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Secret Service Investigating Romney Tax Hack Claim
A federal investigation has been launched after hackers claimed to have stolen Mitt Romney’s tax returns. The hackers have given Romney until September 28th to pay $1 million in bitcoins or they say they will release the returns. From the article: "The claim was made in a post on the Pastebin site on Sunday that alleged that Romney's federal tax returns were taken from the offices of PriceWaterhouse Coopers in Frankin, Tenn., on August 25 by someone who snuck into the building and made copies of the document. The message author threatened to release the files publicly on September 28 and said copies of the files had been given to Democratic and Republican leaders in that county. Democrats have made Romney's refusal to release his tax returns a key point in their criticism that he is not in touch with working class voters."
If there's one thing you can all agree on, it's that leakers must be punished harshly!
xkcd is not in the sudoers file. This incident will be reported.
Someone actually thinks bitcoins are worth having.
Slashdot - News for Nerds, Stuff that Matters, in ISO-8859-1 Has just realised that beta makes this signature redundant
idiots
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
that they take the money and release the information anyway. The rebplutocrats deserve worse than we can imagine.
I don't know about the veracity of the claim that came in yesterday, but one of the things that I thought about when Romney started trying to surpress this information was that is was a just about the same thing as waiving a red flag in front of a bull. It's bound to make a "hacker" go for the ultimate crack and get this information (that most of us think should be public anyway) out of the electronic vault and onto the net.
It also, IMHO, shows that Romney and his band of followers live in a bubble of corporate reality and not in the real world. Only someone one the C** would be arrogant enough to think they could keep this type of information a secret forever when you're that visible to the public and when you're decisions are going to have immediate and lasting consequences for the entire world.
I remember when Bush II was being attacked as a draft dodger. Someone released faked documents, which the news media picked up as real. When they were discredited, no one would touch the issue anymore, whether it was legitimate or not.
This could turn out to be a similar ploy to help Romney - by associating the tax returns with criminal activity, it might get too hot for the Dems to touch, making an otherwise legitimate issue go away.
The original release and on pastebin makes no mention of the money. Speculation at the moment is that someone took the original release and "added" a ransom and resubmitted it to pastebin.
"$1 million in bitcoins" ... and they say *Romney's* out of touch with the real world?
Is there some reasoning why thieves that broke into a building and supposedly made copies of a document(why not just take the actual papers instead of making copies?) would be labeled hackers? The whole thing sounds suspect to me.
OMG, he's rich! Yeah, we kinda know that already.
Reminds me of the time in high school when someone ran down a corridor yelling that the math teacher was bald. His response was, [sarcasm]"Why didn't anyone tell me???"[/sarcasm] Of course, hypertext markup language hadn't been invented yet.
Franklin, TN, no Frankin. It's a suburb of Nashville.
I! Tego Arcana Dei.
This blackmail makes pretty clear the need for improvement in the US education system , 1M$??????, even to be a criminal education is essential.
I was hoping for information on the tax hack that allows me to pay 13% in taxes.
by someone who snuck into the building and made copies of the document
This person is called a thief, not a hacker.
Let's say your sitting on lots of bit coins from one of the recent exchange robberies. How you do you liquidate those since people actually trying to sell bitcoins in any kind of quantity tend to lower the lower the market value of bitcoins pretty quickly?
Scam! Small scale break in at an office building and you solve your problem. Cash out for a fair chunk of a million dollars when you unload your bitcoins because /someone/ will buy 1 million dollars in bitcoins (FBI sting operation, well meaning rich Mormon, whoever) without losing market value.
It's brilliant because you know the FBI hasn't got a million dollars in bitcoins just sitting around that they can use in a sting operation and you can get away.
