Trump's Tax Returns Show What Sort of Tax Reform We Need
But partisans are having the wrong debate.
The recent release of former President Donald Trump's tax returns has triggered two seemingly contradictory reactions. Some people are eager to point out that considering his many heavy losses, Trump might not be as good as legend has it at turning profits. On the other hand, other folks complain about just how few actual dollars Trump paid in taxes.
There is an obvious connection between these different interpretations. Once again, we have evidence of just how poorly many Americans grasp basic tax facts.
Now, I agree that our tax system should be revamped. This system is a nightmare of double taxation of income and grotesque horizontal inequities in which—thanks to a labyrinth of politically motivated tax breaks and credits—taxpayers earning the same incomes don't pay the same amount of taxes. The result is a system that penalizes work, saving, and investment and in turn dampens economic growth.
As such, I would first and foremost eliminate all tax breaks and other preferences that tilt the playing field in favor of politically connected interest groups. Our tax code would be radically improved if it weren't used by politicians to subsidize certain behaviors while penalizing others. Incentives such as those to buy electric cars and bicycles, or to invest in (insert preferred industry here) are unfair, distortive, and often fail to achieve their stated goals. They should have no place in our tax code.
In addition, these special-interest tax provisions mostly benefit the well-connected taxpayers who lobby for their creation or for their extensions. These provisions also benefit politicians—Democrats and Republicans alike—who are rewarded for their cooperation with campaign contributions and votes. The clear losers from this unhealthy marriage are taxpayers who must comply with an out-of-control, complicated 2,600-page tax code, often without the help of a professional accountant.
Yet for all the many problems with our tax code, recent viewers of Trump's tax records have been complaining about the wrong provisions, such as the fact that it allows businesses to smooth out their tax bills over multiple years. Indeed, in the current system, a business that earned a $500,000 profit in 2020 but also suffered $500,000 annual losses over the previous two years and is still losing money can average its profits by carrying forward those losses. This provision makes total sense. You don't want startups and risk-taking entrepreneurs—which in this scenario are still losing money—to fail because of the burden of taxes in a volatile economy or to needlessly face the higher tax rates paid by well-established businesses.
Blaming the unfairness of our system on Trump's use of such loss-carryforward provisions, as if these are illegitimate or fraudulent, is silly. It becomes laughably hypocritical when it is offered by the same people who never stop pushing for bigger tax credits for their favorite causes.
Trump's ability to deduct his business expenses has spurred additional outrage. But, for one thing, commentators seem oblivious to the fact that it isn't easy to tell from the outside which business expenses are legitimate and which aren't. Might some of these expenses be fraudulent? Of course. And it's worth noting that while Trump hasn't ever been found guilty of evading his taxes, some of his businesses have. The bottom line is that as long as Congress continues to tax businesses, legitimate expenses must be deductible, but these will often be hard to tell from illegitimate ones. As such, there will always be some cheating. But an alternative system would be disastrous.
I wish the release of the former president's tax returns had triggered a conversation about the need for tax reform. Our tax code is inefficient—no matter how you define this term—because it is complicated. It is conducive to cheating, unfairness, and economic distortions because it is complicated. Making all these issues go away means simplifying the tax code.
For that, legislators will have to acknowledge that there are too many loopholes, deductions, and exemptions. That issue is due in part to the fact that Uncle Sam often taxes the wrong income, which is an even bigger problem. These discussions won't happen if all partisans are focusing on is whether a particular deduction should be allowed while another shouldn't, or whether people they don't like should be taxed even though they made no money.
This bickering won't reform the tax code, leaving taxpayers to struggle each year during tax season.
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As a libritarian, the correct amount of money paid in taxes is $0
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Indeed. I wish more libertarians would remember that taxation is theft, no matter how much of that sweet stolen money benefits their particular causes.
+10000000.. Exactly. The US Constitution detailed what items are so important they required armed-theft to maintain. Sadly; The Tax-Code in this nation has nothing to do with the Constitution anymore.
It’s all but [WE] politicians representing [WE] gangs of armed-robber wannabe’s can commit armed-theft so…………….. Never coming to grips with the fact the USA is has a SUPREME law that LIMITS the purpose of that armed-theft to very specific uses.
