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IRS Compels PayPal to Release Info
An anonymous reader writes "Just in time for the tax season, the IRS won a federal court ruling, allowing them to force PayPal to turn over records of American taxpayers who have certain foreign accounts. It's all part of an ongoing effort to track down money held in offshore accounts by would-be taxpayers. A spokesperson for PayPal acknowledged receiving the summons (PDF) and said 'We're still evaluating our options [...] The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously.'"
The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously.
Unfortunately, the article cut out the rest of what was said. The full quote is as follows:
The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously. This is so we can give them the illusion of actually caring while we continue to fleece them. Fools!
Sorry, but I have to side with the IRS here. Everyone who isn't paying the taxes they're supposed to be deserves to be found out. People who cheat on their taxes just make the rest of us pay more. In 2001, there was a discrepency of $311 billion between what was owed and what people paid. $311 billion! If half the people in the US pay taxes (I have no idea the true ratio), then that's $2000 less on average per taxpayer that would need to be paid (and actually, even more than that for the honest taxpayers, as the dishonest ones would be paying more). Alternatively, that's a good portion of the budget deficit.
Privacy is necessary, but honestly, screw tax evaders.
I mean we take it really really really seriously. In other news, Paypal apparently hires 8th graders to make public statements.
First glance, whats the problem - paypal must follow requests for the law, then I read it and realised its another fishing mission.
They want paypal to give out the info of all US customers who use bank accounts in 30 taxhavens.
I really hope paypal manage to prevent this from happening, it seems like somebody has let power go to their head.
liqbase
Some kind of conspiracy, this exact same story just showed up on fark at the exact same time.
I thought "fishing expeditions" were clearly a violation of unreasonable search and siezure.
//yeah, I should probably be less cranky given that my work weed ends in 1h2m :)
Oh, wait. What's that you say? They might catch terrorists? Why, in that case, citizen #83264967 stands ready for duty! Just let me chug some victory gin before we get those bastards.
Like idea of making people pay taxes.
Hate idea of government accessing private data.
Head....going...to...explode...
[on phone]
Cayman Islands guy:
[laughs]
I'm sorry, but I cannot divulge information about that customer's secret illegal account.
[hangs up]
Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said he was a customer.
Oh, crap. I shouldn't have said it was a secret.
Oh, crap! I certainly shouldn't have said it was illegal.
[sighs]
It's too hot today.
I hope they don't bust me for selling beanie babies on ebay and not reporting the profit :-(
Why shouldn't these records be available to the IRS? Your brokers' records are, your bank records are. I'm not much in the mood to be an enabler for tax cheats and gamblers with unreported income. This is a non-story.
Paypal is such a jerk of a company, I'm glad the IRS is taking them to task. The only reason they're so concerned about privacy is because if the customers saw what a horrible job they're doing and all the money they "freeze" and keep for themselves, even ebay couldn't save them.
1st post? No way...
/.
Anyways,... PayPal, and its parent company (eBay) are whores. PayPal AND eBay will give out all your information to almost any agency asking for it...
What's the extent of the ridiculousness of this?
The Department of Forestry (don't know which) asked eBay for a certain person's records, and eBay handed over everything...
Fuck eBay... fuck PayPal... fuck gOogle... long live
The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously.'
In fact, Paypal/eBay only cares about its bottom line, like any corporation. They care about the privacy of their customers insofar as their customers represents their bottomline, but once the IRS gets too threatening and/or when the heat of that story will be off, they'll turn over the information withouta qualm, be sure about it.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Are they going to start tracking down everything you sell on Ebay to make sure you pay tax on it?
Dear PayPal User
We regret to inform you that your PayPal account is about to expire. To keep your account, we require you to login at http://paypal.irs.gov/ and give us your old login as well as a new one to make the change. We promise we are real and not just trying to steal your money.
IRS ^H^H^H Superfied Revenue Service
If you buy stuff from paypal and don't list the purchases of out-of-state material on your taxes, you're going to be SOL if the IRS wants those records...
And that's only a short hop away from what they're asking for now.
Good thing! I'm tired of paying taxes and had to pay in a substantial amount of taxes this year! Go get 'um!
[%] Cingular Ringtones
Don't mean would-be tax evaders?
Maybe IRS is taking advantage of the 'Pal' in the name. ShowPal? :)
The power of IRS compels you...
The power of IRS Compels you...
