Hawaii Form A 6 Tax 2014: Fill & Download for Free

Dear California, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways…1. Sky-high cost of living.This photo is from 2008, when California gas prices reached their record high. I paid $3.15 per gallon at the pump at Costco yesterday.Cali has the highest income tax rates in the country (9.3% marginal tax rate for my particular tax bracket, and 13.3% if you’re in the top tier). Its sales tax is 8.54%, which ain’t the highest in the nation (that honor goes to Louisiana, with 10.02%), but is definitely in the top ten. And you can forget about owning a business—California has consistently been voted, by CEOs, as the worst state in which to do business. Gas prices, as you can see, are horrendous. Thanks to high maintenance and insurance costs, California is the second most expensive state in the Union in which to own a car. Rent is also off the chain. You’ve all heard about the ridiculously huge rent bubbles in Los Angeles, Sacramento, and especially San Francisco—where the average price of renting a studio apartment is $2,500 per month. The median home value in California is $546,100 according to Zillow, and it’s predicted to just keep rising. Between rent, gas, and taxes—not to mention all the other little taxes and fees California loves to ding its citizens with—you ain’t gonna live in California if you don’t have the do-re-mi. Take it away, Woody.2. Crime, especially gang warfare.This info is copied directly from the Los Angeles Police Department website:The County and City of Los Angeles are the “gang capital” of the nation. There are more than 450 active gangs in the City of Los Angeles. Many of these gangs have been in existence for over 50 years. These gangs have a combined membership of over 45,000 individuals.Gang membership in Los Angeles has continued to increase over the past five years even though there have been periodic crime decreases. One of the major factors contributing to increased gangs, gang membership and violence has been the lucrative narcotics trade, with rival gangs vying for the greatest market share.Gangs are not a new phenomenon. During the last three years, there were over 16,398 verified violent gang crimes in the City of Los Angeles. These include 491 homicides, nearly 7,047 felony assaults, approximately 5,518 robberies and just under 98 rapes.I grew up in San Bernardino County, on the other side of the Cajon Pass from the Los Angeles Basin, almost 84 miles from Los Angeles proper. And still that gang violence managed to trickle up into the Mojave Desert and disrupt the lives of the good people of my hometown, Apple Valley. Two cars once drove down the main street of AV shooting at each other. Two teachers from my high school were murdered in their beds one night. Gang violence is very real, and it’s insane. And still California makes it difficult for its citizens carry concealed weapons to protect themselves…3. Homelessness.It’s no secret that California has one of the worst rates of homelessness in the nation, only behind New York and Hawaii as of 2014. The state’s homeless population jumped by almost 14% between 2016 and 2017 alone. A quarter of the United States’ homeless population now lives in California—more than 134,000 people according to some of the latest data. The homelessness crisis has gotten so bad that it was a hot-button issue in the recent gubernatorial election.The causes are multifarious and poorly understood. Liberal politicians tend to say that this is not a homelessness crisis but an “affordable housing crisis,” and the solution is to raise taxes and build low-income housing units all across California to house the state’s homeless. Which gives the homeless homes, yes, but doesn’t exactly give them jobs or any way to improve their station. It just makes 134,000 people wards of the state, really. Not the ideal solution. Conservatives tend to say, as they always do (and usually, they’re right), that this is a jobs crisis and we need to lower taxes, make the state friendlier to business, create economic stimulus and incentive for CEOs and small business owners to hire, and get the homeless off the streets organically by giving them jobs and letting them afford existing housing rather than increase Californians’ already astronomical tax burden.(You can tell which solution I favor, can’t you?)But since Republicans in California have about as much chance of getting elected as a lizard-man from Venus, we’re not likely to see any Republican solutions to homelessness be tried in California.In the meantime, I and all the rest of California’s working, housed population have to see sights like this in San Francisco, San Jose, Los Angeles, Stockton, and pretty much every town of any size:And, on a not-entirely-unrelated note…4. Garbage. Everywhere.By anyone’s standards, this state is filthy. I grew up in the Mojave Desert, which most Californians and out-of-state tourists seem to think is “ugly.” They think nothing at all about chucking their fast-food garbage out of the window while driving through it. But it’s not just the Mojave, unfortunately. I’ve gotten so accustomed to seeing garbage blowing around in the Californian wind, stuck in tumbleweed bushes, or lying at the side of the road, pounded into a pulp by the sun and the rain, that it’s actually a physical shock for me when I go to some cleaner, greener state like Washington or North Dakota and see how spotlessly clean the streets are. And when I go to Japan, or Singapore? Yikes. I almost had a heart attack. You can practically eat off them streets.Unfortunately, since California has a population of almost 40 million, and many of them are self-absorbed pricks, garbage tends to pile up at the side of every highway. Neither the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) nor our