faster, higher, dumber

so i was talking to the neighbor and i blurted out, "ang tanga naman nu'n!" (that's stupid!) a couple of times.

she got offended.

first instance (second instance in tomorrow's blog):

they built this house and were having work done seven days a week and three months later the house is still unoccupied.

she's been saying they were having construction work done even on a sunday because she pitied the carpenters.  she said this guy's wife was going to give birth and he needed money.

i said if she really pitied him then why did she not just lend him money for sunday then just have him work on monday?

she said it did not occur to her to do that.

okay.

she could have stopped there but she added they were rushing the noisy-even-on-a-sunday-morning construction on her late dad's property because her mom might die anytime and construction would have to be stopped during the wake.

i blurted out, "ang tanga naman nu'n!"

okay, i must concede i would have to apologize as not everyone knows this but here is why:

if someone is dying, you try not to improve that person's property for the meantime because estate tax is based on the value of the property at the time of death.

she retorts she's not thinking of estate taxes.

well, that is fine if you are the sole heir because you're deciding only for yourself.  if you have co-heirs, however, maybe you should get their agreement first unless you intend to shoulder everything yourself.  tax liabilities are tax liabilities whether one likes it or not.  one cannot just opt out and say the responsibility would be some other person's alone.  it's not that simple.  and ignorance of the law is no excuse.

moreover, if you intend to buy out your co-heirs then if you jack up the value of the property at the time of death that could mean you are increasing the buyout price as well unless you had prior agreement that the buyout price, if ever, would be based on the pre-improvement value.

i'd say that was an uninformed decision for which the heirs, if they declare everything correctly, literally have to pay a higher price.

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