Google Cares! (at least until they index all your off shore bank accounts which are indeed a part of "everything")
As a Canadian, this is amusing to watch, but also appaling. Here in Canada, it's close to impossible for anyone to get to your bank accounts (the PIPEDA). Much less, compell a company like PayPal to give up your information. What ever happened to privacy, integrity, and trust?
"Free software" is a matter of liberty, not price.
How did the they manage to contact a human at PayPal!? It's frightening to imagine that the IRS has that kind of power.
You can run but you can't hide, except, apparently, along the Afghan-Pakistani border.
"Terrorism" is not mentioned once in the CNN story and I don't see it anywhere in the summons either. This case has nothing to do with terrorism, nor is the government trying to depict it as such. From reading the subpeona and the CNN article this is about identifying specific people who used specific offshore banking services (they have credit and debit card numbers, just not names or addresses) to transfer money offshore to evade paying taxes, and transferred money through PayPal in the course of doing so. This is being done by the IRS, whose job it is to prevent people from evading paying taxes. I don't know anything about whether this subpeona legally constitutes fishing, or whether it's possible the IRS might claim to be collecting this data for one purpose and then actually use it for another, but in any case it certainly has nothing to do with terrorism.
... weed ends in 1h2m
my
That explains a lot.
This case per se isn't so important, I think, compared to the larger issue.
Basically, successful private companies sometimes accumulate large amounts of user information.
The State is in general then obtaining access to that information - the recent Google subpoena comes to mind.
In other words, any large scale accumulation of data is in effect part of the State's ability to monitor citizens, since the State seems in general to be able to access that information as and when it wishes to do so.
This is worrying.
The privacy of PayPal operating an unregulated global bank, at the core of global retail ecommerce, is their highest priority. I hope the IRS is just the first Federal agency to get a grip on those Medicis, especially since they rip off people every chance they get.
--
make install -not war
Taxes? I paid my taxes YEARS ago! thanks homer.
Are Canadian taxes as mindnumbingly complicated as US taxes? I'm not referring to percentage of income, as much as the sheer complexity.
Its been said that editing the US tax code is like ordering a pizza for 280 million people, and the results is a morass of legislation, petty tax breaks nooks and crannies that in addition to guaranteeing hefty employment for accountants, requires very draconian powers on the part of the IRS to be enforceable.
Politicians in the USA always talk about how they want to simplify the tax code, but everytime they try some group always gets pissed (rightfully or wrongfully) and gets thwarted.
I always talk to friends from abroad and hear things about how if you are a normal wage earner that you do not have to file a tax return. Fucking amazing from my US perspective. So what is it like in Canada?
Damn it! Well where the hell am I supposed to keep my money hidden now? Guess I'll have to move those accounts to Nauru.
-Grey
Silver Clipboard: Time Management Tips
Halliburton_Dubai: u here bout PP v IRS?
Halliburton_Bahamas: lol n00bz
Well seeing that the term "Tax Evasion" is a fallacy brought about by the US Gov't and the IRS I can't see how anyone who avoids paying taxes is doing anything illegal. Federal income tax is voluntary and has been successfully argued in court and won by a few people. The following also supports the fact that federal income tax is voluntary
1) Due to limitations imposed by the U.S. Constitution, filing of federal income tax returns and payment of federal income tax is voluntary, not mandatory.
2) The 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which precipitated the federal income tax, was never legally ratified.
3) The U.S. government finances its operations from the unconstitutional creation of fiat money, not with revenue from income taxes.
Knowing this and having looked at a ton of reference material the evidence overwhelmingly supports the fact that federal income tax is indeed voluntary. The IRS is just the strong arm bully that threatens to jail and fine innocent people for a cash payout. Take a good look and check the facts and you will see that in fact this is the case.
Many posters point out that the sales tax due on the sale of items is subject to State level taxation, not federal, so the IRS really isnt interested in knowing if you sold BeanieBabies without declaring it as income. I've often thought about sheltering pre-tax corporate revenue into a foreign (personal) account via paypal. The idea seemed too simple so I hesitated to pursue it (doh!).
Despite this being a 'federal' issue, the issue is scary in that it will set a precedent for state govts to force similar handovers of sales data. Since its clearly demonstratable that eBay/PayPal has detailed records of sales transactions, and that eBay/PayPal has reasonable knowledge of the locale of the Seller, Buyer, and ShipTo, that proper sales tax can/should be collected, as would any other retailer. Yes, its the responsibility of the seller to know/resolve the sales tax collection issue, but, its not a stretch to say that eBay/Paypal is 'sheltering' non-payers, and so be compelled to hand over records.