Adopt-a-Highway system can keep up with it all.And speaking of California’s highways…5. Car accidents and traffic jams.It’s not so surprising, really. When you’ve got a population of 40 million crammed into a space the size of Italy, and a majority of them live in three major metropolitan areas, and a huge proportion of them are (as I mentioned previously) self-absorbed pricks, and they tend to speed, or cut people off, or drive drunk, or text while driving, or do any number of stupid and unsafe things, you’re gonna have accidents. And with so many other people on the road, those accidents are going to snarl up traffic for miles.Even without accidents, California traffic is horrendous. Trying to drive in a major city at rush hour? Forget it. The roads will be a parking lot. Trying to go see an event or go to a theme park on a weekend? Forget it. Parking lot. Trying to go anywhere within 100 miles of a major city on a weekend? Forget it. Parking lot.With a population of (as I’ve said over and over again) forty f***ing million, there’s always going to be a few million people on the roads at any time. Unless you live in Alpine County (the least populous county in California, with a population of only 1,100 or so), it’s a safe bet that there’s going to be a few hundred thousand people on the road between you and your destination.This particular attribute of California drives my father—who was brought up in small-town Ohio—into fits of rage. “Where are all these people going?” he snarls through clenched teeth, as the millionth stoplight of the day turns red, or some idiot who doesn’t know how to merge pulls out in front of us doing 15 miles per hour in a 65 mph zone, or traffic slows to a crawl as we approach a major interchange.And speaking of California traffic…6. Sucky air quality.Forty million people, most of them with a car. Oil refineries. Wildfires. Industrial pollutants. Ozone. Cows. Almond dust. High mountains and low valleys that trap all this crap and hold it there so Californians can get a lungful. It’s the perfect storm. California’s air quality—or lack of it—is infamous. And I’m not just talking about Los Angeles, here. Half of the cities on CBS News’s list of cities with the worst air quality were in California, all of them in the top ten: San Jose/San Francisco/Oakland (#10), El Centro (#7), Modesto/Merced (#6), Fresno/Madera (#5), Los Angeles/Long Beach (#4), Bakersfield (#3), and Visalia/Porterville/Hanford (#2). Coming in at #1 was Fairbanks, Alaska, and that’s only because everybody who lived there burned firewood every goddamn day in the winter to stay warm. California was only beaten out by a city of 31,644 that filled its skies with wood smoke on a daily basis.Oh, and speaking of wood smoke…7. Natural disasters.California’s big three natural disasters are earthquakes, floods, and (of course) wildfires. California, with its dry Mediterranean climate and hundreds of thousands of acres of inaccessible pine forest (mostly on the steep, jagged slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain range), turns into a giant tinderbox every summer. It doesn’t take much to turn half the state into a towering inferno: an errant bolt of lightning, a malfunctioning electrical transformer, or—more frequently—idiots who flick cigarettes out their car windows or fail to put out their campfires properly. And the result?As of this writing, the recent Camp Fire in Butte County has claimed 85 lives—the deadliest in California’s history, and the deadliest wildfire America has witnessed in 100 years. Almost 500 people are still missing. The town of Paradise, California has been simply wiped off the map. There’s nothing left.As someone who was born and raised in California, and who’s been living here off and on since 1999, I’ve been the victim of California’s “dark side” in several ways.I currently live in a one-bedroom apartment that costs me $750 a month. I could get a one-bedroom (or even a two-bedroom if I looked hard enough) house in San Antonio, Texas for that price.I almost bought a respirator for me and my wife a couple of weeks ago, the smoke from the Camp Fire was so bad. The Air Quality Index (AQI) in my hometown was 350+ for most of the week before Thanksgiving, which the US government considers “hazardous” to the entire population. The smoke’s gone now, thank goodness, but that was a lousy week—smoke hanging in the air, apocalyptic sunrises and sunsets, everyone complaining of coughs and headaches and red, itchy eyes. Our sufferings were nothing compared to the victims of the Camp Fire who lost family members or homes, of course, but they were still unpleasant.I’ve spent thousands of hours in traffic jams, trying to get in or out of cities or sports events or theme parks. The city of Stockton, where I work, has tons of homeless people and loads of trash by its roads and in its rivers, which I have to look at every day on my way to and from work.It’s hard to feel proud of a state that lets this kind of thing go on.As a Californian, you risk paying more tax than anyone in any other state; paying twice or even three times as much for a house as someone in Texas or North Dakota (and then having the value of your home plummet once the homeless people move in, or the neighborhood goes to pot because of crime and gang activity); getting stuck in a traffic jam daily on your way to work, or being killed by a drunk driver, or having to stare at the heaps of garbage by the side of the road; getting all sorts of diseases, coughs, or headaches from the lousy air quality; and even after all that, you could easily get killed in a wildfire (or in a gangland shooting), or have your house burn down or get washed away, or get crushed under a falling overpass, like in the Northridge Earthquake of 1994 (which killed 57 people).Why am I living here again?

