lol, that title gave me the funniest mental picture of Mr Demi dressed as a storm trooper, dad-bod straining the uniform a bit, white cane in one hand, and laser gun in the other, shooting even more wildly than usual for storm troopers.
I saw a cartoon the other day of kids playing "Stormtroopers and Redshirts" -- Stormtrooper kid goes, "Pew pew pew! I missed!" Redshirt kid falls down and says, "Too bad! I died anyway!"
I've never been a high earner, quite the opposite. One time, thanks to some of Jimmy Carter's domestic policies, I got to keep and save some of my earnings in CDs. Almost the minute his successor was sworn in, I lost my gummint contract jerb. I still had the jerb, but it became one of his famous unfunded mandates. I went from making prevailing wages to about 25 cents over minimum wage overnight. And to add insult to injury, I got audited. The reason given was that I claimed no dependents and got too large a refund. It was $1200. Tall cotton, not. No, not even in 1982 was that a lot of money. Got out of it clean, because I did nothing wrong and owed them nothing. The next year I claimed myself, and with my new much lower income, I still got most of my taxes back. And they audited me again. Now I knew it was punitive, just to let me know they were watching.
OK, that picture...those aren't real movie extras or anything, just cosplayers with excellent costumes, right? I mean, the gloves and sneakers are dead giveaways.
Thank goodness for this, it was so disgusting to see that tfg paid $750 in taxes in multiple year filings (when they were finally released) and he had the audacity to say when opposing the release that it would cause 'irreparable harm and embarrassment'... yeah...tax evasion isn't really about being a smart businessman, it's being an illegal one.
“The years of underfunding that predated the Inflation Reduction Act led to the lowest audit rate of wealthy filers in our history,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said Friday in a statement.
weird. almost as though that was by design. almost.
I pay my taxes. Millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes or just do not pay, are essentially scabs on the body politic, freeloaders, and grifters. They may have a lot of money, but they are lousy citizens.
A few years ago I forgot to include a 401k withdrawal in my income. Eventually I got a notice from the IRS saying I owed $4,500. I checked their math and they were wrong. They "forgot" to credit me with the withholding tax from that 401k withdrawal. I actually owed them less than half of what they said. They refused to admit they were wrong so I filed with the tax court. A month before the court hearing was scheduled, the IRS sent me a settlement agreement. They still didn't admit they were wrong, but they had adjusted the amount due to the correct lower number.
That's when you counter-offer half what they offered in their settlement agreement.
They know--to the penny--how long they can screw around with you before it starts to cost them more money than they're going to get. And then they drop it.
This is why you're far more likely to get audited if you wait tables than if you make your living at finance fraud. Easier, cheaper, pickings. Less ability to defend oneself.
I made a mistake on my taxes and was fine with paying what I really owed which was not what they said I owed. Anyone with a calculator could figure it out. They probably pull this shit on people all the time. but I beat them. That's oblivias 2 - US 1 (I won a huge class action settlement against the feds, too.)
I'm writing out checks right now for my 2023 Q3 estimated tax payments.
I always pay more than I probably have to. I've told my accountant to be extremely "conservative" when counting deductions. I don't claim any deduction for which I don't have proper paperwork. I didn't claim my home office until I had it in a room that was only used as my office, and had doors that closed.
I'm a citizen and I take that pretty seriously. I don't have to like everything in my nation, that's part of the deal. But I pay what I owe and I play by the rules. Because it pleases me to do so, and I agreed to do things that way.
As an anecdote, in 2008 I had just been laid off from my job, and received a notice from NY State that I had failed to file for income for tax year 2003, and owed them $10K when you figure in back taxes and penalties. Considering my finances (I had also just bought a home that year I was laid off, and of course the market was crashing) I didn't exactly have $10K to spare.
Of course, I did not live or work in NY State in 2003 (my last contact with that state was 2000) so I was able to straighten that out with them (I think they had gotten their information from the feds for that year, and just assumed I was still living there, for some reason) though I still despise that corrupt fucked up state for giving me anxiety I did not need.
And Americans tolerate this way of tax filing, because apparently we decided we deserve total shit.
I would never use one of those tax prep companies. I had a client once who used a nationally known tax prep company and the idiot who prepared his tax returns two years in a row counted as income the mortgage interest he paid on his home so the guy ended paying more than he owed. If you know don't the difference between interest earned and interest paid, you should not be doing other people's taxes.