According to Wikipedia... "As a result of his business career, by 2007, Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million" Im not kidding... 2 people I admire greatly are collectively worth about $150M, and I can tell you that most of us live just like us day to day (although by choice). One drives a Holden Statesmen and the other a Mazda MX5. They eat plain meals, "meat and 3 vege", show at "Lowes" and live a simple life. Maybe Romney is still in touch even as a successful business man, maybe that helped him get to where he is?
Back in my day we used to call people who snuck into buildings and stole things "burgalers". Now days I guess they're called hackers. I guess I should get used to telling the neighborhood kids to get off my lawn.
Stop https://blockchain.info/address/1HeF89wMjC48bWNgWvVo7Wu3RaLW8XVsE8
Promote https://blockchain.info/address/12AP6iCwRNFQqKLStH3A4b4hw3SL6RaNgB
There were two separate pastbin posts.
The first stated papers had been physically copied during a burglary at PWC. There was no randsom demand. They simply stated the papers would be released Sep 28th.
The second paste said they had accessed the file servers during a break in at PWC and accessed the information this way. The second asked for a randsom.
There is no evidence the two posts were by the same people.
This is all too much complexity for most jounalists it seems.
Using a Xerox IS NOT HACKING. Seriously, people. Calling a THIEF a HACKER? Making real hackers look bad.
These hackers are helping no one - except maybe Romney. They make hackers look bad, they give more fuel to the fire that Bitcoins are a criminal haven, and they give rise to suspicions that the Dems are behind this. Thanks for nothing.
If they had Romneys tax return, they'd release a portion of it, so they don't and they don't expect 1 million bitcoins, because nobody would pay it.
So it's a script kiddie hoax.
Maybe someone can hack into Harvard and Columbia and get a few transcripts and legal briefs.
The election has become more interesting than one talking head versus another. Here's hoping this gets even crazier.
and
seem to have a slight discrepancy lol. So they want $1 mil in bitcoins and yet they sent copies to "Democratic and Republican leaders in that county." Oh yes, I'm so sure those will never see the light of day if he pays after they gave them to the democrats. No wonder these people were too stupid to hack it digitally. They're operating this like complete morons.
The majority of rich dodge taxes and do whatever they can not to pay. That's how they become and stay rich.
If regular people started tax dodging the way the rich do, maybe congress would actually start to listen to regular voters.
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
100,000 BTC is a big portion of the market available. I bet if they bought it all the price would skyrocket.
what does Obama want with a million bitcoins?
Now the other side just has to steal Obama's college records and threaten to release them if Romney's tax records get released.
Coder's Stone: The programming language quick ref for iPad
I hear he was going to ask for a billion, but why ask for a billion when you can ask for a million? *puts pinky finger to mouth*
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
I'm not sure I'd buy into PWC having paper copies of tax returns laying around. I'd imagine everything has been scanned/digitized...which would actually require "hacking" and not "burglarizing".
Isn't this the second time Romney's had his tax returns stolen by anonymous. I read this before over a month ago:
http://www.freewoodpost.com/2012/07/28/anonymous-hacks-irs-database-publishes-romney-tax-returns/
Either he's one seriously unlucky presedential candidate or perhaps (just perhaps) this is a hoax. Hopefully the secret service do the 5 min Google search that the news decided would be a waste of time.
No mod points, so you have to settle for this.
The reason 12 M UUID's on a FBI computer? Bitcoin suspends a certain type of payment, from an article several days ago, here, several pages ago. And now we hear of a blackmail attempt, And probably in the near future, you will see the prepay apple card being limited in size or amount, per owner because some "terrorist" used a apple card to pay his bill for gunpowder, or some equal trade for some, and people wounder?
Really. Read about about hedge fund managers are turning their fees (that should be taxed as income) into fund investments (that are taxed at 15% after 3 years).
Let me explain. Lets say a manager has $1000000 invested in the fund, along with hundreds of millions of other peoples money. His fees earned for managing the fund for a year are $500000. Instead of paying earned income tax on that $500k, the fees go straight into the fund as his investment. Assuming absolutely no other return from the investment, after 3 years he pays long term capital gains tax (15%) on that $500k and is free to withdraw it with no further taxation.
