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Anonymous Newspaper Commenters Subpoenaed In Tax Case
skuzzlebutt writes "In a federal tax case reported in the Las Vegas Review Journal last week, a local businessman has been paying his employees in gold coins instead of cash or ACH, and has reportedly told them that they can only be taxed on the face value of the coinage — not the much higher market value of the metal. The United States disagreed, and brought him up on 57 counts of income tax evasion, tax fraud and criminal conspiracy. The non-authenticated comments section of the original article brought a lot of supporters out of the woodwork, including a few who thought the jury should be hung (literally, procedurally, or figuratively ... pick one). In response, the prosecution has subpoenaed the names of the anonymous commenters, citing fears of jury safety. Or something. The obvious questions of privacy and protected speech aside, for the folks that support the defendant (the newspaper is fighting the subpoena), this also brings back into the spotlight the troll-empowering nature of pseudo-anonymous, non-authenticated boards. If they want to find you, they will; is anonymous commenting still worth it, or is it just too risky for the board owners?"
..what a terrible summary
This means that if my employer pays me in nickels then I also must pay more in income tax to the feds as a nickel is worth more then five cents in pure metal value these days.
"No State shall [...] make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts [...]"
--Article 1, Section 10 of the United States Constitution
Federal Reserve Notes are nothing but counterfeit money.
Anonymous commenting is no longer worth the effort.
AC OUT!
Only sad twats write into newspapers anyway.
That's slander. I'll see you in court.
Summation 2
how could they be traced in any way??
I TROEL U
So does no one remember Cato and Brutus in American history?
Only sad twats write into newspapers anyway.
Your mom's twat looks like Osama Bin Laden's beard. She really needs to learn what a razor is...
I agree with the prosecution though, all these anonymous cowards should be sentenced to death by hanging....
I don't trust the government to protect my rights, but in this case they may have a point. Threatening people with bodily harm is illegal, and freedom of speech is not a valid defense. If you choose to break the law, then you're giving the cops permission to hunt you down and prosecute you, "anonymous" or not. (Even if the law is a bad one and the cops are thugs controlled by a petty dictator.) (Iran, et al.) Which doesn't mean that I think anonymity is bad; I just think that you should learn a little bit about the law and about search warrants and about technology before you start your life of crime. (True anonymity is necessary to defend freedom, even if it means a thousand Cletuses and Bubbas can use it, too.)
I believe that in the (implied, non-existant) Internet charter of rights anonymity is a basic human right. I believe in opt-in, not opt-out. A webmaster has a sacred trust that he will guard his users' IP addresses and only leverage them for internal use, if at all. Besides, that IP address could have been used by the subscriber, a child, a wardriver, a cheapskate nextdoor neighbour, or an entirely different household if the ISP made a mistake in their logs.
On my blog I allow anonymous comments and I wrote "(optional)" next to the email and WWW fields on the comment submit form. I get TONS more spam because of this, but that's a service I feel is essential to my readers and integral to the fabric of the web.
If the government fears how people react to facts then maybe they should outlaw news media.
The judge should look at each comment individually as well as holistically against other comments apparently by the same commenter.
If the comments appear to be a credible and actual threat against a juror, as opposed to someone blowing off steam, making non-credible threats, or just blowing off steam, then it's worth a closer look.
To determine if unauthenticated comments apparently made by the same commenter are made by the same commenter I would order the newspaper to provide a statement saying the comments are very likely from the same computer, very unlikely from the same computer, or there is no way to tell. If the post looks like it's from the same person, and the computer is the same, the court can assume it's the same until someone claims otherwise.
Now once I have a list of comments that are credible threats, then it's time to go further:
I would give a special master subpoena power for the IP and login-time information for those posts and subpoena power to the ISPs for the approximate street address of the customer. The court would use this to determine if the seemingly credible threats really were credible. If a threat said "I'm going to walk into your office and shoot you" but the threat came from a town 3 states away, that's likely not credible. Once I've gotten down to the credible threats, then and only I would allow the person's name and address to be subpoenaed. I would also look very favorably on anyone who, upon being contacted by the court or the police, claimed they were joking or blowing off steam. After all, out of every random group of people making credible-sounding threats like these, by far most are harmless.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Does anyone know why forum administrators even bother keeping around enough information to reveal the identity of an anonymous poster?
