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Our Low-Tech Tax Code
theodp writes "After establishing that nothing can excuse Joe Stack's murderous intentional plane crash into an IRS office, a NY Times Op-Ed explains the reference in Stack's suicide note to an obscure federal tax law — Section 1706 of the 1986 tax act — which the software engineer claimed declared him a 'criminal and non-citizen slave' and ruined his career. Interestingly, a decade-old NY Times article on Section 1706 pretty much agreed: 'The immediate effect of these [Section 1706] audits is to force individual programmers ... to abandon their dreams of getting rich off their high-technology skills.' Section 1706, the NYT Op-Ed concludes, 'is an example of how Congress enacted a discriminatory law that hurt thousands of technology consultants, their staffing firms and customers. And despite strong bipartisan efforts and unbiased studies supporting that law's repeal, it remains on the books.'"
Remember the WTC!
considering that the articles' main assertion, that tax law makes it impossible/almost impossible for programmers to work as consultants, conflicts so much with reality, i am ready to file this under the right-wing anti-tax propaganda heading.
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
A 'tax code' larger than the King James bible, certain rights in a courtroom that flaunt what the average Joe Citizen is allowed to have-- how can the common human ever hope to challenge and win? The IRS has owed me over $2,000.00 for years now and even though I have filled out the required form and that the time to file a request for payment won't expire, I've received nothing. I've lived outside the US since 1994 and STILL have to pay taxes (in both countries now). It could be said that I officially pay for two separate governments. I know what I'm paying; all IRS staffers, my brother's Earned Income Credit (since he's paid under the table), while countless companies and rich folks pay nothing for tax credits. I think that most people would agree that our current tax system is hugely unfair, yet nothing will be done about it. Mr. Stack apparently had enough and took it out on the organization that made his life most miserable. I would not equate him with a terrorist, but as a man who chose to commit a criminal act. Terrorists don't care who they kill, so long as the body count sensationalizes their cause. If he truly was a gifted programmer, he would have tried to find a way to hack into IRS employee email addresses and send them to 'questionable' porn sites instead. I hope at least this brings a spotlight on the IRS' activities and they get raked over the coals for how they treat people. After all, more people have committed suicide over desperation (when dealing with the IRS) than have been killed by Mr. Stack.
American health care sucking horribly.
8am - Wakes up outside the Center for Marxist Education in Cambridge, MA as another bum shits on him. Thinks this sucks and that he would like an apartment, but can't find a landlord with an apartment that is free as in speech and beer. Falls back asleep.
9am - Wakes up again.
9:15am - Goes to men's room at MIT to wash shit off. Discovers that multiple bums shit on him while he was asleep in addition to the one that woke him up. Gives himself sponge bath. Shit comes off (somewhat), but he really isn't clean since he refuses to take a shower. While taking the sponge bath, RMS annoys everyone in the building by singing the free software song.
9:45am - Decides to shave 2 inches off beard after someone in MIT restroom mistakes him for Osama Bin Laden.
10am - Goes to McDonalds for breakfast. Gets into arguement with workers behind counter after they refuse to give him a free as in speech and beer breakfast. Also gets into arguement with the manager about why McDonalds should be called GNU/McDonalds due to the fact that he eats there.
11:30am - After being thrown out of McDonalds since the staff doesn't want a DGH (Dirty GNU Hippy) deterring lunch rush, RMS goes to the McDonalds' dumpster to find food. Eats a "GNU/Quarter Pounder" and "GNU/fries" covered with "GNU/mold". He consideres the food better since it is free as in speech and beer.
12:30am - Goes back to MIT to recruit MIT students into writing free software. RMS is unable to enter anyone's office since everyone has placed spider plants in their offices. (He has a phobia a spider plants.)
1pm - RMS protests BHO (President Barack Hussein Obama) for not being GNU/BHO and believing in copyrights. Wanders out of Cambridge and into Waltham. Police find RMS and arrest him for violating the ordinance that says he is not allowed to enter Waltham. (All towns surrounding Cambridge have this ordinace.) Police beat him and deport him back to Cambridge.
3pm - Goes back to MIT and creates a plan for dealing with overpopulation by killing everyone who uses non-free software. Writes code into next version of emacs to implement that feature
5pm - Tries to read email. RMS finds out he is dangerously over quota due to an email from Doctress Neutopia. This email is 65 megabytes of nothing but ASCII text. It is similar to an email he gets everyday since 1995 when he and Docress Neutopia had a brief fling. The email says that she would like to have a relationship with him, but he needs to accept her lovoution, stop his polygamous goat fucking and clean off the hair, dirt, food, and feces off his keyboard. RMS responds with a 9 megabyte email (of nothing but text) explaining that he could only consider getting into a relationship with her if she changed her name to GNU/Doctress Neutopia. RMS realizes that a 65 megabyte email would not be a problem if he used a service such a GMail. However, RMS thinks about how he will never use GMail or something similar since its software as a service and thus not free. RMS realizes that the 486 computer that is falling apart that he uses for email is better since it is free.