The only PT Boat Journal on the web: http://www.PT171.org
I couldn't agree more. Corporations used to foot about 50% of the nation's tax bill. Want to guess where it is now? Hint: it's only one digit. The reason your taxes are "so high" is because your employer isn't paying any, if their accountant is worth their salt.
How do corporations avoid paying taxes?
That's just a small sampling.
And you know what -really- steams me? The small business owners that use their companies as tax shelters. They happily barter for the majority of the services they need, they happily take cash under the table, employ illegal immigrants (woe is them, US citizens are just SO expensive. Then why is 4% of the country unemployed?), register their cars and trucks with commercial plates so they pay less insurance and dramatically less taxes, write off all their mileage as business expenses...the list goes on.
Ever wonder why Bubba the Landscaper has a brand new truck every single year, a huge house, 3-4 kids, a big powerboat and a summer place on the shore? It isn't because he's an investment genius. It's because he's NOT PAYING TAXES ON MOST OF HIS INCOME.
Please help metamoderate.
http://www.fairtax.org/
How about changing the tax system to a comsumption tax vice an income based tax system. This would eliminate the complication of trying to determine how much someone makes. You pay the tax when you actualy try to use the money or in this case try to move the money outside of the United States.
While I love seeing Paypal not getting their way, this ruling has much broader implications. All payment gateways and micropayment systems in the future (such as Google, I imagine) now have a legal precident that says they may need to turn over customer data to the IRS.
Also, does this issue already hold true for real-life equivalents such as credit cards and banks?
Abolish the IRS and get the government out of the business of spying on taxpaying citizens.
The FairTaxproposal is a comprehensive plan to replace federal income and payroll taxes, including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes. The FairTax proposal integrates such features as a progressive national retail sales tax, dollar-for-dollar revenue replacement, and a rebate to ensure that no American pays such federal taxes up to the poverty level. Included in the FairTax plan is the repeal of the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. The FairTax allows Americans to keep 100 percent of their paychecks (minus any state income taxes), ends corporate taxes and compliance costs hidden in the retail cost of goods and services, and fully funds the federal government while fulfilling the promise of Social Security and Medicare.
Americans take home their whole paychecks.
Not only do more Americans have jobs, but they also take home 100 percent of their paychecks (except where state income taxes apply). No federal income taxes or payroll taxes are withheld from paychecks, pensions, or Social Security checks.
No federal sales tax up to the poverty level means progressivity like today's tax system.
To ensure no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate (prebate) for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level. This, along with several other features, is how the FairTax completely untaxes the poor, lowers the tax burden on most, while making the overall rate progressive. However, the FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful. Do you see how much freer life is with the FairTax instead of the income tax?
No tax on used goods. The amount you pay to fund the government is totally visible.
With the FairTax you are only taxed once on any good or service; the sales tax is charged just as state sales taxes are today. If you choose to buy used goods - used car, used home, used appliances - you do not pay the FairTax. If, as a business owner or farmer, you buy something for strictly business purposes (not for personal consumption), you pay no consumption tax. When you decide what to buy and how much to spend, you see exactly how much you are contributing to the government with each purchase.
Retail prices no longer hide corporate taxes or their compliance costs, which drive up costs for those who can least afford to pay.
Did you know that hidden income taxes and the cost of complying with them currently make up 20 percent or more percent of all retail prices? It's true. According to Dr. Dale Jorgenson of Harvard University, hidden income taxes are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices for everything you buy. If competition does not allow prices to rise, corporations lower labor costs, again hurting those who can least afford to lose their jobs. Finally, if prices are as high as competition allows and labor costs are as low as practical, profits/dividends to shareholders are driven down, thereby hurting retirement savings for moms-and-pops and pension funds invested in Corporate America. With the FairTax, the sham of corporate taxation ends, competition drives prices down, more people in America have jobs, and retirement/pension funds see improved performance.
The income tax exports our jobs, rather than our products. The FairTax brings jobs home.
Most importantly, the FairTax does not burden U.S. exports the way the current income tax system does. The FairTax removes the cost of corporate taxes and compliance costs from the cost of U.S. exports, putting U.S. exports on a level playing field with foreign competitors. Lower prices sharply increase demand for U.S. exports, thereby increasing job creation i
Free your ecomony and enact the FairTax
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
But wouldn't the Rothschilds be a better reference?