I mean, I can see keeping around the web server logs for a day or two, to help debug problems. And if you do analytics, keeping the logs around long enough for the analytics software to compute aggregate data.
But why keep any data longer than that; especially data that's detailed enough to tie an IP# to a posted message?
So on the one hand we take Gold Coins and use the Ore Value, while on the other we take Quarters and use the Face Value.
So lets say I take my pay check and head off to the bank and when cashing it, get a roll of pennies. Further suppose that one these pennies has some rare quality making it worth $100 to a collector... is that an extra $100 of Income?
"His name was James Damore."
...is anonymous commenting still worth it, or is it just too risky for the board owners?
Absolutely!
Posting AC so they don't find out who I am.
This guy's the limit!
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
So now if I pay a debt to a store in quarters I only have to pay sales tax on 13% of the face value as the quarter melt value is only 3.25c?
http://www.coinflation.com/coins/1965-2007-Washington-Quarter-Value.html
Both the IRS and Kahre are in the wrong here.
The Government is required by LAW to recognize American currency at face value. They have no choice in the matter. The government's isregarding face value of "legal tender for all debts, public and private" is illegal. The government issued that currency (or authorised its issuance) for the face value and require it to be accepted as such so they have no legal choice but to accept it for the value they declared it to be.
However, if he wants to play the "face value" defense, which is legitimate (he should win that case) what he should be charged with is violating the federal minimum wage laws, not tax evasion.
What he and his employees engage in is tax avoidance, which is perfectly legal. Tax avoidance is simply following the letter of the law and avoiding the incurring tax liability. Practically every politician engages in avoidance. Things such as claiming one's standard exemption, creating a shell company and having it lease one's vehicle for business purposes, and so forth. If I ever make the kind of money where it makes sense to do so, you bet your ass I would hire a tax lawyer and take advantage of the law to the my benefit. The tax code is needlessly complex for three things: to keep lawyers busy and make them rich, for social engineering (keep citizens in line by making them accept government control), and to benefit politicians who create hard-to-understand loopholes for their own use.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
Sending someone a snail mail death threat implies you know who they are and where they live. Going to the trouble of a physical cut and paste from magazines implies you are willing to expend time and effort on your threat.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
And should they have been prosecuted? They formented a war ya know.
Publius, Pacificus, Cattalus, Horatius and Philo Camillus, Silence Dogood, Alice Addertongue, Fanny Mournful, Obadiah Plainman, Busy Body, Populus, An American, A Son of Liberty ,"Vindex the Avenger".
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
If the US government is going to tax based on the value of the material the money is made from my taxes will be MUCH lower this year as paper is more or less worthless.
You can be on the street-corner talking to your buddies and say "Obama should be shot" and probably not suffer any consequences. Even if a cop overhears you there will probably be a cursory "investigation" but the purpose will probably be to put the fear of God, er, the government in you rather than to actually lock you up.
If you take the time to mail a letter and pay for a stamp, that indicates you are more serious. People who are just blowing off steam don't usually go to the trouble of mailing letters. Some do, but most don't.
Anonymous web comments are somewhere in between, and should be treated as such.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
"Reportedly told them that they can only be taxed on the face value of the coinage -- not the much higher market value of the metal"
The money paid is 100% legal United States Currency, minted by the United States Government itself.
The US constitution specifically states that gold an silver are legal tender.
What's the problem? It's not his problem that the US government has destroyed the value of money so that "old" but perfectly legal currency is now worth 1000 times more than it's equivalent "new" money...IF the government doesn't like it they need to change the law and outlaw the gold coins that they mint as legal tender.
Otherwise he's being prosecuted for something that "feels" illegal, which is a deadly slippery slope to go down.
So, they can avoid income tax on 99% of their income by being paid in $1000 worth of coins with a total face value of $10. That makes sense.
Surely then, should they choose to sell these they'll pay income tax on any profit they make. If they use them as legal tender, they'll only be able to use the face value. I suppose they might be able to haggle the price of a large purchase down a little but for everyday spending it seems the savings are small.
W T F ????
So the ability to make threats or derogatory comments without having to take responsibility is a basic human right?
When does responsibility for ones actions apply? Or is it a basic human right not be responsible for what one does or says? Or is that only when the subject agreed upon is mutually acceptable for ostracism?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
If the logs aren't there, the subpoena doesn't hurt anything. So I ask what sort of logs does slashdot keep that could conceivably be used to track down an AC? Be imaginative in your answers (e.g. someone could try matching the HTTP access logs against the time the comment was posted(*)). Think like a smart technical cop who really wants to figure this out.