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Amen, but Reason no longer believes in libertarian principles. But under or current system it in an income tax, not a wealth tax. That means no matter how rich you are if you have no income, you pay no taxes or if your deductible losses exceed your income, you pay no income tax.
Now Trump put his empire in a trust his two adult sons managed, and they lost millions, especially during covid, as they were very slow to act.
Trump donated all 4 years of his Presidential salary back to the US Treasury, except for $1 dollar as a president has to be paid by law. Trump donated his foreign profits from his hotel industry to the US Treasury to avoid the appearance of foreign influence.
Trump was legally able to depreciate many of his assets, and the cost of his tax preparations, which would be huge with his tax accounts and lawyers.
So where did his income come from? Lost investment, depreciation, no salary and a lot of deductible cost. Not surprising he didn’t pay any taxes in the last two years of his administration.
If Reason wants a wealth tax, they should state that plainly. They won’t because it would show how far Reason is from libertarian principles.
Donald Trump Lost Half His Net Worth in Office – Can He Make It Great Again? MSN – Dec 6, 2022
Donald Trump to Place Business Holdings in a Trust Run by Adult Sons WSJ – Jan. 11, 2017
Fact check: President Donald Trump donates his salary, USA Today – July 11 2020 According to news coverage and White House news releases, Trump has written checks equal to a quarter of his $400,000 annual salary every quarter to various government agencies:
Trump Org says it donated $151,470 in profits to U.S. Treasury – March 9, 2018
It is actually hilarious to read liberal spin on this, because almost ever article contradicts the one before on Trump’s wealth, taxes, salary and donations. Many state he didn’t donate his salary, while the next one states he did, but criticizes Trump for taking the Presidential pension, which he never promised not to take! You can’t fix stupid, or TDS! One thing we can be sure of, the lies will never stop.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2022/09/26/trump-national-in-rpv-ensnared-in-ny-lawsuit-alleging-fraud-in-land-value-inflation/
https://www.vox.com/2019/9/3/20845320/mike-pence-ireland-doonbeg-trump-golf
And more!
The sick thing is that Sqrlsy knows what he just posted was Democratic Party political agitprop that has been thoroughly discredited by many things, including the publishing of the tax returns by those same Democrats.
But he decided to post them anyway.
This is why we call him Shillsy, folks.
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How well did he do relative to the rest of the industry he’s a part of? It doesn’t matter how quickly you react if government policy shuts off your source of income.
“If Reason wants a wealth tax, they should state that plainly. They won’t because it would show how far Reason is from libertarian principles.”
Interesting. I didn’t see anything in this article about supporting a wealth tax. Indeed, every article I have read in Reason mentioning this subject (though I might have missed one), has been opposed to “wealth taxes.”
As OBL’s ghost might ask, do you think Koch and his cronies support a wealth tax? Then neither does Reason.
“As OBL’s ghost might ask, do you think Koch and his cronies support a wealth tax?”
How to measure wealth? Will one get a “refund” if one loses wealth in a given year? How much did that Picasso hanging in the foyer go up in value this year? Who is going to calculate that? And what if that Warhol went down in value? Did my 1000 acres of property increase or decrease in value last year?
Again, while not perfect, and, while I personally, would end up paying much more in federal tax with a national sales tax, at least it is much simpler to track.
Yeah, but my back-of-the-envelope calculation I posted on Tuesday suggests we will need a 90% federal sales tax to fund the current budget.
Yep. And maybe, just maybe, that would initiate the “King of All Tax Revolts.”
They want a Donald Trump tax on Donald Trump. Like all leftists, Reason staffers see the tax code as a tool to punish enemies and reward allies.
Can’t have that… who would pay Veronique’s salary if not for massive government spending on “education”?
We always knew that government would continue to grow and centralize, becoming essential and authoritarian at the end. The fact that “government” is now the largest employer in the U.S. should move us to action. 1.) Repeal the 17th Amendment 2.) Only local and state authority should collect general taxes, forwarding funds to the central government for the “enumerated” purposes.
Another big fat nothing-burger from witch-hunt operation #???
What number are we at now?
If the Nazi’s had their way; they’d just go hang Trump for being a witch.
Just need a little more “he’s a witch” Nazi-propaganda.
Because that’s what National Sozialists(Nazi’s) do.
