Here is what's eating me up about Romney's taxes

[1-Old-Man]

I started working at 14 and have had many jobs over my lifetime. Every single job I ever had took out taxes long before I ever saw a single damned cent and then it was all I could do to beg the Government to send me a very little bit of it back each year. Romney, and all the rest of the grotesquely over paid, seem to get to decide how much they will pay and when they will pay it, and if at some time in the future they find a way they may have paid even less, well they simply amend their past returns and demand even more back.

I have had to deal with the IRS in the past. You let a little fuck like me screw up his returns to the tune of just a couple of thousand dollars and they will attach every single thing you own, close out your bank account and take all the money, and even go so far as to attach your future earnings - but Mitt and his kind suck the life's blood out of this country and paying taxes seems to be more or less optional for them.

Edited at the request of a fellow DUer

[lunatica]

1. I'm making monthly payments to the IRS since 2008

Every year I just ask them to add this years debt to what I owe them. I'll probably be paying them for the rest of my life.

[rfranklin]

2. Because you don't have tax attorneys who will keep them in court for years...

they know they can bully you. They would rather not deal with those who have the resources to take them to court. That's been official policy for decades now.

[SunSeeker]

15. That is the case with all government agencies.

Government agencies in general are given just enough resources to go after the little guy, but not enough to be able to go after the oligarchs and/or multinational corps.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

22. THAT IS THE PLOY OF THE RICH

Government agencies in general are given just enough resources to go after the little guy, but not enough to be able to go after the oligarchs and/or multinational corps.

[SunSeeker]

24. Yup. nt

[PCIntern]

3. Given your screen name and the subject line of your post,

I need some brain bleach.

[1-Old-Man]

4. I agree that it is a tough thing to visualize

[ellisonz]

6. How about an edit for the children?

[1-Old-Man]

7. Done ....

[Hissyspit]

21. LOL I liked the original.

But then I curse like a old-timey sailor raised in the basement of a whiskey distillery.

[riverwalker]

5. my Dad was hounded by IRS

without mercy. A veteran of Normandy invasion and a former P.O.W with PTSD. He drove a taxi for a living and supported six kids.
I take this VERY, very personally.

[RedStateLiberal]

8. This is what happens when...

...tax laws are written by lobbyists and the influence of money in politics makes government only work for the 1% while the rest of us suffer.

[Scuba]

9. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!

[closeupready]

18. Business as usual, known in 3rd world countries as "corruption".

nt

[Bertha Venation]

20. corruption -- + 1

[The Wielding Truth]

25. BY the People, For the People. Corporations are not PEOPLE! If Bain is a person it is Mitt Romney!

Twisted. Isn't it.

[bulloney]

33. And the 99%ers who back the 1%ers can't see or understand this.

They're under this delusion that they aren't in the 1% club YET, but they're on their way because they work hard and honestly. If they don't make it, they'll blame it on some liberal , liberal policies or taxes being too high, because that's how they're programmed to think by Faux Snooze and the other RW media.

[ecstatic]

10. Same here! nt

[n2doc]

11. It serves their purposes

The 1%'ers want ordinary people to fear and hate the IRS. Then they use that emotion to lower THEIR taxes. And to foster a fear and hatred of all things government.

[klook]

12. Entire Republicon tax policy in a nutshell. (n/t)

[SunSeeker]

14. You nailed it. nt

[1-Old-Man]

17. Very insightful

It brings to mind the old saw 'the Government should fear the people, not the other way around.'

While I balk at your explanation my hesitation to accept it is admittedly based on a flimsy plank. I do not see (in my mind's eye) collusion in which the 1% get together and come to the conclusion you indicate and then work to put it into effect. That said I recall, but can't quote, a line from a speech Bill Moyers made, in which he said that collusion was not necessary with like-minded zealots work toward their individual ends. So while I don't think they sat around and discussed it but I do think the combined lobbing efforts of like-minded individuals is what has distorted our taxing system to favor the rich.

[Dustlawyer]

38. Ah, but there has been a lot of collusion!

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce started implementing tort reform and stacking the Courts with right wing Judges. They put a lot of money in State and local elections. They even started newspapers that they have for free outside of jury empaneling rooms with slanted articles on issues/cases like medical malpractice if there was going to be a med mal trial starting that week. (look up "The Record" newspapers such as the Southeast Texas Record. There is one in West Virginia as well). They started "Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse" and the like so that people willingly give up their rights to sue. They coordinate all of the major corporations and 1% fat cats, right wing media (uniform talking points), limit voting rights through Alec (sp)... The corruption is entrenched in both Republican and Democratic parties from the local to the national. They control the media completely. They have dumbed us down, kept us in the dark and fed us crap for many years. OWS showed us their power with politicians and police coming out and doing horrible things to legitimate protestors. They have the power and are not willing to concede anything. Their take over has happened to the point that they feel comfortable pulling back the curtain from time-to-time. They are getting people desensitized to giving up their social security ("I am 40 something and there will not be any money there for me when I get old.&quot . We have all heard people say that as if it is a given, and maybe it is. They have privatized everything so they soak up all of our tax dollars while they pay nothing. Warrantless wiretaps and torture, sure! Please do not try to tell me that this has not been coordinated. This has all been a part of a master plan since Reagan. There is too much money and power at stake! They have the time, money and power to make the changes they need. Sooner or later they get what they are after while we watch to see what Charlie Sheen does next!