(*) There are probably too many accesses in a single minute to determine that reliably, but it may give you a candidate list that you could then correlate with other data. Like I said, be imaginative.
* Don't touch the envelope or paper without wearing several layers of surgical gloves.
* Don't use a printer that leaves any identifying marks. Most modern color printers are traceable and most older typewriters are as well.
* Don't lick the stamp or envelope!
* Don't drop it in any drop-box that has a security camera anywhere nearby.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
For a European this all seems pretty strange. Are you, as a citizen in the USA, responsible for paying the income tax yourself?
If you earn $2000/mo, do you actually receive $2000/mo in your hand or via some payslip/cheque system?
Does this mean you can choose to keep it all if you feel like breaking the law?
More useful information about what is really going on here:
http://www.fff.org/blog/jghblog2009-06-12.asp
Free speech means the freedom to say _anything_.
While I may not agree with some troll suggesting death, hatred, or the holocaust didn't happen, doesn't mean he shouldn't have the right to anonymous free speech.
The anonymous part is very essential. With the boondoggle of an election in Iran, the Tiananmen Square anniversary, etc. the need for anonymous free speech is essential. The Military Industrial Complex fears the pen more than the sword.
What this guy did was essentially barter gold bullion that happened to be in coin form for labor.
Even if the US government is required to trade a $20 bill for your $20 gold piece, that does not establish the value of the gold piece for tax purposes.
Even a $20 bill can be worth more than $20 if it's a collector's item, such as one that's in an uncut block, one that's old and still in original condition, one that's very old, or one that's been autographed by hand by the Treasurer of the United States or Secretary of the Treasury whose signature appears on the bill.
If I pay my employees in collector-value currency, you bet the IRS will consider it a barter-for-labor arrangement and tax accordingly.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Off topic, but is anyone else seeing the credit line as " by Anonymous Cowardon Wednesday June 17" It still has the space, but CSS is fucking it up. Of course, this is /.
on FF3.0.11/Win7
American workers are taxed on the dollar value of their earnings - this is typically payment in cash, but if you receive non-monetary compensation as part of your employment, you're still responsible for paying taxes on the dollar value of that compensation. The value of the gold coinage was far higher than the currency face value - which was the whole point of giving it instead of normal greenbacks or a check.
If they want to find you, they will;
Try that with someone posting trough an anonymizing non-logging proxy that self-destroys as soon as its surrounding force fields change even a bit. :P
(Ok, in reality someone switching it off, removing/addingg hardware or logging in (honeypot anyway), is enough. But even my little linux server here can do this.)
A classic case of lack of imagination. ;)
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
...Jury Death-Threat case. There, fixed it for you.
Sheesh. Why a whole article? This is not a difficult question.
Anonymous comments are a great choice for speech that is legal, but might expose a public speaker to social consequences: reviews, dark humor, political criticism, whistleblowing, etc.
Anonymous comments should not be a shield for speech that is an illegal attack on others: libel, threats, intimidation, etc. If you want to say that kind of stuff, be prepared to own up to it.
The money is printed by the Federal Reserve and NOT by the Federal Government. Sheesh, don't you know the difference?
It is legal tender for all debts.
The IRS is NOT prosecuting him for paying in Gold. The IRS doesn't care how you pay someone. Gold, Silver, mud, iron, hell in Nevada even Sex.
What it cares about is its value in USD.
In this case this guy paid in Gold, whose real value is more than what its face value states.
RTFA and research before you open your pie hole.
"Doing what i can, with what i have." ~ Burt Gummer
Since I previously worked in a company that's primary business was in running (and selling advertising on) web-forums, I suppose I'd be as qualified as anyone to answer this:
a) The default behaviour of the software is to record IP addresses. It's not like most companies are building their own, they're using something like vBulletin, IPB, or possibly PHPBB. I'm not even sure if this is a feature that could be disabled without a plugin/hack
b) Basic security is tied to IP. Just as does slashdot, so do other forums get their share of trolls. You actually don't see it a lot here, but penis-enlargement, pr0n, scams and spam are also fairly common. The IP address is your only semi-reliable link to a real person, in which case you can block certain IP's or netblocks that become an issue, track down users with multiple accounts. I do say semi-reliably as IPs can be routed through proxies etc, but many boards actually have RBL's for known proxies
c) Advertising, which for many boards is the chief (or only) source of revenue, often ties to IP address. Most programs collect statistics by IP, and also other fun stuff like geo-targetting, rotation (so you don't see the same ad a gazillion times in a row), etc
d) User related to locality can be fairly well-determined by IP. If you've got issues where all your users in the Eastern US connect slowly/poorly, or possibly where you have many users in Western Europe but they have a shit connection, then it may lead you to consider adding services (local server, cache, or whatever) in those areas.
