talkpolitics | Entries tagged with taxes

peristaltor.livejournal.com

Some years ago, I asked myself a question: What is an investment, and how does it differ from an act of speculation? I'm getting closer to an answer, especially after hearing Seth and Justin interview two authors on the topic of a man who has become largely myth, and about whom we know almost nothing: Henry George.

( It turns out Mr. George. . . . )

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

The oddest excuses for late filing of tax declaration:

My pet goldfish died (builder);
I had a run-in with a cow (farmer);
After seeing a volcanic eruption on the news, I couldn’t concentrate on anything else (London woman);
My wife won’t give me my mail (trader);
My husband told me the deadline was 31 March, and I believed him (hairdresser);
I’ve been far too busy touring the country with my one-man play (writer);
My bad back means I can’t go upstairs. That’s where my tax return is (taxi driver);
I’ve been cruising round the world in my yacht, and only picking up post when I’m on dry land (yachtsman);
Our business doesn’t really do anything (financial services firm);
I’ve been too busy submitting my clients’ tax returns (accountant).

What's yours? ;-)

luvdovz.livejournal.com

http://ru-facts.com/news/view/27349.html

Greetings, comrades and comradesses! Tovarisch Putin is at it again! He raising price of wodka again. In 2014, from January, the prise of half-litter bottle wodka will go up to 199 rubles (divide by 30 for dollar result)... GASP! And after August 1 of same year, it increase more: 220 rubles! This almost 1/5 increase, comrades! Can you imagine??

History of the Russia show that one thing Russian people never forgave their leaders: when try to screw around with their booze. Tzar Nicolay II try restrict booze and raise prices, just like what Putin doing now. In result, he became last Tzar ever and died in a storm of bullets somewhere in a forest along with whole family. So take the lesson, you Putin!

( But story only begin here! )

paft.livejournal.com

I love the dewey-eyed romanticism affected by so many libertarians, anarchists, and other limited government types who think we don’t need any of those pesky government funded emergency services. Why, everybody will band together under the unquestionably benevolent protection of whoever has accumulated the most money and/or guns and/or thugs. People will wear lots of leather or feathers or maybe fatigues, and Mel Gibson will play the grizzled old warrior advising the young hotshot who plays by his own rules. It’ll be so kewel!

Or… sheer force of peer pressure will prompt, say, fee-based firefighters to do the right thing and put out fires without demanding payment up front. Cause, golly geewhillikers. those firefighters won’t want to be embarrassed when they walk into church and face the family whose home was burned down while they stood by and watched. It’d make them feel all icky and stuff.

In Josephine County Oregon, voters like Les Monk decided that they didn’t need to pay a little more in taxes to hire more deputies and fund the jail. Why Monk isn’t one bit scared! He carries a knife and everything.

Last year, 23 deputies were laid off from the Josephine County Sheriff’s department. Those who are left are only available between 8:00 am and 4:00 pm. Monday through Friday.

So a lady who called 911 in the wee hours of Saturday morning because her abusive ex-boyfriend was trying to break in was, well, just plumb out of luck. I believe the term that gets bandied around a lot in the following 911 recording is “unfortunate,” a word I would love to see expunged from the English language. Like “regrettable” and “deplorable” it’s almost always invoked these days to refer to something that’s not “unfortunate” but horrible, indefensible, damning, etc.

( Read more )

peristaltor.livejournal.com

I haven't followed the IRS stink at all. Why? Well, I've barely been following the news. One good tornado, as shocking as the devastation, transforms any corporate media outlet into a Worst Destruction Footage Evar re-run machine. Why bother watching again what you've seen once?

From the sound of things, though, I'm going to posit a hypothesis as to why the IRS might be digging into right-leaning organizations. ( First, though, some background. )

PS. to the Mods: Any chance of getting a "corporatism" tag? This stuff isn't really conservative or economic in nature, but that's really all I've got.

farmerz-agent.livejournal.com

Given that the IRS’ practices were "absolutely not illegal." Meaning that this sort of admitted behavior is not something we will see stopped especially if they are telling the truth and they were simply seeking a way to be more efficient. The work load needed to manage their part of the ACA/Obama care is 6500 new IRS Personal. That means they are going to have to find ways to be as efficient as they were with examining the tax exempt applications.

