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Bill Gates' Taxes Require Special Computer
NightWulf writes "News AU claims Bill Gates said in an interview, his fortune is so big, that the IRS needs a special computer, because a normal one can't handle the numbers. The IRS must have had to switch from PC's to Macs just for Gates."
Except the special computer that the IRS use for my taxes is an Altair.
Not you too taco!
enough of the mac is better pc sux . . . or vice versa wars!
If the press could discern an attempt at a joke. Now THAT would be news.
If I was Bill Gates, I'd go home and have a money fight with wads of thousand dollar bills.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines
... they need to use special software, but Gates realizes his audience is a bunch a morons and he's dumbing it down a little.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
..runs FreeBSD.
Its not that the numbers are too big, its that the EULA he staples to his tax forms require it be processed by 100% MS software.
Some bring out the best in others, some the worst. Some bring out far more.
This has to be BS. There are very lareg corporations with financials much more complex than Gates' taxes.
This sounds ridiculous. Do Warren Buffet's taxes need the special computer also?
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
There is only ONE computer that could possibly handle these calculations.
I have an idea, if your fortune gets to be so large that even the IRS can't figure it all out, you should be required to give some of it away to the poor until they can do the necessary calculations.
That being said, I will accept cash and postal money orders only please.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
$62.88 billion can be easily worked with any desktop pc... Why is it that its always Bill ?
Which only displays the numeral "6" in large repetitive multiples, usually in triplets.
I'd love to see some more detail on exactly WHY they would need a different computer. It's not exactly like 47 billion is a hard number to handle. If it's even true (questionable) I'd say it's probably because their SOFTWARE has some sort of limitation, using low precision numbers or the like, so they had to set up one machine where the software was modified to have higher precision
Well bad part about it is that the rest of us tax payers pay for it...ha ha ha
no sig yet
They do mine on a napkin with a red pen.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
Moe: "Say, Barn. Uh, remember when I said I'd have to send away to NASA to calculate your bar tab?"
Barney: "Oh ho, oh yeah. We all had a good laugh, Moe."
Moe: "The results came back today."
I'm a big tall mofo.
I haven't RTFA, but when I read the blurb, it made me think of all the old games and software that would let your money/score/whatever roll over to zero if it got too high. Nothing like having one billion, wait, negative 500 million doll.. Ah CRAP!
./ to log me in.. I wonder why they needed a special computer.. if it really was because thier system can't handle numbers that large, of if there's some sort of other reason.. I wonder if Warren Buffet has the same problem/bragging rights as well..
And now that I've RTFA while I waited for
Perhaps this is more of a statement about our tax code than about Gates's fortune.
===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
Watch and find out!
"My taxes can beat up your taxes!"
"It's a wonderful idea. But it doesn't work." -- Tad Danielewski
They need a Linux computer
Bill Gates + BS = Slashdot headline.
How about some stuff that matters?
"Oh, please, please, Mr. IRS Man, please give me the latex glove audit."
If they're spending tax dollars on a computer to do one guy's taxes, I want some of the $30+K I sent to the government last year back. Seriously.
If their automated system can't handle one return, then why the hell don't they just do that one by hand? Lazy bastards.
As an aside, if this story were about Steve Jobs, all the replies would be bitching about how much press he gets.
MS Money.
MS Money Small Business Edition.
MS Money Enterprise.
MS Money Multi-national Edition.
MS Money Dr. Evil Edition.
MS Money Dr. Evil Edition with Laser Beams.
I have an idea, if your fortune gets to be so large that even the IRS can't figure it all out, you should be required to give some of it away to the poor until they can do the necessary calculations.
Part of the problem is likely that Gates gives so much to the poor already. He's the richest man in the world, but name someone that gives more money to the poor than he.
I'm a big tall mofo.
Anyone else consider that Bill was attempting a joke, but the interviewer couldn't tell? I mean only nerds get nerd humor, right?
Does it run Windows Tax Edition? I've heard it has all sorts of great features, like numerous rounding issues and the inability to keep track of more than $65,536 worth of assets.
Question is... Does this "special" computer need special software to crunch the numbers? Does this special software come from Microsoft?
From TFA: "So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven't paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer," he added in comments broadcast on television.
And what really happend:
IRS person: Hello Mr Gates. My computer here is showing me that you haven't paid your 3.5 cajillion dollar taxes the last 4 years.
Bill: Really? Nice computer you have, it wouldn't be broken now, would it?
IRS person: -Gulp!-
IRS person: *Hangs up in fear*
I'm suspect that Gates even sees anything IRS related (aside from signing documents). I would assume that all of that info would go directly to his business manager.
heh, filthy rich toff.
They send mine to a parrot to add up using mental arithmetic. For those with a subscription
and never will, unless they can effectively divide by 0.
In other news, Steve Balmer threw a chair at the IRS computer so he could also claim they needed a new "special" one for him too.
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
Imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
The IRS must have needed "special" Y2K-compliant computers.
Ah well this reminds me of the story that claimed that a Cray computer has been used to design the new Apple Mac (I don't remember which one).
When Seymour Cray was told this he supposedly replied with "That's funny, because I'm using an Apple computer to design(the Cray supercomputers)".
This sounds like Tech Support mumbo-jumbo.
"Oh no, sir, it's not your fault. You're such a great customer that we use a *Special Computer* for your account."
In fact, I think I might use that line today...
...640K was enough for anybody?
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
Even Linus himself endorses the kernal.
Does this special computer run on Windows?
...does it run linux ?
I need Microsoft Money 64-bit edition to handle my personal finance...
"Yeah? Well.... I'm SO rich that the IRS needs special computers to calculate my taxes! .. And they take up two warehouses near the docks!!"
This article is pure BS because I seem to remember something like 15 digits of precition on either side of the decimal point (999999999999999.999999999999999). These machine and their algorithms are PRECISE. There isn't any rounding float error because they don't really round. So its not the software or the hardware.
They do segregate some accounts because of the sheer volume of transactions but the database systems and transaction handling systems are on separate 'farms'
of machines so this article seems to be utter fabrication.
MSBPodcast.com The opinions expressed here are my own. If you don't like 'em... Think up your own stuff.