I used one during a year where I split my income between two states due to a move after I had finished school. They never filed my federal return, so my state returns were also caught in limbo. The person who filed them was one of those "only during tax season" workers. I was due a hefty return, but in the meantime, I was going to be hit with penalties, etc.
The corporate office just gave me the name and cell phone number of the random seasonal employee, since she would need to help because of the way their system worked at the time (2004). It was a nightmare.
(My husband I had our ex-employer pay for our taxes to be professionally done for YEARS to expat taxes, and they were always late in filing. Now we pay a professional tax advisor to do them, and while they also always file for extensions, they've been very accurate - we've only ever had issues when we suddenly get a notice that one of our employers did something weird with withholding that had to be addressed.)
Dems have to keep framing this as "you're either for tax evasion or you're against it". Republicans keep acting like "oh no, they're coming after you middle class taxpayers" which resonates with many because (as I note below) we are expected to figure out our own taxes and everyone has that fear that they might have accidentally miscalculated and could get caught in an audit. (Obviously, better to just have the IRS do the taxes for us and let us check THEIR work, but apparently that's too much for the richest country on earth) Republicans want you, the law abiding taxpayer, to be afraid that your audit chances will go up, when the fact is NO ONE should have to fear an audit if they didn't try cheating on their taxes.
I forgot to file in VT the year I got out of town. Eventually they came after me to give me my $40 by putting a wanted poster in the local rag back home. (Actually, they listed a "He has something due the state is holding for him" notice, and my sister saw it and told me.)
I wonder how much in back taxes Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito owe on all of that bribery money they've taken in?
lol, that title gave me the funniest mental picture of Mr Demi dressed as a storm trooper, dad-bod straining the uniform a bit, white cane in one hand, and laser gun in the other, shooting even more wildly than usual for storm troopers.
I saw a cartoon the other day of kids playing "Stormtroopers and Redshirts" -- Stormtrooper kid goes, "Pew pew pew! I missed!" Redshirt kid falls down and says, "Too bad! I died anyway!"
>> at least the AI isn’t writing TV scripts. <<
I don't know. I liked how She-Hulk, Attorney At Law worked out.
I've never been a high earner, quite the opposite. One time, thanks to some of Jimmy Carter's domestic policies, I got to keep and save some of my earnings in CDs. Almost the minute his successor was sworn in, I lost my gummint contract jerb. I still had the jerb, but it became one of his famous unfunded mandates. I went from making prevailing wages to about 25 cents over minimum wage overnight. And to add insult to injury, I got audited. The reason given was that I claimed no dependents and got too large a refund. It was $1200. Tall cotton, not. No, not even in 1982 was that a lot of money. Got out of it clean, because I did nothing wrong and owed them nothing. The next year I claimed myself, and with my new much lower income, I still got most of my taxes back. And they audited me again. Now I knew it was punitive, just to let me know they were watching.
OK, that picture...those aren't real movie extras or anything, just cosplayers with excellent costumes, right? I mean, the gloves and sneakers are dead giveaways.
https://www.501st.com/
Thank goodness for this, it was so disgusting to see that tfg paid $750 in taxes in multiple year filings (when they were finally released) and he had the audacity to say when opposing the release that it would cause 'irreparable harm and embarrassment'... yeah...tax evasion isn't really about being a smart businessman, it's being an illegal one.
https://www.cbsnews.com/live-updates/trumps-tax-returns-released-today-2022-12-30/
“The years of underfunding that predated the Inflation Reduction Act led to the lowest audit rate of wealthy filers in our history,” IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said Friday in a statement.
weird. almost as though that was by design. almost.
Those guys look a little short
I got that reference
[Grumpy Cat GOOD meme]
In Canada, you're only required to file on time if you owe the government, they don't give a rat's ass if you delay filing if they owe you!
Allegedly it's the same in the US, though it's safe to file anyway.
I pay my taxes. Millionaires and billionaires who cheat on their taxes or just do not pay, are essentially scabs on the body politic, freeloaders, and grifters. They may have a lot of money, but they are lousy citizens.
