Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

From the article:

“Since Mr. Krugman tells us all this spending and debt issuance/guarantees are not only good and necessary but in the long run, painless, why are we bothering with personal income taxes?

The US government will collect approximately $2.0bn this year in Personal Income and Payroll taxes.  But why?  Why are we even bothering with this when today’s leading economists and politicians are telling us that debts/deficits don’t matter and running up astronomical debts is a long-term painless process?  It’s practically patriotic.  So why shouldn’t we just add our tax burden to the list of items the Fed should be monetizing?  Seriously.  Why not relieve the burden on every tax paying citizen in the United States (about 53% of us according to Mitt Romney)?  You want an economic recovery?  Reduce my taxes to zero and see how fast I go out and start spending some of that extra income.”


Thought Experiment: Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes? (ZeroHedge, June 3, 2013):

Submitted by Lucas Jackson

Thought Experiment: Why Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

“Stupidity combined with arrogance and a huge ego will get you a long way.”
– Chris Lowe

I will admit right up front, I am not a fan of the views of Paul Krugman.  If Paul Krugman was to be given his way – and by and large he is being given his way – my children and grandchildren will be burdened in the future with paying back untold amounts of public debt just so his life and the lives of countless other Boomers can remain comfortable and embarrassment free today.

This is the essence of his grand plan for a US recovery – MOAR and MOAR debt.

Wow.  Genius.  Why I didn’t I think of that?  Just keep borrowing and printing, borrowing and printing.  Got it.  Now that I understand it, do I get a PhD?

Who’s going to pay the money back?  How will it effect future generations?  How will it effect the markets?  What will this do to civil society?

Read moreWhy Do We Bother Paying Personal Taxes?

UKIP’s Nigel Farage: A Fraud On EU Taxpayers (Video – European Parliament, May 21, 2013)


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Description:

• European Parliament, Strasbourg, 21 May 2013

• Speaker: Nigel Farage MEP, Leader of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), Co-President of the ‘Europe of Freedom and Democracy’ (EFD) Group in the European Parliament – http://nigelfaragemep.co.uk

• Joint debate: European Council meeting (22 May 2013) – tax fraud and tax havens

Speech transcript:

“Thank you. Well there is a great degree of unity here this morning, with a common enemy – rich people, successful companies evading tax, which of course is a problem.

Avoiding tax, which is not illegal, but it gives this whole chamber this morning a high moral tone.

And as Mr Barroso says it is all about the perception of fairness. Because there is the added bonus of course that it drives a wedge between the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, and the Caymans.

But before we declare our virtues, perhaps we ought to look just a little bit closer to home.

And I hope that the taxpayers all over Europe listen to this. If we look at the EU officials who work for the European Commission and the European Parliament, the highest category [the most common grade is AD12] are people that earn a net take home pay of just over 100 thousand pounds a year. And yet under EU rules they pay tax of 12 per cent. It is tax fraud on an absolutely massive scale.

And Mr Barroso I would say to you, how can that be deemed to be fair? How can people out there struggling – the 16 million people unemployed in the eurozone – how can they look at these institutions, not only paying people vast sums of money but allowing them tax and pension benefits on a scale not seen anywhere else in the world? So I suggest we have a bit less of this high moral tone.

And what have these officials given us? Well, they were the architects of the euro, which is a complete disaster. Their obsession with global warming which chimes very strongly here means we are despoiling our landscapes and seascapes with these disgusting wind turbines and driving up energy prices.

But never let it be said that I cannot acknowledge success when I see it. And I am sure the citizens of Europe will all clap and cheer loudly that the grave, mortal danger of olive oil in dipping bowls has been removed by the officials. Well done everybody.”

Taxes On Some Wealthy French Top 100 Percent Of Income (Reuters)


Gerard Depardieu  recently received a Russian passport after giving up his French citizenship, saying he was doing so to avoid a new tax rate of 75 percent on the highest incomes.

Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 pct of income: paper (Reuters, May 18, 2013):

More than 8,000 French households’ tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.

The newspaper said that the exceptionally high level of taxation was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

Read moreTaxes On Some Wealthy French Top 100 Percent Of Income (Reuters)

Gerald Celente On WW 3 – Middle East Out Of Control (Video)


YouTube Added: 07.05.2013

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There’s not a better trend forecaster than Gerald Celente. The man knows what he’s talking about.
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Those who take their predictions seriously … consider the Trends Research Institute.
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Inspector General’s Report: IRS Issued More Than $11 BILLION In Improper Refunds

IRS issued billions in improper refunds, report says (Washington Post, April 24, 2013):

The Internal Revenue Service issued more than $11 billion in improper payments through its Earned Income Tax Credit program last year, according to an inspector general’s report released this week. Treasury Department deputy inspector general Michael McKenney found that the IRS has failed to comply for two consecutive years with the Improper Payments Elimination Act, which President Obama signed in 2010. The law requires federal agencies to reduce erroneous payments to a rate of less than 10 percent.

