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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
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.
with that vitriol, you wonder why public discourse has been destroyed.
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?
They know they there's no chance Romney will pay up. If he pays up, he likely does more damage to himself than the tax returns ever could.
The alternative is to say, "leave $1M dollars in unmarked bills under some overpass". They're hardly going to hang around waiting to see if he pays.
Is there some reasoning why thieves that broke into a building and supposedly made copies of a document(why not just take the actual papers instead of making copies?) would be labeled hackers? The whole thing sounds suspect to me.
Most people on the street have never heard of bitcoins - hell, most people in IT have never heard of them. I wouldn't call them idiots for that particular reason (not to say there aren't plenty of others). As it is, I barely have an understanding of exactly how they're supposed to work.
Franklin, TN, no Frankin. It's a suburb of Nashville.
I! Tego Arcana Dei.
And what is it going to change?
This blackmail makes pretty clear the need for improvement in the US education system , 1M$??????, even to be a criminal education is essential.
What's worth a public discourse based on the under table handling?
In USSR, you know, we had a proper and organized public discourse. Replace communism with the capitalism and you'd get the GOP's version of it.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
by someone who snuck into the building and made copies of the document
This person is called a thief, not a hacker.
Possible, but I am thinking this is actually part of a larger ploy.
Since anyone of even a modicum of technological capability, who actually uses BitCoins, knows that they are somewhat traceable, I wonder why someone would demand such an outlandish sum in them. Let's see here...we have the key words BitCoins, hackers, and all of it tied to a presidential election.
We all know that for the last several months, the press has been falling over themselves to paint BitCoins in the darkest light possible, playing up every rumoured instanced of malfeasance even remotely tied to them. We also know that the military, for lack of enemies, has recently decided that their next shipment of bread and butter will have to come from the 'cyber-crime' division, and that they are desperate to find a playmate, domestic or otherwise, to justify the purchase orders already signed and dated, in top brass's top drawers. And seeing how the BitCoin community has been relatively effective in educating people with regards to the f*cked up claims the press loves to make, perhaps someone decided to take it to the next level. By launching an attack on a presidential campaign, you are guaranteed coverage in the press, at decibel levels well above the normal white noise; you also guarantee that the attacked opponent will respond with a calculated defence (denial, followed by revenge if / when elected), with the added bonus that since you went after a minor but incredibly irritating election issue (his tax returns, and it is), he will take it personally. If he is elected, he will willingly sign any law that mentions this incident and 'justice'; if he loses, the other guy will do the same, as he doesn't like the idea of what happened to his opponent possibly happening to him or his friends. It's the equivalent of a Morton's fork, where the tech industry is damned if they do, damned if they don't. The military gets paid either way, though they won't be invited to any tech parties for a few years.
Hackers (unknown enemy, up there with the boogey-man these days, hiding under your bed and in your computer, going to get you), BitCoins (another unknown, a 'competing' currency to the US dollar, so it's 'patriotic' to be against it; plus 'hackers' and drug dealers use it, unlike the US Dollar, so it must be bad), and a presidential election (when politicians make a black list, and begin adding names).
The best part is, even if the hackers are arrested, we may never get the people behind it all. Sounds a little conspiracy-ish, but it is in the CIA handbook, that you 'groom' someone else to do the dirty work, then get rid of them.
I am John Hurt.
That's what they want you to think.
Very nice turn of events would be, to leak the location of that overpass to the press instead of picking up the money.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=2009+FBAR+amnesty
tl;dr: In early 2009, the Swiss bank UBS was indited in a massive tax-evasion scheme and as part of their settlement with the American IRS, they revealed thousands of names of account holders (to the IRS, but not to the public). The IRS then instituted an amnesty program, where if you came clean about your previously undisclosed offshore accounts in your 2009 tax returns, your penalty would be reduced and you wouldn't go to jail for tax evasion.
Romney is only releasing his tax returns from 2010 or later.
Funny is now Romney needs to buy $1M of bitcoins. With such demand, the bitcoin market would bubble quickly. $20 per 1btc? Sure. Then the blackmailers have to unload $1M in btc and ... the price drops like hell.
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A mere one week ago there was a discussion about how the Republican party was the party of hate, vitriol, and all the rest. This, in a discussion started by someone saying that the entire GOP convention deserved to drown in a hurricane.
My mind is just boggling right now at the utter hypocrisy.
