Category: Taxation

Closing Thought–08Apr21

As the day approaches for your taxes to be paid…..I thought you might like to know how much the big corporations pay…..

Did you buy some Nike shoes?

You paid around $12 for a popular model….but that is more than Nike paid in taxes…..

For millions of ordinary people in the U.S., 2020 was a painful year in which loved ones and jobs were lost as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its devastating economic repercussions. But for many of the country’s major corporations, last year was a lucrative one—particularly if they were among the 55 companies that paid $0 in federal income taxes on a combined $40.5 billion in profits, as a new study shows.

Released Friday, the report is based on the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy’s (ITEP) analysis of 2020 financial reports filed by the country’s largest publicly traded corporations. 

Instead of paying a collective $8.5 billion in federal income taxes on last year’s profits of $40.5 billion, as mandated by the statutory 21% rate, the 55 companies exploited preexisting loopholes and pandemic-related tax breaks to reduce their tax bills to zero.

Not only did these corporations secure a zero-tax liability, they received a collective $3.5 billion in rebates, bringing the total amount of lost federal revenue to $12 billion. And 26 of them haven’t paid a dime for the past three years, a time period in which the GOP’s “morally and economically obscene” tax cuts for corporations and wealthy Americans have been in effect.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/04/02/55-us-corporate-giants-paid-0-federal-taxes-2020-thanks-gaping-loopholes

How does that make you feel?

It is time for tax reform as long as we attempt to reform other sectors in the government….taxes on us mere mortals are paying all the bills and the corporations reap benefits from not having to pay what they owe this country.

STOP believing the lies about tax cuts!

Demand that everyone pay their taxes not exceptions!

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“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–16Mar21

Some people have made out like bandits during the pandemic.

The total wealth of US billionaires rose $1.3 trillion amid the pandemic, the ATF and IPS said.

This could fund two-thirds of Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 rescue plan.

American billionaires have earned so much money during the pandemic that they could fund two-thirds of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 relief package using profits generated in the last year, a report shows.

The combined fortune of American billionaires rose around $1.3 trillion, or 44%, from March 2020 to March 2021, Americans for Tax Fairness (ATF) and the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) said.

This increase is equivalent to two-thirds of the $1.9 trillion cost of Biden’s pandemic rescue plan, which he signed into law Thursday.

…

657 billionaires were worth a combined $4.2 trillion, the ATF and IPS said. Under current tax laws, none of this would be taxed during their lifetimes, unless the underlying assets are sold at a gain, they said.

https://news.yahoo.com/american-billionaires-could-fund-two-110000968.html

Time for this obscenity to change!

Children go hungry…..people lose their homes…..no jobs….and yet these societal parasites roll in dough.

Somebody needs to a grow a pair and step up and demand these ‘people’ start paying for the privilege of being part of the American society.

I do not care how much money they make or steal or whatever….all I want is for them to pay their fair share like the rest of us mere peasants.

A fair and equitable tax code would be a good start.

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Will ‘Trickle Down’ Return?

For about fifty years the Repubs have promised with every tax cut that it would miraculously help the working class in the long run. Well that was a lie….and the working class is still waiting for the ‘trickle down’ effect promised.

And now that the GOP is out of favor I expect that there will be more calls for tax cuts to pay for all the assistance that was given to the country….including the wealthy that did not need the help.

I have given my thoughts on this BS and every time the GOP offered it is accepted….and now I try again to prevent bullshit from becoming policy.

My original posts…..

https://lobotero.com/2008/10/09/the-humor-that-is-trickle-down-economics/

https://lobotero.com/2011/06/24/trickle-up-economics/

Now that we have a new president I suspect the calls for massive tax cuts will begin in January 2021 by the GOP and its minions.

Neoliberal gospel says that cutting taxes on the wealthy will eventually benefit everyone by boosting economic growth and reducing unemployment, but a new analysis of fiscal policies in 18 countries over the last 50 years reveals that progressive critics of “trickle down” theory have been right all along: supply-side economics fuels inequality, and the real beneficiaries of the right-wing approach to taxation are the super-rich.

The Economic Consequences of Major Tax Cuts for the Rich(pdf), a working paper published this month by the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and written by LSE’s David Hope and Julian Limberg of King’s College London, examines data from nearly 20 OECD countries, including the U.K. and the U.S., and finds that the past five decades have been characterized by “falling taxes on the rich in the advanced economies,” with “major tax cuts… particularly clustered in the late 1980s.”

