is you
already have to pay tax on this and
then you contribute to the account.
But yet when you kid withdraws the money.
They're getting
Louie: Yeah, it's like
double taxation, man.
Jon: I just, I don't, I don't
like the, the mechanisms of this.
So if you just wanna save up money for
your kids and you want them to have,
money down the road, whether that's
for school or whether that's for a
house or something else that they wanna
pursue, they wanna be entrepreneurs,
whatever, and you wanna have some
seed money for them, just a standard.
Brokerage account that
you can put in their name.
So a custodial account I
think is a much better option.
It gives you way more options
besides just the US stock market.
it's only gonna be when they
take that money out, it's only
gonna be, capital gains on that.
And a lot of these guys will
probably be in the 0% tax bracket
Louie: Or I'll give you
even, even a better option.
In my opinion, it's a 5 29 account
that's an educational savings account and
with a recent, provision in a previous.
piece of legislation, the 5 29
account now allows you to, roll
forward up to $30,000 into a Roth IRA.
So even if you were to put this money
into a 5 29 account and then your child
doesn't go to college, let's say they
become a firefighter, they follow an old
pop's footsteps and become a firefighter.
So they don't need that money.
Yeah.
Well, $30,000 of it can be rolled forward
into a 5 29, I'm sorry, into a Roth IRA.
And then that's super
beneficial because then that.
Child who's now an adult has this,
basically seated $30,000 contribution
to a Roth IRA account, which as
you already know, John and I love,
and it grows tax free for them, and
it's spent tax free in retirement.
So I think that's a way better option.
If you had, let's say you had
$30,000 to put into an account,
I'd say do it in a 5 29.
Jon: Yep.
No, that's a good point.
That was recent changes
with the secure 2.0
act that allowed for
that provision to happen.
And I know a lot of planners and advisors
that are, that are encouraging their
clients to continue to fund those, even
maybe over fund them, possibly with that,
with that strategy or that plan that
they will then, after they've either gone
to school or they've decided not to go
to school, they will start rolling over
some of that money into the, into the.
their child's account into a Roth account.
Now, you can't do it all at once.
You still have to hit the limits.
So you could only do 7,000 per year.
So you have to phase this in over five
years in order to get that money in there.
But it's a great leg up.
so I, I don't know.
I, I, I.
I just think for the majority of our
folks, I think there's other strategies
if you really want to save for your
kids in a different manner, whether
that's education or something else.
I, I think there's better
opportunities out there.
I think this is for people, that
just don't have, maybe they've never
participated in the stock market before.
They don't have any of these accounts.
They don't have a, a retirement account.
A lot of these other things,
which, unfortunately a lot of
our society, Is in that boat.
I think that's really
who this is set up for.
So, so that's the Trump
Louie: Yep.
And then I think one of the final
ones we'll talk about, is going
to be charitable deductions.
And before we get started, I just
want to do a quick shout out.
So, The fire service in general,
the IFF partners with the
Muscular Dystrophy Association.
Yeah.
And then every fall for like the
last 80 years, firefighters will do
what's called fill the boot campaign.
And that's really how the MDA is funded.
They will, firefighters will go out to
stores, storefronts and collect money,
raise money, and all that money is given
to the Muscular Dystrophy Association,
to help children with that disease.
So it's a really cool program, really
cool partnership that we have with them.
And, My own crew.
Station three A collected the most Yep.
From our department.
So shout out to all my homies on three
A who were out there hustling and,
doing a good job raising money for MDA.
Jon: I guess we can disclose
where, where Res goes to collect.
they do it every year.
and there's other places that go, but you
know, they go over their Wally world and
it's just, and you know, I was talking to
Reed about this and it's interesting to
me, just society, you know, like most, a
lot of those people, are not on the hire.
socioeconomic
Louie: very working class.
They're very, especially at that
Jon: they're very working class.
but yet these are continuing to be the
people that give the most, literally
you got kids that are going to their
piggy banks, whatever, in their car,
dumping a bunch of change, whatever.
And it's, it's fascinating to me.
And then you go to other
places, much more fluent places.
They won't even look you
in the eye kind of thing.
And it just, I don't know.
There's a lot of, behavior
associated with that.
There's a lot of psychology
behind that, but it's, it's, it's
just always eyeopening to me.
I remember going when I was at
threes, going to that Walmart, and
just being really, I was taken aback
by just how, supportive they were.
Louie: how giving they were.
Yeah.
Jon: and really literally giving the shirt
off their back, so to speak, in order
to help someone else, shout out to them.
Louie: Yeah.
And that's not to say that, the
affluent don't give, maybe they
just, they need to have the receipt.
Maybe because they get a
deduction, they get a deduction.
So that segues into our
charitable deduction.
Portion of the bill of the OBBA.
so starting in 2026, everyone can
deduct charitable contributions,
which is kind of cool.
So for a single filer, that's a
thousand dollars that you can deduct.
And for a married couple filed filing
jointly, that's a $2,000 deduction.
And that's.
Once again above the line
deduction, which is good.
And so that will lower your adjusted
gross income, which is what you want.
Yeah.
So this doesn't matter, like
before, previously you used to have
to itemize in order to take out
those charitable contributions.
but right now, even if you take the
standard deduction, or I shouldn't say
right now, starting in 2026, when you file
your taxes, you can, Take your deductions
for charitable contributions and get a
little tax break on that, which is nice.
Which is nice.
Jon: Which is nice.
Yep.