My guess is that the IRS segregates the really big fish into a separate system for closer scrutiny. If they are off a tiny bit on a "regular" tax return they might end up plus or minus $50. If they make a tiny mistake on Billy-o's taxes it could be millions of dollars. Plus they probably have an actual team of people going over it, so they may need to let more than one person access a record at a given time, which is likely not the case with their standard system.
Must have had to switch from PC's to Macs just for this. Ahhhhhhhh Microsoft and the wonders of flawed software!
So, correct me if I'm wrong here...but if Billy's financial information ever wound up on an IRS PC running any MS software...wouldn't that be a conflict of interest?
if ($host=="BILLSPECIAL") { fake($taxes); }
?
I was working on a project at one point to help "High net-worth individuals" keep in touch with their financial advisors, and to aggregate all of their portfolios into one view.
We encountered a bug where the amount of money that Bill Gates had wasn't supported by the software. It's entirely possible that for most taxpayers, they're just using a data type that doesn't count high enough to manage the wealth that Bill has acquired.
... Bill need more than a staple for that partickular EULA. A 10mm steel bolt perhaps?
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
...when Chuck Norris sends in his taxes, he sends blank forms and includes only a picture of himself, crouched and ready to attack. Chuck Norris has not had to pay taxes, ever.
Synchronize your calendar and mobile phone via text messaging.
Mr. Simpson, this computer can process NINE tax returns per DAY. Did you really think you could fool it?
You must be raking in the dough.
They send mine to this fellow.
Excuse me if I don't believe this.
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
I mean, IRS processes taxes for other billion dollar corporations, so I doubt Bill Gates is any different. This just sounds like a Geek trying to make a joke, except all the other geeks out there take him seriously.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
The Treasury Department computes its finances to 15 decimal places.
P.S. Incidentally they've just reached the current legal debt ceiling of $8.184 trillion and wont be able to issue new bonds until Congress raises it.
Since when is a Mac not a personal computer?
1. Ints roll over at 2 billion but I doubt that they use ints for taxes.
2. Even if it is a VERY old system most likely it uses BCD. No floating point rounding errors and used to be the standard for accounting system. Might still be for the high end ones.
3. Lots of entities have been that rich in the past. I can imagine that the IRS needed special software for GM, Ford, and IBM long before Mr. Gates was more than a Yuppie.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
The couple's Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a $US29 billion ($38.8 billion) endowment making it the world's biggest charity.
So BG is putting more than half of his money into the Foundation (assuming he's the sole contributor). We may all not like him, but at least he's trying to do some good with the money he's fleeced from us. I just wish I still had the money so I could donate it and get the tax writeoff!
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Maybe the IRS is still buying from Dell and can't get a proper AMD64 processor.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
They must be using one of those machines with 640K of memory.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yah, they hadda build one with dials that go to 11.
There is no God, and Dirac is his prophet.
My finances are not very complex, but apparently enough that I'm relegated to the long-form return. I've got to search various forms for fields labelled with numbers to copy out numbers and add them together, copy those to other numbered fields into another form, add them together, altogether having to read an instruction for each field that often reads: "refer to IRS document X to see if this applies to you", or "complete worksheet X and if you get a number between -100 and 325, ignore this line". PLEASE, GOD, WHY?!?!
In my wife's home country, all taxes are collected at whatever transaction takes place. At the end of the year, you get a receipt to review. If everything seems in order, you are all set.
Personally, I'd like to see the entire body of personal tax law reduced to 2 pages. If you can't fit it in 2 standard-size pages in 10-pt type, you can't tax it. Further, taxes should be collected at transaction time (payment, sell investment), and the rate ought to be flat and without deductions. Do that, and Gates taxes would look like this:
It wouldn't surprise me if the program the IRS uses to automate calculates only accepts 32bit unsigned integers which max out at 4,294,967,295 (or some similar range problem). It's not entirely unreasonable to guess that there are few enough cases of numbers greater than this appearing in whatever particular instance gates might be referring to that the IRS hasn't deemed it worthwhile to update the system and instead just does the math for those few people in Excel (possible irony alert).
looked at the calendar, thought it was april 1.
I work too hard for my illusions just to throw them all away.
Mac users really are morons when it comes to about anything that has to do with how a computer functions. They spout off marketing hype and lingo they actually believe. They can quickly drop the value of any technical discussion to a worthless level. Please Mac users, use your tool and keep quiet on such things.
The IRS has a department for handling corporate taxation, a small sub-department of which is for handling personal taxes for large income/asset citizens. It seems the mix up's occur when the normal tax departments process some of his holdings, and find on their local department network records that no taxes have ever been paid on the holdings, and send out some notices. There's never any names attached to the accounts at processing level, so it probably happens relatively often.
I'm confused by all the comments about the computer being just for him, or that there is something different about that one computer itself than any other. Reading TFA, it looks to me like the IRS standard software has a limit to what it can accept, probably due to input checking when someone making 1,000,000,000.00 in a year being considered an impossibility, and I'm sure the IRS is not allowed to do anything by hand (with the regulations for computerization that are thrown around), so they either modified the existing software or built a new package, and it was easier to load it on a different machine than have two similar packages running on the same machine. And nowhere does it imply that he is the only one on there. Warren Buffet could be on there as well. Of course, TFA was misleading in that the IRS doesn't know and doesn't care what your net worth is. They only care about income received.
So the IRS has software with such restrictive error checking that it can't handle inputs of everyone, or their software is incapable of handling such numbers because of programming considerations. That the richest person in the US is affected isn't news. That the IRS impliments broken solutions and has to cobble together work arounds that lead to other problems described in TFA is the problem.
Learn to love Alaska
A number of years ago, I worked for a fairly prestigious research hospital, and we had a handful of highly paid doctors and researchers. Like most large companies, we had a mainframe-based commercial payroll system. We also had a SECOND payroll system, just for the highest-paid researchers. It seemed that due to tax law changes, some of the deduction fields in the files weren't large enough to cope with the amounts. It was a source of some amusement, and a little resentment, among the tech staff.
Eventually, they converted to a more current product, and the second system was eliminated.