The IRS estimates that at least 21 percent of its EITC payments in 2012 were faulty. That rate showed a decline compared to the previous nine years, but improper payments over the same period increased about 22 percent, rising to at least $11.6 billion, according to the inspector general’s report.

Read moreInspector General’s Report: IRS Issued More Than $11 BILLION In Improper Refunds

Americans Renouncing Citizenship To Become British Thanks To Tax Rise

Americans renouncing citizenship to become British thanks to tax rise (Telegraph, March 2, 2013):

The number of people giving up their US citizenship to become British has surged thanks to complex tax rules introduced by the American tax authorities.

London-based American lawyers, who specialise in tax and immigration, report a threefold increase over the last five years in the number of American citizens who are giving up their citizenship – a process known as “renunciation”.

Across the world 1,781 Americans renounced their citizenship in 2011 compared with just 231 in 2008, when US tax laws changed, although it remains unknown how many are adopting British rather than any other nationality.

Many decide to give up their American citizenship after tiring of the lengthy US tax return process, which requires them to pay tax on their total income regardless of where they live.

Read moreAmericans Renouncing Citizenship To Become British Thanks To Tax Rise

Nationalized Bankia To Post Largest Corporate Loss In Spanish History

Nationalized Bankia To Post Largest Corporate Loss In Spanish History (ZeroHedge, Feb 21, 2013):

Just in case anyone is confused about how fixed Europe is, insolvent Spanish TBTF megabank, which F’ed last year and had to be bailed out by the government, will post earnings (and in this case we use the term very loosely) next week at which time it will report the biggest corporate loss in Spanish history. From Telegraph: “On Thursday Bankia will report full-year earnings, including a €12.6bn provision taken at the end of last year. The writedown is a result of the lender moving assets into Spain’s “bad bank” at heavy discounts. Bankia, which is seen as a symbol of Spain’s financial woes, was created through the merger of seven smaller savings banks before being listed on Madrid’s stock exchange. When the company failed, hundreds of thousands of people who had been sold shares saw their savings wiped out. The collapse forced Spain to ask Europe for a bailout for its banking sector, which has meant the lender is subject to tight controls.  Bankia is trying to sell its 12pc stake in International Consolidated Airlines Group, the parent company of British Airways, which is valued at about £510m, and 5.3pc of the power company Iberdrola, which is worth about €1.24bn.”

Read moreNationalized Bankia To Post Largest Corporate Loss In Spanish History

America’s TBTF Bankster Subsidy From Taxpayers: $83 Billion Per Year

America’s TBTF Bank Subsidy From Taxpayers: $83 Billion Per Year (ZeroHedge, Feb 20, 2013):

Day after day, whenever anyone challenges the TBTF banks’ scale, they are slammed down with a mutually assured destruction message that limitations would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance. So what if you were to discover, based on Bloomberg’s calculations, that the largest banks aren’t really profitable at all? What if the billions of dollars they allegedly earn for their shareholders were almost entirely a gift from U.S. taxpayers? The stunning truth is that the top-five banks account for $64 billion of an implicit subsidy based on the ludicrous (but entirely real) logic that: The banks that are potentially the most dangerous can borrow at lower rates, because creditors perceive them as too big to fail. Perhaps this realization will increase shareholder demands – or even political furore? The market discipline might not please executives, but it would certainly be an improvement over paying banks to put us in danger.

Read moreAmerica’s TBTF Bankster Subsidy From Taxpayers: $83 Billion Per Year

Why Should U.S. Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion A Year? (Bloomberg)

Why Should Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion a Year? (Bloomberg, Feb 20, 2013):

On television, in interviews and in meetings with investors, executives of the biggest U.S. banks — notably JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Jamie Dimon — make the case that size is a competitive advantage. It helps them lower costs and vie for customers on an international scale. Limiting it, they warn, would impair profitability and weaken the country’s position in global finance.

So what if we told you that, by our calculations, the largest U.S. banks aren’t really profitable at all? What if the billions of dollars they allegedly earn for their shareholders were almost entirely a gift from U.S. taxpayers?

