Nothing so well displays the cynical and corrupt nature of the current state of our government than the tax code. Nothing proves Democrats are the main problem better than that they put the IRS in charge of Enforcing Obamacare and deciding who wins elections.
Neither political party is innocent of corrupting the IRS code. Screwing around with tax laws and preferences is a campaign fund reaising technique used by members of both parties.
I'm open to evidence that the R-party is to blame for our complicated tax code. Of course both parties are to blame, but for the most part it's one party attempting to stop what the other party is doing.
Contributed? sure, of course, but the nature of the beast is exactly what Democrats do and love. It is the nature of everything they do - bigger, more complex, more controlling, more incompetent, and ever growing.
The Republicans have fed that too, but they are pikers by comparison. Mere opportunists who see it as the only game available, but at least it's not the very core of their philosophy. I say this as a life-long Democrat.
I doubt that anyone including you actually disagrees with what he wrote. Do you feel confident that you understand the tax code, that you can figure out accurately what most people should pay?
The Rs did nothing to fix the tax code during GWB's administration when the Rs heald majorities in both houses and had the WH.
I'm willing to bet that the tax code got longer during those years. In fact, I'm certain of it, based on prior professional experience. (Actuaries spend a lot of time looking at the tax code, even mere actuarial analysts.)
There is only one way to describe law that threatens everyone with bankruptcy, severe fines, or incarceration, and is purposefully indecipherable and enforced at the whim of government officials: Fascism.
The tax code is the system now. To expect the Republican party to not use it is like expecting them to not use English. It's way outside the possibilities for one of the two main parties that have run things forever.
The problem is there is no way to fix it. It must be wiped out in huge chunks, and that is just beyond the power of any party that struggles to get 50% of the vote, which they both constantly do. Someone needs to have the balls to sacrifice themselves, and our politics is run by fear and cowardice.
Politicians in office benefit from a complex code - it gives the lobbyists a reason to shower them with money.
But it is worse than that. Big corporations also benefit from a complex tax code. There's a reason GE files an enormous tax form every year and pays zero taxes. Even with the money spent on lobbying and a complex accounting and legal department, they come out ahead. Additionally, it acts as a barrier to entry for anyone competing with them. You think Bagoh could make a hefty profit at his company and pay zero taxes? Possible, but unlikely. That means comparative little guys like Bagoh are at a huge competitive disadvantage to corporations like GE.
If big corporations were presented with an option to pay no corporate income tax by ABOLISHING the corporate income tax, expect them to lobby against it. It does too much damage to potential competitors to ditch it, even if it would make their lives simpler.
(There are good reasons, including reasons of governance and income collection, to abolish the corporate income tax.)
When you add on tax accountants and tax lawyers to the pressure to keep the tax code complex, things get even worse.
Additionally, the lobbyists will want a complex tax code purely for their own reasons - it justifies their work to their clients. And given that politicians and the bureaucrats that work for the politicians often leave government "service" for jobs in the lobbying industry .... Well, you get the monstrosity that we have now.
Expecting that the (R)s are clean, or even cleaner, on this issue is purely partisan wishful thinking.
I recall the big "simplification" of the tax code in 1986, under Reagan. It created such simplifications that there were common reports of older tax accountants and tax attorneys retiring rather than try to learn the new complex code.
And yes, that was a tax code pushed by the Reagan Treasury Department, so Reagan should get any credit/blame that goes with that. As should the Republican party more broadly.
The only difference in the two parties is that Republicans want to help big businesses before they help the government. But both parties basically do the same damned crap.
That Cee Lo song has the lyric "she's such a gold digger - thought you should know nigga.", but it almost never gets sung that way. Everyone leaves it out or changes it. WTF? You can sing "fuck you" over and over, but not slip in "nigga". We got some messed up culture going on here.
Today I woke up with dialogue from a dream tagging into full consciousness. It was the oddest thing. Someone was telling me with some authoritah that we (humans) must celebrate. We must celebrate. We must. It is a thing that is inherent in us and we must, simply must celebrate (together) and then my voice said, oh bullshit then I was awake and I go, hmmm, that was weird.