In these days of relational databases and abstracted fields/elements, I can't see this being an issue, but you never know.
Ha, ha, Bill Gates [money quantity statement] and [someting about Windows] and then [something about Window's reputation]. Man, that's hilarious. Maybe he should [do something that Jobs has done] or even [clever Linux reference].
Have you heard the one about 640k or a broken CD-ROM cupholder yet? Those are a gas.
For shame, ripping off a Fark headline...
I encrypt all my files with Double XOR Encryption!
Sounds like they just had to switch over to special software that can compute arbitrary precision numbers.
We had to modify our payroll system in 1987 to be able to cut a check with 8 digits to the left of the decimal for one broker.
Don't forget the enormous amount of money he donates to the WHO, not to mention paying for immunizations for hundreds of thousands of American kids. The Gates have become world-class philanthropists, and yet they get almost no credit for it. Humility in charity is an impressive thing.
It could be true, if the IRS bought one of them new fangled Pentium PCs to do his taxes. I mean, can their fleet of 8086 machines even handle 16b floats?
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Of course they couldn't calculate his taxes, unless they had a machine that could use the evil bit.
Tax Bill at a special 100% rate. All computers can handle a value of zero.
and he could have been running Disney by now.
"You can have the office, Bill. I'll have the living room."
They can't do it anymore on one PC, because they had to roll back patent infringing features in Office, so they can't edit db data directly from spreadsheet.
news for nerds. stuff ripped off from fark.com
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Just wait for Google to release their free desktop Linux then invest in all the furniture repair businesses in Redmond http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/09/13/ballmer_ch air_denial/
Maybe they need a Milliard Gargantubrain which can count all the atoms in a star in a millisecond?
don't you have enough money? $640K should be enough for anyone.
I do not accept czechs.
Some of the value fields may be limited to 10 digits for personal taxes, and his (along with anyone else with assets/income over 9 billion dollars) simply don't fit in the fields. It's not like the IRS Personal Tax Software adds up all 2 trillion dollars together in a single field.
Obviously the corporate tax software architecture can handle larger numbers than the personal tax software, very believable from a software architecture that dates back to the late 60's.
Taco, you Mac fanboy - this is the last time that I look at your site.
Digg has rendered this place obsolete.
Enjoy your Mac fandom without my insight any longer.
Aggrivated by false "failure to comply" notices, Gates confided in one of his best friends, Steve Ballmer, about the issue. Ballmer has since vowed to Fucking Kill(TM) the IRS, stating that he's "Done it before and he'll do it again". He then chucked a copy of Microsoft Money 2006 in the general direction of Washington DC.
fyi - The reason why they are saying a special computer is because it was a mac. Windows kept crashing because of all the calculating.
They use a horse to tap out mine...
"The IRS must have had to switch from PC's to Macs just for Gates." Last time I checked it was Macs moving over the the PC market.
...that he's arrived - he has a 64-bit fortune.
When I was in school, I worked as a data entry clerk for Revenue Canada, entering ppls tax returns. We didn't have PC's or Macs, we just had dumb terminals that we logged onto and all our data was sent to a mainframe computer. Shouldn't that be the way it should be done?
They do mine with one liner shell script.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
"Barney, remember how I said we'd have to send away to NASA to calculate your bar tab? Well it came back...."
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
As of 2003, there were 54,846 pages of Federal tax rules (source).
It has to be. Even Bill Gates does not get letters of apology from the IRS. No fricking way. Never happened. Chuck Norris on the other hand...
Some rich guy told the IRS that they would only need 640K ram per computer
I think the important question here is "Does it run linux?"
No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
I bet he's getting watched like a hawk. ;)
[%] Cingular Ringtones
If I had half as much money as Bill, I'd give more than he does.
It's just too bad for the world that you aren't smart and motivated enough to amass any significant amount of money. Because, if you were, look out world! You'd be one hell of a philanthropist. As it stands now, you'll just criticize other people that are smarter and more motivated than you. That's far easier to do.
I'm glad to see Bill give any money to charity, but one has to wonder with so much more money than he can use, why he doesn't give more.
$29 BILLION DOLLARS isn't enough for you? That's the size of the endowment in the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. It's the world's largest charity. How freakin' dumb are you? Unfortunately though you're probably fairly smart. Smart enough to be jealous of good works that others do but dumb enough to not be able to do anything significant yourself. Except complain. Oh, I bet you're a first-class complainer. You're probably just itching to hit Reply and complain. Or maybe you'll take it out on the next waitress that doesn't bring your fourth free Sprite back to your table fast enough for you.
What a dork you are.
I'm glad I'm British and Working Class. The Government takes care of my tax paperwork for me. Any money on which I owe tax, has already had to have the tax taken out of it, by law, before it gets anywhere near my bank account.
On the downside, employers are still allowed to say something like "Salary GBP25000 PA" when in actual fact employees might get only GBP18000 PA to take home.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Well, progressive taxation is pretty much necessary, as are tax deductions, so that would complicate things a little bit more.
weren't "long integer" libraries used for these cases? I mean, duh, how do you think we calculate PGP keys?
Billy sometimes makes me laugh.
"What do you want to lie today?"
its extremely fair, give an example of how it is not...
or maybe you define "fair" differently than I
The IRS's systems are so bloody antiquated, broken, and unmanagable, they can't even take a form 8863 education credit. Electronic filing for that form worked last year, but has been broken so far on '05. A fix was promised for today, and not delivered. Broken for a full month, when it's needed most, is just unbelievable.
I'd be more suspicious that they need special hardware to run software that checks for statistical irregularities and fraudulent activity on that size of numbers.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
I gave more money to the poor than Bill Gates, and I suspect, so did the majority of posters on Slashdot. Only since he got married did he finally turn a new leaf. Melinda Gates must be one hell of a women to have changed him so much. I will admit, though, he has managed to buy himself off the World's Biggest Tightwad list.
"To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
This computer requires a special OS known as "Linux" that able to perform complex mathematical calculations without requiring the standard operating procedure on most computers known as "Blue-Screening". Mr. Gates was quick to point out that for the average taxpayer Windows XP was accurate for calculating federal taxes +/- 100%. He was also quick to point out that Microsoft is not liable for any tax penalties that may be accrued due to tax preparation with MS Windows.