The difference between ~39% and 15% is staggering.
The rich can do this - they have enough wealth elsewhere to live for those 3 years. The rest of us actually need each years earnings to live. The beauty of the system is that should the long term capital gains tax be too high for their liking they can just wait for a republican president and lobby for a lower rate or a capital gains tax holiday, during which time they'll pay the even lower rates on as much of their amassed investments as possible and reset their basis.
We're all really stupid ...
It sure looks like it. Being a moderate, the "base" looks to me like a drooling, mouth breathing, knuckle dragging Bible thumping mass of morons.
When Ryan was in Congress, he brought up a very important issue: Medicare will be in trouble and some tough choices will have to be made - not if, when.
Now as a VP candidate, all that is out the door and he's accusing Obama of doing what he originally suggested. And when someone asks about it, he does the typical Republican thing of "Abortion! All childbearing aged women are fornicating, getting pregnant, and aborting all their babies!" Of course, the "base" gets into a rage and forgets the shenanigans.
And as far as fiscal reponsibility is concerned, the Reps won't cut Defense spending - but everything else can go. And taxes will be cut - especially for the $1 million+ per year crowd.
Here's my prediction if the Reps get into power in '13. Massive increases in spending - mostly Defense - tax cuts, and borrowing out the ass like they did from '01 through '08.
I guaranty it. And if anyone mentions the hypocrisy, they'll just say "Look abortion! Gun control! Muslims and sharia law!"
And people wonder why I vote Libertarian and "throw my vote away".
Don't get me started on the Dems.....
"extra tax on money that has already been taxed."
no, it isn't.
It's a tax on the interest earned; which isn't already taxed money.
"Even though you've worked for 20 years to save that money,"
wrong. You didn't not work AT ALL for that money gained on interest.
It's a tax on INCOME, not money you saved. And it was higher during the most prosperous times in America.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Is he an American? Some people are saying that he was born in Mexico. Why hasn't he produced a REAL birth certificate?
It is also being argued that he will be the first Mexican national to become president of the United States with the purpose of returning all lands taken from Mexico in our wars with them. Some have gone even further and claimed that he does not produce his tax returns because he has been filing them in Mexico, not the US...
There, I Foxified it for you...
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
This is great, break out the popcorn!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I will release them to the general public unless I receive a BILLION dollars, in small, unmarked, nonconsecutive Monopoly pink 5's, yellow 10's, green 20's and blue 50's. Also I want the racecar, and the deeds to Boardwalk and Park Place, and I want them NOW!!!!
Bitcoins... seriously? Why not ask for REAL money?
Honestly, if anyone really had them, and there was anything in them really damning or embarassing they'd Wikileak them immediately. So either they don't really have them or there's nothing interesting in them. Yawn... next story.
Remember that the big difference between Romney, a Republican and the Democrats is that Romney earned his money at Bain Capital by being the hachet man who largely fired the bloated middle management at companies so that they could make a profit. Our Black Bernie Madoff has borrowed $1.5 trillion a year whille President, to make his budget which is causing 10% inflation a year,now. Will Romney, if elected, fire the teachers union, the EPA, the Dept of Education, cut Welfare, cut Medicaid, etc. so that the Federal budget is balanced? Working people already give 65% of their income to the Fed, State, and County government. Your taxes start at the Corporate level with whopping 34% Corporate tax, tremendous property taxes, licensing tax, etc. money that could go to you. Then you pay 14% SS tax, 15% Fed tax, 4% Medicare tax, 5% State Tax, then the price of every product at Walmart is doubled by taxes. Gas taxes, licensing taxes, etc. most of your income is taxed away. Jobs are being outsourced to China. What are you doing about this? mensunion org For some interesting reading, "The Healthcare Guide for Republicans", ebook at Amazon or Apple
Comment removed based on user account deletion
If they made copies, given how complex Romney's taxes likely are, they probably used enough copier paper for this to amount to grand theft.