[SunSeeker]

13. Exactly. Which is why his tax returns are and should be a key issue in November.

His tax returns symbolize all that is wrong with this country and are a blue print for how the rich soak the middle class, i.e. the Paul Ryan plan in action.

[SammyWinstonJack]

16. The IRS goes after the little fish because it's eaiser then going after the big fish.

[riderinthestorm]

19. Yup. Small business owner here and I've been audited 3 times

Another friend I know (an audiologist) has been audited 4 times....

They know we don't have the resources to fight the IRS for any length of time. Its incredibly time consuming and frustrating. You go round and round with them over the stupidest things but in the end, it makes no difference - they have all the power to decide.

[joeglow3]

23. Big business here and IRS has a permanent office in our building

We are now under a real time audit where the IRS audits every single significant transaction we enter into, in addition to testing everything else every year.

I assure you, it can be MUCH worse.

[coalition_unwilling]

26. Ask yourself how one person can get $100 million in an IRA while people in

this country are losing their homes and going hungry. That's what pisses me off. My wife has basically talked me out of calling my Congress critters to demand an innvestigation, becasue neither of us believes anything would come of it.

So I feel your pain.

Romney should be facing a criminal investigation for tax evasion, imo.

[Bucky]

27. He dodged as much taxpaying as he could but now gives lectures on patriotism.

That, and the fact that he won't deign to release his last ten years of tax returns. I doubt there's anything illegal in there. He just doesn't feel like he owes it to us little people.

Knowing that his returns would be scrutinized, he paid a 13.9% effective rate. I wonder what rate he paid in the years when he wasn't thinking about how it'd look in the long run.

[salinen]

34. Other Romney patroitism

outsourcing jobs, sending manufacuring overseas, paying the Caymans to protect his wealth, and using tax loopholes and not paying into the commons. He shouldn't be able to drive on our potholed roads.

[DaveJ]

28. I didn't have that experience with the IRS

I owed a couple thousand once, and they just withheld refunds until it was paid off. They didn't go after my savings or anything. Maybe it's because my returns are pretty simple....

[RuthK]

29. Sixty years of paying

I started working before I was 16. I am now 76. Every year for 60 years I've paid taxes. Since I didn't make much money, I just did the short form. I did it myself until one year when I switched a small investment and the IRS decided that I'd cashed it in and didn't pay tax. I was scared to death. H&R Block checked it out for me and said that the IRS got it wrong. They fixed it. Now, even without a lot of money, I have them do the taxes.

All of my tax returns for 60 years probably have fewer pages than one year of Romney's, with all his accountants and loopholes and God knows what else. I'm not envious of the rich. I just want to know why I have nothing to say about what is supposed to be the government of the people.

[Skittles]

30. excellent post, RuthK

welcome to DU

[Rosa Luxemburg]

31. People need to know how much he pays in taxes

[lonestarnot]

32. Since a federal employee can be terminated for not paying their fucking taxes, why should we hire

someone we do not know to have paid his taxes. Yeah, I'm talking about you Taxivader Mittwit.

[brooklynite]

35. LEt's not stretch the arguement...

...because the actual record is damaging enough. There has been no allegation that Romney cheated on his taxes; or browbeat the IRS into accepting his filings. The allegation is that his financial dealings and wealth allowed him to take advantage of provisions put in the tax code by the Congress (in all honestory, probably both sides), and as a result he has certainly paid little tax, and possible none, over the past 10-20 years.

[bulloney]

37. That is the underlying reason why Romney won't release his taxes and other 1%ers are backing him.

If Romney's returns are ever released, for a lot of middle-class and lower-class people, it will likely shine a lot of light on what's wrong with the U.S. tax code and why governments are strapped for funds. It would be the proverbial 2X4 smacked across the face, waking people up that they're busting their haunches, paying a significant percentage of their shrinking wages in taxes, while Romney and his ilk rake in millions for not working and pay a tiny fraction of a percentage of their incomes in taxes.

Some people will connect the dots: The reason many local government entities are frequently seeking new or increased taxes in the form of regressive sales and property taxes is partly due to federal and state cuts to said entitles because the Romneys of the world have been paying a smaller and smaller percentage of taxes from their incomes for years.

There will still be the Faux Snooze, Limbaugh, Hannity, et al listeners with the single-digit IQs who won't make the connection, but that's what you get when you've been dumbing down the country the way the RWers have been for the past 30 years or so.

The whole thing is not about Romney's wealth, per se. It's about the whole tax and financial system of this country, who it really serves, and how it's gotten to where it is.

[KansDem]

36. And now we learn that the Romneys of the world "deal" with county tax assessors...

...getting their properties' accessed tax reduced to obscene levels, so they pay much less in taxes!

Meanwhile, public schools go unfunded, the infrastructure needs repair, emergency-service unions are busted to pay the workers less, and so on and so on...

I'm seeing Richie Rich in a whole new light...

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. On payroll I never even claimed myself on the W2.

That gives you a nice refund.

[spanone]

40. i wonder if mitt is collecting his social security?