If it were the Canadian Government, it could have been simplified greatly, and nobody would need any extra computers.
1. How much money did you make last year? ________
2. Send the result from line 1. to the Canada Revenue Agency.
Colonel Cranium this is Rectal Reconnaissance, we are on a collision course sir, Abort Abort!
2. "Prefund" of 33% of the poverty line to every household in America (based on household size.) This means that people with very low incomes actually get more money than they pay. Progressive enough for ya?
3. Jobs program for the hundreds of thousands of leeches^H^H^H^H^H^Hbookkeepers, accountants, and IRS agents who will no longer take 30-40% of total tax revenue, off the top.
4. ...
5. Profit!
Of course, it will never pass, but it is a LOVELY idea.
"He who would learn astronomy, and other recondite arts, let him go elsewhere. " -- John Calvin, commenting on Genesis 1
Progressive (or in the case of the US - Graduated) tax systems are necessary why? Same is true for deductions. A simplified flat tax system / use tax system could arguably generate MORE in taxes.
Forbes has some great articles on the subject.
Why?
No, really. WHY is "progressive" taxation a necessity. Why are tax deductions a necessity?
You made a statement of fact. Defend it.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
MICROSOFT founder Bill Gates, the world's richest man, said today the pants office in the US has to keep his penis in a special harness because his member is so vast.
"My johnson has to be kept in special trousers because normal garments can't deal with the numbers," he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.
Thank you, Mr. Gates!
okay?
They do mine on a napkin with a red pen.
In a bistro?
Carthago delenda est!
billy's money would clog any normal computer
Bill's home mortgage (if it exists) does not exist.
Whoa, man, you're blowing my mind!
My finances are not very complex, but apparently enough that I'm relegated to the long-form return.
I made less than $6,000 in 2005 (I'm a recently graduate so I'm still starting out in the world) and I have to use the long-form with at least one supplementary schedule.
My income mostly came as "miscellaneous income" on a 1099--which automatically kicked me onto the long-form. I suspect there are plenty of people in my situation--with just one exception that bumps them to the regular 1040.
That doesn't make sense, at some point a computer has to total EVERYONE's taxes to get the bottom line figure for the year, and that sum has got to be way bigger than what Gates has.
Live forever, or die trying.
Sure the BMGF gets 1/2 of his fortune... but what he's keeping for himself is an amount of money so vast that if he lives another 30 years he'd have to spend roughly three million dollars A DAY to spend it. And that would only work if the money wasn't out at interest; if the principle stopped growing.
It's nice that Bill is doing something, but let's face it: in practical terms it isn't really costing him anything "real" since the amount of money he's left with is too much to spend in two or three lifetimes. Put another way, it doesn't make any difference at all in Bill's life that he's giving the money away, except that he gets to say "I give billions to charity." There's nothing he's giving up, no cost in time, or effort, or lost opportunities (on the personal level).
As someone said further up the thread, I think the Widow's Mite principle applies here; I'm much more impressed by a poor family that stops dining out once a month and gives $1000 a year to charity than by Bill's gift.
"The IRS must have had to switch from PC's to Macs just for Gates" ... because they have trouble with more than one button on their mouse???
If he was really so giving, why doesn't he donate off 20 billion or so? Why all these plerthy hundred thousand dollar donations (a pittance to him)? He could donate 20 billion dollars next year, and *sill* have 20 billion left. Of god, I wonder if he can live on 20 billion dollars??? Here come the violins... Condiser this - Christian Childrens Fun is one of the largest charities catering to the third world in America. Even so, since 1938 they have only delivered 2.5 billion dollars in aid. Gates could give 10 times that at once and still be one of the richest people in the world. Such a massive donation would save the lives of millions upon millions. Or alternativly, if he wanted to stay closer to home, Bill G alone could build low-income housing for every single homless person in the country, and pay their bills for a year until they get on ther feet. No matter what he is giving now, it is a pittance to what he should be giving when you consider his net worth.
> Gates's fortune is put at $US47 billion ($62.88 billion),...
what does that exactly mean????
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Yes, GOTO programming is alive and well in the IRS tax forms.
Except you are the computer and errors in your memory will cause heart pounding letters from the IRS.
bc should be enough for anybody!
Apparently, from all the Slashdotting over it not even nerds get nerd humor. I laughed out loud, so I guess I'm not as much a nerd as I thought (and it even sounded like this guy's laugh.)
This space intentionally left (almost) blank.
So are you using a completely legal copy of Altair BASIC to do your taxes? ;)
Why should taxes be simple? Our lives are not simple. Taxes are only a reflection of the complexity of life itself.
Further, taxes should be collected at transaction time (payment, sell investment), and the rate ought to be flat and without deductions.
:)
I used to agree with you, but I've since found the that picture isn't so simple.
Taking taxes at transaction time means pushing a situational-tax only system. In other words, pay tax on a sale of goods or services or the such, which pushes a larger percentage of the tax burden farther down the economic ladder (remember that everyone has to eat and buy things). The richer you are, the lower the percentage of situational tax with respect to your income/net worth. That's not good. Thus, income and estate taxes are pushed as a way to readjust the percentages to make the wealthy pay a larger percentage of their net worth than the poor per annum. Additionally, speaking as someone who was there, taking even 15% of my income when I only make $10k or $20k is pretty onerous, if not simply not possible. But taking even 30% of my income now that I make six figures would pinch, but is far more doable. Speaking as the hypothetical Bill Gates, taking as much as 45% of my $50B, leaves me with enough cash on hand to own a small nation and still manages to do an amazing amount of collective good for the nation.
Also, deductions are an absolutely necessity of the system. Let me explain by example:
If I own a business and that business brings in $100k in gross profit, without deductions, I pay tax on $100k. However, looking at the bigger picture, If my business is anything like the norm, only about 30% of that gross stays in my pocket. That means, I had to pay employees (who are taxed on that pay), advertising (which is taxed on the service provider), and office supplies (which were already taxed at the OfficeMax counter). I have to be able to deduct business expenses otherwise the remainder of the gross that I hold in my hand after business expenses will go, in total, the IRS and I end up having run a business that did $100k in profit and I, as the owner, have exact $0 to show for it (if I don't end up oweing.