Excellent article. We all know the tax code need to be reformed but the fact is no one has the real courage to start. I had some hope with Paul Ryan but he failed to make any real reform and I have not heard someone willing to step up since. To make matter worse the new spending is often woven into the tax code. Money handed out during the pandemic was a tax credit and the same is true with proposed childcare credits.
Plenty of people have the courage. The peole you support do everything in their power to crush them. Just look at the massive smear campaign against Herman Cain. The attacks against him really showcased the rabid racism endemic of the democrat party.
Here’s How Joe Biden’s Family Got Rich While He Was Vice-President
https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/matt-margolis/2020/01/19/heres-how-joe-bidens-family-got-rich-while-he-was-vice-president-n72304:
There’s a long history of politicians using their power to enrich their families, but according to Peter Schweizer, Joe Biden “emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain.” These sweetheart deals include foreign partners and sometimes taxpayer dollars.
How five members of Joe Biden’s family got rich through his connections:
Political figures have long used their families to route power and benefits for their own self-enrichment. In my new book, “Profiles in Corruption: Abuse of Power by America’s Progressive Elite,” one particular politician — Joe Biden — emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain. In Biden’s case, these deals include foreign partners and, in some cases, even US taxpayer dollars.
The Biden family’s apparent self-enrichment involves five family members: Joe’s son Hunter, son-in-law Howard, brothers James and Frank, and sister Valerie.
When this subject came up in 2019, Biden declared, “I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests. Period.” – New York Post – January 18, 2020
There’s a long history of politicians using their power to enrich their families, but according to Peter Schweizer, Joe Biden “emerges as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefiting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain.” These sweetheart deals include foreign partners and sometimes taxpayer dollars.
Maybe the Media (and Reason) is spending way to much time looking at the wrong President when it comes to corruption and taxes!
Really though? We’re not gonna go into the obvious nepotism of the Trump admin and Kushner getting 2 billion from the Saudis, Ivanka getting Chinese trademarks, Trump getting hotel loans for Indonesia, etc.?
Fuck off. Investigate them all.
Yes, Trump has never been investigated.
Holy shit! Kushner negotiated peace through the Abraham Accords *and* got paid $2B by the Saudis? Between HRC’s ‘reset button’ and Biden’s dick stomping in Kabul, Kushner’s a fucking ‘Art of The Deal’ God. Hell, at this point he makes even Kissinger look like an inbred back country hick.
Even if you take it as the smarmiest, most underhanded, immoral, shitty war-profiteering it is, you’re still cheering against the guy who essentially took a bribe that didn’t affect you one way or the other to look the other way, and not get involved, while a clear oppressor, quickly and quietly did away with undesirables in a neighboring shit hole. Cheering against him in favor of the guy (or the family/organization) who’s stealing from you and risking yours, your neighbor’s, and maybe even everyone in the Northern Hemisphere’s life to launder money propping up an underdog in an effective forever war.
It’s like saying Hoffa was more corrupt and a greater threat to peace and civility than Al Capone.
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Shitlunches, the difference is that the Trump’s and Kushner made these kinds of deals regardless of whether Trump was president or not. The things you describe are not unusual for them. Versus Hunter making deals and gaining lucrative employment in fields where he had zero expertise and experience.
So as usual, you unreasonably smear Trump and cover for the Biden Crime Family. So really, fuck off.
But does Joe Biden emerge as the king as the king of the sweetheart deal, with no less than five family members benefitting from his largesse, favorable access and powerful position for commercial gain?
We get it, you love being Trump’s buttplug. Just admit it.
Thank heavens Reason wasn’t around to write about reforming Slavery, e.g. ‘…This bickering won’t reform Slavery, leaving owners to struggle each year during harvest season…’
Veronique would agree that our slavery system needs to be revamped. First and foremost she would eliminate all special interest tax breaks that support the production of the cotton gin and the traction engine.
JFC, I agree with her that we need to end special subsidies but, damn, is the idea that *that’s* the primary thing that’s wrong with the tax code is retarded.
Not only that but exactly zero words on the violation that is the very revelation she references but bases none of her article on.
Pretty sure the person most impressed with Veronica Rugby is Veronica Rugby.
Yep, dead-eyed focus on the trees.
