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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?"
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.
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/