Carmi Rotary Club meeting
The Carmi Rotary club featured one of their own as speaker on Thursday. Kent Armstrong talked to the group about the many tax changes that are in place, and how they will impact everyone’s tax bills this year.
Kent started by showing that the so-called “index card” tax form was a little misleading. He showed the 2017 1040 form, which was two pages long. The 2018 1040 is actually only two half pages, but when all of the schedules are added, those two pages quickly grow to eight. Not exactly a reduction.
Kent went on to lay out the changes, such as the standard deduction for a single filer going from six thousand, three hundred and fifty dollars to an even twelve thousand dollars. The standard deduction for couples filing jointly also increased dramatically, from twelve thousand seven hundred dollars in 2017 to an even twenty-four thousand dollars in 2018.
Kent said his personal pet peeve is hearing people say that the so called tax cut was really a tax increase. He said they are basing that false news on the fact that refunds started out smaller this year than at the same time last year. However, as he pointed out, the primary reason for the smaller refunds was the fact that people were paying less each week through payroll with holdings. As Kent noted, getting a large refund actually just means you paid too much all year long. In fact, you have been giving the government an interest free loan of your money.
Kent, along with the other CPA’s in the room, urged everyone to really take a look at the tax with holdings you have now to make sure you’re not paying too little or too much.
In other club business, the members discussed the “Get to know Rotary” dinner which was held this past Tuesday evening. The club agreed that the night was a big success, with eight new potential Rotarians on hand.
The Rotarians also discussed the upcoming Spring Trivia contest. This year’s event will be held on Saturday, March 9th at the American Legion in Carmi. As in year’s past, there will be four rounds of ten questions each. The questions will come from such categories as: history, the Bible, food, geography, pop culture, sports, and any other areas that might pop up.
The entry fee is forty dollars for a team of four. There will be cash prizes for the top three teams, and there will be plenty to eat and drink during the contest. Anyone interested in putting a team in this very fun evening can contact any local Rotarian, or simply show up with your team on March 9th.
The Carmi Rotary club meets every Thursday at noon at the First United Methodist Church on Main Street in Carmi. Anyone wishing to learn more about this civic organization is welcome to attend a meeting or speak with any Carmi Rotarian.