Deductions of the other sort exist to encourage charity. There are those who would give to charity out of kindness, but to the same extent? As frequently? What about the rest. We can't forget that charity write-offs really work. Americans give a tremendous amount to charity every year. How much who those charities get if there were zero benefit to the giving? Not nearly as much. Sure, those who give anonymously would still give, but as for the rest, the numbers would drop drastically.
Al Gore---not my favorite guy in the world---had a great idea. Tax breaks for people who make beneficial environmental choices (buy hybrids, use solar, etc...) to encourage people to lessen our dependence on foreign fuels. His ideas never came to full fruition (a real shame, regardless of whether I like him or not), but they would only work if the tax base can claim deductions as incentive.
Brevity is not my strong suit, so sorry for the long ramble, but you get the idea.
-Tom
"free Longhorn upgrades for all your servers and we're even".
there's no place like ~
So, our tax dollars are paying for this. I think that Gates himself should donate the hardware, otherwise I want a fucking refund...
with his lawyers and connections you'd think he'd find a way to make the government give him a 2 million refund every year. man, he really needs some new lawyers and accountants. isn't that how every corporation works?
sigs suck
Because flat taxes with no other means of compensation make the rich richer and the poor poorer, and a strong and well populated middle class is the base for any stable political system.
To do list for Windows
is why the irs doesn't give an explanation when they change taxes.
a couple years back, they sent me a letter stating i owed them $960 WITH NO EXPLANATION. the truth was, they owed me $2k due to my own error, but i hadn't refiled yet.
i sent them a letter asking for a SPECIFIC EXPLANATION and they sent me a check for $900 WITHOUT AN EXPLANATION as to why they kept the $60. i didn't quibble over the $60. this is SHADY business.
this year they cut down my taxes due to me apparently wrongly filling in a tax credit... but gave no further information so i have to start from scratch in order make sure those kunckleheads aren't just screwing with me again.
the irony is that the govt STILL spends $3k more per head than we pay in taxes - PER YEAR.
yeah, I'M INCLUDING CHILDREN, too.
and that's just the feds. toss in state and local and we are so thoroughly bankrupt that we need to give the billionaires a few extra billions at the expense of middle class grandkids.
1. give tax breaks to filthy rich.
2. spend $3,000 more per living person than you take in.
3. ???
4. pay eliminate deficit and pay off debt.
hey, i'm all for govt efficiency - they waste a ton - and the republicrats are just as bad as the demicans. BUT SAVE THE FREAKIN' MONEY FIRST, before paying off all the billionaires.
the big picture is that democracy ISN'T the magic bullet... angry people will destroy it (hamas) and so will greed (us of a), it is just that greed won't destroy it as fast.
quit beating a dead horse!
Need Geek Rock? Try The Franchise!
... and let me tell you, they don't have a clue. Did you know that more than half of the 1040's that get electronically filed, get sent to the IRS computers by Z-Modem? I'm serious. Z-modem inside a telnet session pumped through an SSL connection (the system sorta evolved that way from the pre-internet dialup system they used to use.) Now the new thing they are working on, MEF (or Modernized E-File) includes forms 1120 and 1120S which is income taxes for Corporations and S-Corporations. In an 1120 tax return you can actually send scanned PDF files, which I assume some human at the IRS has to then read. What was the point in developing these huge specs for XML based tax returns to allow automatic processing, if you can just send in a bunch of documents that require human intervention? Thats just bad design, but they also have problems with implementation. The acknowlegement files we get for the form 1120 also have broken XML schema locations. (I've been on them for about a week to fix this.) Of course the real interesting bit about MEF is that its basically a glorified file transfer system. They basically designed a whole new file transfer system that runs on SOAP and HTTP. The banks that we deal with in comparison do have a clue. The banks use Secure FTP, Which has worked flawlessly for the last 6 years.
The icing on the cake? The company that has been contracted to build the MEF system? IBM.
Slashdot is an anagram for Has Dolts, and I am Dolt number 468543
If I own a business and that business brings in $100k in gross profit, without deductions, I pay tax on $100k. However, looking at the bigger picture, If my business is anything like the norm, only about 30% of that gross stays in my pocket. That means, I had to pay employees (who are taxed on that pay), advertising (which is taxed on the service provider), and office supplies (which were already taxed at the OfficeMax counter). I have to be able to deduct business expenses otherwise the remainder of the gross that I hold in my hand after business expenses will go, in total, the IRS and I end up having run a business that did $100k in profit and I, as the owner, have exact $0 to show for it (if I don't end up oweing.
Oops! You are confusing "personal deductions" and "business expenses." The business expenses would be subtracted from your business income and wouldn't even show up as "income" on your taxes.
To put it another way: If you run a business, you don't get taxed on revenue - you get taxed on profit.
Personal deductions come into play on your personal income, which can include business profits, salary from an employer, investment income, etc. Congress could theoretically eliminate personal deductions while still only taxing your profit.
All is Number -Pythagoras.
Maybe he should put a distributed computing component in Vista so each of us can share our spare processing cycles to calculate his taxes.
I imagine the IRS doesn't just have just a special computer for Gates. They must also have full-time people working on his case...
The IRS figures my income by watching random insect movements.
That's how I figure my income as well.
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
My wife and I did this the first year we filed after we bought a house. We had been doing the long form and hating it for a few years before that. After we got an accountant, we realized how stupid we were for not doing it long before we bought the house.
Since then, each year it costs us about $100.00 for the accountant to do our taxes. All we have to do is keep track of possible deductable amounts thru the year, add them up and stick the amounts on a form mailed to us, which we then send back (I personally drive it over, but it could be mailed), along with the W-2's, 1099's, etc.
With all the forms for taxes from the house, our savings account, our IRA, plus a couple of other things - I can't even imagine doing them personally. My time and sanity is worth the $100.00 knowing it will be done right. I consider that $100.00 to be good money spent. I consider that money just another amount that helps me keep from arguing with my wife from being aggravated by the whole process.