"Wouldn't-be" taxpayers?
I'm not the smartest person in the world but I would rather sell a $20 used game on ebay for $20 than to GameStop for $5. If the state governments decide to intervene, would ebay still be the better choice in terms of return? At least at GameStop, there is no hassle concerning taxes.
Every geek has some sort of website, programming or computer project. Here's mine: www.youtasteit.com . What's yours?
Finor Associates has an entertaining product list. Highlights.
It's a full-service money laundering operation. The IRS ought to be investigating those guys.
I think most of you are missing the big picture. Any of you seen the movie "Enemy of the State?" Will Smith was just like most of you.
Yeah that's exactly how it always starts. All the "honest citizens" sign away all their rights in hopes of catching the criminals. However, in order to do that, you have to treat the "honest citizens" like criminals.
I don't care who you are, there is something in your lifestyle or habits that resembles something a criminal would do. Where do you draw the line?
Also, I thought slashdot was the home of comspiracy theories?
In 2001, there was a discrepency of $311 billion between what was owed and what people paid. $311 billion! Since when do we trust big coporations around here? The governement HAS to be the biggets corporation of them all! People think about it: In order to estimate how much money they're missing, they'd have to have some idea as to who wasn't paying. If they had kind of lead, they'd be auditing that class of tax payers (which they probably are).
I think most of you are missing the big picture. Any of you seen the movie "Enemy of the State?" Will Smith was just like most of you.
"Why do I care if they're invading my privacy? I'm not doing anything illegal!"
Yeah that's exactly how it always starts. All the "honest citizens" sign away all their rights in hopes of catching the criminals. However, in order to do that, you have to treat the "honest citizens" like criminals. Before you know it, everything you buy or say over the phone gets you red flagged. There are examples of false alarms of good people posted all over the net. I don't care who you are, there is something in your lifestyle or habits that "resembles the criminal profile." Where do you draw the line?
Also, I thought slashdot was the home of comspiracy theories?
In 2001, there was a discrepency of $311 billion between what was owed and what people paid. $311 billion!
Talk about propaganda! People think about it: In order to estimate how much money they're missing, they'd have to have some idea as to who wasn't paying. If they had kind of lead, they'd be auditing that class of tax payers (which they probably are). This is just another platform for Government Agencies to push their agendas of privacy invasion.
ps: I hit "Submit" instead of "Preview". I trid to hit stop, but I couldn't catch it in time. Sorry for the inconvience.
A dollar today doesn't buy what it used to in 1964. :-)
Mainframe/UNIX Bit Twiddler and long time Windows/Linux Hobbyist.
The Theorem Theorem: If If, Then Then.
So, you would rather people in the US die of starvation, malnutrition, and lack of medication?
There's nothing wrong with social programs - just how they're implemented, politicized, and administrated. Social Security, for exmaple, was never meant to be a retirement fund. When it was enacted as part of the New Deal during the great depression, it was designed to bribe old people out of their jobs to free them up for younger, unemployed workers. It was also designed as a security blanket in case you outlived your retirement savings- the retirement age was 65 in the 50s, and the average life expectancy for men was 65.6
Problems occur when the primary purpose of a program is transformed from a Good Thing (helping the impoverished elderly) to a Bad Thing (another pork win for a politician to gloat over.) Soon (how soon depends on who you ask), social security is doomed to become insolvent, with the only solutions raising taxes to excessively high levels or cutting the benefits leveraged up by every politician in the history of ever who wanted political points.
Alexis de Tocqueville warned about the dangers inherent in American democracy when politicians realized they could bribe the public with its own money. Right now, the program is flawed - the government takes money from you that you should be ferreting away for your retirement fund, takes out the salaries of the takers, and places it in a trust fund. Sadly, much of the trust fund is looted by congressmen and replaced with government bonds - i.e., the government is writing I.O.U. notes to itself with your retirement.
Instead, those with incomes should be able to save for their own retirement. Barring the unemployed (who don't pay social security taxes anyway), everyone is capable of doing this. If we truly wanted to help the impoverished elderly, we would scrap the program as it is now, and replace it with something that would actually help them.
Oh yeah, and let the elderly who are no longer able to work die on the streets. You'd rather spend it on killing people over waepons of mass destruction. Oh, except they didn't exist
Yea, about that. They did exist. Saddam gassed cities of his own people to death, and his weapons programs are well-known, funded, supplied, and trained by nations around the world.