"The impact of the IRS on health-care reform is huge," said Paul Hamburger, a partner and employee benefits lawyer at Proskauer.
"Other agencies like Social Security will be checking for mistakes, but the IRS is the key enforcer," Hamburger said. "It's also going to help manage who might get health care."

In its 5-4 ruling last year, the Supreme Court upheld the law's mandate that Americans have health insurance, saying that Congress can enforce the mandate under its taxing authority and through the IRS. (This means ACA only works if the IRS is significantly powerful)

So what, right? The IRS has been around for a long time and this is the first time we've seen the target one group like this so we shouldn't be worried that they now manage who might get healthcare.

The IRS official in charge of the division responsible for discriminating against conservative organizations was promoted to head the IRS' Affordable Care Act office because she is a "superb civil servant," acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller told Congress on Friday.

What does this mean for a person who needs healthcare in 2014?
·         Do not donate to a Republican politician.
·        Be extremely careful about facebook posts
·        Do not belong to, or hire anyone who might have been part of a conservative institute
·         Don’t forget,This is the same administration that collected collected e-mail addresses , of those that disagree with them...

I think it is becoming evident that any person who is not very rich and powerful and who will be reliant on Government for healthcare (or at least the approval of their health insurance) you cannot stay a registered republic. By 2014 if you love your family, you need to register Democrat for their protection and healthcare.

luvdovz.livejournal.com

This beauty here is the famous Turf tavern in Oxford. But be warned, you probably wouldn't be able to just stumble upon it if you're browsing the streets of the famous Medieval university town. You'd need someone more familiar with the place to direct you, because this awesome pub can only be accessed through a very narrow passage between two old buildings that could be easily missed. And inside, as it always happens on Friday evenings, it's crammed with people who've come to have a drink or two and have a wee chat with other folks. Students from the Oxford University sit ass to ass with tattooed dudes and yuppies in suits with loosened ties and the straps of their laptop bags thrown across their shoulders. Beer is the standard beverage there, and it comes in pints (about half a liter). Some visitors have come to check out the traditional local cuisine. Stuffed potatoes with beans and bacon, or the famous "fish & chips", lavishly spiced with vinegar. They're showing a soccer game from the Premiership on the "telly". Everything is so typically English!

( Read more )

ddstory.livejournal.com

http://www.oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/wp-content/uploads/inequality-cartoon3-300x214.jpg

Nearly 32 trillion dollars, or about a quarter of the world's wealth, is concentrated in countries that are tax havens. If those assets were taxed in accordance with the income tax rates that exist in the remaining part of the world, that could bring additional revenue of at least 189 billion dollars globally. In turn, this extra capital could be directed toward measures for tackling poverty around the world.

http://money.uk.msn.com/oxfam-hits-out-at-extreme-wealth-1

Those are part of the conclusions from a recent analysis of Oxfam International, the NGO that's trying to find solutions to poverty on a global scale. The document was prepared for the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum which took place this week in Davos, here in Switzerland - probably the most prominent tax haven of all. The focus of the research was put on the extreme concentration of extreme profit and wealth, and its negative effects on society as a whole, and the possible solutions to poverty.

( Read more... )

peristaltor.livejournal.com

Several years ago, I tripped upon something that puzzled me.

Through family tales passed down through the generations and backed by literally boxes of original documents including diaries and correspondence, Randall Keynes' book Annie's Box recounts the family life of his great-great grandparents, Charles and Emma Darwin. At one point, the Darwins had to decide how to best educate their children, seven of them and the number growing. To properly teach the girls, Emma thought it best to hire a governess. ( Bored yet? It gets better. )

stewstewstewdio.livejournal.com

The laws are stacked for the wealthy. - Jesse Jackson

In line with this month’s topic, I have included a post with a graph(ic), once again purloined from Google+. I know it doesn’t follow the format for a chart or graph, but it does have pictures and numbers and stuff.