But, according to Hope and Limberg, the vast majority of the populations in those countries have little to show for it, as the benefits of slashing taxes on the wealthy are concentrated among a handful of super-rich individuals—not widely shared across society in the form of improved job creation or prosperity, as “trickle down” theorists alleged would happen.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/16/study-50-years-tax-cuts-rich-confirms-trickle-down-theory-absolute-sham

It is ALL a lie….there has never been any benefit for the working class from so-called ‘trickle down’ economics.

Just wait….the calls for wealthy tax cuts will begin again now that there is a Dem in the White House and can watch the middle class dissolve a little more.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Biden/Harris Financial Policies

Time to look at Biden and what are his financial policies and will they do any good for the American people…..

While Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is unlikely to prioritize a financial industry crackdown if he wins on Nov. 3, he is expected to take a much tougher line than Trump and his former boss President Barack Obama.

Banks and investors were preparing for a Biden victory over the weekend after Trump tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in a blow for his campaign.

Here are some of the key areas his administration and agency picks would likely focus on.

THE COMMUNITY REINVESTMENT ACT
HOUSING FINANCE
CONSUMER PROTECTIONS, CREDIT REPORTING
CLIMATE CHANGE RISKS
BANKRUPTCY REFORM
POSTAL BANKING
 
All pretty good ideas….but knowing what our politics is like I d not think they will be nearly as all powerful as they pretend….after special interests get through they will be toothless tigers….as usual.
 
The tax policies of the Biden/Harris team is also good ideas…..

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have an opportunity to cut poverty in America in half. A new study finds that the Democratic ticket has put forward or endorsed a set of proposals that, taken together, could add up to the biggest anti-poverty plan in decades.

Three specific measures — Biden’s plan to make Section 8 housing vouchers universal; congressional Democrats’ plan for a $3,000-a-year child allowance ($3,600 for kids under 6), and Harris’s LIFT Act proposing new tax credits for low-income households — would have lowered the poverty rate from 12.7 percent to 6.5 percent if they had been adopted in 2018, according to researchers at the Center on Poverty and Social Policy at Columbia. That’s 20.2 million fewer people living in poverty.

The reduction in child poverty would be larger still, from 13.7 percent to 3.6 percent. Only about a quarter as many children would remain in poverty after the policy package’s adoption.

https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21456242/joe-biden-poverty-checks-kamala-harris

Once again good plan…but it will probably not hold up to the brutal American political process….more promises that will go unfulfilled thanx to lobbyists and cash spread around.

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“lego ergo scribo”

 

Tale Of The Taxes

This is for all those people that have been working tirelessly to get Trump’s tax returns to made public…..well sports fans your wait is over.

Praise be!

After 3+ years of bitching and whining we all get a chance to look into the taxes of our Dear Loving President…..the returns have been made public…..and now we can go to the tale of the taxes…

The most sought-after documents in America have finally surfaced: President Trump’s tax returns. And what they reveal is sobering. Trump, a self-described master of the deal, appears to be taking in hundreds of millions of dollars a year while suffering huge losses that he uses to pay little or nothing in taxes, the New York Times reports. His properties are struggling, he’s deeply in debt, and he’s facing a battle with the IRS could cost him over $100 million. The 20-plus years of documents “reveal the hollowness, but also the wizardry, behind the self-made-billionaire image,” says the Times. “Ultimately, Mr. Trump has been more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life.” Among the details:

  • Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the last 15 years, $750 the year he won the election, and $750 the year after that.
  • He’s facing $421 million in loans and other debts for which he’s personally responsible—most of which will come due over the next four years. If he wins in November, lenders will face the unenviable decision of whether to foreclose on a sitting president. But Trump can use that debt to declare future losses and avoid paying taxes.
  • Beginning in 2010, he successfully claimed an income tax refund of $72.9 million due to his vast losses. That refund is at the heart of an IRS audit fight that could force Trump to repay the refund with interest—possibly more than $100 million.
  • Most of Trump’s key ventures, like his golf courses and Washington hotel, are losing millions of dollars annually. The properties are also magnets for foreign officials and lobbyists, which could represent a conflict of interest for a president who refused to divest himself from his enterprises while in office.
  • Trump’s revenue from licensing deals and The Apprentice—over $420 million in all—is running out, and years ago he sold off stocks that might help him shore up his properties.
  • Alan Garten, a Trump Organization lawyer, tells the Times that “most, if not all, of the facts appear to be inaccurate” in its report. He says Trump “has paid tens of millions of dollars in personal taxes” over the past decade, but the Times suggests that Garten is confusing Trump’s income taxes with other federal taxes, like Medicare and Social Security. Garten said Trump paid some taxes with credits, which the Times calls “misleading.”
  • Trump called the Times report “fake news” on Sunday and said he has paid taxes, the AP reports. He didn’t give details but said it “will all be revealed.”

