51–60 of 319 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a faction of US politicians that are philosophically against (most) government and taxes. It's not about ROI, it's about their goals.
Interesting. A faction you say? You mean like the faction that drafted the Articles of Confederation?
https://www.npr.org/2017/10/27/560308997/irs-apologizes-for-...
I don't get why countries always under-invest in tax collection... as long as it's ROI positive, shouldn't budgets be getting increased?
There's a faction of US politicians that are philosophically against (most) government and taxes. It's not about ROI, it's about their goals.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Generally they don't harass people unless something seems amiss and there is a large enough discrepancy to justify it. And there's eventually a marginal tipping point where more money spent in audits won't net more recovered revenue. Generally the smaller the fry, the less you can recover from them.
Unless you were a conservative group a few years back. 'The controversy began in 2013 when an IRS official admitted the agency had been aggressively scrutinizing groups with names such as "Tea Party" and "Patriots."' https://www.npr.org/2017/10/27/560308997/irs-apologizes-for-...
I don't get why countries always under-invest in tax collection... as long as it's ROI positive, shouldn't budgets be getting increased?
Greed is winning in America. Any person or political party that is trying to reduce staffing for a tax collection agency is trying to get away with tax fraud or they are working for somebody who is. It is far past the time to recognise this.
“Anyone opposing more police officers and equipment is looking to break the law.” Just as I don’t want a bored cop on every street corner, I also don’t want the IRS to be staffed to maximize revenue. It’s a balance.
The act of reducing the manpower of the IRS needed to enforce the laws may have a greater effect than all the tax cuts combined. If a business is fairly certain an audit isn't coming, their effective tax rate is whatever they want it to be.
Also important is what happens to a business that gets caught. If the punishment is 'pay back taxes plus a moderate penalty, and here we'll even set up a convenient payment plan for you', then cheating on taxes is effectively a free roll. You have a 95% chance of saving a ton of money, and 5% chance of paying only a bit more than you would have paid anyway if you followed the laws. That said, the absurd complexity of…
And yet some people manage to whip themselves in to a righteous frenzy over someone collecting welfare or immigrants getting a microscopic bit of state aid. Such people really need to get a sense of proportion. The destitute, despised, downtrodden guy who slaves away to support their family by mowing your lawn, picking apples for you, driving you somewhere, or serving you your burger is not your enemy.
Last week I saw a person on Facebook sharing an anecdote patterned after the "welfare queen" trope and arguing against food stamps. I noticed from her Facebook page that she owned a ranching operation, so I searched her name in the EWG Farm Subsidy Database and saw that she and her husband had received $18k in subsidies in 2018, and nearly $250k since 1995.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, the people "getting away with it" in this case aren't those paying withholding or even mostly individuals... they're corporations bilking the government and every other taxpayer. It's more like cutting back on the FBI when there's an outbreak of organized crime...
The problem is Congress, not the IRS. Most corporations pay the amount of tax they owe under the law, but the law is written to allow tax evasion. The IRS can’t do anything about this. The fix is to close several well known loopholes.