As could probably be expected, Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal published an article explaining the implications of the Fiscal Cliff deal on the wealthy. The saying goes that a picture is worth a thousand words. The graphic in this post actually came from the article that was put in the Journal.

It is fun to note the forlorn looks on the faces of the oppressed wealthy taxpayers in the graphic; as well as noting that the one group in the graphic that doesn’t have a tax increase is characterized as a retired black couple. Also, investment income is thrown into the mix to make the examples more ~~Romneyfied~~ dignified.

Along with the technical details of the tax package, I found it interesting that some of the provisions were listed as highly complicated, as if the wealthy wouldn’t be able to afford the $59.95 for Turbo Tax or some other tax preparation software. It would probably surprise me even more if the wealthy didn’t have a tax accountant do their taxes and tax dodge planning for them.

The article makes a point of noting that all working people will be paying an additional 2% in taxes for Social Security because the tax holiday package was allowed to expire as intended at inception. However, it failed to mention that most wage earners with six figure salaries will be exceeding the Social Security cap, and therefore will be less affected by this tax than most people.

This article may be tl;dr for many, but I think the graphic in the article merited a post all by itself.

ddstory.livejournal.com

http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/takedzo_smm/34491442/10417/10417_1000.png

Caption says: "Russian peasant. Jerry Depardieu comments on France's new tax policies".

One of Gerard Depardieu's new year's wishes must've been "a new year - a new motherland". And it came true pretty fast - on January 3 actually, when Mother Russia readily responded. Putin signed a decree that granted Russian citizenship to the French movie icon. A few days later, the Russian republic of Mordovia invited Depardieu to set camp there and become the newest Mordvin (Mordorean?)

( Don't know whether to laugh or cry, really )

ddstory.livejournal.com

French court throws out Hollande's tax on rich

That piece of news aside for a while, I'd say Francois Hollande is a true champ! No other French president has ever managed to lose his popularity so quickly. The disappointment from his rule is growing like an avalanche, and the reforms that he promised are nowhere in sight.

At the turn of the new year, the French president tried to do a face-lift to his image by presenting his Algerian visit as "a historic act". The bad news is that since the socialists took the presidency earlier this year there haven't been any tangible results. So he thought, maybe the sight of the cheering crowds in Algiers would do the job for him and show the world how loved he really is. But the problem is, the enthusiasm of his own compatriots has passed very fast, and his approval ratings are in a free fall.

( Read more... )

mahnmut.livejournal.com

Okay, I'm not American. So please be so kind to educate me. What's this fiscal cliff monster, news of which have trickled down even here to the ass of the world, and which everybody in America seems to be so worked up about? It's the new big story, now that the election is over.

I did some research (haha! Tbh, I did most of my learning from Jon Stewart - shoot me!), and what I could gather from all that, was the following. Feel free to interrupt me and correct me where I'm wrong.

( Read more... )

foolsguinea.livejournal.com

Here there was a post about a capital gains tax rise being "suicidal."

And I said that the capital gains loophole actually hurts growth.

Well, which is it?

Capital gains is basically just interest. Let's try an example under US law. I'm not an accountant, so I'm probably going to get some details wrong, but I'll try anyway:

If I lend you $300 at 5% interest per annum, and you pay me back $315 at the end of the year, I made $15. That's short-term capital gains, and is taxed more like regular income, so (let's pretend I do this for a living and am already paying the top rate) I owe about 30% of it. So I made (roughly) $10 off the deal and the government made $5.

But if I lend you $300 at 5% interest per annum, and you pay me back $345 in about three years, I made $45. That's long-term capital gains, so even at the top rate, I only owe 15%. So I pay the government about $7 and clear $38 profit.

I get to keep a higher ratio of the interest because I let that particular loan mature for more than year. That's the only reason.

But if the top rate were the same as for short-term gains, I would pay the government $15 and keep $30. Would this harm growth?

Well, the lower rate is an incentive for long-term capital loans, and a tax reason not to demand one's money back so soon. That's it. Bringing long-term capital gains tax back in line with other taxes hardly seems to be the great economic distorter the Steve Forbes types claim it would be.