Our fascination even obsession over the Trump taxes has now been satisfied….may we please move on to more pressing issues?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Screw Those Old Farts! (Again)

Closing Thought–10Aug20

This is for all those old farts that still support the president…that would be Trump in case you are not sure…..

Trump has liberally used the power of the Executive Order when he cannot get his way from Congress and he has a new idea for his next EO.

A cut in payroll taxes,,,,yes it will give the worker more money but at the same time will begin the gutting of Social Security…..

An advocacy group representing more than four million American retirees warned Thursday that President Donald Trump took a dangerous step toward “single-handedly” dismantling Social Security by announcing he plans to sign an executive order suspending collection of the payroll tax as early as Friday afternoon.

With congressional negotiations over the next Covid-19 stimulus package still at an impasse, Trump told reporters Thursday that executive orders to suspend the payroll tax, extend boosted unemployment benefits, and reestablish an expired eviction moratorium are “being drawn now” despite questions over whether the president has the authority to unilaterally take any of those actions.

Trump said he expects to sign the orders “tomorrow afternoon or maybe the following morning” if White House negotiators and Democratic leaders don’t reach a deal. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress have rejected the idea of cutting the payroll tax, the primary funding mechanism for Social Security.

Richard Fiesta, executive director of the Alliance for Retired Americans, said in a statement that “after learning that Democratic and Republican congressional leaders would not go along with his harebrained scheme to cut Social Security’s dedicated funding source, President Trump lashed out and announced he would begin dismantling the system single-handedly.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/06/retirees-vow-fight-attempt-gut-social-security-trump-announces-executive-order/

Once again the seniors will take a good screwing and yet they will continue to vote for the toads that are raping their benefits.

I am still working on where the logic in that sort of politics….

But I will admit I can see Trump’s point……his proposed EOs…..

The workweek came and went without a deal in Congress for pandemic relief, and that’s despite a two-hour meeting Friday with Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Treasury’s Steven Mnuchin, and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Afterward, the latter two said they would recommend that Trump issue executive orders, and the president pledged to do just that in a Friday evening press conference, reports USA Today. Details are scarce—including on where the money would come from—but Trump said he planned to tackle four main issues, per the Hill:

  • Pay enhanced unemployment benefits through the end of the year
  • Defer student loan payments and forgive interest for the near future
  • Reinstate a federal moratorium on evictions
  • Defer the payroll tax until year’s end

Gridlock brought this about……

Trump signed four executive orders to act where Congress hasn’t, contending Washington’s gridlock had compelled him to act as the pandemic undermined the country’s economy and imperiled his November reelection hopes. Perhaps most crucially, Trump moved to continue paying a supplemental federal unemployment benefit for millions of Americans out of work during the outbreak.

However, his order called for up to $400 payments, one-third less than the $600 people had been receiving. Congress allowed those higher payments to lapse on Aug. 1, and negotiations to extend them have been mired in partisan gridlock, with the White House and Democrats miles apart. Now, Trump, who has not spoken with Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi since last year, sought to play the role of election-year savior, with the $400 weekly assistance, as well as a deferral of payroll tax and federal student loan payments and the continuation of a freeze on some evictions during the crisis. “It’s $400 a week, and we’re doing it without the Democrats,” Trump said, asking states to cover 25% of the cost.

This according to the conservs of Lincoln Project……

This defunds Medicare.

This defunds Social Security.

Tax collection is just deferred.

You’ll still owe these taxes next year.

Stop calling it Washington gridlock…it is the Senate that does nothing and I mean NOTHING….

Image

I still think the payroll tax thing is the beginning of the assault on Social Security and Medicare……I give Trump his props for doing what the Congress could not….but I still question his motives.