Which is why I also disbelieve the story. They would have needed a cargo van at minimum and making copies would have taken them all night and into the day.
Did Mitt Romney accept the IRS Tax Amnesty program in 2009? Did he disclose offshore accounts used as tax havens?
Was Romney part of these 14,700 Americans?
I though the IRS digitized returns... do they still keep paper copies?
Or at least scanned them in then destroyed the originals.
I know the gooberment is lagging in technology... but are they THAT far behind??
Yep, the bovines will charge at the red flag while the matador bleeds them to death. I think they learned this from the Obama birther thing.
In other words, how much time is being wasted persuing something of no value? I wager his returns are clean. He'll release them at a time he choses, in order to maximize the strategic value of releasing them. Some people will scratch their heads and ask, "there's nothing here, why didn't he release earlier?". They won't consider all the time that could have been spent attacking on other fronts. The best time for him to release it might be just before the election.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Even Santorum released four years of tax returns, and he wasn't even the nominee.
http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/web/presidentialtaxreturns
:(){
gets taxpayer funded secret service protection for his tax return privacy? ?Where do I sign up for that? Do you purchase such government services with a check, money order or cash to the right places?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
http://lenpenzo.com/blog/id1510-18-fast-facts-you-didnt-know-about-social-security-numbers.html
17. Social Security numbers are not reused after the card holder dies.
do you have something to cite that contradicts the above?
The thieves don't actually want bitcoins, they have them and want a market to sell them back at inflated prices.
Once they try to gather the ransom, they sell off the bitcoins and get their reward that way.
They used a stupid verification code... I wonder what the next lines will be?
https://www.lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=2354fccf2b7db010VgnVCM1000004d82620aRCRD&locale=0&sourceId=42b567700817b010VgnVCM1000004d82620a____&hideNav=1
"However, all these considerations did not deter me from the path of duty; the moment I understood the will of my Heavenly Father, I felt a determination to go at all hazards, believing that He would support me by His almighty power, and endow me with every qualification that I needed; and although my family was dear to me, and I should have to leave them almost destitute, I felt that the cause of truth, the Gospel of Christ, outweighed every other consideration” (Life of Heber C. Kimball, p. 104)."
You know, the one where Moriarity breaks into where the Crown Jewels, the Bank of England and a Prison just to show the world he could.
This isn't about the million dollars folks - this is one giant advertisement for how much more secure and anonymous Bitcoins are, probably to pump up the value for someone who already holds a bunch. If they really have the goods (the tax papers), it might be one of the more clever ways ever discovered to convert information into money, no mater which way the SS and Romney play it.
If Romney does pay, he looses.
If Romney doesn't pay, he looses.
Welcome to the new world! Popcorn indeed, this could get interesting!
Strange that it's a million dollars in Bitcoins, rather than one million Bitcoins (about 10% of what's out there, 4% of the total amount ever).
Romney's taxes for 2011 were $3.2 million. I wonder what they were when he was actually working (the real numbers, not the fake tax return numbers).
We all know he's a multi-millionaire...he's going to have lots of money, and like every American, he is going to likely try to take advantage of EVERY legal tax option opened to everyone.
If nothing, it might illustrate all the deductions and loopholes that are available, and could likely all be closed.
Hell, might be something to run on...
But why criticize anyone for following the letter of the law and trying to keep as much money as you legally can from the tax man? I mean, that's what those deductions and laws are set up for.
Does anyone here from the US NOT take any deductions you are entitled to?
Is there anyone here altruistic enough to pay more than they legally have to?
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I just don't like him because he's a fucking cultist.
Of course, unlike Obama, neither Mitt Romney's father nor his grandfather were polygamists. Both were married to the same woman for their entire lives.