I came to San Francisco in 2001 from NYC due to a job opportunity. I decided to stay for the next 18 years because:Being able to go snowboarding in two feet of powder at Sugar Bowl on a Saturday, and play tennis in a t-shirt and shorts on a Sunday in 68 degree sunny weather was incredible. Funny to say, but this was my #1 reason for planting roots and never considering anywhere else. Life is not work. Activities make life.The air is fresh. I’ve lived in Beijing, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, and Kobe for 13 years and traveled all throughout Asia, and fresh air is at a premium in much of the world. You’re smoking two packs of cigs a day living in Beijing!Endless job and entrepreneurial opportunities. After I left banking in 2012, it was incredibly simple to finding six figure part-time consulting jobs. At one point, I had three part-time consulting jobs paying over $30,000 a month. Hard to find this opportunity anywhere else.Easy to build entrepreneurial relationships. I run a personal finance site called FinancialSamurai.com. It was started in 2009 and I focused on it FT starting in 2012. It is so easy to meet all these fintech companies that are relevant to my writing for lunch, dinner, or drinks. Because I’m here, I’ve been able to develop deep relationships with my partners and get the best rates and the most access.Real estate was a way to build wealth. Coming from Manhattan in 2001, I found SF real estate to be at least 20% cheaper for the same space and quality. Because the lifestyle was better than NYC, SF real estate felt like a goldmine. So I bought in 2003, 2005, and 2014 to build my passive income streams so I wouldn’t have to work forever.Maximum use of the year. I used to live on the East Coast for 10 years. It sucked for two months during the winter because it was too cold and two months during the summer because it was too hot and humid. Granted, playing tackle football in the snow was fun, but in San Francisco, you can spend 12 months a year doing something fun outside without freezing or experiencing a heat stroke. On Jan 1, 2018 and I played softball in 61 degree weather for example. You’re getting your money’s worth living out here, as you should because taxes are high! And besides, being able to see the ocean and watch the sunset everyday can’t be beat. Here’s a view from my deck.But now, San Francisco seems a little too pricey, too congested, and too homogenous. I finally sold the rental house I bought in 2005 in 2017. I dumped a large amount of the proceeds into completely passive investments: dividend stocks, municipal bonds, and real estate crowdfunding in the MidWest, so I never have to deal with maintenance and tenants.Now I’m thinking about moving within the next three years before my son goes to kindergarten. Somewhere in Hawaii sounds nice.There’s less reason to live in one of the most expensive cities in the world now due to technology. The country and the world are big places. Go explore and live it for 2018 and beyond!Best,Sam - Financial freedom sooner, rather than later.