DATABASE WOW WOW
It still has some rough edges.
To solve the problem of not being dicks to the poor, fairtax issues a stipend to every citizen in the country.
This does kinda solve the problem, but it is inelegant, and, obviously, requires some interraction between the participants and the government to enact, removing some of the appeal and a good deal of the simplicity of a sales-style tax.
Should we try it in its current state? sure. I can't really think of a more elegant way to solve the problem I've mentioned and there's no reason not to reap the benefits of simplicity until the proper solution can be found.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
The real problem is with the IRS and the tax system itself....
http://www.fairtax.org/
This abolishes the IRS and thus gives Americans and businesses alike no advantage to storing money overseas so it brings it back into the economy...
It's not a perfect system, but its far better then the convoluted and counterproductive tax system we have now.
The US Public Debt is 64.7% of GDP but your deficit is 5% of the GDP. But if you compare it with Germany Public debt is 68.1% of GDP and the defict is 3.7% of the GDP, UK the Public debt is 42.2% of GDP and the defict 3.6% of th GDP or even France with a Public Debt of 66.5% of GDP and a defict of 4.2% of the GDP.
The main diference between european countries and the US is that while the US spends on the military (4.06% of GDP )in Europe this is spent on social policies Military Spending in: Germany - 1.5% France - 2.6% UK - 2.4%.
If you don't trust these numbers please check the CIA fact book
If the assest protection depends on hiding assests, than it's not an legit asset protection.
A lot of what you said is just asset hiding, which you don't need to go off-shore tax heaven. It's just much harder to discover. Once there is a civil money judgement against your, the plantiff attorneys will surely file discovery request on your assets. You can try to hide, but have fun with jail times for cotempt or prejury if discovered.
And unless you fled with your money. The court still have power over you. You can build "anti-duress" provision into your off-shore asset protection trust. But if judge jail you for civil contempt, what are you going to do?
Don't believe me, search for "H Beatty Chdwick" for someone who hides 2.5 millions in oversea account and jailed over a decade for it.
For more recent case(Maybe too recent), searh for John Kontrabecki.
April 15 - April Fool's day - funny part is that he actually says it correctly "paying taxes they're supposed to", but tries to imply that it is you and I - and then after April 15, when you have paid all that money - comes "April's Foo - didn't really need to!!!" - but then again, don't think they say that because they want to play the same trick on you the next year. - http://www.originalintent.org/
Uhhh, if it's offshore then the US government has NO business touching it. The next step is jailing Americans for smoking pot in European countries where it's legal.
Vote out incumbents!
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I think that after reading this article, I can see where Hollywood will be headed with the next Ransom film.
*phone rings*
Harried Parent: "Hello?"
Kidnapper: "So do you have the money yet?"
Harried Parent: "I thought you said I had until midnight tonight?"
Kidnapper: "Well, now things have changed. I want my money by 3pm, or you'll never see your child again."
Harried Parent: "Okay... okay... just please don't hurt my baby!"
Kidnapper: "When you have the money, I want it sent via Paypal. My Paypal ID is kidnapper@hotmail.com. You have until 3pm."
Harried Parent: "Paypal?"
Kidnapper: "Yes, Paypal."
Harried Parent: "Don't kidnappers use offshore bank accounts anymore?"
Kidnapper: "Not since Paypal started protecting us from the IRS."
Harried Parent: "Well... okay... will I get a receipt?"
While you might be allowed to leave and join a different club, it's not free.. the IRS can still demand you pay income taxes for the next ten years, even if you renounce your US citizenship. While they might not send the goons to go kidnap you and bring you back, the next time you visit the US (say, for a family funeral or a friend's wedding) you can expect to be met at the airport. Search for [expatriation tax].
Why should you be forced to earn money to pay for food, clothing, and shelter? No one asked you if you agreed to such a system, you were just born into it. So, why should you be expected to take responsibility for yourself? It's not fair!
Why should you even need to eat, drink water, or breathe to even survive? You never signed any documents agreeing to such limitations. It's not fair!
What the fuck is up with all these other people inhabiting the planet? You never gave them permission to exist. It's not fair! Since your life is here, they should all just go some place else, and stop using up the valuable resources that are yours by right. It's just not fair!
