Saturday 5 December 2009

Taxman, 2017

Athena Gottlieb is the new (and first) governor of Sullivan. One of the bedrooms in the Gottlieb house has been converted to a home office for Athena. 2017 is a tax year and one of Athena's new duties is tax collection.



Some families are lucky. Evan and Ione were expecting to walk out a little poorer but they're pleasantly surprised when they actually receive a $200 refund. It's not much but it's better than the alternative.

Caleb and Cara get a bonus in the form of a $3000 lump sum payment. Caleb turns to Cara and says, "Hey, maybe we can afford that honeymoon after all!" But no, the Morettis know they have to do the responsible (but boring) thing and put the whole amount into paying off their mortgage.

Jace and Magdalena, over the course of their 26 year marriage, have rarely had a time when they were flush with money. They've managed to buy and pay off a house but it's been a struggle all the way.

This time though, they're lucky and they get a $5000 refund, thanks mostly to Jace's booming business. If by some miracle Maia actually gets into college, they won't have to worry about paying for it any more.

Not everyone gets a refund. Most residents owe taxes and some of them owe a lot! Tate and Zelda forked over $159,000, which probably no one but Athena was happy about.

Unluckiest of all were Max and Zaria. They were already unhappy at having to pay $126,000 in taxes this year but when Zaria was chosen at random for an audit, they learnt they would be paying an additional $107,000! Don't feel too sorry for them - they can well afford it!


A short run-down of the richest and poorest households in Sullivan:

Richest:
  1. The Bentons ($1,521,756, after paying $159,000 in taxes)
  2. The Royce-Nihills ($1,006,471, after paying $233,000)
  3. The Clarke-Drapers ($841,874, after paying $77,500)
Poorest:
  1. The Moretti-Romillies ($23,659, after a $200 refund)
  2. The Morettis ($32,076, after a $3000 refund)
  3. The Romillies ($42,971, after a $1000 refund)
It hasn't changed much since the last time taxes were paid.

Notes:
  • The title is from Taxman by the Beatles - all my tax posts will share the same song title, like with the birthdays (and hey, that's a Beatles one too!)
  • I drew up my short list for governor by looking at skill points and number of non-related friends. A lot of people were eliminated for various reasons - too young, too old, too scandalous a background (Linnea is super-skilled), not well-connected enough. After I took all that into account, Athena came out on top, so she was "elected".
  • Next time, I'll probably hold an actual election and let you guys vote, based on candidates I'll pick. I love voting on other people's blogs.
  • Caleb and Cara have had the want for a vacation forever. When they pay off their house, I might send them.
  • Zaria rolled the audit ROS this round, hence the Royce-Nihill's insane tax bill this round. Lucky it was Zaria who rolled it and not one of my poor families - Zaria and Max won't even notice it's gone!

8 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness! Those are some loaded sims! How do you have such rich families? Is it mostly accumulations from past generations?

    WTG Jace and Magdalena. Now let's see if Maia actually makes it to college.

    I think Athena is a good pick! Voting for the next time will be fun, I love voting. :)

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  2. Athena looks darling with her new haircut! Very mature.

    Yikes! You certainly do make your sims pay.

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  3. OMG how can Max and Zaria be so rich?!

    Yay for Magdalena and Jace. I'm always happy when a poor family finally pulls through.

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  4. Maisie, the Clarke-Drapers' money comes mostly from two fairly rich families joining together. Their wealth is mostly accumulated over the generations.

    The Royce-Nihills and the Bentons were both the beneficiaries of a little bug in the Graphic Design career, which both Tate and Ben are in. There's a chance card where if you're successful, you're supposed to get $500 but you actually get $500,000! Tate got it twice. I wanted to have some insanely rich Sims, so I let them keep it. It builds up too, because I put the bulk of my Sims' money in their bank accounts, where it earns interest. My Sims usually only have about $10,000 in their household funds, if that.

    I'm not confident about Maia but she has this round and the next to turn herself around, so it's possible!

    I like voting too. ;) I loved it when we got to vote at Lakeside Heights and Brisbee Downs too, back when Mandie was still updating there.

    Lunar, Athena's hair is a bit more befitting of a governor than her old one, I think! I have to track down the other colours. It came with a Sim I downloaded, so I only have it in black. :(

    Cissie, I explained where Max and Zaria's money comes from in my reply to Maisie but it's really mostly Ben and Caterina's money. A good chunk of it will go to Olivia when she graduates but I'm yet to figure out the specifics.

    I love watching a poor family get a bit of a break too. They're by no means out of the dark but they have something in their savings for the first time and Maia probably won't go to college, so they might be able to keep it, at least until it's Tessa's turn.

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  5. It's so cool to see the Governor had blue hair as a teen 'rebel' of sorts. LOL!

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  6. Simmington, LOL, I was actually thinking about that when I appointed her.

    Her back-up plan, if she didn't get into law school (which she was in real danger of at one point), was to become a rock star. Not a great back-up plan but that's teenagers for you. ;)

    Athena was a pretty good kid though. She didn't even date until she got to college, although she was all swoony over Filippo Moretti. That was before she even met Adam.

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  7. I just had to say that I loved some of the pics of the couples who were paying taxes. Especially Max and Zaria's faces after they discovered they had to pay 2 very large sums. He looks like "dammit! why are we so rich?!" lol.

    I like the idea of a governor but I don't know if I feel like making all those calculations to make my sims pay taxes lol. I never minded math but I don't want to sit down and figure out a logical taxing system yet. Maybe when I have more than 33 sims :).

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  8. Danielle, LOL, I bet that's exactly what Max and Zaria were thinking! Whereas I was thinking, "good, you guys have too much money as it is!"

    I don't think much about my tax system is original - I just sort of stole bits and pieces from other bloggers. I did taxes from the beginning of the hood but fell out of the habit for a long time because I was using the Bigger Bills hack (which I no longer use). But my Sims seem to get rich pretty easily and it's nice to be able to take some of it away, to keep the challenge going.

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