Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, June 28, 1993 TAG: 9306280055
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Reed
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
A: Indexing is a separate law, so it's not easy to eliminate.
However, anyone with a taxable income above $115,000 might want to pay attention here.
The 3,000-page deficit-reduction bills passed by the House in May and by the Senate on Thursday night create two new tax brackets for high incomes and suspend indexing of them for one year.
Both bills set a 36 percent rate on taxable income (after exemptions and deductions) for singles making $115,000 and couples above $140,000. Taxable income over $250,000 will be taxed at 39.6 percent.
Under indexing, the line separating tax brackets goes up at inflation's rate. Indexing will remain in effect for the three lower tax brackets and will return in 1995 for the two new ones.
The bills figure to be in a conference committee all summer to iron out their differences, but on these brackets and indexing, they're in agreement.
This information is from the offices of Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Sen. John Warner.
No tax break here
Q: Since the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled Virginia's tax on the pensions of federal retirees was unlawful, will retired military people residing in Virginia be required to pay Virginia state income tax next year and thereafter? J.M., Christiansburg
A: Yes. You will be taxed by the state - as usual.
Another point: taxing pensions is legal, as long as all of them are taxed equally.
Virginia ran afoul of the equality rule by exempting former state employees, and the court ruled that was discrimination.
The state changed its law in 1989 to tax the pensions of both state and federal retirees, so all pensions have been taxed legally since then. State retirees no longer were exempt.
The question now is what's to be done about pensions collected in 1985-88.
Up-tempo or not?
Q: I listen to oldies songs on the radio, and I can't sing along anymore because it seems like all the songs are fast. So I listened to my old records, and they weren't that fast. These speeded-up versions make it sound like these songs were Mickey Mouse. Why do they sound so fast on these stations? C.S., Roanoke
A: Two stations that play oldies - WROV-AM and WSLQ (Q99) - say they don't speed up the songs.
But there are many ways a song can gain speed - or lose it.
One station said your turntable could be too slow. But other answers are possible.
In the late '60s and '70s, the 45s sometimes were recorded at a faster speed than albums so they would fit into programming requirements. Any song longer than three minutes got little air time because the stations had to get their commercials in.
Got a question about something that might affect other people too? Something you've come across and wondered about? Give us a call at 981-3118. Maybe we can find the answer.
Memo: ***CORRECTION***