e) The last thing I can think of off the top of my head is statistics, which are also very important to many web-boards to see where they're growing and where they need improvement.
And yes, these work fairly well for 95% of the John-Doe users. Most people, even those who consider themselves clever, don't make much use of proxies or other such things to post secretly on boards, which allows the wheat to be filtered from the chaff fairly well based on IP. Until a better method comes along, it's probably the best way.
p.s. Don't use my own board as an example of something spam-proof. It's using different software than I used at work, gets very little time dedicated to it, and the spam-collection is actually something of interest while I try to come up with fun methods of dealing with the spammers.
Scott Roeder
Best Slashdot Co
I am surprised at the number of Slashdotters who support tax evasion and violent threats.
But in this case there's no allegation these are collectible coins, they are still in circulation.
This is about gold coins.
Um, as far as I know there are no gold or silver US coins in circulation, save for a few pre-1965 silver pieces and pre-1970 half dollars that haven't been pulled yet and perhaps contrived cases like this one, where someone ostensibly "circulates" coins "at face value" knowing good and well they will leave circulation immediately.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
There's a difference between anonymous threats to random posters on the internet, and anonymous threats directed at jurors in a criminal trial. Obviously, threats to jurors have the possibility of subverting the criminal justice system... which is a pretty big deal. I think the owners of the board ought to cough up the names.
Re-read the grandparent post. I just threw in a few things he forgot.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
If more employers started paying their workers in "real" money (not that fiat crap they normally give you) the bankers would be in uproar, lol. This guy should be given a medal for sticking it to "the man"...few people are this awake, hope he gets a good lawyer. ...and in case you haven't seen it yet: Freedom to Fascism, by Aaron Russo ...and a recent interview with Joe Banister(a former IRS agent) who appears in the previous linked movie.
~ awaiting spiritual enlightenment ~
And a big Hawaiian good luck sign to the prosecutors. Come and get me, coppers!
Oops ... is this anonymous?
Apparently, the tax cheat is arguing that gold coins are cash. I think the more reasonable interpretation is that gold coins are not "a readily negotiable instrument," and thus fall under the definition of an "in kind" payment. In kind payments are taxable at the fair market value "at the time they are provided" to the employee.
Really, this particular IRS rule is a common sense rule of reason. Moreover, the "all debts" language is not unlimited. The classic example is that someone does not have the right to pay their traffic fine in pennies just to spite the court. Really people -- not that complicated.
promote the "Fair Tax".
Under the fair tax this would not have been an issue, since income would have never been taxed. There would have been no way for the payroll company or those being paid to avoid taxes since the collection of those taxes would have been at point of sale of goods. There would also be no reason for tax shelters or any of the other evasion tactics people currently use to pay less income tax.
http://www.fairtax.org/
Per the fine article, they did sell. They took the gold coins and immediately turned them around for their value as precious metal (or as collector's items, but either way it's the same). They made substantially more than the face value. Accordingly, they owe tax on the actual value.
Your example is interesting, but it's not the situation actually being discussed here.
The chief advantage to this scheme is to hold on to the coins for one year. They then become long-term capital gains, and if these employees are in the 10 or 15% tax brackets then they won't pay any taxes on the sale of the coins after that.
Of course if they're in the 10 or 15% bracket and this is their only source of income they probably can't afford to wait a year to sell them. C'est la vie ...
When you sell them for more than the face value, you get taxed on what you sold them for. Which is what the people in this article did. This is pretty clearly tax evasion.
"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States,
are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
Just thought the Federal Government should be reminded.
The non-authenticated comments section of the original article brought a lot of supporters out of the woodwork, including a few who thought the jury should be hung
I fail to see how the jury's penis size is at all relevant to this case.