You
Louie: gotta save your receipts because
if you're audited, they're gonna ask
you, well, what did you give that to?
So the people that contributed
to fill the boot with cash,
ugh, probably can't do that.
it might only be a few
bucks here or there.
But if you have like a organization
or a cause that you're really into,
and you write them a check or you pay
with your credit card, or even if you
give cash, you can ask for a receipt.
You can save that receipt, just scan it.
That's what I do with all of my,
charitable giving is I just scan the
receipts and then I keep 'em in a.
Like in a Google folder
or something like that.
And that way if I ever get audited, I can
show that I would, that I did actually
give the amount that I said, but it's
another way to save a little bit of money.
Jon: Yeah.
And that one is, I mean, just with all
these things, with the IRS and any type
of deduction you are taking, you are on
the hook as the taxpayer, for proving
that you were eligible for that deduction.
Once again, it's a rare outlier
circumstance, but if you are audited, you
will have to produce, those documents.
So I'm guessing.
once again, there's gonna
be a lot of people that are
gonna claim this deduction.
A lot of people are gonna claim this
deduction because it's above the line.
but once again, if you are claiming
this deduction, you have to be eligible.
So you have to have to have those receipts
in order to prove that eligibility.
So that is nice though, because there
are people that are charitably inclined.
They're not giving away $50,000 a year,
but they are giving several hundred or up.
To several thousand a year.
And it's nice that those
people do get credit.
'cause before they, it just would've been,
well, this is what I did because I believe
in the cause, not for a, tax purpose.
So I do appreciate that they are throwing,
the average taxpayer bone on that one.
So those are the highlight issues.
what Louis and I feel are probably
the most relevant, to the people
listening to this podcast,
and for those of you that are.
That are in the fire service.
We think that this is probably
what's going to affect you the most.
Now there is, this is obviously
not all inclusive, right?
There's a lot of things that we omitted
just because they are very specific and,
there are a lot of different resources
out there when you're researching this
as far as, specific things, and I'm sure
there's gonna be more to come, regarding
just how some of this stuff is actually
going to get implemented because it's
easy for them to pass legislation.
But to get this actually implemented
there might be changes with this, the
next month, the next couple months.
So, broadly speaking, this is
just how this stuff is all gonna
unfold, at least the way that the
legislation is currently written.
So, I don't know.
All in all, like I said, I feel like, the
majority of taxpayers are getting a break.
They are gonna continue
to pay historically low.
Tax rates, they're getting some additional
credits or some incentives in some
circumstances to modify some behaviors.
so, overall I do, I do
think it's beneficial.
I wish it didn't come at the, at
the hes of, Medicaid, because once
again, that is going to, affect fire
departments throughout the country.
in your revenue and how you
guys are getting reimbursed.
So, and also healthcare premiums, right?
Those things have already
gone up, up and up and up.
This is just gonna accelerate
that, that much more.
So it's a, it's a give and a take.
It's not perfect.
but that's the bill.
and that's how we see
it, affecting you guys.
Anything else you wanna riff on that one?
kind of interesting to,
to go through that one.
and just, and just give you
guys some of the highlights.
So that's, that's what we got You wanna
give your best, Trump impersonation?
Louie: No, it's pretty bad.
I already gave it and
that's as good as it gets.
It's not very good.
I'll work on it
Jon: though.
Hey, dude, you gotta start someplace.
when you first came in here and
I was like, that was pretty good.
But maybe on the spot.
Louis's a little, a little
gun shy on that one.
you guys know how to get ahold of
us by now, our listenership does
continue to increase, every month.
So we definitely appreciate that and
we'll continue to try to kick these
off, once a month and, and give you
guys, stuff that we feel is, pertinent.
this was timely obviously, with this
just being signed a couple months ago.
and we'll continue to try to.
Provide you guys with some, just some
talking points and just really just spur
that discussion, with a lot of this stuff.
I don't know if we know what's
queued up for now next month.
I think Louis and I still have to
Louie: we need do a little planning
Jon: a little planning session,
little planning session
Louie: if you guys have anything
that you're super, motivated to learn
about or you want us discuss, please
always feel free to drop us a line at.
Ask fiscal firehouse@gmail.com
or you can follow us on Instagram.
our handle is fiscal firehouse.
And you can send a private
message to me that way too.
And I, we read every, we read
all of the emails, we read all of
the private messages that we get.
Jon: a lot of fan mail.
I mean, dude, it's literally every
time I look in there, it's like, ah,
dude, I gotta respond back to this.
Like, I didn't have this 30 minutes
blocked off in my calendar to respond all
Louie: There you go.
Jon: But no, we do get a lot of, kudos.
and we just appreciate people listening.
So we'll keep, we'll keep producing.
So, we will let you guys get on with
whatever you're doing, walking the dog,
driving into the 9:00 AM shift change.
We'll see what, we're
not gonna talk about that
Louie: not yet.
Not yet.
That's
Jon: the vote.
But do vote.
We do have a, a referendum vote coming up.
Louie, always a pleasure.
Louie: Always good working with you.
Stay safe and keep saving.
Disclosure: The Fiscal Firehouse
Podcast is a podcast curated
specifically for local 1309 members.
This podcast is for informational
and educational purposes only,
and should not be construed as
professional financial advice.
Should you need professional
advice, consult a licensed
financial advisor or tax advisor.
The opinions of John Beatty, Louis
Barilla and their castmates are
solely their own, and don't reflect
that of West Metro Fire Rescue.