Do it - trust me. Get an accountant for your taxes. When tax time comes around, you won't dread it (as much), and likely you will get a nice return as a bonus (ideally, your return, from all sources, should be close to $0.00 - never use the government as a savings account...it isn't like you get to keep the interest).
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
Microsoft is great at spreading pointless fud, as well as useless software. yay! go bill!!
the only permanence in existence, is the impermanence of existence.
Congress could theoretically eliminate personal deductions while still only taxing your profit.
:)
:(
Yeah, but the line isn't so clear cut as we might think. For instance, an individual can write off business expenses as well (taking the troops out to an unreimbursed lunch, for instance). Also, the real concern I have is that without charitable deductions charity will drop. It's a big issue. The government has to step in and take over when charity falters. This means that the government can encourage charities to do the work more efficiently by allowing for charitable tax deductions and 503b exemptions, which costs it very little when compared to what it would cost them if they had to step in and do the same work. The government tends toward inefficiency, and thank God they know it!
Also, what about deductions for things like adoption? Currently, adoptions garner a $10k tax credit, to offset the fact that natural child birth is covered by health insurance, but adoptions (something everyone wants to see strongly encouraged!) have no such support structure in place, but cost as much. Even with the tax credit an adoption will run upwards of $10k after applying the credit! Pretty steep, but not preventive in the way that it would be in the amount were doubled (which is what happens without the tax credit). Same with hybrid cars. We all want to encourage alternative fuels, but without the tax subsidy, not as many people will spend the extra money to buy one. Same for so many things that are not charity, but are important.
I used to be a strong flat tax / no deductions kinda guy, but as I got older and as I started looking further into it, I saw these and other serious problems with that solution.
Sadly, sometimes equity doesn't mean equal.
-Tom
... all the way to his private jet to take a trip to one of his personal tropical islands where he has a satellite uplink that he can talk to any of his banks, either as client or owner.
Bill Gates said in an interview, his ____ is so big, that the ____ needs a special ____, because a normal one can't handle the ____.
Salary $1.00
*.15= 15 cents
everything else is a business paid for, business expense..
car? company supplied limo driver
meals? the man is on call! of course the company pays for all his meals
House? that thing is wired to hell and gone, just so he can stay in touch, information to the seattle campus is critical
of course something this simple sounds nice, but it's not practical.
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I asume they need a special machine if your furtune is super negative as well.
I think you underestimate just how much I just dont care.
The rich seem to be getting richer and the poor poorer (relatively) under the current tax system, so this is a criticim of flat taxes how?
As I recall, Kerry and wife paid less federal tax (under 13%) on a percentage basis than most of us (in 03). Pretty much all tax-free bond income, etc. so no AMT either. Legal, but hardly progressive.
-- I speak only for myself
A lot of UNIVAC 110x software written to run under EXEC 8 will still compile and run on a modern Unisys Clearpath Dorado system. FWIW...
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
Translation for the sarcastically impaired: What Bill Gates does with his money is none of your business. People who work in the nonprofit sector don't have your attitude. The idea is to appreciate it when people go out of their way to support your efforts -- not to shit on them for it.
Breakfast served all day!
Homer: Umm ... I guess I'll take that one.
Salesman: Well, do you need a paperweight? 'Cause if you buy
that machine, that's all you're going to have, an
expensive paperweight.
Homer: Well, a paperweight would be nice, but what I really
need is a computer. How about that one? [points to
a second machine]
Salesman: That technology is three months old. Only suckers
buy out-of-date machines. You're not a sucker, are
you sir?
Homer: Heavens no!
Salesman: Oh good, because if you were, I'd have to ask you to
leave the store.
Homer: I just need something to receive email.
Salesman: [whistles] You'll need a top-of-the-line machine for
that. [shows Homer a top-of-the-budget machine]
That's the same computer astronauts use to do their
taxes.
Just replace astronauts with Bill Gates to make it relevant.
If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
Pleeeaaaase, Bill, be so kind and donate few millions to IE development! You will not even notice it! I'm loosing pretty big money (big is sometimes not as big as you might think) when trying to make pages to work with IE! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
Well, I've got to get back to work. When I stop rowing, the slave ship just goes in circles.
I do mine on a TRS-80.
10 PRINT "INCOME? HA! HA! HA!"
20 GOTO 10
An Altair? How modern of you. Mine is held on a Packard Bell 250, you know, the one with acoustic delay lines used as registers.
But that's tongue and cheek of me. The IRS along with FBI are known as the two agencies with the most screwball computer systems in the country.
For example - in the entire FBI not one of their machines could read an 8mm metal-oxide tape. Not one. I ended up having to burn them a CD of the criminal history data we had.
Yet we trust each agency to either treat us fairly in the case of the IRS, or to both treat us fairly and protect us from harm in the case of the FBI.
he'll also send you a dollar for every time you forward this comment...
-pyrrho
Just lost my mod points. The parent is right - most of billy boy's fortune is in stock that doesn't pay dividends, and probably doesn't for just the tax reason the GP posted. Even a small dividend would mean a whopper of a tax bill. Billy takes a small salary (that's "small" in CEO terms), and cashes out for the big spending sprees, where his money is taxed at cap gain rates.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
"It's just too bad for the world that you aren't smart and motivated enough to amass any significant amount of money. "
Maybe he just doesn't want to lie, cheat and steal to make that much money. To me it doesn't make sense to make a bunch of money and then give a tiny little it of it back. Maybe it's better not to make that money in the first place. That's what jesus seemed to be saying anyway.
evil is as evil does
And what would the Flying Spaghetti Monster say about making profits? :)
(I'm genuinely curious, actually)
The way I understood it back then was Apple used a Cray for modeling heat flow in Mac cases and then for designing those case's injection molds. The result was Apple was able to quickly test out various case designs and layouts, keep their Macs fanless for a significant cost, reliability, and noise advantage, and then expedite construction of those cases. Considering Apple then had up to 48 Mac variations out on the market at once back then they probably made good use of the Cray(s).