As such, I would first and foremost eliminate all tax breaks and other preferences that tilt the playing field in favor of politically connected interest groups.
Wait, wait, wait… You pick up the magic wand, give it a wave, and, rather than cut spending, eliminating the sources of spending, writing “balanced budgets or no budgets” (or similar) into law, or getting rid of taxes for everyone you choose to eliminate tax breaks for special interests? You’ve got to be the shittiest fairy godmother in the history of fairy godmothers. You make the Thanos snap, a contrived plot device by an ideologically zealous cartoon villain, seem like a well-reasoned policy decision made by a serious and thoughtful reformer.
Maybe the reason so many Americans are morons about basic tax facts is because they’re edified by the members of the league of extraordinary morons who edit this magazine.
I bet if there were no special interest tax breaks to lobby for all those lobbyists would start lobbying for lower taxes across the board.
Who would be paying them for that? It’s far more likely they’d be finding new employment because they are not advocating for their current positions out of some libertarian principle.
Who would be paying them for that?
I presumed they’d be making money lending out their places of residence as business incubators to entrepreneurial illegal immigrants and the lobbying to reduce everyone’s taxes would just be their side hustle. 😉 (emphasis added).
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Democrat’s simplified tax return form:
line 1 – How much did you make?
line 2 – How much was withheld in taxes?
line 3 – subtract line 2 from line 1.
line 4 – line 3 is your tax bill, send it in.
While the 16th amendment allows the federal government to tax incomes, it says nothing about withholding. So you could argue that income tax withholding is unconstitutional.
If you want to get rid of the income tax, get rid of withholding. Once people have to write a check to the government for several thousand dollars every year, things will change.
“If you want to get rid of the income tax, get rid of withholding. Once people have to write a check to the government for several thousand dollars every year, things will change.”
Well, that would be a start. But a huge amount of federal taxes are collected which are not income-related: the gas tax, for instance, which is 18.4 cents per gallon and 24.4 cents per gallon for diesel. Replace all federal taxes with one tax (say a national sales tax, as a for-instance), and lose the 2,600 pages of the tax code. (Yeah, I know — a pipe dream).
JFC, with libertarians like you, who needs authoritarian statists?
This retardation is so stupid, so narrow, and such a direct repeat of sarcasmic’s retardation one might suspect you’re reading from the same Taxes For Retards disinformation script, if not the same person.
Total annual revenue for *all* excise tax is something less than 2% of total revenue.
As if that weren’t retarded enough, you aren’t even talking about cutting it, but horse-trading the dollar amount in order to, supposedly, cut down on the amount of paperwork.
As if *that* weren’t retarded enough, I say “supposedly” above as the actual form of the tax has fuck all to do with the paperwork involved. Go buy some dyed/farm diesel and get back to us on how your “gas tax for paperwork” horse trading deal pans out. You retard.
“As if that weren’t retarded enough, you aren’t even talking about cutting it, but horse-trading the dollar amount in order to, supposedly, cut down on the amount of paperwork.”
I never met a tax cut I didn’t support. That being said, cuts in taxes, without commensurate reductions in spending, is a shell game.
My point is, given that federal government spending, in 2020, reached 44% of GDP, that if every person had to actually pay for that, (yeah, I am such a “retard” that I demand a balanced budget) and had the amount printed out on every receipt at retail purchase, we might just take notice of how much the government is actually raping us.
If a $3 loaf of bread now becomes almost $4.50, would folks notice? What if that $30,000 Chevy becomes $43,000?. Would folks notice? Maybe even demand some changes?
They might just revolt.
I never met a tax cut I didn’t support.
Considering you, conceptually, actively avoided cutting taxes by offsetting gas with income or sales, this statement would seem to suggest your success at evading them rather than the degree to which you support them should one stumble across you hiding in the bushes out behind the shed.
I am such a “retard” that I demand a balanced budget
You didn’t demand that. Even if you did, as above, you “demanded” it by keeping taxes at their current level.
the amount printed out on every receipt at retail purchase, we might just take notice of how much the government is actually raping us
Who gets, let alone reads, receipts anymore. What are you, 80?
If a $3 loaf of bread now becomes almost $4.50, would folks notice? What if that $30,000 Chevy becomes $43,000?. Would folks notice? Maybe even demand some changes?
