Author Archives: Rusty Rueff

About Rusty Rueff

Rusty Rueff, author of purposed worKING. Rusty Rueff is the former Chairman Emeritus of The GRAMMY Foundation in Los Angeles. He most recently completed the successful 16 month leadership role as Coordinating National Co-Chair for Technology for Obama (T4O) for the reelection of President Obama and ten-years of Board service and President of the Board of Trustees of the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Corporately, most recently Rueff was the Chief Executive Officer at SNOCAP, Inc. until the acquisition of the company by imeem, Inc. in April 2008. Before joining SNOCAP in 2005, he was Executive Vice President of Human Resources at Electronic Arts (EA) from 1998 until 2005. He was also with the PepsiCo companies for more than ten years, with the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies for two years, and in commercial radio as an on-air personality for six years. Rusty holds an M.S. in counseling and a B.A. in radio and television from Purdue University. In 2003 he was named a distinguished Purdue alumnus, and he and his wife, Patti, are the named benefactors of Purdue’s Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. He is a corporate director of Glassdoor.com and runcoach. He is the co-founder and Executive Committee Member of T4A.org, serves on the Founding Circle of The Centrist Project and a founding Board Member of The GRAMMY Music Education Coalition. He is also the co-author of the book Talent Force: A New Manifesto for the Human Side of Business. Rusty and his wife, Patti, reside in Hillsborough, CA and Charlestown, R.I.

day 809: Witholdings

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“…The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do right”

There is lots of talk today about who pays how much tax and why. Politicians are having to defend their tax rate even thought they paid what was due to be paid. Corporations have also been under scrutiny for their tax rate payments, or lack thereof. The tax system is so complex that when we hear about what an entity has or has not paid in taxes we can’t make sense of it anyway. What we do know is that we have to pay our taxes and that is whether we like it or not. In the corporate world some of the highest paid professionals are those who know how to manage the complex tax laws to ensure that a company is not paying one more penny than is required. Today, many international corporations will have offices and operations in place like Switzerland, the Caymans and Ireland to avoid paying higher taxes. It’s a complicated subject and usually charged with some emotion, depending on what seat you sit. But, at the end of the day, what the government can withhold within the law, is what we have to abide within.

As workers we also pay taxes and we have those withheld from our paychecks. It is the law and we have to follow the law in order to be doing what is right. What David tells us in the Psalms is that if we do what is right that those things that are good will not be withheld from us. What we are being told is that in all that we do, let’s stand upright and follow the moral compass and direction that we are given from God and be on the right side of all that we do. Going back to taxes for a second, I know many people who are small business owners where they have a choice in how they report their income. That choice is about doing the right thing, or not. God has given us a promise. Do the right thing and the good things for us will be delivered. See where I am going? What might feel like is good for us, but causes us to not do the right things, will hurt us in the long run, and worse yet, remove the blessings that God wants to give us. It’s something for us all to think about when we think of what we may be withholding from God when we don’t do the right thing.

Reference: Psalm 84:11 (New Living Testament)