<![CDATA[Where was John's debt from?]]>Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Grumpy Old Men

emmellpowell — 14 years ago(May 09, 2011 02:15 PM)

I love this film and have been watching it every year since I was a kid, but I've always wondered how John managed to accrue so much debt. Perhaps due to having watched this as a child, and mostly because of not really understanding how money works, I never get that bit. Was he fiddling his taxes? They talk about him claiming as though his wife was unemployed. Was that a mistake on their part, or his, or was it deliberate?

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/topic/215110/where-was-john-s-debt-fromRSS for NodeWed, 13 May 2026 22:54:25 GMTFri, 01 May 2026 20:05:54 GMT60<![CDATA[Reply to Where was John's debt from? on Fri, 01 May 2026 20:05:57 GMT]]>wrlord2001 — 10 years ago(January 06, 2016 10:27 PM)

They explain it very clearly.

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1806401https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1806401Fri, 01 May 2026 20:05:57 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Where was John's debt from? on Fri, 01 May 2026 20:05:56 GMT]]>dp021904 — 11 years ago(April 30, 2014 07:05 AM)

My take was that his wife had taken a part time job without his knowledge, then left him with the tax issues.
There was talk during the film about her being disloyal and a bad woman, and John was portrayed as a real straight arrow- even Goldman said that he wouldn't have cheated on his taxes. ("He's as straight as a grizzly's dick.")
"Two little mice fell in a bucket of cream"

]]>https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1806400https://filmglance.com/discuss/post/1806400Fri, 01 May 2026 20:05:56 GMT<![CDATA[Reply to Where was John's debt from? on Fri, 01 May 2026 20:05:55 GMT]]>StillWaitingForCodot — 14 years ago(September 06, 2011 03:53 PM)

If I remember correctly, John Gustafson was claiming Union Health benefits as a married man for 20 years, but he didn't mention that for 11 of those 20 years, his wife had a part-time job, which meant that John's benefits would have been subject to more federal tax $13,000, which accrued penalties over the years from lack of payment, bringing it to $57,000.
As to whether it was deliberate, who can say? The federal tax system is a tricky one to fully understand, and the omission of that fact may have been accidental.

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