3 ms·

I would be outraged if someone leaked my taxes to the public. I'd be looking for someone to sue, though in this case I'd fail to find anyone I can sue I'm sure

I would be outraged if someone leaked my taxes to the public. I'd be looking for someone to sue, though in this case I'd fail to find anyone I can sue I'm sure. I don't care if these are the richest people in the country or if the data is really interesting, it's not ethical. In my opinion, even though propublica didn't solicit this information, they should not have posted information derived from private tax information without the consent of those involved. I don't what the laws are here, but I'm talking about ethics. I wouldn't want my private information summarized, by name, in this manner. The other issue I have is that not only is the provenance of this data unknown, so also is it's veracity. They don't know who gave it to them or why and thus they can't confirm it wasn't made up out of whole cloth.

secabeen 5y ago
I actually feel the opposite. I think we should make tax returns public, as they do in Norway: https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/apr/11/when-it-comes-to-tax-transparency-norway-leads-the-field https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/apr/11/when-it-c... We'd need some small adjustments to make them not useful for identity theft (remove SSNs, stop using specific values from them as authenticators for the IRS, etc.) but with that done, I think it would be a great improvement in transparency. My public sector salary is already a matter of public record, and that has worked fine.
- godshatter 5y ago
  Someone's public sector salary may be a matter of public record, but their deductions are not. The tax forms (in the US, anyway) cover everything from whether or not they or their spouse are blind to exactly how much they spent in health care costs from a health spending account (with receipts attached) to whether or not they added solar power to their roof. It would have to not show addresses, because of people hiding from abusive spouses, among other concerns. I'm for more aggregate data being made available as long as it couldn't be used to find one individual, and I'm okay with the IRS adding a checkbox for "make my data publicly available" as long as you could always uncheck it. But then I take privacy more seriously than many others do, not sure why. I'd be happier if we greatly simplified the tax laws so that this extra data was not necessary. Not going to complain if they reduce the tax burden as well. Edit: grammar
  - secabeen 5y ago
    Simplifying the tax code is certainly sensible. Reducing the tax burden is not. As mandatory expenditures (medicare and social security) continue to increase as a percentage of GDP, the discretionary part of the budget (roads, defense, R&D, etc.) is going to continue to get squeezed. Unless we can significantly reduce the amount of money going to the health care sector to the tune of about $1T/year (and deal with the impacts of that on the people currently working in that sector), tax burden is going to have to go up. Some nice charts midway through this page: https://www.pgpf.org/analysis/cbo-warns-fiscal-path-is-unsustainable-and-threatens-economic-growth https://www.pgpf.org/analysis/cbo-warns-fiscal-path-is-unsus...

secabeen 5y ago

I actually feel the opposite. I think we should make tax returns public, as they do in Norway: https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/apr/11/when-it-comes-to-tax-transparency-norway-leads-the-field https://www.theguardian.com/money/blog/2016/apr/11/when-it-c... We'd need some small adjustments to make them not useful for identity theft (remove SSNs, stop using specific values from them as authenticators for the IRS, etc.) but with that done, I think it would be a great improvement in transparency. My public sector salary is already a matter of public record, and that has worked fine.

godshatter 5y ago
Someone's public sector salary may be a matter of public record, but their deductions are not. The tax forms (in the US, anyway) cover everything from whether or not they or their spouse are blind to exactly how much they spent in health care costs from a health spending account (with receipts attached) to whether or not they added solar power to their roof. It would have to not show addresses, because of people hiding from abusive spouses, among other concerns. I'm for more aggregate data being made available as long as it couldn't be used to find one individual, and I'm okay with the IRS adding a checkbox for "make my data publicly available" as long as you could always uncheck it. But then I take privacy more seriously than many others do, not sure why. I'd be happier if we greatly simplified the tax laws so that this extra data was not necessary. Not going to complain if they reduce the tax burden as well. Edit: grammar
- secabeen 5y ago
  Simplifying the tax code is certainly sensible. Reducing the tax burden is not. As mandatory expenditures (medicare and social security) continue to increase as a percentage of GDP, the discretionary part of the budget (roads, defense, R&D, etc.) is going to continue to get squeezed. Unless we can significantly reduce the amount of money going to the health care sector to the tune of about $1T/year (and deal with the impacts of that on the people currently working in that sector), tax burden is going to have to go up. Some nice charts midway through this page: https://www.pgpf.org/analysis/cbo-warns-fiscal-path-is-unsustainable-and-threatens-economic-growth https://www.pgpf.org/analysis/cbo-warns-fiscal-path-is-unsus...