[quote=sdrealtor]If you were appalled before prepare yourself to get spitting nails mad. I just got back from trick or treating with my kids, their friends and a few dads. Two of the dad’s (not me) were discussing this very issue and I was not the one to bring it up but of course I jumped in. Here is where it gets outright infuriating. One of the guys is a local CPA. He has hundreds of tax clients. I asked him how many retired cops and fireman he had as clients and he figured it was about 15 to 20. I asked him if they really got these huge pensions and he laughed saying it is actually much worse than I could have imagined. He said almost without exception, his clients all mysteriously got disabled in their last year of service and based upon the way they walk into his office not one of those is truly disabled. Not only do they collect these huge pensions but with a wink and a nod they go out on disability right before retiring so they can collect it all TAX FREE! Sorry I gotta go smack myself in the face with a 2X4.
Happy Halloween all….[/quote]
Firstly, I would very much doubt his “almost without exception” qualification. While I do know that some firefighters and cops retire on disabiliy, most do not. I believe it’s only a *portion* of their retirement benefits that are not taxed, but this might vary from one agency to another.
Also, I believe this policy comes from a time when the pensions were less generous, and it might have made sense then, but it admittedly cannot be justified under the 3% formula (90% of base salary after 30 years — contrary to popular myth, it does NOT include overtime).
In other words, we actually agree on this, sdr. Break open the champagne bottle.