A few years ago I forgot to include a 401k withdrawal in my income. Eventually I got a notice from the IRS saying I owed $4,500. I checked their math and they were wrong. They "forgot" to credit me with the withholding tax from that 401k withdrawal. I actually owed them less than half of what they said. They refused to admit they were wrong so I filed with the tax court. A month before the court hearing was scheduled, the IRS sent me a settlement agreement. They still didn't admit they were wrong, but they had adjusted the amount due to the correct lower number.
I made a dumb error on my tax form, and the IRS sent me a nice letter saying that I was owed a larger refund than I had claimed.
That's when you counter-offer half what they offered in their settlement agreement.
They know--to the penny--how long they can screw around with you before it starts to cost them more money than they're going to get. And then they drop it.
This is why you're far more likely to get audited if you wait tables than if you make your living at finance fraud. Easier, cheaper, pickings. Less ability to defend oneself.
I made a mistake on my taxes and was fine with paying what I really owed which was not what they said I owed. Anyone with a calculator could figure it out. They probably pull this shit on people all the time. but I beat them. That's oblivias 2 - US 1 (I won a huge class action settlement against the feds, too.)
I'm writing out checks right now for my 2023 Q3 estimated tax payments.
I always pay more than I probably have to. I've told my accountant to be extremely "conservative" when counting deductions. I don't claim any deduction for which I don't have proper paperwork. I didn't claim my home office until I had it in a room that was only used as my office, and had doors that closed.
I'm a citizen and I take that pretty seriously. I don't have to like everything in my nation, that's part of the deal. But I pay what I owe and I play by the rules. Because it pleases me to do so, and I agreed to do things that way.
As an anecdote, in 2008 I had just been laid off from my job, and received a notice from NY State that I had failed to file for income for tax year 2003, and owed them $10K when you figure in back taxes and penalties. Considering my finances (I had also just bought a home that year I was laid off, and of course the market was crashing) I didn't exactly have $10K to spare.
Of course, I did not live or work in NY State in 2003 (my last contact with that state was 2000) so I was able to straighten that out with them (I think they had gotten their information from the feds for that year, and just assumed I was still living there, for some reason) though I still despise that corrupt fucked up state for giving me anxiety I did not need.
And Americans tolerate this way of tax filing, because apparently we decided we deserve total shit.
If ordinary people had lobbyists it would improve.
We need pols with some backbone. If they elevated this issue, the popularity of it would overcome whatever the tax prep companies could muster.
I would never use one of those tax prep companies. I had a client once who used a nationally known tax prep company and the idiot who prepared his tax returns two years in a row counted as income the mortgage interest he paid on his home so the guy ended paying more than he owed. If you know don't the difference between interest earned and interest paid, you should not be doing other people's taxes.
I used one during a year where I split my income between two states due to a move after I had finished school. They never filed my federal return, so my state returns were also caught in limbo. The person who filed them was one of those "only during tax season" workers. I was due a hefty return, but in the meantime, I was going to be hit with penalties, etc.
The corporate office just gave me the name and cell phone number of the random seasonal employee, since she would need to help because of the way their system worked at the time (2004). It was a nightmare.
(My husband I had our ex-employer pay for our taxes to be professionally done for YEARS to expat taxes, and they were always late in filing. Now we pay a professional tax advisor to do them, and while they also always file for extensions, they've been very accurate - we've only ever had issues when we suddenly get a notice that one of our employers did something weird with withholding that had to be addressed.)
When democrats whant to defund the police, it's because of all of the police killings.
When republicans defund the police, it's because they want steal from the government.
Dems have to keep framing this as "you're either for tax evasion or you're against it". Republicans keep acting like "oh no, they're coming after you middle class taxpayers" which resonates with many because (as I note below) we are expected to figure out our own taxes and everyone has that fear that they might have accidentally miscalculated and could get caught in an audit. (Obviously, better to just have the IRS do the taxes for us and let us check THEIR work, but apparently that's too much for the richest country on earth) Republicans want you, the law abiding taxpayer, to be afraid that your audit chances will go up, when the fact is NO ONE should have to fear an audit if they didn't try cheating on their taxes.
I forgot to file in VT the year I got out of town. Eventually they came after me to give me my $40 by putting a wanted poster in the local rag back home. (Actually, they listed a "He has something due the state is holding for him" notice, and my sister saw it and told me.)