The value of a US Gold Coin is, to the government, precisely what was marked on that coin. Since it is not legal for citizens to physically destroy that coin, rendering it into bullion, its value remains that.
Now, you could sell that coin elsewhere (I am sure that the coins can be converted to bullion in other countries), and thus achieve a profit, but that is dealt with by other provisions.
The ONLY danger in the US itself is paying in such currency is a severe de-valuing of paper currency. Given that an ounce of gold runs $900 or so in paper currency, 10 to 20 coins will pay for a car! That values the car at $500 to $1000, and not $9000 to $18000. An order of magnitude.
The taxes from this transaction are now severely limited - a mere tenth of what they were. Think of it - two different prices, depending on what currency is used. This is not unusual, pricing is set according to currency value by all international companies.
The error made by the US was to fix a face value on the American Eagle. The Krugerrand, directly comparable, has no such face value. Its value is the value of 1oz of gold bullion. That same car also costs 10 to 20 coins. But, there is no disparity between face value and "paper value".
Introducing the face value means that a section of the economy could choose to "live in the past" and simply accept that valuation. Which is why the government attacks -- people just "shouldn't" be doing that sort of thing. It's almost as if, you know, the government could be held to task for the valuation!
Let's use a "J. Random" quote we find on the Internet (actually from a user aikitrader, but who really cares?):
"OK...take Americans for instance....we know with reasonable certainty that a 1 oz Gold American Eagle contains one ounce of Gold. Now if I were trading a car for Gold and my car is worth $1120...I would ask for 2 Gold Eagles in return today. How many $20 Swiss Francs would I ask for? I am not sure of the Gold content in the $20 Swiss Franc? So I don't want to trade my car for a Swiss Franc because I am not sure of it's value. I am not familiar with it."
We can plainly see that aikitrader is converting paper US currency, gold content, and Swiss currency. As we also note, all of these have a marked face values. aikitrader will use face value for paper, and for swiss currency. But for American Eagle coins contemplates the transaction in terms of NUMBER OF COINS, and not really face value. What is the price of the car? Simple enough, it is $1120 in paper, two American Eagle coins, or the equivalent in face conversion in Swiss Francs. What is the face value (US government valuation) of the American Eagles? $100. As long as aikitrader is NOT destroying the coin, she can value it as she chooses, and the government values it at $50.
A tax issue? I think not. And, if you (presuming you live in the US) think it IS, I would recommend another revolution. Simply because you can't trust your government anymore. The issue shouldn't even come up -- even if the government wanted to control it, there are much better remedies than tax law. Simply buy up the damn coins. The government issued, they should be able to de-issue. It's done all the time with other currency.
I can give a clue to the US Government here - stop minting the damn things! Face value of $50 and initial sale of $1000 paper, with a continued valuation of $800 or so... the government is really screwing with your heads.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
Comment removed based on user account deletion
First off, I think that what this guy did is just hilarious. Secondly, I totally agree with such a subpoena - Prosecutors wouldn't want someone on the jury who posted in support of this guy; likewise, the defense wouldn't want someone on the jury that believes that this guy should go to jail for 25 years. Hmmm.....
I sank the Titanic. I just stole a penny. I'm gonna get all you suckas!
Ha Ha, come and get me fuckers!
So say I.
If you want to get rid of the spam problem, just stick a meaningless field in your form and hide it with css. If the form is submitted with a value in that field, then reject it silently. It is a stupid little trick that could be easily by-passed, but nobody bothers with this and I have been using it successfully for years.
So, if you help me move my furniture, and I treat you to dinner afterwards as a sign of appreciation for the help, the IRS is "right" to tax you for the meal as "income"?
By that definition, everything is taxable, right down to Pokemon cards. I hope your kids have filled out their 1099's properly, as that Pickachu card is pretty valuable!
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
As a collector, I often canvas banks looking for unusual currency items like $2 bills, half dollars, et cetera. It's hard enough to find those [many of which aren't worth much above face value], let alone $20 gold coins that are worth hundreds...
Somebody might get lucky [from a thief, desperate owner or ignorant owner depositing them], I'm not even sure how the banks would handle such things
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I am going to slaughter everyone who currently lives. All people, everywhere. Slowly, and painfully. The entire World shall feel my wrath!!111!11One1! And I shall start with YOU!
If someone payed me in gold coins, it would be up to me to declare the proper amount of income not them. So why is this guy charged with a crime?
