They should hire a bunch of hedge fund sociopaths and tell then they can keep 5% of the unpaid taxes they collect.
1 Like
Sure. Itâs like when cops hire expert criminals to catch others.
1 Like
What they really need to do is fight one of these mega complex cases to the end instead of allowing endless delay to drive settlements. Also, criminal charges for both the taxpayers and the tax preparers. Letting everyone say âI relied on (my client/my accountant)â to eliminate the threat of jail is bullshit.
Right now itâs a very simple equation. Cheat and get away with it or cheat, get caught, then pay lawyers for a decade, settle and STILL pay less than if you hadnât cheated at all.
But nobody is going to change their behavior unless theyâre scared of jail or, at minimum, legitimately massive penalties. Congress should probably extend the statute of limitations, too.
7 Likes
2 Likes
Yeah, those articles I linked to pretty clearly make the point that cutting IRS funding is pretty dumb and it has only gotten worse since those were written as the agency basically cant keep up with basic blocking and tackling right now. Starving your revenue producers of resources isnt really a great business strategy. It would be really nice if we combined a staffed IRS with an overhaul of a tax code that is way too complex in addition to being way too tilted towards the uber rich, but obviously not very likely to happen.
Hereâs a case where a guy was just blatantly defrauding the government. He wasnât even indicted. He cheated to the tune of $200 million, got caught and paid $140 million, boom heâs done. He agreed to testify against an even richer asshole, who is 78 and will almost certainly succeed in delaying his case until death (heâs already pursuing a scam dementia defense). Hilariously, they both only got caught because mega asshole 78 year old screwed his employees and they figured out the tax scam in discovery during a resulting lawsuit.
1 Like
The article posted addresses this. The 1998 IRS reform bill prohibits this. Agents cant be judged on revenue created. They are judged at efficiency at opening and closing audits.
1 Like
Yeah, letâs just change that to reflect revenue collected.
1 Like
Its almost as if rich people have rigged the rules.
Correct. They dont really have the resources to do this. They will go after blatant tax evasion cases, but they are typically completely blatant, not of the kind the super rich commit, and almost always have to involve lying to the IRS once they start digging rather than just fessing up and settling. That becomes problematic in a world where almost no one gets audited.
What about property tax? I looked up national property tax and all I can find here is fact check: No Biden has not proposed a property tax!, so I guess there was a rumor or something. Most of Western Europe has national property taxes. Itâs a lot harder to evade than income or âwealthâ generally. Itâs also something real that rich people absolutely hog. First $400k or something could be untaxed.
2 Likes
Thatâs a good idea, but it disproportionately affects coastal elites, so it will be hard to get Manchin on board.
1 Like
One historical precedent that people might want to look at in discussing the idea of a national property tax was the Direct Tax of 1798 (aka the Window Pane Tax), which levied a one-time tax on slaves, houses, and real property for the purpose of preparing for war with France. It measured the value of a house by how many windows it had and led to Fries Rebellion.
Congress should be required to levy a war tax every time it declares war or authorizes military action.
3 Likes
Wasnât those gains because of liberals and their stupid Defund the Police policy ideas? Itâs never happening and they shouldnât be running on this idea of getting rid of the police department.
And if liberals are going to say âDefund the Police doesnât mean get rid of police departments,â well then change the fucking slogan because it sounds like you want to get rid of cops.
I read that Defund the Police was surprisingly unpopular amongst communities of color. Thatâs probably part of the reason for Trumpâs inroads there.
1 Like
Federal property tax, and frankly all wealth taxes, probably a non starter unless the makeup of the Supreme Court is changed dramatically.
Restore SALT and Iâm sold. I donât even fucking care if I end up paying more in taxes overall, at least it would be fairer to blue states and reduce the fucking giveaway to the âno social safety netâ red states.
1 Like
Interesting to blame defund the police slogan for lack of Dem inroads with POC. Voters arenât one dimensional, so itâs more likely there were a variety of factorsâŚmaybe Bidenâs campaign focused on suburban white people too much, or Trump was better at FB ads. I understand that eDems would love for the narrative to be that defund the police is at fault instead of the Dems not actually offering substantial change like UHC/M4A or raising the minimum wage.
5 Likes
Defund the police polls horribly across the board. This is an issue about which Democrats need to shut the hell up and just do the reform once theyâre in charge.
5 Likes
People prioritize different things and the First Iron Law suggests they wonât change their minds when presented with evidence. Some Blacks are going to prioritize law & order over civil rights. Defund never got traction among Black Alderman in the Chicago City Council.