I remember my Mac IIci made thusly quite fondly - two easy clips on the case and a single screw held everything together, it lifted apart in neat layers. That was fantastic compared to the NEC, Zenith, Honeywell-Bull & Compaq PCs that I was working with that required prying them apart with a screwdriver inserted in just the right obscure spot, then another on the other side, pulling open the case open with a third, and invariably the sacrifice of knuckle-skin to some insanely located screw on some internal component or other.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
A lot of your comment boils down to the idea that the tax structure should be used to further certain societal goals. I (and many others), have a fundamental problem with that. WHY should taxes be a means for societal change? It assumes 2 things:
1) the government should be setting priorities on how society should change, and
2) that the government will better spend the money it gets than an individual will.
In other words, you have become more liberal with age. Nothing wrong with that, but I don't know if it's an "objective" viewpoint. Neitehr is mine for that matter.
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
They do mine with a laughter:
"Income? haahaha"
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Why are tax deductions a necessity?
Because "income" doesn't mean what you think it means. It really means "profit". And profit, for a person, means any expenses spent or capital accumulated that is not really necessary to survive and do one's job.
So, the only revenue that is taxable is your "income", which is net revenue minus expenses. Expenses must be deducted. And there must be a method for individuals to deduct their expenses that are not profit.
It's a Constitutional requirement. You can't get around it.
Taxes don't exist to redistribute wealth, though that's what they've been doing for the last 50 years. They exist to provide funding for government from the profit of it's citizens, and to provide government an incentive to ensure it's citizens create profit rather than debt. It reaffirms the notion of government, or the Federal government at least, as an emergent phenomenon, not a fundamental or driving aspect of society.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
which is net revenue minus expenses
Oops, I meant *gross* revenue.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
A lot of your comment boils down to the idea that the tax structure should be used to further certain societal goals. [...] Nothing wrong with that, but I don't know if it's an "objective" viewpoint.
:)
I totally agree with your assessment.
-Tom
" The IRS must have had to switch from PC's to Macs just for Gates."
he forgot to say ZING! at the end
Why not just cut off the zeros? His 64 billion could be calculated as 64 thousand, and every million he owes could be calculated as $1 (which is about all it is to him anyway). It would be just like your middle class americans taxes....
a mere abacus!
Just bought a new quantum computer, but I'm uncertain how it works.
they are Unisys mainframe systems often running Java.
[Of course it's client-server; it runs on a LAN]
Dramatically changing the rules of a complex system to a simple subset of rules only make sense to someone who does not understand why the system has any complexity in the first place.
One could say the same about the rules of any system:
"Games are too complicated. Ballgames should only have two rules: run with the ball, get point when ball delivered."
Taxes are complex because they reflect a complex set of inducements and penalties that represent tax policy. Do you think that if we made broad and sweeping across the board changes to how income taxes are charged and collected, that those changes would have no effect on how business worked going forward?
Would someone who deducted charitable contributions continue giving if there were no tax benefit?
Would someone who had earned income credits for using environmentally friendly devices continue if there were no tax benefit?
Would someone continue to try to earn a profit if those additional profits were taxed severely at a certain level?
Would people contribute to long term savings and/or retirement accounts if there was suddenly no tax benefit to doing so?
One major difference between EU and US taxes lies with the culture of US independence, where people generally and historically vote a preference toward paying their own way and carrying a more direct responsibility for their own investments and financial security.
In the EU, society takes care of health care, education, transportation and social services. In the US, the upper middle classes (and up) takes care of themselves, while the lower majority grovels as WalMart wage slaves and inner city thugs. As the system perpetuates (and further entrenches), it becomes more difficult to demand that successful individuals give away their wealth to socially rehabilitate the trailer park set that has chosen a lifestyle of sweatspants, TV, buffets and crystal meth.
The same conflicts are present in the EU, but socialism paves over discrepancies to a larger extent.
--
In other news:
People in the top US tax bracket do not pay 35% of their income. They pay accountants to find ways to avoid paying taxes. Also, the top tax rates and and the number of different tax brackets in existence have both dropped dramatically since the early 80s, creating a further rift between the ants and the grasshoppers.
I state that as a non-highly paid, urban office worker. I didn't get the state to pay for my healthcare or education, and at this point, I'm not excited about liquidating my accounts to pay for some meth fiend's dental work. At the same time however, it'd be nice if the US took better care of the poor, because I don't want to face an virulent public pandemic outbreak of, say, SARS in a country with dysfunctional health care.
Having worked with the IRS and their original eFile system, I doubt that this is true.
The truth is probably closer to the fact that they may have a problem with their personal account system and field lengths for values within the system. Whatever jobs are loading the results from the filing system are failing when trying to import his records. Since he has been filing for years and continues to file, the system is picking up the fact that nothing is coming over since his amount owed (and whatever other data elements) went over whatever field lengths they are using.
Remember, the IRS doesn't have one big gigantic system. They have a bagillion systems. As much as they consolidate, they still pass data around from one place to another and also have tons of job automation to sift, analyze and filter data as it moves from place to place.
For example, on the eFile program, one very popular routine that income tax preparers see all the time is the duplicate dependant SSN program. As new returns enter the filing system and are drained before going to Andover, a job runs that looks at your dependant SSN numbers showing on your tax return. If that SSN already shows up on a return someone else filed this tax season, your tax return is kicked out and rejected. If you filed through a tax preparer, they will call you about it as soon as they get back the IRS Acknowledgement File. If you file online, you may get some sort of electronic notice. After a few weeks, you should receive a letter from the master correspondence system notifying you about it. This is of course to protect the IRS against fraud when a seperated or two non-married people are attempting to claim the same child (the rule is whoever provided care for the child for the majority of the year gets to claim it).
The reason BillG is getting notices is because his files are not sent over to be update the A/R from the main filing system, so the correspondence system picks this up when the jobs run to look over personal tax account balances (he shows $0 and no filings reported although he has tax returns in the main filing systems).
I would think IBM and Siemens contractors have fixed this by now. Many 1120 and 1120S tax returns have gigantic figures on various forms, especially on page 1.
Examples where your flat-tax system breaks:
1) You cannot sustainably TAX someone who makes just enough money to survive: (e.g. somebody that pays $200/month for rent+utils and $50/month for food closes (total $250), but also only makes $250 pre-tax, if you simply ask for "flat" 10% off that $250, the guy will either have to starve, or live on the street)
2) Imagine it's the good old Reagan 80's:
That same $250/month guy from example 1 does not need a trillion-dollar spending to tanks/nukes because he would be BY FAR better off under the Commies (free health care, free higher education, free job security, free pensions, free housing, dirt-cheap food & vodka).