Something to think about……

President Donald Trump on Saturday afternoon openly vowed to permanently “terminate” the funding mechanism for both Social Security and Medicare if reelected in November—an admission that was seized upon by defenders of the popular safety net programs who have been warning for months that the administration’s threat to suspend the payroll tax in the name of economic relief during the Covid-19 pandemic was really a backdoor sabotage effort.

Announcing and then signing a series of legally dubious executive orders, including an effort to slash the emergency federal unemployment boost by $200 from the $600 previously implemented by Democrats, Trump touted his order for a payroll tax “holiday”—which experts noted would later have to be paid back—but said if he won in November that such a cut would become permanent.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/08/trump-just-admitted-live-television-he-will-terminate-social-security-and-medicare

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Biden and Taxes

November is quickly approaching and some of us have not decided who will get the vote…..I will focus on Biden since most intelligent people already know what a tool Trump is…..

First let me state here for all to read so there is NO confusion…I am not a Biden supporter…..but that explanation is for a later post…..this one is about something Biden has stated recently on taxes….

Joe Biden wants a tax code that supports the everyday, salt-of-the-earth Americans who earn $400,000 a year.

In an interview with CNBC Friday morning, the Democratic nominee sounded some populist notes while defending his (quite progressive) ideas for raising taxes on capital gains, corporations, and the labor income of the superrich. “My tax policy is based on a simple proposition,” Biden explained, “which is, stop rewarding wealth and start rewarding work a little bit.”

But while blue America’s standard-bearer evinced enthusiasm for soaking the superrich, he vowed to preserve the (historically low) tax rates that America’s merely rich currently pay: Under a Biden administration, “Nobody making under 400,000 bucks would have their taxes raised. Period. Bingo,” the candidate declared.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/05/biden-cnbc-interview-tax-policy-400000.html

This is nothing but a campaign promise that is soon forgotten….but he and they keep making them and the voter keeps buying the crap spread…..and then they sit around the kitchen table looking at their lives a wonders what went all wrong.

Ignorance, gullibility and laziness is what went wrong….and this election will be NO different.

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“lego ergo scribo”

Shay’s Rebellion–Revisited

These days with the mental midgets showing up at state capitals and demanding the right to infect themselves and others with the Covid-19 I thought back to the young days of our republic…..

The year was 1786 and the memories of the Revolutionary War were still fresh in most minds…..the country tried to raise revenue by some taxes and of course then as now people were outraged that they should have to pay for anything…..

But for those that have a hard time remembering what they were taught in school…..this is important for it was the first time that the new American government had to flex its muscle….

A note here that most used statement by Jefferson about the tree of liberty came about because of this incident.

Shays’ Rebellion was a series of violent protests staged during 1786 and 1787 by a group of American farmers who objected to the way state and local tax collections were being enforced. While skirmishes broke out from New Hampshire to South Carolina, the most serious acts of the rebellion occurred in rural Massachusetts, where years of poor harvests, depressed commodity prices, and high taxes had left farmers facing the loss of their farms or even imprisonment. The rebellion is named for its leader, Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays of Massachusetts.

Although it never posed a serious threat to the still loosely organized post-war United States federal government, Shays’ Rebellion drew lawmakers’ attention to serious weaknesses in the Articles of Confederation and was frequently cited in the debates leading to the framing and ratification of the Constitution.

The threat posed by Shays’ Rebellion helped persuade retired General George Washington to reenter public service, leading to his two terms as the first President of the United States.

In a letter regarding Shays’ Rebellion to U.S. Representative William Stephens Smith dated November 13, 1787, Founding Father Thomas Jefferson famously argued that an occasional rebellion is an essential part of liberty:

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.”

https://www.thoughtco.com/shays-rebellion-causes-effects-4158282

I believe that this incident and few others were the reason for the inclusion of the 2nd amendment to the Bill of Rights…..

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“lego ergo scribo

More Important Than The Trial

Closing Thought–21Jan20

The country is laser focused on the Senate impeachment trial but there are events that should be more important…why?

The trial will be a silly exercise in the absurd.

One of the “Rights” we have is the right to vote for who we like or better yet as a citizen I have the right to vote without worry…..

Back in the old Jim Crow days in the South Blacks had to pay a “poll tax” to vote….or they we not allowed to exercise a right……but thankfully those days are gone…..not so FAST!

Florida’s state Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of denying convicted felons the right to vote if they do not pay fines and fees associated with their incarceration, a decision that was immediately assailed by rights activists as an unconstitutional and immoral poll tax.

