How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax
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In the RWEC, the major story is not that very rich people avoid taxes, legally, but the fact that this information was leaked.
At NRO:
The relevant question is not whether you like Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg, Warren Buffett and Elon Musk. The question is whether the IRS declaration that tax returns are confidential applies to everyone or not. This morning it’s pretty clear that the your tax return is confidential, as long as no one at the IRS thinks it is newsworthy. But if they do, you’re screwed. …
The true problem isn’t the reporters, it is the people with access to classified, privileged, confidential or sensitive information who decide to violate their oaths and the law to leak that information, and that is the proper target for prosecutions. That said, a publication can look at leaked information and conclude they’re not going to play a supporting role in the violation of a person’s right to privacy.
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-They’re doing it simply someone at the IRS gave private materials protected by law to them? Really? The news agency that “investigates abuses of power” seems to overlook a very large example of just that kind of official abuse to expose … legal behavior. ProPublica has done excellent investigative work in the past, but this raises all sorts of questions as to motives and manipulation.
Not at ProPublica, however:
Today, ProPublica is launching the first in a series of stories based on the private tax data of some of our nation’s richest citizens. We obtained the information from an anonymous source who provided us with large amounts of information on the ultrawealthy, everything from the taxes they paid to the income they reported to the profits from their stock trades. …
Many will ask about the ethics of publishing such private data. We are doing so — quite selectively and carefully — because we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden.
Tax experts have long understood that the wealthiest Americans reap outsized benefits from the federal tax code’s emphasis on taxing income rather than assets like stock holdings and property. Yet, when The New York Times disclosed in 2020 that President Donald Trump had amassed so many deductions he paid no taxes in 11 of 18 years, it was assumed that his case was an anomaly, reflecting the unique breaks real estate developers receive under our tax system.
It is now clear that there isn’t just one such taxpayer — there are many, in multiple industries. We believe that disclosing the identities of billionaires who paid little to no taxes in years their fortunes grew by billions of dollars will help readers understand the magnitude of the tax advantages the ultrarich enjoy.
If “tax experts have long understood” this, then what’s the point of exposing private information — especially since it’s not the taxpayers who control this, at least directly? Tax returns are protected by law for a reason — they want filers to have no excuses for being completely honest about their income. If ProPublica wants to cover the unfairness of the tax system, interview the tax experts and construct hypotheticals — or ask some of these “.001 percenters” for permission to use their tax returns.
There’s no indication that these particular filers aren’t being honest. If these taxpayers were breaking the law and getting away with it, that might be a good reason to expose the people and their returns as a way to pressure the IRS and the Department of Justice into enforcement. That’s not the issue for this ProPublica article, however; they’re unhappy about the policy and regulation with which these filers comply.
And more to the point, so is the person who leaked this material. This isn’t a whistleblower calling attention to official abuse of power or lawbreaking. It’s someone who has a beef with the law as it stands, and is himself abusing the power of his position to manipulate public opinion about it. ProPublica is playing along for its own political purposes, which puts them in a moral position of cooperating with abuse of power rather than investigating it.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
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@george-k said in How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax:
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-They’re doing it simply someone at the IRS gave private materials protected by law to them? Really? The news agency that “investigates abuses of power” seems to overlook a very large example of just that kind of official abuse to expose … legal behavior.
FBI, Treasury are investigating the leak.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-investigates-disclosure-tax-records-rich-americans-2021-06-08/ -
Always remember, Operation Valkyrie was an act of sedition.
Warning: I post things that interest me. Read and comment at your own discretion. -
The timing of the leak is amazing, it would be a fantastic coincidence if it isn’t politically motivated. I’m not making any infererences as to who did it.
If our laws allow ProPublica to publish it and on a slow drip our laws should be equally aggressive in protecting the victims of the crime.
We spent the last four years making such a big deal about “process” crimes. This one is much more significant.
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Federal authorities are investigating the release of wealthy Americans’ tax information, Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Charles Rettig said Tuesday.
ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization, published details about the reported income and tax payments of some of the richest Americans, including Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos and Berkshire Hathaway Inc. CEO Warren Buffett.
Taxpayer information is confidential, and there are potential criminal penalties for IRS employees or others who release such information. Mr. Rettig told lawmakers that there were internal and external investigations beginning, with potential prosecutions to follow.
“I share the concerns of every American for the sensitive and private nature and confidential nature of the information the IRS receives,” he said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing that had been scheduled before the information was released. “Trust and confidence in the Internal Revenue Service is sort of the bedrock of asking people and requiring people to provide financial information.”
The ProPublica article said the news organization didn’t know the identity of its source and described the information it received as IRS data on thousands of people covering more than 15 years. It isn’t certain that the information—a highly unusual airing of private tax data—came directly from within the IRS or whether the agency was hacked in some way. The article highlighted years in which Mr. Bezos and others paid little or no federal income tax.
“The unauthorized disclosure of confidential government information is illegal,” said Lily Adams, a Treasury Department spokeswoman. She said that the matter has been referred to the Treasury’s inspector general, the IRS inspector general, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and federal prosecutors in Washington.
Remind me, was there an investigation into who leaked Trumps tax records?
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When does Bezos finally turn on Democrats?
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@lufins-dad said in How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax:
When does Bezos finally turn on Democrats?
Maybe if he dressed up in sexy underwear?
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@lufins-dad said in How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax:
When does Bezos finally turn on Democrats?
He is long past the awareness that it is more pragmatic for his business interests to join them rather than try to beat them.
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@george-k said in How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax:
I thought the ProPublica analysis of billionaire taxes was going to be exciting. Instead, it told me things I already knew: that the US tax code offers deductions for charitable donations, loan interest, and business operating expenses, and only taxes capital gains when you sell.
This above.
I am pretty sure that everyone on this forum board uses as much as possible the tax laws to their advantage. It is not any surprise that rich people do it also.
Putting on my Ax hat - if people dont like what the report showed, then change the laws. LOL
(and yes, the person or people who did this should be punished)
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https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/12/business/private-equity-taxes.html
@89th, the article linked above hits truer at the title of your thread. This one is about the “carry interest” privileges enjoyed by the investment bankers, the abuse of that privilege, and the almost nonexistent IRS auditing of private equity firms despite explicit whistle blower complain against them for this sort of abuses.
