In this episode of ZacCast, Pat and I recount the impact of the new single local tax rate that showed up in Texas sales tax this month. We discuss the controversy over alleged sales tax rule changes and why we don't think the sky is falling, and we make some time for Christmas conspiracies. This is ZacCast episode eight. Here we go. Hey, Pat. How you doing?

I'm good, Chad. How are you doing?

Good. Uh, once again, it's been a while since we've chatted, so let's just talk about some stuff. What do you say?

Yeah, absolutely. I think this is gonna be a good episode where we can go through a few things.

Cool. Okay. So, uh, one important thing, single local taxpayers are now in your sales tax data.

Yes. They are there, a small, very small percentage of your data.

Yeah. So the, the actual impact to every Texas local government who collects sales tax was .34% of their total collections came from this single local taxpayer. Um, it was about one point eight million in local taxes across the state. Um, so not a, you know, not a huge amount, but for Hudson Oaks, I think it was, like, nine hundred bucks.

Yeah, yeah. It wasn't much at all.

Yeah, it was-

A couple of our clients had, like, three thousand dollars here, couple there.

Yeah. There's-

I think I talked to Abilene. They had, like, fourteen thousand, I think was their actual impact, and that's a large city. So you know, it, it wasn't, it wasn't this enormous impact. Also important to know, we don't yet know whether this impact is positive or negative to cities' information, right? Y- you gotta... You have to be able to compare the actual confidential file to see if anybody, like, moved over as a payer. And it-- and I don't know if we're ever actually gonna be able to track that specifically, but you have to be able to see if they moved over from that confidential file and if they moved over to this new local taxpayer rate, uh, that's there.

Yeah. So the comptroller released-- And we, we blogged about this just sort of briefly, but they released all of the taxpayers who have registered as single local taxpayers with their taxpayer ID, um, you know, with all that information. So, so you could theoretically go in, look at those taxpayer IDs, compare them to, you know, what's in your confidential data files and see if there's any overlap and then just kind of assume that those taxpayers are no longer gonna be showing up on, on your confidential data-

Wha-

... which would be a, a net, uh, uh, you know, net change. It wouldn't be an addition. It would be just swapping one for the other. And, and most likely, that's actually gonna be a slight decrease because if you were getting your full local revenue, you're now getting a smaller portion, a slightly smaller portion of it.

That, that's correct. Um, and it's also important to note that, uh, if they are a taxpayer on a local tax rate through the comptroller's office, if they're listed there, uh, for a remote seller, then they have to be that way for a year. They can't roll off of that, pay you as a normal brick-and-mortar style taxpayer and then roll back on as a, a remote taxpayer. So, um, it is important for our clients to understand that that is, that is a very annual process, and that list is gonna be released and updated by the comptroller often but mostly gonna stay the same at least for a year, the way the rules are proposed and are going to be adopted and the information that the comptroller's given out on their website specifically on how this is going to work from a business perspective. Also in our blog, very important if you, if you wanna get into those details, we have that website. You can go review it. There's actually a really good FAQ section on the comptroller's website. Gotta give them some credit where credit's due. They've tried to explain that to the best of their ability.

Yeah. So I, I can't remember off the top of my head if it's, uh, a July or October deadline, but if you wanna get off that list and go back to paying the actual local tax rates, um, you have to, you have to notify the comptroller before that deadline and then-

Before October 1st-

And then-

... is the actual deadline

... and then January 1st you would roll off that list. If you miss that October 1st deadline, then it's the next January, so.

That's correct.

Yeah. So it's... People can come on and register as single local taxpayers, but they can't roll off until that, that calendar year rolls.

Yeah. A- a- and, and it's-- So what that means from a city perspective is, is that we're not gonna have just a ton of changes that occur on that list throughout the year. And the reality, once again, we've talked about this before. Let's talk about it again. We talked about it in our blog. The larger online sales companies all are already running software, already have algorithms built, and are automated to collect the local sales tax based on where the delivery is going, right? So we don't see a lot of that changing in the near term. Uh, doesn't mean these companies may not make a business decision, like certain taxpayers decide to pay quarterly and take a penalty, right? It, it just is what it is. But right now, there's not a lot of change. Point three four percent, so less than 1%, less than basically one third or right at one third of a percent, uh, are actually using this format statewide. So I, I... We do not foresee this being a big issue. Which takes us into the conversation specifically on the rulemaking process from the comptroller's office, something we probably ought to talk a little bit about 'cause there's a little bit of animosity and concern for some of these cities, especially our clients who have economic development incentive agreements. So talk a little bit about that, Chad, so we can get into that one.

