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The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

money.msn.com

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Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#31

Post by alexanderh »

pathy wrote: post #22
gregd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Yes. Corporations themselves want to apply the Constitution to the corporation as if they're a "person", therefore, it makes sense to compare the corporate tax rate to the personal tax rate.

No it doesn't. Corporate tax legislation is not the same as personal tax legislation, therefore a comparison is irrelevant. Even if corporations would be treated as people, as long as the legislation is different it does not make sense to compare the two. You may argue that tax rates are too high or low for both or that there are too many loopholes but that is a different discussion. I don't think anyone actually wan…

You're right. It doesnt make sense.

But the problem is: we've already crossed that bridge. Corporations are treated like people in enough regards, that it only makes sense to make these comparisons now.

But yes.. its retarded. It doesnt make sense. But it's how things are now. And until something changes with corporate personhood, they should be held to the same standards as people. This way people will wake up to how stupid it is.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#32

Post by skibob1027 »

D9u wrote: post #11

Meanwhile the fat cats pay little, or no taxes... GE paid 7% in 2010, partly due to the poor economy. How many of us wish we could get away with only paying 7% tax? http://money.msn.com/taxes/latest.aspx?post=26d490bd-7317-4f...

If you want to tax corporate activity, the best (most consistent) way would be to eliminate corporate income taxes and tax capital gains as regular income. It would serve multiple causes:

(1) Instead of spending inordinate resources in tax avoidance schemes, companies would have the freedom to focus on investing human and financial capital in serving customers by providing better, cheaper products and services. Remember, the cost of those tax avoidance schemes are embedded in the prices you pay for goods and services.

(2) Taxes would only be due when gains are realized, thus allowing compounded growth to further spur the economy;

(3) It would raise the effective tax rate of individuals who receive a large portion of their income from capital gains (something that seems to really bother those who worry about such things;

(4) It's a more consistent approach to taxation. Today we are taxing the owners of a company's stock both within the corporation's income structure and then again when income and growth is distributed to shareholders as dividends and capital gains, respectively.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#33

Post by joonix »

1morepassword wrote: post #7

I love it. An IRS audit based on trawling public data is more likely to wake up the moronic "I've got nothing to hide" clowns than any total surveillance by the NSA or the massive cyberstalking by Facebook, Google e.a.

The IRS doesn't tell you why they've decided to audit you. They just say you were flagged. Then they audit you.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#34

Post by pathy »

konstruktor wrote: post #29
pathy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. Corporate tax legislation is not the same as personal tax legislation, therefore a comparison is irrelevant. Even if corporations would be treated as people, as long as the legislation is different it does not make sense to compare the two. You may argue that tax rates are too high or low for both or that there are too many loopholes but that is a different discussion. I don't think anyone actually wan…

This is the status quo but doesn't address parent's argument. If corporations want the same rights as natural persons in one area of the law, it would be cherry picking to want to keep a privileged position in another, e.g. tax law. A good argument against parent would need to attack the premise that cherry picking privileges is bad.

Your argument is a fair point, cherry picking privileges is quite ridiculous. That said, it makes absolutely zero sense to compare corporation taxes and personal taxes. The dynamics are just totally different. I can see nothing good in equating personal and corporation taxes.

My personal opinion is that both personal and corporate tax legislation is more or less flawed and that the(effective) tax rates probably need to be adjust but that doesn't mean that I want them to have the same legislation.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#35

Post by gregd »

maxerickson wrote: post #28
seanp2k2 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporations have legal personhood, so yes; it makes sense to compare them.

I would argue against this using absurdity. I don't want corporations to have the vote, so I don't particularly want to reach for legal personhood when justifying policy.

You are correct...Corporate Personhood IS absurd. But until the people stand up to this bullshit, I think it's fair to use it in any capacity to highlight it's absurdness.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#36

Post by DanielBMarkham »

This is an older article. One of the key takeaways is that Congress in 2008 gave the IRS the capability to dive into your personal affairs online in ways that even the justice department can't (without a warrant). They only need to view you as somebody of interest.

Better still, the exact nature of all this -- wait for it -- is a secret.

The long-term trend here is pretty clear. Congress has the Big Data hammer out, and it's not afraid to use it on whatever political cause of the week makes them upset. NSA was first, because terrorism was so bad. But dang it, tax cheats are pretty bad too!

There's no slippery slope argument that needs to be made. We're already sliding down it. Just standby for the next travesty. Don't worry, the wait won't be long. Maybe a year or two.

The American people remain amazingly ignorant and/or apathetic, though. One wonders how many wake-up calls it will take.

ADD: The very interesting question here is this: since the IRS is authorized to go after emails and social chats without a warrant, how are the big service providers going to report this? Even if Google shows its thousands of NSLs, this type of activity wouldn't be covered by them. Some more info here: http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/mutual-funds/...

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#37

Post by gregd »

pathy wrote: post #22
gregd wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you think it makes sense to compare personal and corporate taxes? Yes. Corporations themselves want to apply the Constitution to the corporation as if they're a "person", therefore, it makes sense to compare the corporate tax rate to the personal tax rate.

No it doesn't. Corporate tax legislation is not the same as personal tax legislation, therefore a comparison is irrelevant. Even if corporations would be treated as people, as long as the legislation is different it does not make sense to compare the two. You may argue that tax rates are too high or low for both or that there are too many loopholes but that is a different discussion. I don't think anyone actually wan…

Just to be clear, I'm not in favor of Corporate Personhood, by any stretch of the imagination. But if corporations want to apply the Constitution as if they're people, I think it's fair for me to apply the corporate tax code to my person.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#39

Post by e3pi »

Page looks like its from something called `Bing'.

We see:

At the top is a U.S. News & World Report button,

4/10/2013 4:15 PM ET

By Richard Satran, U.S. News & World Report

At the bottom of story we see

`More from U.S. News & World Report:...'

-None of this links back to original source.

If I fb share it, or link it, this `Bing' becomes the link. without more further digging to get the original url, looks like I have to use this copycat of full-content `Bing' thing.

Re: The IRS has upgraded its technology to track virtually everything you do online

#40

Post by ctdonath »

DanielBMarkham wrote: post #36

This is an older article. One of the key takeaways is that Congress in 2008 gave the IRS the capability to dive into your personal affairs online in ways that even the justice department can't (without a warrant). They only need to view you as somebody of interest. Better still, the exact nature of all this -- wait for it -- is a secret. The long-term trend here is pretty clear. Congress has the Big Data hammer out,…

Wake up? So long as none of it actually affects people on a day-to-day basis they won't care. Otherwise it's just another abstraction.
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