Does anyone here know whether a capital gains distribution is or is not to be listed as a long term capital gains? Reason I ask is that I received a capital gains distribution, which I listed in the appropriate box on the 1040 and the appropriate line on Schedule D. Here's where it gets confusing: the line on Schedule D was in the Long Term Capital Gains section of that form. When you complete Schedule D you also have to complete form 8949 which has one part for short term cap gains and one part for long term cap gains. When I read the instructions concerning capital gains distributions it said to list them on the 1040 and on Schedule D but did not mention form 8949 even though 8949 has a section for long term cap gains and the appropriate line for recording cap gain distributions on the Schedule D was in the long term cap gain section of that form. The reason I didn't list the cap gains distributions is that there is no sales date on a distribution as opposed to a long term cap gain (or loss) in which there must be both a date of acquisition and a date of sale. In other words I'm in the same shoes as the Donald and will probably be penalized or, god forbid, audited for the crime of being flummoxed.
I am going to be brief (for me) with one illustrative link that shows what I have meant when I say the government is run by institutionalized bureaucrats. They run the government, who is elected this or that is a side show. And every time they "reorganize" they grow the senior ranks with and of their own kind.
From day one actually, and he had company. Research Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse for one example of many. Note the Wiki piece on her has shrunk to almost nothing now, with most empahsis on her EEOC complaint. Trust me, that was minor and made with cause. She challenged no bid long term contracts to Haliburton and Kellog, Brown, & Root....vis a vis the Iraq War. There is much more to the story if you can find the documents. I have seen those documents and the hand written objections in the margins of the contract itself. They may no longer be available. Stuff can disappear you know.
Does anyone here know whether a capital gains distribution is or is not to be listed as a long term capital gains? Reason I ask is that I received a capital gains distribution, which I listed in the appropriate box on the 1040 and the appropriate line on Schedule D. Here's where it gets confusing: the line on Schedule D was in the Long Term Capital Gains section of that form. When you complete Schedule D you also have to complete ....
I tried, but all I heard in my head was a buzz that built to a drone, then a Godzilla roar, a strange "I am Groot" sounding noise, and finally some wet farting noises.
Ari, I went to graduate school with a couple of guys that went to work for the NSA. Once they went to work for the NSA, they pretty much disappeared from the internet. You can find listings for them as PhD graduates of the department, one of them was in a band and his name occasionally comes up in old articles about the band, but other than that, nothing.
What's really odd is that several stories about the second guy that used to exist on the internet have been scrubbed clean. They're not there anymore. The websites that hosted the stories are still there, the organizations (news) are still there, but the old information has vanished.
Icepick...the reason I know about Bunny Greenhouse is because I had a passing acquaintance with her through my own Chief of Contracting Division. Also, I was involved with writing J&A's for multiple deployment agreements, vis a vis "Iraqi Freedom" and "New Dawn", RFP's and RFQ's. I know what was required and what was by passed to favor crony folk.
Beyond that, within the first 3 months I was the one who furnished the dart board and custom made darts for the British "saloon tent" called "The Oasis" near Basra. (At that time the US forces didn't allow beer in country ... but the Brits did, so we loved working with them :)
Stuff once approved is later scrubbed, regularly. Too bad. Only caches can support history.
39 comments:
The corruptocrat party has made the tax code complicated by design. Control. Control. Control.
Nothing so well displays the cynical and corrupt nature of the current state of our government than the tax code. Nothing proves Democrats are the main problem better than that they put the IRS in charge of Enforcing Obamacare and deciding who wins elections.
Donald Rumsfeld is a fucking moron who directly contributed to the mismanagement of the Iraq War.
How have the Republicans NOT contributed to this mess, April??
Neither political party is innocent of corrupting the IRS code. Screwing around with tax laws and preferences is a campaign fund reaising technique used by members of both parties.
It looks a little less than authentic to me.
I'm open to evidence that the R-party is to blame for our complicated tax code.
Of course both parties are to blame, but for the most part it's one party attempting to stop what the other party is doing.
I'm open to evidence that the R-party is to blame for our complicated tax code.
Of course both parties are to blame
Never argue with yourself in a blog.
Contributed? sure, of course, but the nature of the beast is exactly what Democrats do and love. It is the nature of everything they do - bigger, more complex, more controlling, more incompetent, and ever growing.