You mean how gas went from $2.50/gal. to $5/gal. and everybody freaked out entirely without printed receipts or a change in the gas tax?
Your, and even BrianL.’s, proposed fix is a non-sequitur as withholding is relatively voluntary. It’s just another version of “If we get the right TOP MEN to write things out clearly on the right number of pages.” proposition.
“Who gets, let alone reads, receipts anymore…?”
Oh gee. You mean did I actually notice, when I lived in CA, that the last mandolin I purchased had an added sales tax of over $250?
“…What are you, 80?”
What are you, 14?
You need to read a receipt to know with close approximation the sales tax on an item? Did you not get past fifth grade?
If a $3 loaf of bread now becomes almost $4.50, would folks notice? What if that $30,000 Chevy becomes $43,000?. Would folks notice? Maybe even demand some changes?
They might just revolt.
Really? Then explain the midterms.
”
“If a $3 loaf of bread now becomes almost $4.50, would folks notice? What if that $30,000 Chevy becomes $43,000?. Would folks notice? Maybe even demand some changes? Really? Then explain the midterms.”
A good question. And certainly the government was 90% to blame for the cost increase.
Let me take another tack here: It is generally well-understood that the price of an item at retail in the US is inflated by 25-30% (some folks claim even more) by taxes on the companies involved in manufacturing, distribution, etc., of that product, and which are passed on by them to the consumer.
In other words: that $4.50 loaf of bread actually cost +/- $3.00 to deliver to your local store – the government takes the rest. But, that fact is hidden from the consumer. What if they weren’t “hidden?”
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Yup. It’s not unconstitutional now as no one is definitively forced to withhold. Between filling out your W-4 telling your employer to withhold $0 or being employed and filing with a W-2, withholding is not mandatory.
It’s like saying you pre-ordering a gun from your local FFL and asking them to hold it for 3 days until you get into town is an unconstitutional violation of the 2A.
There’s a penalty for not withholding enough.
“Indeed, in the current system, a business that earned a $500,000 profit in 2020 but also suffered $500,000 annual losses over the previous two years and is still losing money can average its profits by carrying forward those losses. This provision makes total sense. You don’t want startups and risk-taking entrepreneurs—which in this scenario are still losing money—to fail because of the burden of taxes in a volatile economy or to needlessly face the higher tax rates paid by well-established businesses.”
Um…fuck no.
I don’t give a flying fuck whether a business succeeds or dies. That’s up to the business owner. I’m not willing to subsidize failing businesses because they can’t afford to pay taxes. Pay up or die off, I don’t give a fuck.
It’s very, very clear it’s abused to stratospheric heights. Heaven forbid the common man get a break (which I would be fine with those going away too) but we have to make cutouts for businesses?
No, fuck all that and twice over. Make them pay what they owe or let them die. No skin off my back.
Democrats continue to not understand carry forward losses and why single year tax estimates for a business do not work.
Then again they cater to billionaires who can afford a few years of losses before profitability. Screw low wealth business owners.
Again, you fail to understand anything, all you care about is the free shit you were promised someone else will be forced to pay for.
And you always ignore that the free shit never materializes. Always so keen on others to be taxed so that that money can be used to kill yet another group of people on the other side of the world.
Shitlunches now proved how stupid he is.
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raspberrydinners: “How come Walmart, Amazon, and other megacorps are the only businesses left? Where are all the small businesses? This is bullshit!”
Hey fucktard, why do tax accounting on an annual basis, when calculating tax liability based on any positive cash flow could be done monthly or even daily? Screw that business owner who pays bills and operating expenses only once a week. Those down days are his problem.
Tell me you understand nothing about running a business without saying you know nothing about running a business.
He probably works for the government.
“I’m not willing to subsidize….”
Aww, poor raspberry. Such a martyr. What would we do without you?
Everything is so terrible and unfair.
Not paying taxes isn’t a ‘subsidy’ Shitlunches. Words have definitions. And as a Marxist, we all know goddamn well that you hate businesses and are happy to see them fail.
no, eliminate the income tax altogether. Hope this helps, raspberry.I know you have a hard time reading.
