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The IRS could recover $12 for every $1 spent on scrutinizing the ultra-wealthy's taxes
(www.businessinsider.com)
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2023
5 points (100.0% liked)
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I see you've never known any small business owners.
Again, that's great and all, but they're not paying it.
If I walk into a private building because I didn't see the "no trespassing" sign, I think it's fair to not arrest or prosecute me for a simple misunderstanding. But I still have to leave.
Pay your taxes. That's all.
I've been one and know a few others.
Frankly, at this point, I can't tell if you're just being intentionally obtuse.
As previously stated: If we had a straightforward tax system where it was possible for a mere mortal to know, with confidence, exactly what was due, I would agree. We do not. This would be a bit like having a "no trespassing" sign not plainly posted and trying to bust someone for it despite their best efforts to respect them. It's borderline entrapment and will only serve to rile people up.
I'm not contending that one should not pay the taxes due. I'm contending that one paying the "amount due" to the best of their and their preparer's knowledge could be subject to minutia raised through an audit despite their good-faith efforts to pay the "amount due" as was presented.
You seem to be operating under the absolute certainty literally everyone filing taxes is doing their damnedest to evade taxes to the maximum amount possible, which is absurd. The vast majority of us just want to not have the IRS on our asses.
To summarize, we are paying our taxes. That's the problem.
No, you're not. You think you owe $10, but you actually owe $12. It's not your fault, it's just a misunderstanding of a complicated tax code, but you still owe it. You can't just not pay it.
No one is trying to bust anyone. This is just informing them of the property line and asking them to please leave. You're suggesting people should be allowed to continue trespassing because they thought it was public land. Doesn't work that way.
And yes, that sign should be more clearly posted. That's absolutely true. But it doesn't change the law.
If you didn't pay all your taxes, you have to pay the rest of them, even if it was an accident. No one is talking about penalties or fees, just paying the original owed amount.
Yes, we are. There is no scenario where taxes are not being paid. We are, in fact, going out of our way to pay taxes. It is not effort-free.
We "think we owe $10" based on a good-faith effort to fill out the forms, run the tallies, and submit what total shows.
And people are paying, by and large.
To borrow the analogy once more, informing them the property line is acktchually a few yards away from what both the general public, the authorities, and the attourneys all believed it was, discovered through an exhaustive and expensive effort to ensure every single person ever in the jurisdiction isn't overstepping the property line, resulting from what was an effort to ensure habitual, egregious trespassers were dealt sirh
No one is going to be happy with this outcome, and those responsible will be earning much ire.
I'm not at all suggesting people should continue trespassing. I'm highlighting exactly what I said: It’s borderline entrapment and will only serve to rile people up.
It does, however, greatly impact many lives and, as a downstream impact, the political climate.
Yeah... and I have a bridge to sell you.
The only way for the IRS to recover money is for people to have not paid the taxes they owe. Likely on accident, but still.
By definition, taxes were not paid.
And this is a bad thing how? Now we know where the property line is and we have more security/police to remind people to stay off it. Who would be angry at that? The property line didn't change, it just got clarified.
I'm going to put this bluntly: fuck em. Pay your taxes. The only people mad at this are people who support tax evasion, which is a large amount of people.
You're mad about paying taxes? Fuck you, pay your taxes. It makes my life worse when your greed steals money from our government.
Which does not change that these people are paying money to the IRS representing their - and any preparer's - good-faith effort to follow the IRS' labyrinthine code, a thing you seem to pretend isn't happening.
By definition, taxes were paid, until such a time as zero dollars are transferred, and by benefit of the doubt, the amount was everyone's best understanding of the amount due.
The best argument you can make is the IRS independently, at a later date, came to a different conclusion regarding the amount due and is holding someone liable for the increased amount.
Are you seriously asking how the concept of entrapment is bad?
And yet again, its "clarification" was a deviation from everyone's long-running understanding of where it was.
I'm going to put this bluntly: Don't be dumb. They already are.
Is it truly so inconceivable to you that people could be rightfully-pissed about potential future liabilities resulting from an incomprehensible code despite their best attempt to follow said code and continue to do as they already are and pay their taxes?
Do you truly believe a good-faith effort to pay one's obligations is somehow "greed" or "stealing ... from our government"?
How incredibly narrow-minded.
And the IRS is the authority. It's not a discussion, it's not a negotiation, there's no bargaining. There's no "oh but I already paid $10, why can't that be good enough?" Take it up with Congress. Tax code says you owe $12. You've paid $10. You still owe $2. That's fact.
And "everyone" was wrong. Pay your taxes.
For the final time: They already are.
"Which does not change that these people are paying money to the IRS representing their - and any preparer’s - good-faith effort to follow the IRS’ labyrinthine code, a thing you seem to pretend isn’t happening.
By definition, taxes were paid, until such a time as zero dollars are transferred, and by benefit of the doubt, the amount was everyone’s best understanding of the amount due."
"Is it truly so inconceivable to you that people could be rightfully-pissed about potential future liabilities resulting from an incomprehensible code despite their best attempt to follow said code and continue to do as they already are and pay their taxes?
Do you truly believe a good-faith effort to pay one’s obligations is somehow “greed” or “stealing … from our government”?
How incredibly narrow-minded."
I give up. You're just being dense.
I how your next paycheck is short, and your boss tells you "too bad, that's what I thought you were supposed to get, you're SOL". Because apparently that's how things work in your fantasy land.