The Republicans have fed that too, but they are pikers by comparison. Mere opportunists who see it as the only game available, but at least it's not the very core of their philosophy. I say this as a life-long Democrat.
I'm open to evidence that the R-party is to blame for our complicated tax code.
The Rs did nothing to fix the tax code during GWB's administration when the Rs heald majorities in both houses and had the WH.
"It looks a little less than authentic to me."
I doubt that anyone including you actually disagrees with what he wrote. Do you feel confident that you understand the tax code, that you can figure out accurately what most people should pay?
Haz - excellent point. They are weenies.
The Rs did nothing to fix the tax code during GWB's administration when the Rs heald majorities in both houses and had the WH.
I'm willing to bet that the tax code got longer during those years. In fact, I'm certain of it, based on prior professional experience. (Actuaries spend a lot of time looking at the tax code, even mere actuarial analysts.)
There is only one way to describe law that threatens everyone with bankruptcy, severe fines, or incarceration, and is purposefully indecipherable and enforced at the whim of government officials: Fascism.
10:33 Bagoh post: This this this.
The tax code is the system now. To expect the Republican party to not use it is like expecting them to not use English. It's way outside the possibilities for one of the two main parties that have run things forever.
The problem is there is no way to fix it. It must be wiped out in huge chunks, and that is just beyond the power of any party that struggles to get 50% of the vote, which they both constantly do. Someone needs to have the balls to sacrifice themselves, and our politics is run by fear and cowardice.
I doubt that anyone including you actually disagrees with what he wrote.
No, I don't disagree. The less complications in the tax code, the better.
I just don't think Rumsfeld wrote that.
Politicians in office benefit from a complex code - it gives the lobbyists a reason to shower them with money.
But it is worse than that. Big corporations also benefit from a complex tax code. There's a reason GE files an enormous tax form every year and pays zero taxes. Even with the money spent on lobbying and a complex accounting and legal department, they come out ahead. Additionally, it acts as a barrier to entry for anyone competing with them. You think Bagoh could make a hefty profit at his company and pay zero taxes? Possible, but unlikely. That means comparative little guys like Bagoh are at a huge competitive disadvantage to corporations like GE.
If big corporations were presented with an option to pay no corporate income tax by ABOLISHING the corporate income tax, expect them to lobby against it. It does too much damage to potential competitors to ditch it, even if it would make their lives simpler.
(There are good reasons, including reasons of governance and income collection, to abolish the corporate income tax.)
When you add on tax accountants and tax lawyers to the pressure to keep the tax code complex, things get even worse.
Additionally, the lobbyists will want a complex tax code purely for their own reasons - it justifies their work to their clients. And given that politicians and the bureaucrats that work for the politicians often leave government "service" for jobs in the lobbying industry .... Well, you get the monstrosity that we have now.
Expecting that the (R)s are clean, or even cleaner, on this issue is purely partisan wishful thinking.
Rumsfeld did write that letter. I saw him interviewed on television about it this week.
I recall the big "simplification" of the tax code in 1986, under Reagan. It created such simplifications that there were common reports of older tax accountants and tax attorneys retiring rather than try to learn the new complex code.
And yes, that was a tax code pushed by the Reagan Treasury Department, so Reagan should get any credit/blame that goes with that. As should the Republican party more broadly.
The only difference in the two parties is that Republicans want to help big businesses before they help the government. But both parties basically do the same damned crap.
Reagan has his hands covered in dirt from the AMT as well, though he is far from the only criminal on that front.
If I wrote it, it would have went more like this.
That Cee Lo song has the lyric "she's such a gold digger - thought you should know nigga.", but it almost never gets sung that way. Everyone leaves it out or changes it. WTF? You can sing "fuck you" over and over, but not slip in "nigga". We got some messed up culture going on here.
It's weird. I went to bed at age 20 thinking I lived in a free country, only to awaken at 45 and realize I was in a fascist land all along.
I'm ashamed I was so stupid.
Rumsfeld did write that letter. I saw him interviewed on television about it this week.
Thanks Haz. It just didn't sound or look right to me, but I stand corrected.
Objection withdrawn, your honor.