Agree 1000%. Taxes are a disincentive. Currently we are taxing income (production) when we should be taxing consumption.
its early but a clear contender for most idiotic post of 2023
De Rugy – *have* some of his businesses been found to have been evading taxes (and actual crime) or have some of them had a different interpretation of tax owed than the IRS (and then worked with the IRS to satisfy the government)?
Those are very different things.
Not to a leftist looking to score political points and justify the trampling of civil rights.
re: “The bottom line is that as long as Congress continues to tax businesses, legitimate expenses must be deductible”
Not quite. If the article had said “continues to tax businesses on the basis of profits“, it would be true that deductible expenses must remain a thing. If you changed the tax basis from profits to revenues, however, that would be really bad for lots of reasons but the one upside is that it would eliminate the arguements over deductibility of expenses.
How so? Revenue comes at a cost, just as profit does.
Agree with this. If every person was a “business” then every livable expense (i.e. shelter, bed, food, vehicle) would be a “business expense”. It’s like politicians wrote tax code specifically to take as much as they possibly can without literally destroying everything and yet they take so GD much they still destroy everything. There just isn’t any LIMITS on how much armed-robbers can talk themselves into taking.
Some of them understand that they can’t actually kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
“Our tax code would be radically improved if it weren’t used by politicians to subsidize certain behaviors while penalizing others.”
Our entire legal code would be radically improved if it weren’t used by politicians to socially and economically engineer all human behavior.
I humbly suggest this as the better libertarian response.
I humbly suggest this as the better libertarian response.
Sure, but then you get into the thorny issues about selectively releasing Trump’s tax returns and selectively raiding Trump’s repository of Presidential documents and selectively impeaching Trump for a quid pro quo with the Ukraine and selectively investigating Trump for interfering in the 2016 and/or 2020 elections… to say nothing about selectively protecting certain forms of government funded research in China or the Ukraine and selectively silencing public opposition on virtually *all* social media.
Reason may be a libertarian magazine, but they aren’t *that* libertarian.
de Rugy isn’t a libertarian, so that falls on deaf ears with her.
+1000000000 ^^^^ THIS ^^^^
Right-o. In my long accounting career, with small, medium and large employers, it was always the small and closely held ones that wrote off that trip to Orlando as “meeting with potential new clients” or some such bullshit. As long as I got to go along now and then, it was no skin off my back!
Remember how maybe 20 years ago there was a movement to abolish advertising as a deductible expense? I think the people behind that just didn’t like reminders that some people were trying to make money. Of course that never stood a chance, because the same people loved the newspaper business and other media that carry advertising.
“But partisans are having the wrong debate.”
Shouldn’t the Libertarian debate be why Trump’s taxes got illegally released by corrupt Democrats? Seems like Libertarians should care about rule of law and the way Congress disregards it against it’s political opponents.
That issue is due in part to the fact that Uncle Sam often taxes the wrong income, which is an even bigger problem.
The obvious problem in looking at Trump’s return is that income is a completely meaningless measure for many in the asset class.
They don’t pay 20% unless their tax accountant is particularly stupid. The 20% is a net amount. All capital losses are fully deductible. For people at the lower end of the asset class, that’s fine. For people who own large portfolios of assets, it is very easy to create artificial losses. It’s why we have wash sale rules. But those are rules that anyone can drive a truck through.
How ‘artificial?”. If I have a $1000 gain and net it out against a $1000 loss,my wallet doesn’t think breaking even was “artificial.”
It’s not always easy to create losses. Prior to 2010 it would have been really difficult. I manage three family portfolios and none of them had any investments with unrealized losses at that time due to the long bull market.
Sometimes. Sometimes not. There are three rates for long term capital gains taxes, and the lowest is zero. Sometimes people in the “asset class” get a lot, if not all, of their LT gains in the zero bracket, most notably those who are retired. I’ve been able to do that for two straight years. All it takes is managing your taxable income diligently.
State media is awfully quiet about the Trump tax return bombshell. The walls are closing in. Derp Derp Derp
I doubt they really understand his returns. They’re vast and complicated. I would have difficulty following them, and I have an accounting degree. Hell, it took the IRS years to get through an audit with him.
You might be able to understand it, in terms of what’s going on, but not in terms of what people are looking for: did he cheat? It’s impossible to understand that for Trump-type tax return from just the return, including supporting schedules. You have to do an audit and get the specifics of the deductions.