Wow, so Mitt's mom was also his grandma? Man, that's some messed-up family dynamics right there. But cool on them for living by "what's good for the goose is good for the gander", and practicing polyandry (multiple husbands for one wife) as well as polygamy (multiple wives for one husband).
:-P
"What in the name of Fats Waller is that?"
"A four-foot prune."
As a major presidential candidate, he should have less right to privacy than Joe User.
As a major presidential candidate, he has the same RIGHT to privacy.
However, he also has greater CONSEQUENCES for exercising that right - voters may not vote for him if he won't release his tax returns.
Whether his taxes should be released or not is Mitt's decision. Whether people vote for him or not is their decision.
paintball
I have nothing of value to add here. I just keep hearing this ringing in my head:
Wahn. Meeeeeeleeeeeon. Bitcoins. Wa Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Haaaaaaaaaa (sound of thunder in background)
The reasoning behind lower taxes for long term capital gains is that it lowers taxes for rich people, and Republicans support lowering taxes for rich people.
"Encouraging investment in activities that create jobs" is a lie that's used to sell it to those who don't benefit from the tax cut.
And it's obvious that it's a lie, because it is IMPOSSIBLE to encourage investment. *ALL* money gets invested NO MATTER WHAT. If you create a new company, you've invested your money. If you REFUSE to create a new company and just stash your money in a bank account, then the bank will loan that money to someone else who will invest it. It gets invested either way.
About the only way to NOT invest money is to hide it in your mattress, and there is no tax rate short of 100% where it would be preferable to hide your money in a mattress instead of a bank account.
The lower rate is nothing other than a tax break for already having money.
paintball
A shame to see /. contribute to the further dilution of the term.
From http://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2012/07/30/why-i-dont-believe-that-anonymous-hacked-the-irs-for-romneys-returns/ :
(Author's note: Apparently, some folks are upset that I didn't explicitly state that this original story appeared on a satirical site - though I clearly linked to it in the piece. The point of my piece was to point out that it couldn't possibly be true - not to "debunk" a satire. It was meant to remind folks not to simply share without reading - also in the original story - and not to merely rely on a headline or a sentence in an email for your news. Those of you who stop by the blog regularly get that and I appreciate it. I'm not going to change the original piece but I am going to clarify this in big red letters at the top so that the rest of you can sleep a little better.)
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
You don't graduate Summa Cum Laude (with highest honors) with a D lurking in your transcript.
Why not? The college could easily have thought f it as an "honorary" Summa Cum Laude. There's no need for higher grades to have entered the picture. The college is the one that choses to give out such honors based on whatever criteria they decide.
His Harvard Law Review writings do not reveal a person with "very high" grades.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Well Obama was pressured by the conspiracy nuts to make his BC public so its only fair that Romney releases his tax returns.
The main stream democrats will not use this information because it is not from legal means
Oh, you mean the same way no one used Joe the Plumber's tax returns in 2008? And remember, this was just some guy who dared to as Obama a question, not the Republican Presidential nominee. They'll use them in a Chicago minute.
Or like how no one in the media would use Jack Ryan's sealed divorce records when the Ombama for Senate campaign illegally leaked them in 2004?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
http://www.lawrenceperson.com/
"..someone who snuck into the building and made copies of the document.."
Well, if operating a copying machine equates to "hacking," then even those draft-dodging whoremongers of the US Secret Service should be able to catch them for let us never forget the history of the US Secret Service's incremental improvement: after four USSS types on Nixon's presidential detail almost drowned in Biscayne Bay 'cause none of them could swim, the US Secret Service installed a swimming pool at their training center, and now all US SS doods are taught how to swim......
The Romney/Ryan campaign ordered the Democratic Party to insert new language in their campaign plank: praising the lord and recognizing Jerusalem as the capitol of Israel.
The Democratic Party immediately capitulated!
No doubt those 750,000 American workers who lost their jobs over the past six months are now filled with hope for change? The crucial question is, was that Romney’s first directive to the Obama administration?
