3 ms·
"All it does is verify what we already know." Wait. What who already knows? I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who read this article did not already kno
by pmoriarty 5y ago
"All it does is verify what we already know."
Wait. What who already knows?
I'm willing to bet that a lot of people who read this article did not already know the information contained within.
As such the article serves to educate a lot of people, which is a positive development.
- mc32 5y agoI don’t think the author needed leaked data to present their objections to tax minimization.
- ethbr0 5y agoThey absolutely did. That something is legally within the bounds of the US tax code is public knowledge. That ultra-wealthy utilize something to an extent is not public knowledge. Which cuts to one of the central issues with viewing the US tax code as democratic: there's almost no transparency of use. The public might feel very different about a particular tax rule if they knew small businesses primarily used it, vs if they knew major corporations used it to shield 90% of their profits. The IRS should do a better job of anonymizing actual tax reports, and reporting out on patterns in aggregate.
- mlindner 5y agoTalk to any software engineer in the valley and they do a lot of the same stuff that Bezos does. The "trick" of not paying taxes until you sell the stock is something I do all the time. It's not a trick even.
- germinalphrase 5y agoBut it does provide direct evidence (that average people can link to prior knowledge) in support of those objections.