Read moreWhy Should U.S. Taxpayers Give Big Banks $83 Billion A Year? (Bloomberg)

30 Corporations With Over $163 Billion In Profits Paid Zero Taxes, Had Even A NEGATIVE $10.6 Billion Tax Liability

Flashback:

Documentary: America: Freedom To Fascism – Director’s Authorized Version


Abolish The Income Tax: You Won’t Believe Who Is Getting Away With Paying Zero Taxes While The Middle Class Gets Hammered (Economic Collapse, Feb 18, 2013):

The federal income tax is a bad joke and it needs to be abolished.  All over the nation, hard working American families are being absolutely crushed by oppressive levels of taxation, and our politicians are constantly coming up with new ways to extract money from all of us every single year.  Meanwhile, many ultra-wealthy Americans and many of the most profitable corporations in the country pay little to nothing in taxes.  In fact, as you will see below, there are dozens of very prominent corporations that make billions of dollars in profits and yet don’t pay a dime in taxes.  Tax avoidance has become a multi-billion dollar industry in the United States.  Those that have the resources to “play the game” use shell companies, offshore tax havens and the thousands of loopholes in our tax code to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible.  Meanwhile, the rest of us get absolutely hammered.  This is fundamentally unfair.  The federal income tax system is irreversibly broken at this point, and it is time to abolish it.  If you think that the federal income tax system can be “fixed”, then you probably have never studied it.  Our tax code is nearly 4 million words long and it is absolutely riddled with thousands of loopholes that favor big corporations and the ultra-wealthy.  We should come up with a better, fairer way to fund the government.  The United States once prospered greatly without a federal income tax, and it could do so again.

Read more30 Corporations With Over $163 Billion In Profits Paid Zero Taxes, Had Even A NEGATIVE $10.6 Billion Tax Liability

Israeli Banks Said to Be Implicated in U.S. Tax Evasion

Israeli Banks Said to Be Implicated in U.S. Tax Evasion (Bloomberg, Feb 17, 2013):

A California man born in Israel agreed to plead guilty to conspiring with people at Bank Leumi Le-Israel Ltd. and Mizrahi Tefahot Bank Ltd. to hide offshore accounts and income from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service, according to court filings and people familiar with the matter.Zvi Sperling was accused Feb. 14 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles of conspiring with people at two Tel Aviv-based banks, identified only as Bank A and Bank B. The charging document and plea agreement didn’t identify the banks. Bank A is Mizrahi, according to a person who wasn’t authorized to speak publicly about the case. Bank B is Leumi, according to a second person, who similarly asked not to be identified.

Since 2008, U.S. prosecutors have cracked down on offshore tax evasion, charging at least 83 U.S. taxpayers or foreign bankers, lawyers or advisers with tax crimes. UBS AG, the largest Swiss bank, avoided prosecution in 2009 by admitting it aided tax evasion, paying $780 million and handing over account data on 250 clients. It later disclosed information on about 4,450 more accounts. Wegelin & Co., a Swiss bank, pleaded guilty last month. No Israeli bank has been charged.

Read moreIsraeli Banks Said to Be Implicated in U.S. Tax Evasion

Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France!

Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France (Testosterone Pit, Feb 13, 2013):

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault himself presided over Monday’s meeting of the National Anti-Fraud Committee—“a first for a head of government,” he said at the press conference afterward, to hammer home just how important this was. But he wasn’t worried about run-of-the-mill fraud that might fleece some old lady of her life savings. He was worried about people not paying their taxes.

Read moreDraconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France!

Daniel Hannan Destroys The 3 Unquestionable Myths Of Our Crisis (Video)

Daniel Hannan Destroys The 3 Unquestionable Myths Of Our Crisis (ZeroHedge, Jan 26, 2013):

The past and present bailouts of each and every bank (and ‘important’ industry) will, one day, be seen as a generational offense is how MEP Daniel Hannan begins this thoroughly British demolition of the three critical myths surrounding the crisis, that despite market optics, we are still living through. From the idea that capitalism has failed (it has not in his view, it has been ravaged by political pandering), to the crisis being caused by lack of regulation, and that greed is the single-driver of the mess that we remain in; Hannan suggests in a brief but extremely eloquent debate that there is a world of difference between being pro business and pro market as he destroys any semblance of credibility that the political (and elite) class has echoing a young Ron Paul in his thoroughly libertarian free-market sensibilities.


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Do I Have To Report My Offshore Gold …?

Do I Have To Report My Offshore Gold …? (Sovereign Man Jan 23, 2013):

Let’s do a little math problem today.

