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How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

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Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#161

Post by PrimeMcFly »

s1artibartfast wrote: post #149
PrimeMcFly wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US people have been brainwashed to think reasonable taxation is 'socialism' - something they need to have a religious objection to even if they don't know what it is.

In the US, taxes are more that 40% of the entire country's GDP. What do you think a reasonable level would be?

I don't know. Any answer I give would be worthless and based on feeling. It's a question for economists to answer. And there are good answers and things worth following, or at least trying, instead of letting tax rates be set by feeling which they largely are now.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#162

Post by bpm140 »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #93
nobodyandproud wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You think Soviet Union. I think Boeing and 737 Max: https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/how-the-faa-al...

This is safety not financial auditing though. Huge difference. Also see FDA and how it allows companies to submit data and studies.

I have no strong point of view and am interested in why you think safety is okay and financial auditing is not. Are both not about serving the interests of the public?

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#163

Post by gorwell »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #5
throwawayqqq11 wrote: post #2

As a side note: One of the primary reasons of how the rich get richer and how public services (our society) degrade is, that we stopped taxing them. For decades now. Imho, its a shift of the represented interests in policies. We should stop pondering enshitification or greedflation an start seeing it as a systemic issue, that we can observe everywhere. https://en.wikipedia.org//wiki/Commodification#In_Marxist_th...

In the US people have been brainwashed to think reasonable taxation is 'socialism' - something they need to have a religious objection to even if they don't know what it is.

Nope, they've been brainwashed to think it's "reasonable taxation" and the solution is always more taxation despite massive waste, fraud and corruption.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#164

Post by nobodyandproud »

gorwell wrote: post #158
nobodyandproud wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thought: What if all corporate accountants were required to be government employees? We can start with transnational companies first. Then LLCs and Incs. Disincentivize the massive fraud that we see today.

"In November 2022, DOD failed its fifth consecutive audit, unable to account for sixty-one percent of its $3.5 trillion in assets."

“The sheer size and scope of the department — which makes up for more than half of the U.S. discretionary spending and has assets that range from personnel and supplies to bases and weapons — makes it difficult to audit. “

“The agency had never expected to pass, however, due to accounting issues officials said could take years to fix. Because accounting records needed to complete the assessment were not available, all five audits received a “disclaimer of opinion,” though there have been improvements each time. ”

https://thehill.com/policy/defense/3740921-defense-departmen...

The objection you’ve raised, if anything, highlights the need for a neutral outside party to annually audit and create thorough paper trails for very large organizations.

Do you want to pursue this line of argument further?

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#165

Post by sokoloff »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #103
brigadier132 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> because it implies that there's some entity out there that's actually good at spending money No, this is the weird framing. As if the money has to go to some entity other than the individual that earned it. The government is taking money from individuals for their supposed benefit.

Why take your property taxes to educate our nation's children when you don't even have children? Am I unfairly framing your argument? Society (that's us) want things for society and it turns out they cost money. We would love to pay for these things with razor-like efficiency but we live in an imperfect world. (The "waste" however still goes into someone's wallet and can be in turn spent at a local restaurant or on g…

> (The "waste" however still goes into someone's wallet and can be in turn spent at a local restaurant or on groceries.)

It could equally well be spent by me if left in my wallet rather than taxed away and wasted.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#166

Post by s1artibartfast »

PrimeMcFly wrote: post #161
s1artibartfast wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the US, taxes are more that 40% of the entire country's GDP. What do you think a reasonable level would be?

I don't know. Any answer I give would be worthless and based on feeling. It's a question for economists to answer. And there are good answers and things worth following, or at least trying, instead of letting tax rates be set by feeling which they largely are now.

What would an economist be trying to optimize?

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#167

Post by nobodyandproud »

cscurmudgeon wrote: post #95
nobodyandproud wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thought: What if all corporate accountants were required to be government employees? We can start with transnational companies first. Then LLCs and Incs. Disincentivize the massive fraud that we see today.

Doesn’t the govt lose large amounts of money to various fraud schemes? https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1279664 May be the govt should have private sector auditors to help with that?

Yes, by underfunding auditers and accountability. Or throwing out money without any sense of accounting.

Yes, fraudsters will take full advantage of it.

Your example shows why we need more auditers and more frequent auditing, not less.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#168

Post by nobodyandproud »

nobodyandproud wrote: post #32
koolba wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s no such thing as “reasonable taxation” because it’s a subjective concept. It’s no better than saying “ the rich are not paying their fair share ”. Say you’re settling the tab for big dinner at a restaurant, if your rich friend pays for the steak he ordered, is that his fair share? If there’s 100 of you and he pays for 1/100 of the check, is that his fair share? What if he pays for half the tab, is that enough…

Your analogy is too simplistic, so it misrepesents today’s situation A better analogy of today’s would be so: - Your rich friend and his 19 employees order 20 steaks - Somehow and out of sight the rich friend takes 19 of the steaks, takes 9/10th of each steak for himself, and then replaces them with 19 derived kiddie meals containing 1/10th the steak. - Your rich friend then points out that he and his employees only…

After I had my morning beverage, I realized “steak appetizer” would’ve been better than “kiddie meal”.

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#169

Post by habosa »

If you live in the US and like to donate to charity you can have your own private foundation and you don’t have to be a jerk about it! It can be a convenient way for you to do good in the world.

It’s called a Donor Advised Fund and you can donate large sums to it and then direct the money in pieces to charities you support over time. In between the money gets to grow if you choose to invest it, and you get the tax write off at the time of donation not distribution because you can never get the money back.

Why would you do this? Well maybe you had a windfall profit one year (sold your company?) and you want to donate a lot of it before the tax year ends but you’re not sure where yet.

Or maybe you want to donate something besides cash to a charity without the systems to accept it. Like appreciated shares in your company, or cryptocurrency.

If you do this for the right reasons it’s not sinister at all. It’s just a safe and tax efficient way to manage your charitable ambitious.

You can even set one up on your phone, in like 10 minutes: https://www.daffy.org/

(Note: there’s a lot to argue about when it comes to what counts as a charity in the US and the nearly unlimited nature of the income deductions you can get from donating. But in the end I think as long as the tax code stays the way it is it makes sense for people who can afford it to give some money to a cause they support)

Re: How the Rich Reap Huge Tax Breaks From Private Nonprofits

#170

Post by nobodyandproud »

JacobAldridge wrote: post #99
nobodyandproud wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Another thought: What if all corporate accountants were required to be government employees? We can start with transnational companies first. Then LLCs and Incs. Disincentivize the massive fraud that we see today.

> What if all corporate accountants were required to be government employees? So then what if a company is seeking to expand internationally, and looking at options for various reasons (including costs, which includes the tax burden). Isn’t it a conflict of interest to have a US government employee weighing in on how to improve a company at the loss of IRS revenue? And that’s an extreme example. Any company accountan…

Isn’t that the task of tax attorneys? Different line of work, though same domain of concern.
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