Yeah. S- so y- over the last couple of days, there has been, uh, a little bit of a kerfuffle, a, a brouhaha, if you were, over questions about what potentially proposed rule changes are coming down the pike. Um, there, there's a, there's a document that identifies rule changes which, uh, you know, the authen- authenticity of which I can't vouch for.

Mm-hmm.

Um, but it does identify some, um, allegedly proposed changes to the administrative code that deals with sales tax. And, and these are supposed to be put out by the comptroller. Apparently, they're working with a select group of, of cities just on the preliminary... changes, and obviously they'll get posted, and then they'll go through the, you know, the public review process and comment process. Um, these were kind of brought out, um, in a, in a manner that concerned people, um, that, that brought up the possibility that the, the changes could be sweeping, um, for the... I mean, we all know what laws were changed with regard to sales tax in the last session.

The legislation's actually really easy to read.

Right.

It's, it's not too difficult, and the comptroller's just trying to change rules to match that legislation.

Right. So aside from adding language, uh, and revising language related to the single local taxpayer r- tax rate, um, there is a, uh, there's a piece of legislation that was approved that dealt with marketplace providers. You could think of these like auction houses, consignment shops, um-

Mm

... online retailers where, uh... So for example, half of Amazon is, uh, is third-party sellers. Uh, Walmart's the same way.

Mm-hmm.

Um, you know, you've got Shopifys and other things like this that are basically just marketplaces for... or Etsy, you know, marketplaces for other people to sell their goods or services through a centralized provider. And, and the big thing on this is that the, uh, the legislation clarified that the provider, the marketplace provider is, uh, has the responsibility to act as the seller even if they're not the actual seller.

Right.

So they're gonna be responsible for collecting taxes and remitting taxes, whether they choose to do the single local or whatever.

Which means Amazon can no longer hide behind the fact that they don't own the product they're selling.

Right.

Yes.

Um, so those are, those are two big changes. And honestly, the, the other changes that we s- I, I, I walked through all of the, the changes on this document two or three times side by side with the current rules, and there are changes related to, uh, for example, administrative offices can no longer be considered places of business. The comptroller has decided that, uh, for whatever reason, that description doesn't justify being called a place of business, okay? So probably a relatively minor change. Um, there are some changes with regard to traveling salespeople, which -

Who, who does that anymore?

H- yeah. How much of your revenue is generated by traveling salespeople, right? So-

Very few.

Yeah. Um, there's some clarification with regard to distribution centers as places of business. You have to have, uh, three orders per year. The, the main change is that they have to be from unrelated parties.

Yes.

Okay?

Mm-hmm.

Um, I- if you're getting only three orders a year, then, you know, you're not talking about a large chunk of money most likely.

And it is also important, for some reason, if you did have something set up with a distribution center who was putting orders through that distribution facility to get sales tax at that, at that point of, of origin, right? If you already had that agreement in place by September 1st of 2019-

Mm

... nothing changes for you.

Right. That, there's, there's-

That's in the rules now

... until 2022.

Correct. So-

For that particular one.

And, and we don't believe that there's really any major impact on users that way. I mean, we don't... There may be a few of our clients that have some impact, and we can work with them directly, but-

There's 1,200 cities across the state of Texas who have sales tax and have economic development agreements. Is it possible that there could be some edge cases for some of them? Sure.

Yeah.

But the vast majority of people, I don't s- personally see anything in this, uh, in these rule changes that are gonna cause a major disruption.

The other important thing too is if you, if you just read the rules on their face, you, you can look at it and you can get a little concerned, especially if you don't dive into the defined terms, right? If you don't actually look at the definition of what they're talking about when they say marketplace, right? Or, uh, y- that's extremely important that people take the time to actually read through that. Just like an ordinance i- in a city with a bunch of defined terms in the very first couple of sections that we all love to skip through. The reality is, is you've got to look at these side by side, and at the end of the day, there's not a lot of substantial change from where it's at, other than the fact of we have a remote taxpayer tax now.

Right. If, if you read marketplace, the definition, 'cause I had to read this a couple times just to verify. If you read just the definition of marketplace, it could plausibly be a Walmart, right?

Correct, yes.

Um, but when you go through and look at the micro marketplace providers, marketplace sellers, they're all in the same portion of the, of the code, and they're all referencing, um, basically what are auction shops and consignment shops and online retailers that are basically providing a platform for which other people can sell products.