Yes. Which is why it took the IRS so long to complete his audit. There’s just so much there. But imagine NYT’s reporters looking for a ‘gotcha’. They have no idea what they’re doing and most of them aren’t very bright. These are the same people that think taking advantage of standard depreciation for applicable assets is somehow a ‘subsidy’.
If the IRS found no criminality, then there almost certainly was none. So there is no legitimate basis for the democrats to access Trump’s returns. Many of them belong in prison for this.
Tyranny
Reform? Abolition!
The Internal Revenue Service has made it difficult, if not impossible, for us “U.S. persons” to open or maintain banking accounts in foreign countries. It did this not by outlawing them but by imposing reporting requirements on off-foreign banks even if those banks have no presence in the USA, a practice known as extra-territoriality. The purpose is not to identify criminals or terrorists. Ninety percent of these regulations involve taxation. Consequence? Economic tyranny. What typically follows? Political and social tyranny, which we currently are witnessing.
“An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.” -Daniel Webster (1819)
The income-tax had fostered all that had affrighted both Federalists and Anti-Federalists. It gave the federal government unbridled power to invade the privacy of every American — adult and child — and selectively to destroy individual persons, single enterprises, and whole industries.
Its enforcing agency, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), had operated in a manner similar to the Nazi’s Geheime Staatspolizei (Gestapo) or the Secret State Police in Germany. Its tyrannical tactics illustrated the worst sort of economic management by punishing rather than rewarding creativity and productivity. Worse, in promoting dishonesty, the income tax made criminals of most Americans, even accountants, who found the increasing complexity and laborious length of its so-called code and the forms derived therefrom invidious, incomprehensible, and intolerable. Americans were spending more than 6-billion, counter-productive hours annually to comply with the federal tax-code. Moreover, it was being used politically to persecute organizations and persons repeatedly while guilty bureaucrats within the IRS went unpunished for their illegal acts even when made public.
As described in the semi-fictional novel, Retribution Fever, there is a better way — a scientific way. End the tyranny!
+10000000 Well Said…
“Reform? Abolition!” —
An Armed-Robber shows up at the grocery store to STEAL and all the customers argue about who’s going to get stolen from first.
Point being; Everyone knows Armed-Robbers TAKE F’En EVERYTHING they can get their greedy hands on. If it was 10-cents from every customer it would be such a debate.
>>how poorly many Americans grasp basic tax facts.
100% of the media reported someone paid $250million to get Bankman-Fraud back on the streets too
also, repeal the 16th whatthefuck
The Clintons knew how to do this. IIRC Their taxes were $5,000,000 income from WJC LLC to Bill and $5,000,000 income from Simon-Schuster to Hillary.
And no one batted an eye. It was hilarious.
Only a non-politician would file all his tax shenanigans under his own name.
The tax reform we need is to eliminate the income tax. I’m trying to help you guys.
Go Exempt. As I do not reside in the corporate United States, I am not a Federal Citizen. I live in the Ohio Republic and haven’t paid the Feds since 2015.
You’re a kook. Have you tried squatting in someone else’s home and claimed it for your own yet?
10 Reasons to implement the Fair Tax First of all Leo me say that we do need a new way to collect taxes. That being said there is only one that really deserves mentioning.
THE FAIR TAX. Everyone is created equal. Following are reasons why Joe Six Pack will be hopping mad why this is not passed.
1. No personal income taxes or corporate taxes.
2. A monthly tax rebate of $600 collected from retail purposes to insure that the poor are not taxes.
3. No FICA or other federal taxes withheld.
4. There is 22% in taxes embedded on each retail dollar. That means that the retailer is paying 22 cents for each dollar for each retail sale. What that means is if he pays 72 cents for a $1 retail cost item from the manufacturer, you the buyer are paying 22 cents of an embedded retail sale that you just made. The Fair Tax does away with that tax of 22 cents. If the retail cost is $5.00 then the embedded tax for that item is $1.10. It gets very large on really expensive items.
5. If you are making the national average of $52,000 you are taxed at say 25% or $13,000. Don’t forget the 13 plus percent that you are paying in payroll tax. That’s another $1,750 or a total of $14,705 in taxes that you would not be paying, it’s in your pocket.