Now, let's be clear. Under US law, there are four different kinds of capital gains, and each has a personal exemption--an amount of capital gains income that is untaxed. If I don't lend much money, or buy much stock, and I make less than that exemption for each, I wouldn't even have to report it to the IRS as income, really. (I probably should, but since I don't owe anything, it's not a crime if I don't. [I am not accountant, don't take my advice on this.]) So my $45 is not going to be taxed if it's the only capital gain I made that year.

The real question is, what about someone who's lending $3 000 000 000? We can call it "buying bonds" or "investing in stock," but that's what he's doing. If he makes $450 000 000 profit, he's well into the top bracket. Do we really need to give that guy a deal where he pays a 15% rate instead of something in the 25%-35% range? Is incentivizing long-term loans really that good for the economy, that we should give up almost half the tax revenue?

Now, I said it was bad for growth. Maybe that's wrong. But I think it's dangerous to have too much money going into the hands of the lender/investor/owner class on a regular basis. If our tax code favors investors over those they invest in, we may find we are underpaying the actual workers and engineers in favor of a super-rich moneyed class. And history supports the idea that very high concentration of wealth eventually undercuts demand and crashes the economy, as in 1929 and 2008. But maybe I'm making too much of a correlation between the tax code and the wealth disparity in my country.

zebra24.livejournal.com

Mitt Romney was wrong not 47%, but at least 78,51% aren't paying enough income taxes to support current level of Welfare.
You can hate me but you can't ignore the facts. The fact is - minimal income tax level to support current state is more than $15k. All those paying less aren't even paying for current level of Benefits. And worse - they are ignorant enough to aggressively ask for increase in benefits level!!! 78% (see the table) are already failed to pay for it and still think they have a right to make such request!!!
What about kids? If kids can't work somebody have to pay for them right?
Somebody like you, socially "responsible".
Are you paying enough taxes to feed those in needs?

As a libertarian I am against taxation. However even if I voluntarily accept this responsibility I still can not imagine myself claiming that taxes for those who already paying most taxes, need to be increased.
My point is that benefits must be cut to the level when most of taxpayers will be able to pay for them.

I can understand why 47% wont pay a dime for income tax. I can't understand why they want to increase tax burden on those, who is already paying significant amount of their personal income for common goods.
I can understand why those on govt pensions wants to enslave new generation. I can't endorse that. They want our kids to work just to pay their unearned pension (their pension savings are already spent by govt decades ago before Obama).

Here is simple math:
Currently taxpayers in 2012fy must pay 22% ($836 Billions) to those are on govt pensions.
Remember it: there is NO MONEY SAVED BY previous generations to fill this gap, this is burden on next generation.
Claim that those pensions are "earned" is false, they haven't funded those pensions, nothing is saved by them or govt, they haven't saved enough and already spent that.

* Let's guys talk about your, Occupy Wall Street and "increase-the-taxes" folks, responsibility to feed your elders and support your community.
* Let's imagine you aren't liar and want to feed your elders even if they haven't saved enough for pension.
* Let's imagine you aren't liars but responsible citizens and 22% for unearned pensions, 12% for other "Welfare", 22% for "Health" is seriously considered as a minimal amount of money good citizens must pay.

Sum it up - 56% of Fed budget is 2,128 Trillion dollars needed to fund this.
Let's find out your "fair share" out of it:
Income tax is only 35% of the revenues and adds up to 1,401Trillion dollars.
All other taxes {please use contemptuous expression to pronounce it here} paid by selfish "corporations" and "private equity entities".
As an OWS guys you probably don't own anything like that and don't paying a dime out of it.

Social security tax sum up to $840.7b, lets imagine those aren't "your generation" pensions but supposed to go for previous generation pensions (we know that's a lie), but I will make this discount for you.

$2128B [to feed those in need] - $840.7B [goes into paying pensions now instead of going into your generation pension account ] = 1287,3 [needs to be paid total annually by responsible citizens]

Number of returns is about 84mil, so it is $1.287.000 million/84 million returns = $15 237
Everybody who is paying income tax less than that isn't paying for all the benefits society is consuming now. All wars are excluded and other spending also excluded.