So I mean, really at the end of the day, there's a lot of concern that's out there, and we've already seen the initial impact of this proposal because before the rules were even in place, the comptroller was required by the legislation to collect this tax. So there's, there's kind of like a temporary rule set that's out there already. We know what the impact is today. That's really not gonna change much for a year.

And to be clear, the impact of the single local tax rate is additional revenue. Most likely-

Most likely

... net additional revenue for all Texas localities.

Correct, 'cause most of those sellers were probably not collecting tax.

Right.

But they are now.

So uh, I noticed on the, on the list, one of the first ones, because it's alphabetically ordered, is Adafruit, which is a small electronic shop made in or out of, out of New York.

Mm-hmm.

And they sell like... It's like a RadioShack. Uh, they sell little, you know, tinker parts for makers. You can build, you know, uh, hardware and build things. They have like a bunch of LED strips that you can wire together with, um, you know, Raspberry Pis or, um, Arduinos. You know, like it's just a small niche shop that most likely was not paying taxes before.

Can you please explain to people what a Raspberry Pi is?

So a Raspberry Pi is a small computer. It's about the size of a credit card.

Great.

Um, it, uh, it can run different variants of Linux, um, but it has input-output, you know, sensors. So you can connect rain sensors or, uh, proximity sensors or, you know. It's the kind of thing that we were looking at when we were building-

Traffic counters

... the traffic counters.

Yes.

Right? So-

Automatic traffic counters.

Uh-

Still an idea that needs to be put out there.

But, I mean-In a lot of cases. You can look through the list too and see what kinds of taxpayers there are, and for the most part, they're, they're smaller niche type, uh, remote locations.

So what else do we think we need to add to this conversation on?

So I think that part of the reason that the concern existed is, uh, circulated along with these rules was a, uh, what could be described as a-

Theoretical

... theoretical. If the comptroller is reevaluating sourcing, so origin versus destination for the consummation of a sale-

Okay

... what would be the criteria if, uh, destination were now the de facto, um, consummation point, and how would that affect cities? And so one, the theory that was proposed was, uh, uh, basically a per capita distribution. W- which, to be clear, is not something that's in the law now. Um, it's not something that has been discussed. Uh, the single local tax rate is based on pro rata local revenue, not per capita, you know, population.

Correct. Yeah.

Um, but under this scenario, it resulted in vast, uh, changes to the revenue that would be allocated to different cities. I think El Paso went from 90 million to 200 million.

It also is important to say that that conversation goes against the grain of the 36, 37 states that are part of this streamlined sales tax coalition that has really tried to make it easier from state to state to understand what you need to do from a sales tax standpoint. Nowhere in their rules do they move from origin sales to destination sales.

Right. Or, yeah, origin sales to population-based distributions.

Yeah, I mean, that's even taking it further, right? That's saying we're gonna do everything by per capita because if you did... I guess the thought process is if you move to destination, it would just be so burdensome that it would violate the Wayfair decision.

Right. Well, think about it. If you went to Walmart, and they had to ask you your zip code or your city.

It'd have to be city. It'd have to be address.

Right. It'd have to be address because there's overlapping districts that-

I, I mean, think of how many cities we have that the post office is in the adjoining city, and so the addresses in that city are actually another city's address.

Which is a question that we get a lot with Amazon.

A ton with Amazon.

I, I type in, you know, my city, and it says the neighboring bigger city where the post office is.

It's, it's... Yeah. We get that question a ton from, from clients.

And unfortunately, there's really no way for, for you to verify that every purchase is correct. One option may be to, uh, work with Amazon to get a locker in your city and then recommend that your citizens send to the locker because that'll be the destination where the item is picked up and, and retrieved, and that would be the destination where the sales tax would, would be collected. Um-

The trick would get, would be for a city to have a locker system in place and get other people that live outside of your city to send to that destination locker.

Which we actually did in Hudson Oaks.

We did it at Christmas.

At Christmas.

Yes.

We did this thing called Gift Guard. So anyone who lived within, uh, driving distance of City Hall-

Oh, we didn't care where you lived.

Yeah.

Just send it to us

You could send your, your gifts to City Hall. We'd put them in council chambers locked up, and you could come pick them up. Um, and you could actually even send us your tracking number, and we could keep track of it through the service that we found.

Yeah.

Um, but it was nice 'cause people didn't have to worry about their gifts being stolen off their porch. But also, anyone who didn't live in Hudson Oaks was shipping their item to Hudson Oaks, so Hudson Oaks was getting that-

We were getting that sales tax

... incremental sales tax for everybody.

