Britbike forum Forums General discussion The Rod and Tappet Should I laugh or cry

I work for an automotive supply company, not one of the national chains, but we have close to 100 stores in the northeast and central east coast. I'm semi retired and not desperate for the cash but it keeps me busy and makes life a lot easier. The company decided to give us a Christmas bonus this year, just the counter and management workers, not drivers or stock people. I was pretty surprised when I looked at my direct deposit stub and found out they gave us a $25.00 bonus on a separate check and taxed it. My grand take home after deductions was a whopping $3.87. I feel like sending it back to them with a note saying they obviously need it more than me but that wouldn't be very gracious of me would it? I know they didn't have to give us anything, and the taxes are unavoidable I suppose but WTF? $25.00 won't even but lunch for 2 at McDonalds anymore and $3.87 won't buy the morning paper and a cup of coffee.

Rant over....crying in my beer and laughing about it.

A bit like me getting 25p a week extra on my weekly state pension when I got age 80, equals GBP 13.00 per annum (around $15 I suppose)
Less tax of course!
Forget the tax, I can swallow that, on my birthday GBP 13.00 went to a health research charity.

Reminds me of my Grandma.

She worked for Woodward and Lothrop department stores in Washington DC from the late 40s to the early 1960s, I suppose for 15 years or so.

When she turned 65 and retired, she received a pension check for life. $9.00 per month. She used to use it to buy M&Ms to put in her candy dish for when us grandkids came over. Even when she was in assisted living in her late 90s, my Mom would take the check down to Walgreens each month and buy M&Ms with it. We thought it was a great thing.

Just an idea.

Lannis

Maybe the system put the decimal point in the wrong spot?
Seriously, have you thought to compare with someone you know? That is really a back handed compliment!

Sounds like New Hampshire expects you to live free or die.

someone made a mistake ... or you got ripped off .
the ( withholding) ( which is not the tax ) on a bonus
... would be , at most ... the same as your normal
payroll withholding rate ( from your W4 form ) ( 15.5 to 35 % )

Well I do have extra withholding taken out every week since the IRS treated me rather harshly last year (another story) but no where near 80% like they did this time. I'm thinking of framing the pay statement and hanging it in my shop as a conversation point. I could put it with the check I got from Hyundai Motors for 19 cents as the result of a class action law suit because they misrepresented fuel mileage estimates on the car I bought from them in 2000.

There is a saying in the UK, that I believe originated from a TV comedy sketch: "computer says no". Which just about sums up all these crazy acts of wealth distribution. I recently changed phone/internet provider and was sent a cheque through the post for £0.10 (about twelve US cents). It would have cost me more in shoe leather, let alone gasoline and parking charges to cash the cheque and it remains near my desk as a reminder, computer says no.
C.

Any boss with half a brain would hand out $20 bills.

Cheap, but 100% goes to the recipient.

My direct boss did just that, $20.00 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts, out of his own pocket. The "bonus" was from our corporate overlords.

Years ago, when the firm I worked for first offered direct deposit, you could have your paycheck deposited in up to 3 different accounts. I chose to have a portion deposited in our house account (which was controlled by my wife), a portion deposited in my checking account and a portion deposited in my savings account. My wife and I had basically determined from the get go, that marital bliss was a whole lot more likely with separate bank accounts. Additionally, I had extra money taken out of my paycheck for taxes. You can see where this is going. That year, the payroll company took the full amount of the additional amount with held for taxes out of my meager bonus, deposited most of the remainder in the house account, and I was left with 87 cents in my checking account!

Ed from NJ

I work for a subsidiary of Hitachi, we don't even get a thank you, let alone a Merry Christmas

My boss was commenting once about that .... he said "I put a Thank You in your bank every two weeks ..."

He did have a point. I've never gotten a paycheck from a poor generous guy .....

Lannis

Or work for the government.........no bonuses ....ever!!!!

I work for a local automotive workshop, every year for the past 10 years I’ve got a card with a short thank you note and a bunch of $50 notes. Helps entertain the kids over Xmas but more important is it’s nice to feel appreciated. Bosses don’t need to look after their staff, but it’s nice to have one that does!

Can you even purchase a morning paper anymore? (Actually I know the answer to this question. Just a bit of 'tongue in cheek' response)

Couple of years ago my dad stopped his subscription to the local paper (Burlington Free Press) because the only local items in the paper were obituaries and the (dwindling) classified sections. everything else was farmed out or culled from the major papers left (NYT, WaPo, LA Times, USA Today).

As a kid I used to deliver that paper to 70+ homes and remember the struggle to get all of them in my bag (especially the much larger Sunday edition). The last print editions my dad received consisted of eight to 10 pages INCLUDING the ads, in a smaller paper format (think large magazine dimensions).

Ahhh, progress!

Steve

(P.S. I do love parentheses!)

I buy the Manchester Union Leader every day, mostly for the comics.

Jubee the weekly paper in this region that i was editor of for 16 years folded..literally..on Nov 10 after being in business for 86 years.....production costs rose higher and higher and ad sales revenue that paid the bills plunged during Covid and never rose to pre 2020 levels.. everyone in this region loved that paper and i enjoyed writing stories and editing press releases etc. i only printed positive stories about the good things and people in this area,,,,,,i am 'semi-retired' since i have a couple of freelance gigs and am having a very hard time adjusting to life without The Deadline hanging over my head every week...

it's still online somewhat Banner-News.com

LOL Mike. Laugh or cry? Little of both seems appropriate. The second, less obvious bonus you "got from your employer" : a good story.

Cheers man, happy new year.

That bonus is indicative of the amount of loyalty toward workers.

Goes both ways.

We get absolutely no bonus.
Wasn't always that way. It used to be a family owned company (McIver) and the truly respected and cultivated family values.
That's all gone now.
We exchange units of time for $$. The end.
My current boss of 8 months hasn't said "thanks" even once. (And there is a lot of discretionary work/choices).

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year
Hug your lived ones, and reach out to old friends.

I subcontracted to Toll Transport for couple of very unhappy years
As Christmass approached we were issued with ultimatium emails that simply wishing a customer or fellow driver a "merry christmass " would instantly void your contract
So naturally no bonuses ( not that contractors expect any ) just endless abuse

I had a paper route in my youth, about 106 subscribers. I pedaled about 8 miles every morning. At least I had Sundays off, the afternoon paper did Sunday. That was back when Knoxville had two newspapers, and two different editorial perspectives.
Here in Crossville the local paper only comes out on Tuesday and Friday. I occasionally buy the Sunday Knoxville paper, but only for the crosswords.

As for pensions, I've only ever had one and it cashed out when the company went out of business. A little bit over $300 if I remember correctly. Both my parents had pensions. The one from 25 years at ORNL was pitiful. My mother's pension from UT was more generous. Had any of them worked in the private sector we probably would've gotten zippo.
BTW: The first year after the last "tax cut" was also the first time I ever owed tax on a W2 tax year. I guess I should have claimed everything as "capital gains."

As part of that last tax cut they reduced the amount with held. Not so much a cut, they just wait till April 15th to take it all from you. Found this out the hard way too.

Another accounting scam to convince you that your taxes have gone down.
Now they're bringing back the idea of a national sales tax. I live in a state which uses a high sales tax for revenue. I'd like to hear what the Brits think of their VAT.