An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
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Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#2So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right?
Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax?
Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off just deciding to spend money on the basis of it being tax deductible. It'd make only sense if you're going to spend the money anyway.
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#3[deleted]
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#4So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
Avoiding paying taxes because you lost money doing something destructive, that we as a society have to bear the cost for by living in a damaged environment, is a form of double dipping. It externalizes risks while keeping gains private.
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#5Part of the 'avoiding taxes' equation here was giving the government (or setting aside) ~$600 million dollars to pay for oil spill related problems.
So I mean she did avoid paying income tax, but only by giving up $600 million dollars to the government (which flowed back to her personal taxes to offset any income).
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#6So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax?
If the company cannot afford to perform the cleanup it should be nationalized and sold off until the cleanup can be funded. I'm heavily in favor of this also applying to the Board and Investors in the company, there needs to be real consequences with being involved in world-destroying corporate fuckups. Ideally to the point that being on the Board of an Energy Company carries the very real consequence of flipping burgers for the rest of your days should the company you are supposed to be overseeing fucks up badly enough.
The objection is to the idea that one can somehow come out ahead while also fucking the world up for everyone else. The objection is to the complete and total lack of Consequences for Actions.
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#7So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
There’s nothing wrong with write offs, about half of my income is paid to the government. I will always do everything I can to minimize my tax liability, and it’s natural to do so.
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#8So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
There’s nothing wrong with write offs, about half of my income is paid to the government. I will always do everything I can to minimize my tax liability, and it’s natural to do so.
Does this include fighting to keep an oil well leaking?
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#9So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
Avoiding paying taxes because you lost money doing something destructive, that we as a society have to bear the cost for by living in a damaged environment, is a form of double dipping. It externalizes risks while keeping gains private.
>Avoiding paying taxes because you lost money doing something destructive
But in this case her being able to avoid paying taxes isn't really because she did something destructive, it's because her business did badly. If gambled all her money on meme stocks or whatever, and lost, she would be able to claim the same deduction. The main issue here seems to be that valuations can be fudged to maximize tax savings, not that you can avoid taxes after causing an oil spill.
>It externalizes risks while keeping gains private.
but her company already paid fines for it?
Re: An Oil Spill Helped One Billionaire Avoid Paying Income Tax for 14 Years
#10So the main point is about questionable valuation of companies to avoid capital gains tax, right? Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? Can some chime in to say what's the matter with tax write-offs portrayed as unfair gains? I mean, you still have to pay for the written-off stuff. As I understand, you're not better off…
Because if there's a company (in this case a sole proprietorship) that reports business expenses exceeding income, what is there to tax? The objection is to the idea that you can fuck up the world for everyone else and somehow mischaracterize the cleanup of that fuckup as a "normal business expense". The cleanup of an oil spill should come from post-tax profits, the burden should 100% be on the company. They made the…
>The cleanup of an oil spill should come from post-tax profits, the burden should 100% be on the company.
or maybe that's already baked into the fine? In other words
fine for a bad: $1000
average tax rate: 30%
new fine ("from post-tax profits"): $1300
alternatively, the "real" price of the fine: $769.23