We think not.
Late in the Bush administration, the banker whistleblower, Bradley Birkinfeld, flew from UBS, Switzerland, to Washington, D.C., armed with a list of American super-rich tax dodgers, and on that list appeared the name of Willard Mitt Romney.
After Obama was elected president, the Obama administration prosecuted Birkenfeld into jail, and although UBS was fined for those tax dodgers, they essentially buried that list.
Of course, among the names on that list of super-rich tax dodgers there probably appeared the names of the financial backers of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John McCain and Mitt Romney, but we are certain that Romney’s name was featured.
Anybody still unsure as to the obvious orchestration of American presidential elections?
All you faux crats out there, you vile rightwingers who dare call yourselves “progressives” --- stand ready for the next Romney directive!
We true progressives shall cast our vote for the authentic democrat, Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party.
Affirmative on Jill Stein, negative on Obamney!
"If you've got nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear!"
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
That's the core of this : the suspicion is that Romney was one of the many thousands who took advantage of the Treasury's 2009 amnesty for those illegally evading taxes through the use of off-shore banks.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
I don't recall this sort of ire by the outraged 'information wants to be free' community when Obama refused (and continues to refuse) access to :
- Obama/Dunham marriage license - Not released (if one exists)
- Obama/Dunham divorce - Released but incomplete (by independent investigators)
- Obama Sr. INS file - Released
- Noelani Kindergarten records - Records lost
- Soetoro/Dunham marriage license - Not released
- Anna Soetoro/Dunham passport records - Released, but key years are missing
- Soetoro adoption records - Not released
- Fransiskus Assisi School School application - Released (by independent investigators)
- Punahou School application - Missing
- Punahou School records - Not released
- Noelani 3rd Grade records - Not released
- Soetoro/Dunham divorce - Released (by independent investigators)
- Selective Service Registration - Released (by independent investigators) - Under suspicion
- Social Security Numbers - Released (by independent investigators) - Under suspicion
- Occidental College records - Not released
- Financial Aid Records - Not released
- Passport - Not released and records scrubbed clean by Obama's terrorism and intelligence adviser
- Columbia College records - Not released
- Columbia thesis - "Soviet Nuclear Disarmament" - Not released
- Harvard College records - Not released
- Harvard Law Review articles - None
- Illinois Bar Records - Not released
- Baptism certificate - None
- Medical records - Not released
- Illinois State Senate records - None
- Illinois State Senate schedule - Lost
- Law practice client list - Not released
- University of Chicago scholarly articles - None
- White House Visitors list - Incomplete to the point of worthless
- The Blagojevich Interview - judge denies access to the FBI report
- The Osama bin Laden photos - sealed by Obama
And last but not least:
- Original, vault copy birth certificate - Not released (lawyersâ(TM) defense fees greater than $2,900,000 .. a REAL birth certificate is $15)
- Certification of Live Birth - Released - Suspected Counterfeit
- Certificate of Live Birth - Released - Suspected Counterfeit
- Amended Certification of Live Birth - Released - Suspected Counterfeit
-Styopa
is like $1,000,000 in marked bills. The history of each bitcoin is kept. One wonders if there's a bitcoin laundry large enough.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
Now if they can just find Obama's unforged birth certificate, we'll be all set.
Oh! Now I get it. That makes a lot more sense. (Still shouldn't happen, but I finally understand why it's possible.) So you do pay income tax on your income, even if they pay you in stocks, but not until the market value of that payment is known (i.e. you sell it). In the mean time, dividends are investment income, and loans against the holdings are just shuffling your own accounts. If you need to sell off some of them to cover interest on the loan, then that wouldn't count as income either because the loan interest is a deduction and exactly equal to the income. Eventually someone will need to sell a bunch to pay off the principal of the loan, assuming there is enough value left in the stocks to cover it, but you can save that as a pick-me-up bonus to make you feel better some year when you took losses on something else.