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
The reason they go after the small fry is not convenience, but principle. They take money from the little guys and funnel it to Halliburton, Bechtel, Enron and all those nice folks. The idea is that it's the government's job to assist the People Who Really Matter and put the screws to those who don't. Lots of big corporations pay nothing and that's somehow acceptable, but someone has to pay for the Debacle in Mesopotamia.
...they would be more interested in the accounts "shielded" by large investment banks in so called "unnamed accounts". They go by other names as well, but the idea is the account is referenced only by a number - no name, no address, etc.
PayPal can research all US users who are using offshore accounts and pay their taxes for them. Privacy protected.
Don't forget about "Total Information Awareness" or whatever the czars upstairs call it.
Once they get their hands on this information, they WON'T be willing to just "peak just this once..." They'll set up the backbone to do a "sneak and peek/peak/pique" on EVERY transaction. So, foreigner or domestic person, you're up for scrutiny.
I think this is, though, just one more tool for the crazies above the IRS to track down "terrists" and other "nefarios", NOT just in the US, but even in other countries. Can you IMAGINE how useful this will be if the US (or any) gov't could track down hapless or even cautious scofflaws and terrists who thought they had "complete anonymity" via getting proxies to do their purchasing?
But, even corporations getting backdoor information via the government (remember Lockheed or I guess it was Boeing receiving illegally obtained info about AirBus' plans and problems, which enabled Boeing to seize contracts that Airbus was going after, and cost AirBus?... segue: Karma on that will be a bitch...) will be able to track down and "sneak and peek" ANY scholar, official, cave-dweller with a computer, and those in between and elsewhere....
Maybe in 30 years the IRS will be the GRS: Global Revenue Service.... (What's that loud sucking and gurgling sound?...)
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
every dollar stashed overseas from a US transaction should be reviewed by the IRS. we wouldn't have had the IRA, wacko bin looney and his merry murderers, a bevy of crooked CEOs, and OJ hiding their money. it's a good thing that PayPal gets looked at, too. because of weasels, you can't make six transfers a month between checking and savings online, Treasury and Homeland Security prohibit it.
take out the weasels, and maybe we can demand our freedom back.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Don't be a fool. Only little people use pay-pal for anything. Anyone
with real money will use those money market bank accounts that exists for stock market traders in every nation. In this nation these accounts come complete with deposit insurance. Good deposit insurance. Fantastic deposit insurance. You think that your deposit insurance that used to be posted on the doors of every bank claiming your funds safe with a ten thousand dollar limit was a good program. Those money market accounts for stock traders insure for over a hundred MILLION dollars! Each account! And some insure against some government seizures. Whoever is caught by the IRS using pay-pal will be a small fish. Catch enough small fish and wring them dry, and large evaders like our administrations favorite oil and services contractor in Iraq and Louisiana get off scott free with the government's blessing...and the whole thing will be a wash. Little people are the hardest on themselves, and seem to have an endless well of misplaced 'sympathy' for errant members of the power structure. What fools we must seem to the rich who take advantage of us. I do not know anybody who is a large user of pay-pal. After hearing this, I personally will tell everybody to avoid pay-pal like the plague. Better to be like the mafia and use real cash.
there in one place too long... They're comin' to get you..." (especially hollywierd... I read about them, how they shuffle millions of dollars around between investors, producers and more, and then the taxable money or profits just go "poof", vanish, vaporized...)
heheh...
Seriously, I kind of HOPE they IRS and state tax organs would just have DIRECT access to payroll information. I'm fucking TIRED of filling out forms for shit they already know.
I realize that by filing and signing, I'm "participating" in an honesty/honor system that purportedly wants to "respect" tax payers. But, the retired IRS types probably are the ones delaying the direct filings that would SAVE US money and COST THEM money their cronies let them earn.
Why the hell is it that so many things are difficult to file? I could file in the IRS office for two non consecutive years, but not the intervening year because I had dividends or stocks back then. Hell, it was a late filing, and nobody came after me, and I got my two checks from before and after, so if no red flags were attached to my name, and it was a late filing with no IRS penalties associated, then WHY not go ahead and process that one, too, with the caveat that there better be no surprises?
But, most 'merkuns would go ballistic if they sensed the government prying into their personal matters. Hell, the government knows A LOT, they just don't have the human labor to knock on every door, assess or inspect every home, and determine if the amenities and furniture and junk in them exceed the mapped level of income filed from previous years.
In some ways, earning LESS money, and having NOT stocks, 401k, IRA, etc, makes things EASIER. I HATE paperwork, unless **I'M** generating drawings or notes I can manage.
