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Tax Loopholes No Longer Patentable
Knowzy writes "A section of the America Invents Act disallows issuing a patent 'on a strategy for reducing, avoiding or postponing taxes,' according to Forbes. The article describes one such strategy in some detail. The USTPO has already issued 161 of these 'business method type' patents. 167 more were pending. The law only applies to future patent applications, leaving enforcement of existing patents an issue for the courts to decide."
But seriously: A startup hit by a Patent Troll will spend $1M to $5M to fight it off. How does bogging down startups like this help America invent? It doesn't.
Patents were never designed to do any such thing. It may have been post hoc rationalized as something to increase inventiveness, and honestly, I don't think there is any compelling data supporting either side.
Patents were intended to give a person an exclusive right to produce a new invention and make money off of it. Thus, patents are about greedily hording inventions and technology away from others in exchange for disclosing how they actually work, so that later (100s of years) that information would not have gone to your grave with you. (Like many kinds of stained glass that we no longer know how to make, because no one passed it on.)
It's basic purpose is to exploit greed to provide a benefit to mankind at a later date... this of course has the obvious effect of stunting the development and innovation cycle, because you can't use other people's ideas once they're actually available. I read an interesting piece about fashion, as it turns out that one cannot patent, copyright, or trademark fashion designs, and thus anyone can just steal an idea from someone else. Yet, they have a vibrant, active, and rapid development cycle. Of course it also renders old things "out of fashion" quite quickly as well, as soon everyone will have it, if it is popular enough.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
In fact the government should take a tip from open source and offer bounties for tax loopholes.. pay the discoverer a set fee (or percentage of estimated revenue!) then close it.
The rich actually spend proportionally much less. E.g. if you have your own estate, with your own servants and your own cooks, you have food cooked for you based on local produce. This makes a meal which would cost hundreds of dollars per person but, since it's all your own property, you don't buy it and so you don't pay sales tax.
If you or I go on holiday, we go to some resort where we pay for everything; every little bit of water you use ends up being taxed. When Richard Branson goes on holiday he flys in his own jet to his own island and the only sales taxable expense is his jet fuel. When his rich friends do the same they go to his island sometimes, and he comes to their islands in exchange other times. In a sense this is completely fair. I would get annoyed if you tried to tax me for having friends over for dinner rather than going to a restaurant, but the scale of the thing means that in the end, the really rich show much less income compared to the resources they use than you or I and pay even less tax.
=~ s,(.*),<sarcasm>$1</sarcasm>,g if any_point_you_wish();
Right, no one could possibly live off of $1000 a year. You know, looking back on it, if you exclude foodstamps, I've earned not a single penny in income. I don't live under a bridge (because I have carrying friends and family, who wouldn't let that happen), and get food entirely through foodstamps...
You've never earned anything other than food stamps? Seriously? How much longer do you expect your "carrying" friends and family to continue doing so?
As noted below, there was information missing. The lack of income comment was over the previous year. I have earned money before, and I've paid more well than my fair share of taxes. (How have I pay more than my fair share? Well, I had the opportunity for a full refund, and decided instead to not file taxes as my income had not exceeded the amount that makes filing mandatory. What you read is correct, I was below the poverty line and still paid my goddamn taxes. I walk the walk, not just talk the talk.)
I think there was a system in the older times prior to currency, where people exchanged goods and services in exchange for other goods and services directly. As it turns out that living with a brother and his bachelor roommates presents plenty of opportunity for one to justify the charity provided by providing cleaning.
As also noted, I am currently applying for disability, as I am unable to work. (Yes, I've tried.) That is why I lack any income. It's kind of difficult to have an income, when one is unable to work. (But you said you're cleaning to earn your room and board; no, I said it justifies my charity, not that it is sufficient to fully offset the monetary value that I am receiving.)
It amazes me that people in America love to jump to the assumption that anyone receiving government assistance is simply inept and lazy. As if every person earns their rightful place in society of their own achievements. As if Bill Gates were born in a cave with parents who use stone tools, yet managed to claw his way to the top reinventing everything about math and computers himself to produce Microsoft DOS... what am I taking about? Even "stone tools" is an advantage that many homo sapiens may not have even had. ... or wait, maybe there's a remote possibility that Bill Gates was born into a family, where the father was a noted and well respected lawyer, and thus born with a silver spoon in his mouth. I mean, it just wouldn't be the American "conquer all" story that we so love if he were born into the top 10% of society, and clawed his way up to the pinnacle. I mean, because likely larger than 50% of the people are born into families that earn under the mean income of the society, so we obviously want to look at someone born into that disadvantaged substrate and yet managed to claw their way to the top... except, you know, they're exceedingly rare, like less than 0.01% of those born into the under 50% population, so we simply hold this dangling carrot in front of the laboring masses with sweat poisonous words of "you can get there, too! just try harder!" All the while knowledgeable that it is simply an impossibility that each person who works every day to the bone could not possibly make it into the top 10% of the population.
But then, Americans do so love that mirage in the distance... after all, we sell it like it's bottled water, and the Americans just lap it right up. "I'm going to work hard so I can be a billionaire!" Keep dreaming Jimmy... keep dreaming.
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS
Your logic applies to the 40-50% of Americans that pay NO federal income tax, not just the rich. How many of us know people that have a relatively new car costing around $30k+ and they qualify to pay no federal income tax and get EIC making money when they file federal taxes. I know quite a few. I am driving a 13 year old used car I got from Craigslist and paying full price out of pocket (in state tuition though) for two kids to go to college because I make "too much money" according to the government. Why should I bust my ass to get a higher education and then bust my ass in time and effort to get ahead in this country and in my job working 60+ hours a week when I could just about sit at home or work a non stressful part time job in retail and let others pay for things for me. Does everyone have a natural right to have a smart phone, a 42in or larger TV in their house, and a car newer than 2 years old? Take a survey of those that qualify for EIC and I bet almost all of them have at least two of those things and those that do not qualify for EIC are paying for them.