Thanks!
bah, tax returns, schmax returns. what I want to know is, when will he release his birth certificate!
let's have a conversation! let me know what you think.
Its all bullshit and right now someone in Nigeria is patentlly waiting for his million bucks in bit coins...
A masterful example of Poe's Law. I can't tell if you're serious or satirical.
“FIX THE PROBLEM NOT THE SYMPTOMS”
The US taxpayer must stand up for optimization and simplification of the US taxation system. Simplification and centralization of the IRS is just the first step.
Save the US taxpayer the billions of dollars in the IRS overhead to manage the multi-million pages of Internal Revenue Service regulations, fees, audits, and other overhead.
Why do I bring this up? I propose disruptive positive economic measures as the world should advance and endure disruptive technology. Adopting an economic disruption solution is the only way to solve the US economy. Let me explain the disruption plan and let the readers hold their breath. This approach is not a slippery slope. The following can be provided into a constructive brain team and think tank and moved to executive order within six months of adoption. Just consider that no one loses their home, their jobs, and their livelihood. They are merely transformed into a new mold whether they like it or not.
In the past few weeks, the Obama propaganda PAC machine has been saying Mitt Romney did not pay his fair share of taxes. His reported income in 2010 was $20 million dollars. His tax rate was 14%. As a farmer with basic math skills means that is roughly $2.8 million in taxes paid. To me, $2.8 million in taxes paid is substantial for anyone. I am a small business owner and median to low income wage earner, taxpayer, home owner (well the banks owns it), and future political office candidate.
Over the past few decades, as a citizen of Oregon, my home state, and then Washington, Kansas, Virginia, and Missouri, and Arizona; I have been amazed at the level and depth of taxation and confusion for the taxpayer. I am reasonable with math, forms, common sense, and paying my fair share. What I take argument and disagreement is the confusion on what is enough paid as a tax payer.
The amount a US citizen should pay the US government aka the IRS is very confusing these days. I would love to take a simplification approach and stand my ground and on a stump to prove my point.
I love (not hate – ergo good karma; peace not war) to bring this up from decade to decade; “Why not a flat tax?” I report X dollars of income and I pay Y% in taxes. That’s it! If one earns $1 million dollars a year, $100,000 per years, $10,000 per year – one simply pays Y percentage (Y%).
As a flat tax, one does not care if it is 5%, 8%, 9%, 10%, 11%. In other countries in the world that percentage could 20%, 30%, or 40%. No one gets a break - No breaks, no discounts, no credits, no loopholes, no write-offs, no congressional waivers, no VISA waivers. Everyone who earns a wage hourly, salary, commission, including artists, musicians, non-profits, even our elected officials, employee unions, private enterprise, corporations, overseas, foreign assets overseas, etc.. Everyone pays. No exemptions anymore.
Sorry, but in Human Resource legal ease, if something is consider to be applied to one, apply it to everyone. No exception. No discrimination. No Lawyers. No Lawsuits. No Confusion. Smile. Be Grateful.
Stepping to the side of the IRS and supporting their needs to collect taxes, let’s define the importance of the IRS and how one can help them help us, and in term help oneself.
The rules of the IRS are simple:
1. Be on time – even an extension is legal.
2. Be consistent – if you studied the tax code, and repeated yourself hundreds of times and followed the code as would an 8th grader would understand the IRS code, and you did so diligently, one should not be penalized for misinterpretation of the tax code.
3. No attempt to defraud. Umm. If you need this one explained to you, then you might need additional counseling about the golden rule.
Within these three rules, one can be straight and true, reasonable and prudent, deliver due diligence, and be in good faith, and be just fine.
After all of that, the IRS and taxation of what is fair can be considered in both long term and short term a
Don't blackmail Romney! Release his tax returns right now and let the voting public consider his competition.
Working hard? what does that have to do with value. You have to work smarter,not harder... jack.