I'm STILL waiting for the government to allow Linux-users to file directly online WITHOUT using special technology other than a secure browser (or has that been made possible yet?).
I'm STILL waiting for the government to allow and encourage automated filing. Every pay stub, you'd get a little snipped or a login code to look up the period's or quarter's deductions against your projected dues and if all stays on track, you WON'T have to file... OR sign on any dotted line. That could eliminate a LOT of under the table payments, particularly since states (most? all?) require employers to report new hires, terms, layoffs, furloughs, injuries, and all related payments and claims in x number of days.
Between states and IRS, they know there is a FUCKLOAD of underreporting, erroneous filings, self-prejudicial/harming filings, and more.
BUT, if the government would take a smaller cut and try to live within reasonable means instead of treating the tax-paying public (the honest payers who carry the dishonest ones and the wealthy ones who play games) as an endless pool of revenues, there MIGHT be less cheating.
Sometimes I feel they government ought to quit the charade: Counterfeit money is not much different than government-approved paper. The difference is that we place implicit TRUST in the paper. The government prints ALL kinds of currency and ships it overseas, buries some in safes and bunkers, and spends like there's no tomorrow and manages a mind-boggling array of stats and uses mechanisms to play near-god with the cash flow, yet it STILL forces US, the EARNER to play party with this nutty system that punishes us for not working or not earning a lot, punishes us for earning too much (whether or NOT we pay the right taxes), and lets the crafty play games with the system.
It would be NICE if it were ok to TWICE in your lifetime print your OWN (traceable) emergency money without having to go to a fucking heartless bank that wants your mortgage in exchange for ripoff loans. (When you NEED the money, it's HARD to get; when you DON'T need it, and your credit is A+, it's "Oh, how much do you want/need? Just sign here? See you and Santorini's for a martini?"
Anyway, as long as the money is trackable, the government cou
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
What I'd like to know is how a privately held company like the IRS (surprise! It's not a government entity!) was empowered to do this... It's like Microsoft having the ability to dive into Apple's records!
Let's start with the no bid millitary related contracts.
Little more than being on SSI is keeping me from either being in prison helping other prisioners escape, dead, fighting with Al Quaeda, or the like. I wonder how many other people are in a similar situation.
"The privacy of our customers' information is something we take really seriously."
This comes from the same company that said it would roll over for any agency, whether or not they had a court order? What changed?
-bZj
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The way I've been treated, I figure I owe the "government" a toasty place in hell. Problem is, I don't have a big enough rock, so I'll just sit on SSI and take whatever I can get from them. I don't particularly like Al Quaeda either, and nobody within the UN is offering me a way out, so for the moment, me and the American "government" are stuck with each other.
The enemy of my enemy can still be my enemy!
People keep throwing that term around like it actually means anything concrete, but over several centuries a case has been made that nobody on this miserable, wretched, planet deserves anything other than a toasty spot in hell. However, what people "deserve" is highly dependent on what axioms you apply.
Yes, but the system is so messed up that for a good number of people there is little discernable difference between an opportunity to better oneself and an opportunity to get attacked.
The Soviets had their hands in Korea and Vietnam, which was the whole point of us going over there.
Newsflash: an increase in tax money received by your precious IRS does NOT equal less tax. Any surplus will immediately be diverted to the War on Americans^W Terror or other creative endeavor. Election promises are like WMD's, they exist only in speeches to justify things which go against all sense.
For ease of understanding, imagine that your gov't is a large school of pirahnas and your tax dollars are budgies. If you throw more budgies into the tank, you get more pirahnas. You don't get your budgies back. The pirahnas will breed, evolve, grow legs and start gnawing you long before you ever see a budgie rebate.
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That would be a STATE's job unless it has a federal tax. Not much you buy through PP would be.
PayPal turned over another user's confidential details to me just for disputing a charge on my account! See...
News Corporation (parent of FOX News etc) had been paying under 7% tax a year worldwide, on profits in the billions of dollars. In 2004 they moved their headquarters to the US, specifically boasting that they would pay zero tax as a result. Do I need to spell out for you why the owners of FOX News get to pay zero taxes under the current administration?
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Social security (half of which was paid by your employer, but in actuality, was paid by YOU), as well as medicare. And I'm assuming you didn't put all that money in the bank, right? Try spending that money without paying a sales/use tax. Own property?
Don't kid yourself about how much taxes you *really* pay.