Today I woke up with dialogue from a dream tagging into full consciousness. It was the oddest thing. Someone was telling me with some authoritah that we (humans) must celebrate. We must celebrate. We must. It is a thing that is inherent in us and we must, simply must celebrate (together) and then my voice said, oh bullshit then I was awake and I go, hmmm, that was weird.
I had the same experience as Pogo the Only Mostly Dead.
I'm disappointed that Rummy didn't distinguish b/w the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns of the tax code.
Ha. TaxProf Blog has the link to the unknown unknown press conference below the letter on his site.
Does anyone here know whether a capital gains distribution is or is not to be listed as a long term capital gains? Reason I ask is that I received a capital gains distribution, which I listed in the appropriate box on the 1040 and the appropriate line on Schedule D. Here's where it gets confusing: the line on Schedule D was in the Long Term Capital Gains section of that form. When you complete Schedule D you also have to complete form 8949 which has one part for short term cap gains and one part for long term cap gains. When I read the instructions concerning capital gains distributions it said to list them on the 1040 and on Schedule D but did not mention form 8949 even though 8949 has a section for long term cap gains and the appropriate line for recording cap gain distributions on the Schedule D was in the long term cap gain section of that form. The reason I didn't list the cap gains distributions is that there is no sales date on a distribution as opposed to a long term cap gain (or loss) in which there must be both a date of acquisition and a date of sale. In other words I'm in the same shoes as the Donald and will probably be penalized or, god forbid, audited for the crime of being flummoxed.
I am going to be brief (for me) with one illustrative link that shows what I have meant when I say the government is run by institutionalized bureaucrats. They run the government, who is elected this or that is a side show. And every time they "reorganize" they grow the senior ranks with and of their own kind.
Ari - yep. Price controls never work. Guess what we will soon see in the health care industry...? ... Price controls. Mark my words.
Is it true that Donald Rumsfeld helped invent NutraSweet?
Deborah @ 10:14 AM....
From day one actually, and he had company. Research Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse for one example of many. Note the Wiki piece on her has shrunk to almost nothing now, with most empahsis on her EEOC complaint. Trust me, that was minor and made with cause. She challenged no bid long term contracts to Haliburton and Kellog, Brown, & Root....vis a vis the Iraq War. There is much more to the story if you can find the documents. I have seen those documents and the hand written objections in the margins of the contract itself. They may no longer be available. Stuff can disappear you know.
Does anyone here know whether a capital gains distribution is or is not to be listed as a long term capital gains? Reason I ask is that I received a capital gains distribution, which I listed in the appropriate box on the 1040 and the appropriate line on Schedule D. Here's where it gets confusing: the line on Schedule D was in the Long Term Capital Gains section of that form. When you complete Schedule D you also have to complete ....
I tried, but all I heard in my head was a buzz that built to a drone, then a Godzilla roar, a strange "I am Groot" sounding noise, and finally some wet farting noises.
Tax talk often goes like that.
Stuff can disappear you know.
Ari, I went to graduate school with a couple of guys that went to work for the NSA. Once they went to work for the NSA, they pretty much disappeared from the internet. You can find listings for them as PhD graduates of the department, one of them was in a band and his name occasionally comes up in old articles about the band, but other than that, nothing.
What's really odd is that several stories about the second guy that used to exist on the internet have been scrubbed clean. They're not there anymore. The websites that hosted the stories are still there, the organizations (news) are still there, but the old information has vanished.
*POOF* and they're gone....
A flat tax is my dream. Bean counters and tax attorneys would be jumping off bridges.
Icepick...the reason I know about Bunny Greenhouse is because I had a passing acquaintance with her through my own Chief of Contracting Division.
Also, I was involved with writing J&A's for multiple deployment agreements, vis a vis "Iraqi Freedom" and "New Dawn", RFP's and RFQ's. I know what was required and what was by passed to favor crony folk.
Beyond that, within the first 3 months I was the one who furnished the dart board and custom made darts for the British "saloon tent" called "The Oasis" near Basra. (At that time the US forces didn't allow beer in country ... but the Brits did, so we loved working with them :)
Stuff once approved is later scrubbed, regularly. Too bad. Only caches can support history.
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