Income Tax (1000$) 2010/2012 prorated	All returns	Under $15,000 [1]	$15,000 under $30,000	$30,000 under $50,000	$50,000 under $100,000	$100,000 under $200,000	$200,000 under $250,000	$250,000 or more
Number of returns	84 465 993	5 267 685	14 212 513	18 573 591	28 258 918	13 894 638	1 531 659	2 726 990
Amount	944 505 236	1 555 686	14 083 478	47 521 656	167 305 536	225 145 390	57 751 853	431 141 638
2012 amount prorated	1 146 000 000	1 887 566	17 087 958	57 659 625	202 997 439	273 176 481	70 072 267	523 118 664
Sum up $$ from low->high		1 887 566	18 975 524	76 635 149	279 632 588	552 809 070	622 881 337	1 146 000 001
Sum up of % returns low->high	0,00	6,24	23,06	45,05	78,51	94,96	96,77	100,00
Needs to be paid total:	1 287 000 000
Actually paid per return:		$358	$1 202	$3 104	$7 183	$19 661	$45 749	$191 830
Needs to be paid per return:	$15 237

http://www.usfederalbudget.us/
http://www.usfederalbudget.us/federal_budget_fy12
http://www.usgovernmentrevenue.com/year_revenue_2012USbt_13bs1n_1011#usgs302

malasadas.livejournal.com

By now Governor Mitt Romney's increasingly ersatz presidential campaign has spent another full news cycle trying to repair damage from the candidate's own mouth and has lost more ground trying to convince voters that the Republican nominee is capable of expressing human emotions.

The controversy emerged when Mother Jones Magazine published a secretly recorded video of Mr. Romney speaking to would be donors in May where he stated:

"There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it -- that that's an entitlement. And the government should give it to them. And they will vote for this president no matter what. ... These are people who pay no income tax. ... [M]y job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

( Of course, there is a pretty good reason to contemplate why almost half of Americans owe no federal income tax: )

tniassaint.livejournal.com

It is astounding to me that the highest marginal tax rates are at a 65 year low and the "right" still claims they are too high... even funnier when one considers that we are engaged in several military conflicts and running record deficits. Funny how you run up debt when you drop your rates of income.

Oh what's that? The Congressional Research Service is now also reporting in a non-partisan study that the statistics do not support this concept that lower tax rates on the wealthy and businesses spur growth. Oh what? While our tax code is (supposedly) so high, few businesses pay at that rate, and most pay some of the lowest rates ever. Any company paying the higher, full tax rate should fire their accountant.

Trickle Down doesn't work. It never has.

So - your thoughts?

Mood: busy
Music: News

luzribeiro.livejournal.com

Talk about gaffes...

Who Are the 47 Percent? 7 Facts about the Americans Mitt Romney Attacked
Hidden-camera footage caught the GOP nominee blasting the nearly 47 percent of Americans who don’t pay income tax. Turns out most actually are taxpayers, many are elderly and poor, some are rich—and a high proportion comes from red states.

Most genuine Romney up till now? A suicidal attempt to dig a hole for his campaign? A moment of rare sincerity? Or just a product of Romney "pretending to be something he's not"?

Oh, btw he has doubled down: No apologies, but the comment wasn't nicely formulated. Probably because it wasn't written on a teleprompter. Or something.

Did he basically tell nearly half the country to go fuck themselves? Or just invited them to go fuck him in November? He's supposed to be the president of all Americans, or am I missing something here?

I'd just posit that this is probably the first time we've seen the Real Romney in years. A grumpy white guy ranting about poor people demanding health care and food from the government. And the government helping them "too much". A grumpy white guy not understanding minorities. And one who only cares about himself. Yep, the same guy who bullied his classmates in school for stupid things like the length of their hair. The one who thought putting his dog on the roof of his car was fun. Again, this is who's going to be the next president of the greatest nation in the world, right? The guy who thinks $200,000 is "middle income"? And the one who has no idea what the hell his own stance on policies is, until he's told by his PR mentors and campaign managers what direction the wind's blowing at the moment? The same Romney who's entirely different from the one a few years ago, who in turn is not the same as the one before that? The one who's prepared to assume any shape it takes to get votes?