Are you suggesting that government are opposed to those things?
If they've never heard of bitcoins that alone is to their credit.
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.
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.
You should go read the Rolling Stone story about Romney and Bain. Romney is as far as from the simple, honest businessman persona as he can get if even a part of the history is true.
Paul Ryan's proposed budget wants to remove it. And by "remove it" I mean set the capital gains tax rate to 0%.
Using a Xerox IS NOT HACKING. Seriously, people. Calling a THIEF a HACKER? Making real hackers look bad.
Romney is an asshole. To be fair, the Stone doesn't like Romney at all; but there's not a lot to like. He's a Republican John Kerry.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
What do you think is "enough"?
I suspect he pays more in taxes than you, based on $$ amount alone.
tora
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.
I was hoping for information on the tax hack that allows me to pay 13% in taxes.
well, that's the thing- the information would probably tell you how to get away with less.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Im not saying all dems are democrats; Im boggling that someone had the audacity to label an entire party of republicans as the party of hate in a discussion on drowning the entire GOP, and when comments like GPs are what passes for "acceptable" here.
I have a friend who is a dem delegate of a state, and we manage to get on just fine without calling each other socialists or replutocrats or whatever (though truth be said we're not super close); Im just saddened that so many people on slashdot see fit to throw names around and then call everyone else the problem. I have no doubt that the AC above throws accusations of hate at the republican party.
Im not saying all dems are HYPOCRITES
WHoops. I think "all dems are democrats" is a tautology, and certainly I agree with it.
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.
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.
It's been a buying spree for like 1-2 months now. Just look at the volume at http://mtgoxlive.com./ Every time there's a theft, it's played up like some huge news story when in reality, it'd take A LOT of BTC to move the price even $0.50. So if someone dumps off a million worth, it doesn't actually shift the exchange that much. Ok, I should maybe say half a million because the actual data says 1 mil would put it up like $2.50 but I have a feeling buying and selling would go nuts to such a volume due to the change that the price would be unpredictable.
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
proving once more that bitcoins are the currency of thieves, drug dealers, pedophiles and gun runners
As are dollars. There are about 8 million bitcoins at about $11 a piece. That's 88 million dollars worth of bitcoins. That doesn't even come close to the money stolen by ONE GUY at MF Global.
If you despise thieves, aim your hatred at the finance industry and the politicians that protect them. Bitcoin is negligible compared to these crooks.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Certainly dollars are used for all of those things, no question of that. The point is that dollars are typically used for things that aren't those things, like grocery shopping.
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.
And bitcoin could be used for many other things as well. Wider adoption of bitcoin can only lead to more mundane things being bought and sold with bitcoin. Since any currency will be used by criminals, it's not really relevant to point out that a currency is used by criminals.
My point is, don't waste effort on small time crooks. Save your outrage for the real criminals, those who run the country and the world.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
If someone goes around spewing virtiol all over his coworkers for years on end, how many do you suppose will want to throw a party if he gets canned?
It's easy. Just be rich
Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.
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".
Just adding a little weight to your theory is this link:
http://www.freewoodpost.com/2012/07/28/anonymous-hacks-irs-database-publishes-romney-tax-returns/
Which appears to be an earlier draft of this story (either that or Romney's had is tax returns stolen by Anonymous twice in as many months).
But I don't know. I'm sure professional journalists and the secret service have a much better idea about what's going on than me.
There's more to it than "he's rich". There's nothing wrong with being rich. The relevant question is "How much in net taxes did he pay while being rich?" If it's, say, somewhere between 0% and 15%, then a lot of people are going to say "Well, there's your tax revenue problem." It would make it pretty hard for someone like Romney to make a case for leaving the Bush era tax cuts in place for the top of the income scale, while most middle-income people are paying a larger fraction of their income as taxes.
This is all bullshit. The lower rate is because the income is investment income. What a lot of people intentionally leave out about the tax rates on investment income is that is essentially extra tax on money that has already been taxed. It works like this: Say you work hard for 20 years earning about $60,000 a year. You pay about 19% in federal taxes, 5% in local/state, leaving you $45,600 to live. Somehow you manage to live a frugal existence and save 20,000 a year. After 20 years you've got $400,000. So you take your money and invest it, maybe in a company, or some stocks, or whatever. You make a decent 8% return the first year - a cool $32,000! Oh, but guess what? Even though you've worked for 20 years to save that money, the IRS now wants ANOTHER $4,800 chunk of your earnings. From money you ALREADY paid taxes on over that 20 years. Not only that, you pay that rate even though someone else making only $32,000 that year pays much less. That's on top of whatever taxes your investment entities had to pay, and any employees of those companies had to pay. So NOW what do you think of "fair share"?
