3 ms·

This is more of a problem with legalized obstruction of justice by financial arbitrage. There is no easy solution to that problem, and it plagues all areas of m

This is more of a problem with legalized obstruction of justice by financial arbitrage. There is no easy solution to that problem, and it plagues all areas of modern life.

Dracophoenix 6y ago
>>legalized obstruction of justice That's a contradiction in terms. No person owes a red cent more than what their legal required to pay. There is no obstruction of justice unless you're of the persuasion that sovereignty & property rights mean nothing while any government should have a right to pilfer bank accounts as they see fit.
- salawat 6y ago
  You're missing their point. They're talking about shell games. Basically, you can play audit chicken with legal fictions. In order for the IRS to enforce accurate tax collection, they rely on you and everyone else you work/interact with to provide an accurate picture of your fiscal status quo. That requires footwork once you start making any amount of money sufficient enough where it becomes doable for you to establish multiple independent legal entities worth of books that then have to be combed through in order to ensure compliance. The IRS continually has their funding restricted to the point they can't muster the kinds of effective enforcement actions that span multiple taxable entities, possibly distributed across international boundaries. They can, however, root out Susie Q. Small-Business-Owner taking out deductions she shouldn't be. That's what they mean by legalized obstruction of justice, even if they are abusing the term a bit. Those that make their affairs difficult or time conbsuming enough to work through, but also avoid "low-level gotchas" are effectively shielded from the risks of enforcement actions. You'd really need some pretty significant whistles to be blown to even get enough auditors mustered to a case to make it worthwhile to invest the effort, and if you're making enough to be worth it, you probably make enough to hire a few tax attorneys capable of getting you off the hook, miring the tax authority in jurisdictional squabbles or doing the requisite financial engineering to exploit the loophole of the year. That's the issue. Nevermind the IRS makes more money for the government for every dollar invested. Never mind that the tax code is a nightmare because of Congress more so than the IRS. It's a multi-faceted perennial political problem that shows no hint of going away until 99% of tge country accept that in order to get the government funded to do their job better, you've got to equip it enough to make everybody's life miserable, and at that point you're kind of at best back to square one, where operationally, you'll have 1% screaming their unfairly burdened and everyone else isn't pulling their weight, and it's unfair, yada, yada, yada. Of course, this is all exacerbated by all kinds of deficit spending doubled down on every couple of years, which if we're ever going to dial that back as a country and stop playing games with MMT... Eh. Let me stop. The horse is dead, no use beating it further.

This is more of a problem with legalized obstruction of justice by financial arbitrage. There is no easy solution to that problem, and it plagues all areas of modern life.

Dracophoenix 6y ago

>>legalized obstruction of justice That's a contradiction in terms. No person owes a red cent more than what their legal required to pay. There is no obstruction of justice unless you're of the persuasion that sovereignty & property rights mean nothing while any government should have a right to pilfer bank accounts as they see fit.

salawat 6y ago
You're missing their point. They're talking about shell games. Basically, you can play audit chicken with legal fictions. In order for the IRS to enforce accurate tax collection, they rely on you and everyone else you work/interact with to provide an accurate picture of your fiscal status quo. That requires footwork once you start making any amount of money sufficient enough where it becomes doable for you to establish multiple independent legal entities worth of books that then have to be combed through in order to ensure compliance. The IRS continually has their funding restricted to the point they can't muster the kinds of effective enforcement actions that span multiple taxable entities, possibly distributed across international boundaries. They can, however, root out Susie Q. Small-Business-Owner taking out deductions she shouldn't be. That's what they mean by legalized obstruction of justice, even if they are abusing the term a bit. Those that make their affairs difficult or time conbsuming enough to work through, but also avoid "low-level gotchas" are effectively shielded from the risks of enforcement actions. You'd really need some pretty significant whistles to be blown to even get enough auditors mustered to a case to make it worthwhile to invest the effort, and if you're making enough to be worth it, you probably make enough to hire a few tax attorneys capable of getting you off the hook, miring the tax authority in jurisdictional squabbles or doing the requisite financial engineering to exploit the loophole of the year. That's the issue. Nevermind the IRS makes more money for the government for every dollar invested. Never mind that the tax code is a nightmare because of Congress more so than the IRS. It's a multi-faceted perennial political problem that shows no hint of going away until 99% of tge country accept that in order to get the government funded to do their job better, you've got to equip it enough to make everybody's life miserable, and at that point you're kind of at best back to square one, where operationally, you'll have 1% screaming their unfairly burdened and everyone else isn't pulling their weight, and it's unfair, yada, yada, yada. Of course, this is all exacerbated by all kinds of deficit spending doubled down on every couple of years, which if we're ever going to dial that back as a country and stop playing games with MMT... Eh. Let me stop. The horse is dead, no use beating it further.