6. So where do the taxes come form that our government runs on? Well, remember that 22% that was embedded? The retail cost is where the tax will be collected. That $1.00 item that you paid for that Pepsi will still be $1.00. The difference is that the retailer will be collecting the taxes that were embedded or they will collect 23% of each retail dollar that they sell. Wow, you might be thinking, why don’t we do this now? I’m getting back 14,750! Answer: This takes away the greatest power that senators and congressmen have. They can no loner gives out favors that could result in campaign donations and other perks that you and I don’t have. Listen to this, On a study of how much money would be collected, 15 out of the previous 16 years would have resulted in MORE money being collected for the government to spend. One of the reasons is that drug dealers pay no taxes. When they spend the ill-gotten gains that are paying taxes. Ditto gamblers, prostitutes, under the table money made off of illegal sales, all unreported income, the past goes on and on.
6. How much did you pay for someone to fill out your tax return? Guess what. There is no IRS looking over your shoulder since all tax income is taxed at the retail level. Further more we as a nation now spend over $500 billion in tax returns to satisfy the IRS. That $500 billion is now being returned to the economy. That is a gold star for us, the tax payers that happens every year since April 15th is now just another day. That’s just money that stays in your pocket.
7. There is no tax on items sold that are used. The tax is only on new items. Ever buy a used car? antique furniture? EBay purchases? The list in never ending in items that we buy used.
8. So we have taken care of the poor. They pay no taxes on income and FICA up to the federal poverty level or about $27,000. They get that $600 each month that is a tax rebate each month to offset the 23% embedded in the retail cost of retail purchases. Ask any one if they would like to pay no more income taxes, payroll taxes, and a $600 government check each month. You’ll get an overwhelming yes. The only noes will come from politicians and people that think that the government knows better on how to take care of them. I for one, will take the money. The government gets more money to operate the programs that are in place. As the economy gets larger the taxes will go up that are collected which might just make Social security outlook better and better.
9. WE, you and I, will get on all off our receipts the 23% embedded tax withheld. When we as taxpayers see how much that we actually pay it is hoped the we, you and I, will become mad and demand a smaller federal budget which would result in less being withheld for the government or used to pay down the federal debt of $32 Trillion.
10. Jesus was here on Earth 1,000,000,000 seconds ago. We owe $32 Trillion dollars. What will we leave our children and grandchildren?
Wow… WAY WORSE than I thought.
9. Complete bogus point; We already see taxes withheld.
8. “They get that $600 each month”
7. Guaranteed way to break everyone favoring used garbage.
6. Another Completely bogus point; Who’s collecting taxes cost?
but you said it…
On a study of how much money would be collected, 15 out of the previous 16 years would have resulted in ****MORE**** money being collected for the government to spend.
And MORE hidden way of STEALING it…
F the Fair Tax First Act; It’s just another scheme to get more STOLEN money without anyone noticing.
Heck; I don’t even think its Constitutional. Plan on getting an Amendment for this POS tax scam?
As someone else says quite well —–> FU! CUT-SPENDING!
Too bad you don’t understand the Fair Tax Act. I’ll put you in the either the political group or the group for less money for your work. I suggest that you find someone to help you read it slowly…..
I would rather have no taxes at all but the reality sets in. we have this huge barge called the United States and our money that we work for has been taken from us. Reality is we have to come up with a way to generate money for our government. This idea of the Fair Tax Act was born when 3 wealthy gentlemen who were on boards of several large corporation saw that a large percentage of their time at board meetings was spent on whether or not a new idea would be tax advisable or not. They put together 20 million dollars to see a better way yo collect taxes. They expected a Flat Tax but they were surprised that the two universities, M.I.T. and Harvard said that the best way would be to implement the Fair Tax. They then got Rep. John Linder to get the ball rolling. Our biggest problem will be with Congress. Cutting taxes is always a great idea but congress has too much power to allow that to happen in any significant way. The Fair Tax Act repeals the 16th Amendment to be repealed and the Fair Tax Act becomes a new Amendment.
veronique comes to the wrong conclusion. we don’t a better tax system. we need to eliminate the fed income tax. the fed is way too big and we simply don’t need its function. the correct tax number is $0
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