Molly Ivins: April 15th: You're getting screwed

[Dudley_DUright]

Happy tax day, fellow citizens!

My favorite authority on taxes is David Cay Johnston of The New York Times, who won a Pulitzer for reporting on the terminally unsexy topic of taxes. His book "Perfectly Legal -- The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super-Rich -- and Cheat Everyone Else" is the single best work on public policy of recent years, I think.

Johnston reports: "Through explicit policies, as well as tax laws never reported in the news, Congress now literally takes money from those making $30,000 to $500,000 per year and funnels it in subtle ways to the super-rich -- the top one-one hundredth of one percent of Americans.

"People making $60,000 paid a larger share of their 2001 income in federal income, Social Security and Medicare taxes than a family making $25 million, the latest Internal Revenue Service data show. And in income taxes alone, people making $400,000 paid a larger share of their incomes than the 7,000 households who made $10 million or more."

more...

http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?itemid=18898

[lyonn]

1. Most of us are tax challenged

in that we really don't know how it breaks down, only our accountant,CPA and we only hope they take their job as seriously as we take losing our money to IRS. This article is an eye opener. Not that many of us haven't suspected what was happening. I heard some snippets on TV speaking on this subject. Thanks Dudley DUright and Molly.

Edit: Bush and Co. have screwed us 9 ways to Sunday, preaching how they are helping all of us with this tax break. If people knew before the Nov. election what was really going on, intelligence, lost billions in Iraq, vote theft, etc. you know who would be Pres. And the beat goes on with that crowd like we have an IQ of 50. I realise many do but not over 50%.

[Democrats_win]

2. Worse, our taxes go to Haliburton, bush, cheney and Citibank

The world's greatest crooks.

[JPZenger]

3. Another Key Excerpt from Ivins article

"On March 30, Congress was told that 78 percent of known tax cheats in investment partnerships are not even asked to pay because there are not enough tax collectors to go after them." The IRS oversight board asked for money to go after these cheaters, but both Congress and President Bush refused. The IRS's computer system was installed when John Kennedy was president.

The Senate budget currently under consideration includes $129 billion in new tax breaks for millionaires ..."

[Kweli4Real]

4. The IRS is going after tax cheats ...

But it prefers softer targets, like waitresses, barbers, skycaps/porters and other service industry workers that rely on tips to earn a livable wage.

I guess the thought process goes something like this:

Who do we go after? 10,000 service workers that owe $100 each; but can probably be collected on, without challenge, for the cost of a deficiency letter, a lien or a wage garnishment?

Or, a high income (or more likely, inherited wealth) tax evader, owing $1,000,000, but has an highly paid accountant/tax attorney, that will challenge every effort to collect?

From an organizational point of view, that decision is a no brainer.