Correct.

Now, was it enough to notice? No.

No, not at all. But it was just fundamentally it was cool to do, uh, no doubt, so... But g- going back to kind of this origin versus destination issue, right? We have to, we have to look at this all from a standpoint of the Wayfair decision. The whole reason we have this local sales tax, this remote local sales tax rule that's in place, and all the states have adopted these now, um, the whole reason is because the Supreme Court in the Wayfair decision was very clear that you can require remote sellers to charge local sales tax as long as the burden is not too difficult. If you go to destination sales tax, you're violating the very spirit of the Wayfair decision.

Well, also, the court wasn't considering whether brick-and-mortar businesses collecting sales tax was, uh, w- was burdensome.

That's correct.

It was only businesses who don't have a physical presence in the state. Their question was, is running an online shop or, or a catalog or a mail order where you're delivering a substantial number of, uh, products and dollars into a state that you don't have a physical presence in, is that enough to justify a nexus for collecting sales tax?

Yes.

If you have a brick-and-mortar store located in your city limits, there's never, to my knowledge, been a case that's been adjudicated or considered that says that it's burdensome to charge sales tax on those transactions.

No, especially when it's at origin-

Yes

... you know, where it's at the point of purchase. That's not burdensome. They know that Walmart is located in a specific town, and they have to charge a specific tax rate based on all the different taxing jurisdictions that are there. That's easy. Computer systems are there. Everything's there. There's no burden there.

Well, also, you set that up once.

Correct. Now, imagine, though, that somebody walks through the line at Walmart, and you have to tell the cashier at Walmart that I live in... This is my address, and I live at this location. And I mean, people don't even wanna give out their zip code when they walk into Academy Sports, right?

I give a fake zip code.

Most people do, right? But-

I used to give the zip code for Shiner, Texas.

That's a really good zip code, by the way. A lot of fun. Uh, but the, the reality is, is, look, we don't see a big shift. We're not moving from origin to destination. Um, and the impact that we've seen, the concern that's out there, obviously everybody in Texas is concerned just from a political standpoint of things that were said in a process, in a recording. You know, we need to take away sales tax from localities. I mean, there, there's no doubt that that was said by some of our legislators. But the reality is, is that these changes right now that are being made by the comptroller are in compliance with a bill that's already been passed and literally rules that have already been implemented even though they just haven't been adopted.

Right. So, so two things just to kind of summarize. One is, uh, one of the changes... in these rules, um, that I forgot to mention has to do with internet sales. And the rules would now say that the internet is not a place of business in Texas. So even if you are at a Best Buy working with a s- a salesperson, and you pull out your phone and buy something on bestbuy.com, that is not, uh... The, the consummation of that sale is on the internet, which is not a place of business in Texas. So, 'cause there was some confusion about, well, if I'm at the location and I buy it online, you know, what does that, what does that mean? So it's just clarifying that something that is bought on the purchaser's device on the internet is not a place of business in Texas.

Yeah. And important to note, though, the rules did go a little further and say that if it's, if it's purchased on a Best Buy-owned iPad that's inside their store-

Then it is at that store

... it, it is a at-that-store purchase that occurs. It's, it's basically a point of purchase at that location.

Right. So if you're a restaurant and you have a Square pad, right? Those purchases are going through Square, through the internet, but it's at that location and it's their device, so it, that's where the nexus, that's where the consummation of sale is.

Shout-out to those restaurants that have the automated payment check pads where I don't have to wait on the server to bring my credit card back.

Mm-hmm.

I can just do it myself. The light turns green and we walk out. Always a, a great thing.

Okay, so the other thing just to mention and then we can move on.

Mm-hmm.

A lot of this hinges on the, uh, whether the comptroller, in its rulemaking authority, has the ability to totally change the sales tax system in the state of Texas.

A single elected official in a rulemaking process.

When there are already laws in place that state how sales tax works, and your local jurisdictions have taxing authorities, and you can have up to 2% local option, and there's sales and use taxes. And if you don't have, um, if you're, if you're buying something at a location and you're shipping it somewhere else and there's only 1.5% sales tax at the location where it's purchased, but there is a sales tax at the place where it's delivered, then you can charge the use tax up to 2%, right? All of these things are in the, the law passed by the legislature, not just the administrative code, the rule code, right? So does the comptroller have the ability in its rulemaking authority to totally change the way sales tax functions in Texas? I just don't see where that's a likelihood or possibility.