In a statement condemning the ruling (pdf), the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), ACLU of Florida, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund said the ruling “does not—indeed, cannot—alter what the U.S. Constitution requires.”

“A federal court has already held that the state cannot deny people the right to vote because of their inability to pay financial obligations,” the groups said in their statement. 

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/01/16/its-2020-and-floridas-supreme-court-just-ruled-favor-poll-tax

This is sick!

Trying to eliminate people from voting……

This will probably go to the US Supreme Court…as it should,,,,but I have NO confidence that this will be struck down by a mostly conservative court.

If not then this idea will spread throughout the South especially…..and the areas the the GOP has successfully purged voters from the rolls.

I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2020–Are You Sick Of These F*ckers Yet?

Warren and Sanders have started the billionaires to shake in their tidy whities……it is the tax thing.

Warren has said she would pay for Medicare For All with a tax on billionaires…..by “taxes on big corporations, Wall Street, and the top 1%…… Her plan, posted online

The plan sent a quiver through the wealthy old boys club……Gates, Cooperman and Bloomberg are thinking they know best simply because they have money to burn……I for one am not buying their crap….

Gates started whining….

Bill Gates to her list of critics. At a forum Wednesday, Gates didn’t sound thrilled about Warren’s idea to increase taxes on billionaires, and his criticism caught her attention. The details:

What he said: “I’ve paid over $10 billion in taxes,” Gates said at the New York Times DealBook conference, per the Guardian. “If I had to pay $20 billion, it’s fine. But when you say I should pay $100 billion, then I’m starting to do a little math over what I have left over.” He eventually added, “Sorry, I’m just kidding.”

Gates did more than criticize Warren’s tax policy. “I’m not sure how open minded she is—or that she’d even be willing to sit down with somebody who has large amounts of money,” he said, per Mediaite. And when asked who he would support in a hypothetical matchup of Warren vs. President Trump, he declined to say. “Whoever I decide will have the more professional approach in the current situation, probably is the thing I will weigh the most,” he said. “And I hope that the more professional candidate is an electable candidate.”

More professional?  What the Hell does that meas?  Is it code?

Next up is a billionaire named Cooperman….

Warren is clashing with billionaire investor Leon Cooperman, who sent her a critical letter and called out her “vilification of the rich.” In harsh terms, he said to Politico, “This is the f—ing American dream she is s—-ing on.”

He sounds like a parasite that is afraid of losing his host.

Now the perennial candidate Mike Bloomberg is joining the whining by billionaires that would have to pay more taxes…..but as usual he is thinking about running for president…..

Bloomberg flirted with a presidential run earlier this year, visiting early voting states and conducting extensive polling. He ultimately decided against a run, citing in part the apparent strength of former Vice President Joe Biden, a fellow moderate. But Bloomberg is said to have become increasingly worried about the direction of the Democratic primary as more liberal candidates like Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren have gained in popularity. In a statement on Thursday, Bloomberg adviser Howard Wolfson said the former mayor is worried that the current crop of Democratic presidential candidates is “not well positioned” to defeat Trump.

Bloomberg has become a “media whore” he will do anything to try and get his mug on the tellie…..

When will the American people tire of the constant whinbing by the greedy class trying to fuck the country and horde their cash?

I think it is interesting that these billionaires think they have a better plan for governing this country….and if I am not mistaken there was a billionaire that felt the same way in 2016….and look how that has worked out.

These people said the same things about the taxes of the Obama years….

How sad that these people are so insecure that they feel that the government owes them something above the benefits they all get while raping the economy.

The MSM is helping the whiners above all else because the corporate owned news loves the center….

Politico, John F. Harris makes the case that the mainstream media is biased against Warren because “journalists love the center.” Republicans complain of a liberal bias, but Harris says they have it wrong. “The more pervasive force shaping coverage of Washington and elections is what might be thought of as centrist bias, flowing from reporters and sources alike … a conviction that politics should be a tidier and more rational process than it usually is.” What’s wrong about this view is when real change happens, it rarely comes from the center, he adds.

You want change?

It never comes from the “Center”.

Enough already!  Besides the Dems already have enough billionaires in this race.

Ask yourself one question…can a person living in the lap of luxury have any idea what the Middle class and poor go through daily?

Anything more pathetic than the uber-rich pretending that they want to save our democracy?

Be Smart!

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VOTE!

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“Lego Ergo Scribo”