It wasn't stormy, but it was a dark night. I was beginning a journey to Iceland with an initial hour and a half AirCanada flight from Toronto to New York's JFK airport. As a veteran flyer, I time everything precisely. Even to the point of trying to find myself at the gate as the last passenger to board. As I handed the agent my boarding pass, I had a moment to look over and see a very attractive woman fast asleep on a bench next to the gate.Boarding pass and passport checked, I proceeded onto the plane to take my front row window seat.Being at the front, I could clearly hear the agitated flight attendants discussing the fact that they were missing someone who had gotten a boarding pass but not checked in. If this passenger did not board that meant a long delay as they would need to remove their checked luggage before pulling away from the gate. At that point, I mentioned that they may want to check the boarding area, as I saw someone asleep there. They did and a moment later the woman I saw, came on board. As she was sitting in the aisle seat next to me, I got up and helped her put her bag in the overhead compartment and we took our seats.The plane then pulled away from the gate and joined the "line-up" for takeoff. My seat mate was still drowsy when she boarded and during the wait for takeoff, she quickly nodded off again. During takeoff, the jostling caused her to shift and put her head on my shoulder. By the time we were at altitude, she was deeply asleep, had wrapped her hands around my bicep, and I could feel her warm breath on my neck.Now at this time in my life, I had been divorced for about 10 years. Although I had dated some wonderful women, I just hadn't met anyone with whom I wanted to spend the rest of my life. In fact, shortly before this flight, I had broken up with someone because I believed that I was better off alone than "settling" for less than everything I wanted out of a relationship. I lived a very complicated life, where I travel a great deal and work strange hours. Like the British Empire, the sun never set on my international law practice. Another complexity was that I had 2 children from my first marriage and loved being a father. It was an experience that I wanted to have again, but this time with a fully engaged co-parent to both my existing children and any new children. Unfortunately, the women that I found myself dating either didn't want to have children or I didn't want to have children with them! In short I had pretty much resigned myself to spending the rest of my life with these dreams unfulfilled.However, being the romantic sort (while as much as a tax lawyer can ever be romantic), I found myself daydreaming about this beautiful woman who was fast asleep on me. As I breathed her perfume in deeply (Versace Crystal Noir),I indulged in the temporary fantasy that this was my wife and that we were blissfully in love. Remember, I had no idea if she was married, engaged, involved, interested or gay. Given the black leather pants and raven hair, I had at least eliminated "nun" from the string of possibilities. I knew that she would soon wake up and the fantasy would vanish, so I was enjoying the flight of fancy while I could.After about 30 minutes, she awoke and proceeded to apologise profusely for having fallen asleep on my shoulder. Gallantly (and truthfully), I assured her that it was completely my pleasure. We quickly fell into conversation and I found out that she had been born and raised in Poland. She had previously lived in London and Dubai but had spent the last 6 or 7 years in the US and worked as a VIP guest manager for one of the top luxury hotels in NYC. Most important, she was single.When we arrived at JFK, we walked together to the luggage carousel to retrieve her checked luggage. She was going home to Manhattan and I was going to another terminal at JFK to board my onward flight to Iceland. Before we parted, I said, "Well now that we have slept together, maybe we should go out on a date?". To my absolute delight, she enthusiastically accepted and gave me her name and mobile number. By the time I finished my trip to Iceland, we had already talked and texted a number of times and I had arranged for a 3 day trip to NYC. The idea was that we would go out on a date the first day. If it worked out, then we had time for a second and third day together. If it didn't work out, I had plenty of clients to visit which would occupy the remainder of my time.Our first date was on August 16, 2011 and started by meeting at the rooftop bar of Peninsula Hotel. We sat in the corner table under the painting in this photo.We then proceeded to Milos restaurant for dinner, where we sat at the table by the window next to this bar.The first date was fantastic and we met the next day at the BoatHouse restaurant in Central Park. I arrived early with a huge bouquet of flowers and stood at the bar, anxiously waiting for my date to arrive. There was an Australian couple sitting in the chairs pictured here, to whom I told my plane story. The woman boldly predicted that I would marry this woman. The romantic and optimistic me wanted it to be true. The realistic me thought it wasn't likely to happen.Well, that date went even better than the first and it built from there. From that initial three days in NYC, we were together constantly, getting to know each other. Six weeks later we were engaged and then got married on a beach in Maui in December that year. In April 2014, my wife gave birth to a twin girl and boy. We named our daughter Milania, after the city we were visiting when they were conceived. This December, we will celebrate our 9th anniversary and I am still deeply and madly in love with this woman.The life lesson here is that sometimes life throws you unexpected opportunities and you have to trust your heart and take a leap.Our wedding in Hawaii….see not a nun!Our children at 10 weeksAt 2 yearsAnd their fifth birthdayPicnic for their sixth birthday