3 ms·

The tax code isn’t enforced at the cash / low income level. Thus you can vote for increased taxes to fund increased social spending and not actually take part

by rhexs 5y ago

The tax code isn’t enforced at the cash / low income level. Thus you can vote for increased taxes to fund increased social spending and not actually take part in the taxation. In fact, you’ll likely even get additional money back filing taxes when there’s no record of your cash income. Convenient, eh?

empthought 5y ago
“Gotcha!” - Lucky Ducky https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2003/06/14 https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2003/06/14
RockyMcNuts 5y ago
And yet the poor get audited more than the rich ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-likely-to-get-audited/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-li...
- rhexs 5y ago
  At low incomes, your tax return is highly likely to be incredibly simple. If you’re doing something so wrong that it generates an audit, the IRS clearly knows they’re going to strike oil with the audit. They aren’t stupid. What’s your solution? The poor should be able to commit tax fraud because going after millionaires is more important? Everyone should have to follow the tax code we’ve collectively created. It makes changing it far simpler when everyone is impacted equally.
  - RockyMcNuts 5y ago
    since you asked, my solution 1) VAT to replace income tax for bottom 50% or so 2) simplified income tax only for high earners (for normies consumption is an excellent proxy for income) 3) don't privilege capital income with low rates and infinite deferral 4) no corporate income tax which is a poor substitute for 3), and anyway corporate income is mostly accounting fiction
- notch656a 5y ago
  A large portion of that auditing is fraud/error involved in earned income tax credits, where you get paid special credits to make less money. Also for various reasons, being poor can often go hand in hand with being both unable to file a return in a way that looks correct and being unable to hire a professional to do it on your behalf. There is an incentive to look poor even if you are not so poor, when filing taxes. It's those who file as poor who aren't so poor, not those who are as poor as they say, that are the more likely culprit of these audits.
- Kranar 5y ago
  No they don't. People abuse statistics to give this impression but the IRS is pretty clear that it is simply untrue. A great deal of the deception comes from the fact that there are many more poor people than rich people, so on the face of it it's easy to mislead people into thinking that the IRS goes mostly after poor people, but when you normalize against income distribution, the IRS is far far far more likely to go after you if you're rich than if you're poor, and the results come directly from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/irs-audit-rates-significantly-increase-as-income-rises https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/irs-audit-rates-significantly-...
leephillips 5y ago
I don’t know about the guy who was quoted, but I think that some people who are accustomed to normal jobs with tax withholding are actually unaware that they are obligated to pay taxes on cash income. For many people the only purpose in filing a tax return is to get a refund, as most people with normal jobs are victims of over-withholding.

by rhexs 5y ago

empthought 5y ago

“Gotcha!” - Lucky Ducky https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2003/06/14 https://www.gocomics.com/tomthedancingbug/2003/06/14

RockyMcNuts 5y ago

And yet the poor get audited more than the rich ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-likely-to-get-audited/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irs-audit-eitc-five-times-as-li...

rhexs 5y ago
At low incomes, your tax return is highly likely to be incredibly simple. If you’re doing something so wrong that it generates an audit, the IRS clearly knows they’re going to strike oil with the audit. They aren’t stupid. What’s your solution? The poor should be able to commit tax fraud because going after millionaires is more important? Everyone should have to follow the tax code we’ve collectively created. It makes changing it far simpler when everyone is impacted equally.
- RockyMcNuts 5y ago
  since you asked, my solution 1) VAT to replace income tax for bottom 50% or so 2) simplified income tax only for high earners (for normies consumption is an excellent proxy for income) 3) don't privilege capital income with low rates and infinite deferral 4) no corporate income tax which is a poor substitute for 3), and anyway corporate income is mostly accounting fiction
notch656a 5y ago
A large portion of that auditing is fraud/error involved in earned income tax credits, where you get paid special credits to make less money. Also for various reasons, being poor can often go hand in hand with being both unable to file a return in a way that looks correct and being unable to hire a professional to do it on your behalf. There is an incentive to look poor even if you are not so poor, when filing taxes. It's those who file as poor who aren't so poor, not those who are as poor as they say, that are the more likely culprit of these audits.
Kranar 5y ago
No they don't. People abuse statistics to give this impression but the IRS is pretty clear that it is simply untrue. A great deal of the deception comes from the fact that there are many more poor people than rich people, so on the face of it it's easy to mislead people into thinking that the IRS goes mostly after poor people, but when you normalize against income distribution, the IRS is far far far more likely to go after you if you're rich than if you're poor, and the results come directly from the IRS: https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/irs-audit-rates-significantly-increase-as-income-rises https://www.irs.gov/about-irs/irs-audit-rates-significantly-...

leephillips 5y ago

I don’t know about the guy who was quoted, but I think that some people who are accustomed to normal jobs with tax withholding are actually unaware that they are obligated to pay taxes on cash income. For many people the only purpose in filing a tax return is to get a refund, as most people with normal jobs are victims of over-withholding.