I really don't get it. In fact, WHY is he trying so hard to be president? He's got money, power, influence, he's famous now, and on the other hand he's evidently NOT interested in helping anyone but himself. So, why? "My job is not to worry about those people." REALLY?

ddstory.livejournal.com

Is Bernard Arnault really seeking Belgian citizenship to avoid tax?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/11/bernard-arnault-belgian-tax
Headlines about flight of French 'wealth creators' fit a rightwing narrative, but it's worth taking a closer look at the facts

According to Forbes, French businessman Bernard Arnault is the richest European. He's the CEO of Louis Vuitton, the company that sells luxurious goods like Vuitton and Bulgari. The problem is, he recently applied for Belgian citizenship, a move that coincided with Hollande's proposal for placing a harder tax burden on the wealthiest people in France. The obvious conclusion of the public was that he's doing this to avoid paying more taxes. Arnault himself is denying these allegations, stating that he'll keep paying his taxes as per the French tax code, not the Belgian one.

Still, the whole thing has already caused a huge scandal in France and actually prompted a debate which, despite all the mud-slinging, is worthwhile IMO. The pressure on Hollande has been increasing with mounting criticism that he's risking to cause a mass exodus of capital from the country with his demands for imposing heavier taxes on the richest. Meanwhile, Arnault wasn't spared the outrage either, the left-wing media like La Libération slinging shit at him like "Get lost, rich jerk!", as well as accusaions of not being patriotic. For which he's going to sue the newspaper, by the way.

( Shit's starting to stink more and more )

rick-day.livejournal.com

I know I'm just an ignorant southen white male US citizen with all kinds of 'privilieges'. And 'my kind' is supposed to mock tutt-tutt such facts, while internally going all "well, yeah...and? Free Market/overreaching hand of regulation/masturabing Randian Supermen"

ETA: I decided to strike that sentence. Must have been some bad yogurt for breakfast.

So what were the tax breaks? And what were they supposed to do that would help the unemployed in the US if the tax break ended? Why was such a tax enacted in the first place? How can conservatives possibly excuse such a tax, when the result is less job opportunities with large corporations?

Partisan snarkery aside, what was the rationale for the blockage, when we desperately need revenue? My opinion is that these three factss are not necessarily interlinked only coincidentially matched up in number randomness, but blocking a tax break (which means an exemption to an exising tax structure) tied to jobs loss in the US is not good no matter how you look at it.

Hopefully the repsonders can help piece together this puzzle with information so we can see a more clear picture of the reality verses the hyperbole.

Mood: busy

Credits & Style Info

Talk Politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods

MONTHLY TOPIC:
The Scramble for Resources

DAILY QUOTE:

"Someone's selling Greenland now?" (asthfghl)

"Yes get your bids in quick!" (oportet)

"Let me get my Bid Coins and I'll be there in a minute." (asthfghl)

May 2025

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
			1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27	28	29	30	31

Talk politics.

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

Entries tagged with taxes

Income, Earned Versus Unearned

Friday lulz: Lamest excuses for tardy taxpayers

Oh no he DIN'N!

This is What Happens

More Legacy From Our Friend, Lewis Powell

Its time for Republicans to go into hiding?

The big drain

Going on-shore

Education, For The Masses and The Classes

The Nouveau Poor

Cloudy, with taxes

Hollande keeps setting new anti-records

Fiscal cliff - what the hell is that animal?

Capital gains

there is always good reason why not to pay taxes.

What Mitt Romney Could Have Said About the "47%" That Would NOT Have Been Stupid and Offensive

Hear that Trickle? No ? Neither did I.

Romney unabridged

The patriot vs the socialist

OK this is kind of embarrassing, or is it?

Credits & Style Info

Links

May 2025

Summary