5:30pm - Reads rest of his email. His email is bombarded with trolls, people making fun of him for the Hurd being incomplete, and goatse. RMS is turned on by the goatse and beats off to it.
6pm - Still beating off to goatse
7pm - Still beating off to goatse
8pm - Still beating off to goatse
9pm - Heads to mens' room to take a dump. As he is taking a dump, RMS realizes that he is using Sewer as a service which is not free (as software as a service is not free). RMS is troubled by the idea that as soon as he flushes he loses control of his poop. RMS realizes that he needs to work on a "free sewer" or other free system of poop handling so that people can retain control of their poop even after they flush.
9:30pm - Breaks into MIT vending machine to have a free as in speech and beer snack.
10pm - Breaks into a liquor store for free as in speech and free as in beer beer. Gets drunk.
I know you've been convinced of a healthcare problem in this country, but it's just not true.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
""if he [Stack] has a house and a plane he can pay his taxes.""
I don't see any reason to pay taxes - they already TAKE TAX out of my check before I ever get it. Fuck paying them anything extra.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
So it was funny when he published a book with himself dressed as a nazi on the cover?
I don't believe it myself, but it does say a lot that he has not commented on him being accused of raping and mudering a little girl in 1990.
Was Mohammed al-Mohammed a United States citizen? If he was, then you are right, this is a double standard. If not, then no, they are not the same. United States citizens have a peculiar duty to The Nation, documented in the Declaration of Independence. One I hope I never have to fulfill.
Joe Stack may have been wrong, and he may be guilty of homicide or manslaughter (possibly murder, but I think it would be hard to prove premeditated homicide if he didn't know who was going to die or even if anyone would die). But a terrorist? Given he is a citizen, I think that is a stretch.
Dissident? Yes. Violent? Yes. Extremist? Probably. Terrorist? Only if you brand The Founders the same.
Tim McVeigh? Evil fucker. Unabomber? Same. But terrorists? I think you paint with too broad a brush. When non-citizens use civilian-targeted violence to try to change the policies of a sovereign nation, that is terrorism. In the United States, when a citizen does so, it may be many things which deserve punishment, up to and including execution (if you believe, as I do, in the death penalty). But branding it terrorism does a disservice to those who fight real terrorism and shows an extreme lack of respect for the violent extremists who founded this nation.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
"The amount taken from your paycheck has absolutely no effect on the total you have to pay for the year."
And that's the problem - if they're going to just TAKE it from me without permission - just take out what I owe, and LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.
Thankfully, I've been able to sustain myself on less than 8,000 a year (below poverty,) so I don't have to file, and if I filed now for back taxes, they'd likely owe me tons of money.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Let me just point out
(a) Not a civilian target. He hit the IRS, a despised Federal Agency.
(b) He was not a random white guy. He is a member of the class presently most ignored at every level by the Powers That Be.
(c) He identified the nature of the problem correctly and chose to fight back. Good for him. Bad for .gov. And I can't blame him for his choice.
(d) Not a terrorist as he clearly wasn't trying to induce terror in the civilian population for political gain. If anything it was a wakeup call to .gov (and us) that maybe the IRS is as nutso as he says.
The question was not how one could earn 8K, but how someone like you could. I forgot that I wasn't talking to my potted plants and should have dumbed down my wording even more.
one might argue its persecution, but then others might argue that its simpel tax-avoidance on a large scale that makes this kind of 1-man 'self-employed' contractor a perfect case to be investigated. Its like racially profiling airline passengers and treating middle-eastern passengers like they are more likely to be terrorists (not that all middle easterners are terrorists, but that most terrorists are middle eastern, for example).
So, because of the 'set up as self-employed and then get a long-term job with the exact same role as you would have if you were employed' tax scam, the IRS is undoubtedly within its remit to investigate.
Of course, there are ways around this - currently its umbrella companies.
The current federal tax code indeed is not dependent on the operation of the 16th Amendment. It is however dependent on the fact that all those who are liable are either receiving money from the government directly (see the substantial presence test), or are participating in an office created by the government. The widest office that is employed in this scheme is the "resident" office. To get a better understanding of how Americans elect to pay income tax by participating in government franchises and licenses, see:
sedm.org and
famguardian.org