As you probably know, in 2010 the US government passed one of the most arrogant, destructive, poorly conceived pieces of legislation in history, now known as the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA).

FATCA heaps all sorts of reporting requirements on US taxpayers with foreign financial accounts. This is in ADDITION to form TDF 90-22.1, which is due to the Treasury Department each year by June 30th, and IRS form 1040 schedule B.

(Nothing says ‘government’ like passing along the same information on different forms to the same department multiple times…)

Another major provision of the law requires ALL financial institutions on the PLANET to share personal customer information with Uncle Sam.

The hubris is overwhelming. Imagine what would happen if the Chinese government passed a law requiring US banks to share customer information with Beijing. People would go nuts. But in the Land of the Free, it’s normal. Crazy.

Read moreDo I Have To Report My Offshore Gold …?

Greece Is The US, Following Vote To Hike Taxes On The Rich

Greece Is The US, Following Vote To Hike Taxes On The Rich (ZeroHedge, Jan 12, 2013):

It’s been a while since the Syntagma square riotcam was broadcasting live from Athens. After all, despite the ongoing collapse in its economy, where only 3.7 million people have jobs compared to 4.7 million who are unemployed or inactive, the general sentiment was that “austerity” measures have been put on hiatus, and no more tax, pension, or benefits cuts are on the table. That changed last night when Greece was the latest country to become the US, following a tax hike on its highest earners. However, unlike the US, this increase in “rich” taxes is being offset by at least some spending cuts such as tighter control of the budgets of ministries and state utilities, and the reduction of parliamentary employees’ wages in line with cuts to the wages of other civil servants. In other words, it is almost time for the Syntagma square daily pay-per-view daily webcast. The good news, at least for Greece, is that it does not have a debt ceiling to worry about. Then again, when all your debt is zero coupon perpetuals in the hands of the ECB and other “official” institutions, the balance sheet is the last thing you have to worry about. It’s the income statement, one where not even all the one-time charges or loan loss reserve releases in the world will do any difference, that suddenly matters far more.

From the NYT:

Greek lawmakers voted late Friday to increase taxes on middle- to high-income earners, self-employed professionals and businesses despite vehement objections by the political opposition and several ruling coalition deputies who said austerity-weary citizens should not be subjected to further pain.

Read moreGreece Is The US, Following Vote To Hike Taxes On The Rich

Up To 3.5% Of US 2013 GDP Could Evaporate Due To Enacted Tax Hikes

Up To 3.5% Of US 2013 GDP Could Evaporate Due To Enacted Tax Hikes (ZeroHedge, Jan 11, 2013):

When it comes to the impact of the just enacted 2013 tax hikes (payroll tax cut expiration affecting everyone together with the tax hike on those making over $400K), economists are in broad agreement on one thing: the first half of 2013 will be impacted by roughly a 1.0%-1.5% drop in GDP. However, a big question emerges when attempting to quantify the adverse impact on US growth as the year progresses past June 30. Most strategists and economists ignore this issue, and instead chose to believe that all shall be well as by July, the US population will be habituated to getting a smaller paycheck and general consuming behavior will no longer be impacted relative to a previous baseline.

Read moreUp To 3.5% Of US 2013 GDP Could Evaporate Due To Enacted Tax Hikes

Matt Taibbi: Secrets And Lies Of The Bailout (Rolling Stone)

Secrets and Lies of the Bailout (Rolling Stone, Jan 4, 2013):

It has been four long winters since the federal government, in the hulking, shaven-skulled, Alien Nation-esque form of then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, committed $700 billion in taxpayer money to rescue Wall Street from its own chicanery and greed. To listen to the bankers and their allies in Washington tell it, you’d think the bailout was the best thing to hit the American economy since the invention of the assembly line. Not only did it prevent another Great Depression, we’ve been told, but the money has all been paid back, and the government even made a profit. No harm, no foul – right?

Wrong.

It was all a lie – one of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it. The result is one of those deals where one wrong decision early on blossoms into a lush nightmare of unintended consequences. We thought we were just letting a friend crash at the house for a few days; we ended up with a family of hillbillies who moved in forever, sleeping nine to a bed and building a meth lab on the front lawn.

Read moreMatt Taibbi: Secrets And Lies Of The Bailout (Rolling Stone)

‘Balanced’ Fiscal Cliff Tax Deal: $41 In New Spending For Every $1 In Cuts

Don’t miss:

Peter Schiff: Congress Sells America Down The River To Avoid The Fiscal Cliff … As Predicted (Video)

Fiscal Cliff Deal: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly


‘Balanced’ tax deal: $41 in new spending for every $1 in cuts (Natural News, Jan 3, 2013):

Many Americans have long known that accounting practices in the nation’s capital are, to put it mildly, “creative.” Pay increases tend to come automatically, money can be printed and valued out of thin air, and spending “cuts” generally don’t mean actual cuts to budgetary line items – only reductions in the amount of spending increases.

