151–160 of 495 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
yeah this agency is kinda what I imagined DOGE was created to be. alas now I am just confused
it's because DOGE is full of sycophants and 18F wasn't, that's the whole thing
Earlier quoted context omitted.
They claim that if the government could calculate taxes for you, then it would be too easy for the left to add new taxes that you wouldn't notice. The real kicker of course is that if you don't file your taxes, they actually do calculate your taxes for you, and send you a bill. It just includes the non-payment penalty and doesn't include donations.
Is non-payment cheaper than donations?
Taxes are in hindsight so you've already made whatever donations you did by the time you paid taxes.
Donations either lower your tax bill or have no effect on it. So, by not filling taxes (_and getting caught_) you're just increasing your tax bill.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't caused by some nebulous alliance of "billionaires," this is caused by one particular billionaire, Elon Musk, and his friends. These days I'm getting skeptical of these anti-billionaire quips. Sounds like a great segue to "all politicians are the same because they're in the billionaire's pocket," and now look at what that led us into.
what function do billionaires fulfill that 1000 millionaires couldn't do better?
By all means, after America kicks out Trump, feel free to discuss billionaires and the tyranny of capitalism and everything. Just not now.
Sad that 18F is gone and that USDS is effectively gone. I’d long had in the back of my mind that I’d take take a short sabbatical at some point and work for one of these organizations - looks like that’s not happening.
Anyone interested in helping organize a boycott of filing federal taxes until a direct-file system, that serves everyone, is instituted? I’d like to join, but don’t have the influence to start one on my own.
I think a tax strike could be incredibly effective, but also have really bad failure scenarios.
But, I saw on a documentary of FIFA corruption that one guy making millions in (I think NY) didn’t file taxes for over ten years, maybe twenty. I didn’t know it was possible until then.
Someone actually downvoted my comment above, can you believe? :-D
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It's easy to read into his parroting of putin's talking points as deliberate, but I think it might just be "wannabe mobster" talk. If anything it's probably a little more nuanced than uncle vlad pulling the puppet strings, but they sure do seem awful friendly..
I think it's risky to ascribe any real agency or planning to trump. He's a very simple creature, and he wears his cravings and impulses on his sleeve. I'm much more worried about the thinking people operating in his chaotic wake.
It is even nicer to get paid for consulting work (or does anyone believe Musk's drones are doing it for free) when it allows you to eliminate competition from lower paid staff. Tax dollars working on establishing new high watermarks for conflicts of interest.
I imagine those are the types attracted to this work to potentially do it for free or cheap
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The IRS already files its own version of your taxes. They use their version to check against what you the individual files.
The IRS has some pretty strict rules about who can access those files and how they can be shared with other agencies. In many ways these rules are unique to the IRS. Precisely because of the issues noted here.
E.g: https://bsky.app/profile/jacobbogage.bsky.social/post/3ljc2o...
The author's adoption of Elon Musks's irritating "deleted" lingo is quite a vibe though. Not.
Amazing how the idea of being able to file tax returns online, without paying for a commercial service to do it, is considered far-left extremism in the US. You’d think that simplifying tax returns and reducing costs in the taxation system would be something the right could get behind?