It seems like this is a scare tactic by the IRS to recruit businesses into becoming tax enforcement agents against their employees.
Have gnu, will travel.
Not trolling or anything, I just find the comment intriguing and would like to hear more about that.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
The rise of the anonymous blogger. At some point a bunch of geeks thought it would be great IF everyone could contribute to the content on the internet. Not in the way it was being done at this point with those horrible free websites from geocities that popped up an ad every time you went to a new more horrible page on the Hampsterdance website. The came up with Web 2.0 and a bunch of communist type ideas of everybody contributes. This is both inevitable and a horrible idea. To sum it up Wikipedia. (but your keyed in, you know that already).
Where it gets interesting. Some open source web geek took the discussion forum and added it to the bottom of real news at a real news source. No longer were forums about expensive cats, jeeps and how awesome Jesus is. Now "sparkelshoes1978" can voice how she feels about North Korea trying to launch a rocket into space. Or "redneckforever" can comment on "3 cavers rescued after 2 days trapped in mine". You can see where this is going.
Why anonymous blogging is BAD. If you are posting under a pseudonym you think you can write what ever you want, that makes some people mean and makes some people make stuff up. I read a bunch of news sources online. Let's take 3; cNet, Politico, & ADN. cNet: Blogger's are mostly civil. I would put it at about 90% Arguments happen, but mostly it's not mean spirited. Politico: Down right horrible, mean, lying bloggers mixed with a few humans. Just filled with hate speech. 90% nasty, I just don't bother posting my opinion there. ADN: Rude, mean spirited bloggers mixed with white unpleasant racists. About a 50/50 mix. There seems to be no way to fix this issue. Censures and self reporting work to some degree, but it in the best interest of the outlet to have a reason to keep users coming back so they only try hard enough to fuel the fire. Add in the ability to write a scrip to do what you want (flag other users, boost your rating, bump others down, post a link to a virus or porn) and it compounds the problem.
Why anonymous blogging is GOOD. For the exact same reasons as why its bad, you post an honest opinion and some wacko takes issue with it and you and wow, Google says you live two blocks away (if you used your real name). Lets take Ben Franklin or Mark Twain. Both wrote under pseudonyms (Twain was the pseudonym) for different and obvious reasons.
"Whistle Blower" there are comments about the news on the site, then there is a blog. Like mine (where you can find my real name and GPS position if I have it on) and some like my friend Alaska Mundflats who I have known for over 10 years and had no idea she was behind this "Anonymous Blog" until she was outed by a Representative Mike Doogan (D) (Asshole). Why? Even though "AKM" mostly wrote about NPD Sarah Palin, apparently AKM made the mistake of calling Doogan on bad email etiquette. Mr. Doogan also used to work at the Anchorage Daily News. AKM had a user account there (which I am assuming she created before she was an award winning blogger and hence used her real name when she signed up). Do you see where this is going? Mike Doo
6.8SPC TR of 550, l xwind at 6, drift rt at 26" drops 77". AT has 503 ft-lbs at 1403 fps. FT 0.86
Calling for someone to be hanged is not the same as threatening to hang them. Yet I must remain.. a coward.
Categorically, yes. Income, for the purposes of the tax code, is defined as any economic benefit or clearly realized accession to wealth. That specifically includes barter in exchange for services.
Thus, if a furniture mover and a chef exchange services, each has received the fair market value of the other's services as income. That does not mean that the IRS is likely to tax you on those services in ordinary cases, merely that such a transaction can be treated as income. Not every bartering arrangement constitutes income - your informal arrangement between friends would be unlikely to be treated as an exchange of services for services by the IRS, because it's not an arm's-length transaction, and they're not going to find out about it anyway.
Where this becomes relevant is when idiots decide that they're smarter than the tax code, and do things like try to set up "barter clubs": members exchange services for their own scrip, which can then be used to acquire goods or services from the other members of the club. Here, the receipt of the barter scrip would be a clearly realized accession to wealth, and would be properly taxable.
As for your second point, that's simpler, because it's simply an exchange of property. If the property is held for personal purposes (ie, playing the game), then a trade triggers a realization of gain or loss. For instance, if you purchased the Pikachu card for 5 cents, and it increased in value to $50 since that time, trading the card would trigger a realization of that $49.95 gain, which would be properly reported. Similarly, if you manage to convince someone to trade a Black Lotus for an Island, that windfall would be immediately taxable, and you would be obliged to report the value of the card as income, just as the lucky fan who catches a valuable home-run ball is liable for the fair market value of the ball at the time he receives it.