It is in this context in which voters should actually view the recently completed “balanced tax-and-spending deal” reached by lawmakers and President Obama this week that ostensibly avoided the impending “fiscal cliff,” because there was nothing balanced about it.

Why? Because there literally were no spending cuts at all – again, only reductions to the growth of current line items – and most of the legislation involves increasing taxes on a whopping 77 percent of Americans.

Wait – didn’t Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi all claim that Congress and the administration would not be raising taxes on anyone but the most well-to-do wage earners (the ol’ class warfare card)?

Yes, they did. But a closer examination reveals that is precisely what happened. And keep in mind these tax hikes are in addition to the $1 trillion worth of tax hikes contained in Obamacare, which hit Jan. 1.

Read more‘Balanced’ Fiscal Cliff Tax Deal: $41 In New Spending For Every $1 In Cuts

On The New Definition Of ‘Rich’, A $620 Billion Tax Hike Offset By $15 Billion In Spending Cuts, And Much More

On The New Definition Of “Rich”, A $620 Billion Tax Hike Offset By $15 Billion In Spending Cuts, And Much More (ZeroHedge, Jan 01,2013):

We greet the new year with an America that has a Fiscal Cliff deal. Actually no, it doesn’t – not even close. What it does have is an agreement, so far only at the Senate level which voted a little after 2 AM eastern in an 89-8 vote (Nays from Democrats Bennet, Cardin, Harkin, and Republicans – Lee, Paul, Grassley, Rubio  and Shelby), to delay the all-important spending side of the Fiscal Cliff “deal” which “can is kicked” in the form of a 60 day extension to the sequester, to be taken up “eventually”, but hopefully not on day 59 at the 11th hour, the same as fate of the all important US debt ceiling, which remains in limbo, and which now effectively prohibits America from incurring any new gross debt as the $16.4 trillion debt ceiling was breached yesterday. In other words, America’s primary deficit sourcing mechanism is now put on hiatus, and all new net debt will come at the expense of defunding various government retirement funds as the 60 day countdown to the real showdown begins: the debt ceiling, as well as the resolution of the spending side of the Fiscal Cliff deal.

What did happen last night was merely the legislating of the inevitable tax hike on the 1%, which was assured the night Obama won the presidential election, something not even the most rabid Norquist pledge signatories had hope of avoiding. This was the first income tax hike in nearly two decades. A tax hike which, regardless of how it is spun, will result in a drag in consumption. It was also the brand new definition of rich, with the “$250,000” income threshold now left in the dust, and “$400,000 for individuals ($450,000 for joint filers)” taking its place. If you make more than that, congratulations: you are now “rich“.  You will also be hated for being part of the 1%. and be the target in the ongoing class war.

Who knew that “New Normal” would also bring us the “New Rich” definition.

Read moreOn The New Definition Of ‘Rich’, A $620 Billion Tax Hike Offset By $15 Billion In Spending Cuts, And Much More

The ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deadline Has Passed

See also:

DHS Insider: ‘There Won’t Be Any Meaningful Deal About The Fiscal Crisis. This Is Planned … The Coming Collapse Of The U.S. Dollar Is A Done Deal.’


The “fiscal cliff” deadline has passed (AP, Jan 1, 2013):

WASHINGTON – The “fiscal cliff” deadline has passed – technically, at least.

The beginning of the New Year in theory means across-the-board tax increases and spending cuts kick in, but Congress is working to cancel them before they can have an impact.

Read moreThe ‘Fiscal Cliff’ Deadline Has Passed

$1 Trillion Obamacare Tax Hike Hitting On Jan. 1, 2013

$1 Trillion Obamacare Tax Hike Hitting on Jan. 1 (Americans For Tax Reform , Dec 28, 2012):

??On January 1, regardless of the outcome of fiscal cliff negotiations, Americans will be hit with a $1 trillion Obamacare tax hike.

Obamacare contains twenty new or higher taxes. Five of the taxes hit for the first time on January 1.  In total, Americans face a net $1 trillion tax hike for the years 2013-2022, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

The five major Obamacare taxes taking effect on January 1 are as follows:

Read more$1 Trillion Obamacare Tax Hike Hitting On Jan. 1, 2013