Ultrawealthy Politicians Avoided Paying Taxes

Well, they’re ultrawealthy Americans, and they’re Americans first and politicians second, right?

The wealthier Congress is, the harder they will fight to keep these perks.

I feel as though I ought to be familiar with the tax treatments involved, hasn’t broken my way yet. When you charitably contribute money, it’s not counted when you obtained the money (past savings, perhaps) or from what source (gains, carried interest vs regular income). So if you make 1MM in income and donate 1MM, you net out zero. That’s the code. Now suppose you have stock that’s appreciated from a $100K basis to $1MM, and instead of donating 1MM cash you donate that stock. Do you get a deduction of the $900K gain, of the full 1MM, or either 100K or zero because you never yourself realized the gain?

Whoa, talk about a blast from the past! I don't think I've heard about that website in nearly 20 years. I remember sending ecards back and forth with relatives. What a pretty penny for him to make considering what it was!

No one seems to want to want to discuss how propublica ended up with a substantial fraction of all Americans (or actually all?) detailed tax files-- the distribution of which is a felony. This itself should be a remarkable scandal.

The rigid privacy protections provided for tax filings is important part of the acceptability of the privacy-invasive tax system.