Well, it's, it's not a likelihood. I mean, the, the reality is, is that all of the rules that are going to be adopted by the comptroller and everything that's been put on the comptroller's website is following the bills that were passed by the legislature to handle the Wayfair case, right? The legislature responded to the Wayfair case. The comptroller is writing the rules to respond to the bills that were written by the legislature and passed. And we haven't seen anything change from that. There's been no diversion in any of those rules that we've looked at and go, "Whoa." That was really never something contemplated in the legislation. There has never been a point that we have seen in our 18 to 20 years of doing this at this point that the comptroller has gone out on their own. An office that is full of extremely qualified, well-educated, mostly MPAs and CPAs, like, like folks that work in our industry are, and, and most of cities and local governments. It, it's... They're, they're not out to just stick it to local governments. They, they are following what the legislation is there, and, and I don't see them going down any type of path because they just have this feeling they need to change everything. Um, that would be a much larger discussion in the next legislative session. And we should watch that discussion. I'm not saying we shouldn't watch the discussion. It may happen. We need to be a part of it. But right now we don't see any drastic changes.

Okay, so on to some lighter topics. Over the past month or so, I have been collecting things to talk about, 'cause we used to work together, you know, every day, and we could just chat about whatever. But now that we don't work together, uh, you know, in the same location, we don't get to talk about just trivial things as much anymore. So I'm not a conspiratorial person. I mean, I have... I'm sure there are some conspiracy theories I s- would think are plausible. But generally speaking, um, uh, my thought on conspiracies is that, uh, the systems and institutions we have in place are too large and complex for people to be pulling strings and, you know, uh, pulling off these intricate secret plots, right?

Okay. Gotcha.

But we do Elf on the Shelf at home.

We do not.

I have... Now, I, I enjoy it 'cause, like, we, you know, we have a little, uh, thing. Like today he had a grappling hook and he was climbing up my wife's, you know, jewelry cabinet thing.

Mm-hmm.

And it's, it's fun. The kid likes it. But I worry that Elf on the Shelf is actually a secret plot by Big Brother to groom children into being comfortable with the surveillance state. What say you?

Oh, wow. First I say what a bomb you just threw in the conversation. Uh, look, I, I, I'll be honest with you. I don't like Elf on the Shelf because it's... One, I'm probably a little lazy. I don't wanna move an elf around the house every single day, right?

It's a lot of work.

It's a lot of work. Um, you know, my kids still believe in Santa, and that's, that's a fun thing. But, you know, ultimately the holidays are about something a little different. And, uh, Elf on a Shelf to me is just... It's, it's such a fad. Like, it, it's just... You, you do it because it's fun and you throw it up on Facebook and everybody gets to see all the cool ideas you came up with on Elf on the Shelf. And I think it just becomes a little bit more about the parents than it does the kids. No offense to y'all.

Well, I don't post what we do on, on Facebook.

On, yeah.

I don't use Facebook, but we don't post them anyway. But yeah, there's a, there's a... It's almost like a Pinterest look at me, look how creative I am, right? For the parents.

It's, yeah. And then you get, like, a fear of missing out from your friends who post an even cooler Elf on the Shelf, right? Uh, look, I mean, Elf on the Shelf is, it's, it's a, it's a neat idea. Uh, the winners obviously have been Walmart and Target who sell the things, uh, you know, like, like hotcakes.But yeah, we, we choose not to do it. And my ki- honestly, my kids have never asked about it, and you would think they would 'cause their friends talk all about their elves. They name 'em, all that type of stuff.

Okay. I've got a really interesting topic, but I don't think we have time for it, so I'm gonna skip to another holiday-related discussion.

Okay.

So I came across this recently because, so for some weird reason, like a week ago, uh, Home Alone 3 was trending on Twitter because everyone was saying that it's better than Home Alone 1 and 2.

So, so I saw this, and this is atrocious.

It's a tragedy, travesty.

It is. Why, why, why are we even, even talking about Home Alone 3? The question is not Home Alone 3. The question is whether 1 or 2 is better.

1 is, I think, better.

Okay, so the original Chicago version-

Yes

... not the I went to New York, um, you know, both of those with Macaulay Culkin, right? 3 does not have Macaulay Culkin in it.

No.

How could it ever be better?

It couldn't. Um, so that alone is crazy. But, uh, I happened across a, uh, a con- another conspiracy theory.

Another one. Here we go. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

So this, uh, is... It basically... First of all, did you know that in the original script, Uncle Frank was actually responsible for... He actually hired the, uh, Harvin, or I'm sorry, Marv and Harry. He hired them to rob his brother.