On the other hand, the guys that make $1,000,000 and above per year have everything to lose, since they would get the same crappy free junk the $250 guy gets, no matter how hard they work. Here, and in many other areas, the rich derive DISPROPORTIONATELY many more benifits from the current government that the poor guys, hence it is only logical that they also contribute a greater percentage of their wealth. I.e., pay for what you get.
Other ways rich get more from the government?
Military/defence budgets aside, the police spend most of their time befending rich guys' stuff, personas, streets, schools, events, etc. etc. (robbing the broke guy just ain't worth much).
Medical research/advances are financed primarily from the public pocket, but the advances are primarily available to mostly rich people for years, sometimes decades.
Rich people benifit disproportionately from such "public" projects as airports/highways (can most people afford private jets or even sports cars?).
I was told by my economics professor that if every transcation was taxed at 1% (.5% paid by seller, .5% by buyer), the Treasury would have more than enough money. This sounds great to people who work for a living, but to rich bastards who live off other people's sweat (oops, I mean successful people who live off of investments), it means more taxes for the wealthy.
He also said that if you take all the currency not accounted for (e.g. not in a till or vault, but in a wallet or sock drawer), it averages to $1000 per US adult. Yet, even ignoring this underground economy, all we need to do is tax traders and let workers live.
More coffee, anyone?
Yes they must use a special computer that does this at the end of calculating his taxes.
You owe $/100=$
Ehrm, you haven't tried to file your taxes this year yet, have you?
There is already a deduction for hybrid car use, energy "sane" vehicles, etc.
Other than that your post is interesting - I wonder how it mis/aligns with the "Fair Tax" initiative that Neal Boortz is pushing.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
http://www.fairtax.org/
The people at the fair-tax website advocate a much simpler method. I recomend reading the FAQs if you have doubts about the idea. Like it or hate it, it is an interesting proposition.
I wonder whether gates tries to reduce his tax by by taking policies and producing fake certificates........
"King Billy"'s wealth is of "the 64-bit order"...
:)
*
(Tbat's pretty astounding - literally, a new class of monetary wealth & the numbers show it (and so are the machines that are incapable of crunching those numbers, & even his own machines are included (Those running 32-bit OS & Softwares))
APK
P.S.=> I wonder how many can say the same?... apk
"...name someone that gives more money to the poor than he."
First, can we really say that anyone who is alive and surviving is poor? Poverty does not really exist. Poor is simply someone who has less than you do.
Everyone gives to someone who has less, that is the function of an employer! If I run a business, of course I will hire people who have less to run my business. Bill Gates just does what every other CEO in the world is doing, he just wants to do it in a way which looks like charity. I admit, Bill Gates is hiring more Indian labor than any other company in the world, he is doing a great job to help people in China and India. My personal opinion however, he's helping people in other countries before giving jobs to American workers? Where is the honor in this? As the richest man in the world, profits arent the issue, he could hire anyone he wants yet he chooses to outsource.
If you are dying, how much money you earn makes no difference. All that matters is how long you live, and the quality of that life.
There is no such thing as poverty and wealth, just quality and quantity of life. Nothing else matters. Once you figure this out, then you know that the best way to help people isnt to donate to charity. Charity is a waste of time, because it only exists to counter-act other forces. Charity is reactionary and it isnt even self sustaining.
If you want to increase quality of life, then create the technologies to simplify survival so that people can focus on playing Nintendo. Increase productivity at work, increase the rate of education, and make the world faster so people can do more in less time. It's simple, use technology to speed time up so life moves faster, or use technology to slow time down so life lasts longer, but don't give money to pointless charities unless its to educate the people who want to make life better. If Bill Gates actually cared, he'd use his money to start a venture capital business, go to Africa, find some young version of himself, and literally start a Bill Gates institute. The fact that he's not doing this means he is doing the charity for the publicity.
As much as I like the idea of curing HIV, lets be realistic, no matter how much money he pours into curing diseases ultimately it will be a waste of money because new diseases will appear, more weapons will also arrive into the hands of dictators, and in the end the result is wasted money.
Bill Gates instead should be helping others start businesses, hell he could create new industries around his software for all I care, the point is, just having a big huge group of programmers changes nothing because programmers don't run businesses and don't really change a country. If Bill Gates on the other hand invested in Africa, or talked to his techie friends, then yes with free trade you can improve the situation in Africa, or at least in the countries that are ready for it.
You look at Asia, and currently there is free trade, but if you want Asia to be self sustainable, then Asia must have its own businesses. These businesses could be close friends of Bill Gates, or friends of Microsoft, who cares? The point is there will be people in Asia with jobs because of this.
Where does Africa come in? Africa is just sitting there, we want the middle east to be safer? Well it only makes sense to actually go country to country and through trade you gain influence. If Microsoft has contracts with dozens of businesses, then Microsoft has leverage, and this in itself is security. What we do not want to do is just throw money into the hands of warlords through charity. What we do not need to do is keep giving food which they don't need because they have more farmers than we do. What we do not need to do is treat the developing world like homeless people.
If you just give charity, how exactly do you expect them to find their niche? It's all about finding your niche and profiting, and Bill Gates knows more about how to profit than anyone. I'm waiting for this group of guys to decide to invest in the developing world. I'm tired of seeing Bono and others complain about the debt, and debt relief, sure debt relief would help, but debt relief won't get African countries into the WTO. Debt relief won't make American corporations agree to contracts.
Another reason to split up (factorise) M$.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
That just talks about the huge number of senseless loopholes in the tax system. Of course, if you have zillions to pay on taxes, you will spend the time and brains it takes to lower that amount. Mom and pop won't have that time or resources, so they pay more. Unfairly. But that doesn't make the previous argument wrong. It just screams agains the way taxes are applied here. Well, and in Spain, where I'm from, too. I'm not bashing anyone; or I'm bashing everyone, I guess...
To do list for Windows