Determining what is and is not income isn't hard: is it an economic benefit or clearly realized accession to wealth? If you have to ask, the answer is almost certainly yes.
I'm a lawyer, but not yours. I wouldn't represent someone who thinks taking legal advice from Slashdot is a good idea.
Monetary systems haven't been tied to gold for a long time now. Governments are just printing money. Gold is worthless other than some electronic applications (it makes a good conductor and has a low melting point), people just haven't realized that. Either system totally depends on the holders belief on value. Paper money has value because people believe it does. Initially this was because it was based on gold standard. These days the government has to depend on people believing that the money they print has value. As the USA buys more and more debt and prints more and more money, I think it is understandable that some people may choose gold as the safe bet. However who knows if it will be the currency of the future.
So due to the present econoclypse I choose to turn all my cash into guns. Now I just have to move up to Canada where there is abundant freshwater and I will be all set! I have to protect my precious bodily fluids!
The reason that waking up to a horses severed head in your bed is intimidating is because of how serious it makes the threat. The choice of medium tells you about the mind, sincerity and abilities of the threat maker.
Perhaps by Godfather XIII they'll be doing threats by anonymous forum posts. I suspect it won't carry the same impact. It isn't the ease of the threat that counts, it is the seriousness and mind of the threat maker. Posting anonymously on a forum takes seconds and indicates the mind of the threat maker, one doesn't want to put forth much effort. The anonymity is also a factor since it is an indication that the threat maker fears the consequences of being identified, real whack jobs are proud of their views.
A threat's a threat. If someone made a threat, it should be treated in only one consistent way no matter what medium they used to convey it.
If someone AC posts on slashdot that I should be hung, I call it a Tuesday. If it is really unsettling and contains personal information, then at most I might report it to the authorities. On the other hand, if the threat is a note saying "Stop posting on slashdot or the next one is armed - Love Rob" which is taped to an unarmed bomb I find in the driver's seat of my car after I fill up with gas on my way to work one morning, then you can bet that I'm going to take it very, very seriously including reporting it to the authorities and having my lawyer contact slashdot.
B) Eliminate all the stupid users. This is frowned upon by society.
This is a crap excuse on the part of the prosecutors to take away the right to privacy. It cannot be allowed to stand if privacy is it exist at all after this. It's not like any of them have outed the (stupid) jury member names.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
No law or rule of government is unconstitutional until someone with the authority says so.
Congress claims laws are constitutional by passing them.
The President claims they are constitutional by signing them or letting them become law without his signature.
The courts rule on a laws constitutionality the first time they are asked.
The people declare a law unconstitutional by electing new representatives who will repeal the law, and/or overthrowing the government. Take your pick, they both work.
The courts have ruled the IRS is legal time and time again. It's been almost a century and so far the people have neither elected a Congress that will destroy the IRS nor have they overthrown the government. Until they do, it's constitutional.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Not all Slashdotters are Americans; otherwise they would be in support of free speech, truth in government and sound money.
Long live Anonymous Cowardon!
Call me pedantic, but I think this one is straightforward. Prisoners sentenced to death by hanging are HANGED by the neck until dead, pictures and art are HUNG on the wall. Juries can be HUNG, there's never been an instance of an entire jury that's been hanged.
Furthermore, it's a fascinating story so I took the time to read all the comments posted under the original story. The second story about the Review-Journal resisting the subpoena misrepresents many of the original comments.
Posting AC for obvious reasons. Also to prevent burning mod points.
Keep your mouth shut about your ideas on jury nullification, unless you're already on the jury and you feel the circumstances warrant it, in which case it should be brought up to the other jurors in private while deciding.
Amen. Jury nullification is the first thing I thought of when I read this. Hadn't thought about keeping quiet about it, and you are absolutely right.
Fortunately, last I knew there was a pretty good-sized jury nullification movement in Nevada. Maybe... just maybe... someone with clue will get picked for the jury....
Kinda dumb that people would waste their time with this. It's not like the person said "Im gonna kill the jury members". He just stated what SHOULD happen in a perfect world, which we all know doesn't exist, therefore the threat is completely EMPTY!!
These people are just disgruntled and can't take an insult like real men.