This is cheap Uncle Frank?

Yes.

Like the guy who won't pay for the pizza?

He won't, yeah. He wants the free champagne.

And he steals the, he steals the furni- he steals all the stuff from the plane.

Put this in your purse.

Put this in... I was like, I, I had no idea that the original script had that.

I didn't either. It's, well, it's on IMDb, so you assume it's true, but-

Okay

... yeah, yeah, yeah.

It, I mean, it makes sense, though. Like, if you go back and you look at Uncle Frank and, like, how they portray him a little bit.

It doesn't make sense... So the, so the conspiracy theory I came across is that, uh, Peter McCallister is, like, a mobster. 'Cause y- you never really know what he does. Uh, they have a very nice house. It's fully decorated.

Mm-hmm.

We assume that, uh, that the mom is some kind of, uh, you know, seamstress or she makes clothes or something 'cause they have all the mannequins and, you know, everything down in the basement, but maybe not. We don't really know. We have no idea what they do.

Wow, I, I never put that together, like that she was a seamstress or something. But now that the mannequins in the basement... 'Cause the scary scene with the, the boiler-

Yeah

... you know, and, and the mannequins, I, I never put that together.

That's always been my thought. It could be wrong.

Okay.

I, I don't-

You didn't read that somewhere. That was just, like, your brain went there.

Yes.

Uh, interesting.

Okay. Um, so but the thought is that this is basically like a mob hit, right? So they, he's something, something's gone wrong and, uh, because he, he... So there are a couple reasons why they think this is plausible. One is when the pizza guy shows up and Kevin orders his cheese pizza all to himself, and he has him go around the back, and he plays the Angels with Filthy Souls, and he's like, you know, "Leave the change, you filthy animal," starts shooting up.

Right.

Like, this never gets reported, right? It, it's not like a huge surprise to him. He's terrified. He doesn't wanna get shot, but, you know, nothing ever, they don't, the cops never come out to the house after this pizza delivery guy almost gets gunned down. Like, does he go back to the Little Nero's and say, "Hey, guys, I, I got shot at at this house"?

No, he doesn't, but in the 1990s, that was, you know, you just didn't call the cops back then apparently.

In, in an affluent suburb of Chicago?

I, I-

I suspect that they would have

... I, I, I think they would too.

Yeah.

But yes, I, I see where you're going.

Okay, so, so maybe they're, uh, it's kind of known, like a known secret that there's some mob activity in this house. Um, Marv and Harry also encounter the same thing with the, that movie, and they hang around because they, in case there was a murder, you know, they don't, they, and the cops pick them up, they wanna be able to help with an answer because apparently the cops know them and case the joint and stuff. Um, so, so that's kind of the argument for, like, that there is some known activity at this house. There's something shady going on, and it's not surprising that there could be mob activity, right? And that Harry and Marv are basically hired by a rival gang, rival mobs, rival families, whatever, to go hit that house. I don't think it's very plausible though, um, just because, I mean, at the beginning, like, Harry's going out as a police officer investigating each house, figuring out who's gonna be gone, who's not gonna be gone. That house is just his goal because it's the biggest and the nicest. But why go through the trouble of getting, you know, doing all the other reconnaissance-

Uh-huh

... if you're hired by a mob family to go do that one job?

And folks, this is why Twitter is a dangerous platform for social media.

So to be fair, this is on Reddit, but yeah.

Oh, also a dangerous platform for social media. So I, I mean, look, I, I don't, I don't wanna say it's not plausible. Obviously, there, there was probably some script changes that occurred in that movie, but the good family atmosphere that that movie put off was, was pretty good. But-

But is it really that good? I mean-

Ho- hold on. At the end of the day, you have to ask yourself the question, should it be rated PG th- or PG? It's just PG, right? In today's world, would that movie still be PG? Look at the way that, that, uh, McCallister and his mom interact, right?

Oh, no, it wouldn't. It would be rated R because the Santa, uh, who gives him Tic Tacs is smoking a cigarette.

Well, automatically, yes, but we wouldn't have a cigarette anymore. We'd probably have, like, a vape stick or something, right?

Well, those are, yeah-

Same thing

... persona non grata too, so.

Right. Yeah, we can't talk about that, so.

Well, Patrick, I, I have so much more to talk about, but we don't wanna run too long. Uh, so let's just sign off here. Wish everyone happy holidays, merry Christmas, and, uh, we'll catch you guys next time.

Absolutely, guys. Happy holidays and merry Christmas.