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Slashdot logic: Something i like: is being associated with something bad? It must be a false flag attack.
China is actively working to subvert government it systems? Irrelevant. Cyber-Command will be built on the crumbling remains of bit coin. Srsly?
No mod points, so you have to settle for this.
Yes, because crackers / hackers, in general, break into large accounting firms, and (this is the kicker) instead of quietly modifying the servers to send large payments to an account outside of the country, they steal the tax returns of a presidential candidate, and publicly black-mail him. Because they're the kind of people who would turn down a few tens of millions of dollars (or more) since they are apparently so bad at Math, so they could get a million from a guy who is going to have a bee in his bonnet his entire term (if elected) about the damn incident, oh yeah, and have the Secret Service on his ass (which even for the 31337, isn't something you want unless you really, desperately have absolutely no other choice in the matter). And they certainly don't have an entire culture built around operational security, trusting no one, and keeping things quiet in general.
Say what you like, but the FBI was watching Hemingway.
I am John Hurt.
It sounds like your problem is with the IRS.
PS: I don't support Romney
" we had a proper and organized public discourse."
hahaha.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Took me a moment, then I started looking for the Onion's logo (still satire, but a different site). Oddly enough, the story does bear a superficial resemblance.
I am John Hurt.
It is much more like a hacker/cracker / stupid child who's been around anon enough to pick up the jargon and think of using pastebin to post stuff and then he just fucking made it up.
"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
The addresses the bitcoins are traceable to, on the other hand...
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Here is the issue:
You need to tax where the money is. The more the money gets concentrated among fewer people, the higher the tax rate for those people have to become.
Because it's the monitory transactions that generate most of the money. Few people with most of the money means less transactions.
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
So both the democrats and the republicans can bite my ass. They both get their power from curried favor from rent-seeking assholes who want pet tax breaks.
Such as yourself?
Throw out the whole tax code, eliminate the IRS and all income taxes, and implement a national consumption tax at the point-of-sale with a prebate to the poor. Then if you get $10/hr, and work 40 hours, you get a check for $400 with no deductions.
Oh sorry it couldn't be, you're a kind-hearted gentlemen who wants to implement an inherently regressive tax system because you were only personally taking in over 1/3rd of your company's gross profits.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
I think there is absolute zero to like. His history points towards a presidency where nothing will get done except for himself and a few choice buddies who will kick back to him later in the form of a revolving door job or the like. As I've said many times here, he makes Bush look thoughtful and forthright.
Pay up.
"I earned money! This money's special, it shouldn't be taxed, because it had to do with money I already earned."
I use my car to get to work and make money. I use gasoline to fuel my car and help me make money. I use food to fuel myself and make money. I use a computer to do my work and make money. I use furniture and my apartment to sleep and rest so I can work and make money. Not to mention, well, my paycheck gets taxed federally, and then ANYTHING I buy, really, has sales tax put on it. Man, that's so cruel, I already paid taxes once.
The essence of the complaints about multiple taxation: "But mom, I cleaned my room last week, why do I have to do it again!"
Answer: Because it's messy. Taxes are the same thing. Not fun. But they provide a foundation for a safe, civilized society. Quit complaining and pay them. And we'll set them to help make a civilized society. And right now - with an OVERSUPPLY of investment, especially investment that has absolutely no benefit and significant detriment to society - the answer is "Let's tax investors to discourage this unwanted activity." You know, how we tax cigarettes because those health care costs tend to get passed on to the rest of us. Or polluting substances because we, as a whole, have to clean up that mess too.
I'd rather lead by example, somebody's gotta pay taxes right? Besides the work/payoff balance is terrible until you get well into the 6-digits per year range. My dad does it with very middle-class amounts of money and I'm starting to think he enjoys paperwork.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
This is great, break out the popcorn!
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
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.
Only because you're an ignorant moron who spends all his energy bitching about the rich, instead of making himself rich. Capital gains investments aren't reserved for the rich, stupid ass, they are accessible to anyone with 5 or more brain cells. (Do you qualify?) How about learning some financial discipline and make yourself rich, instead of bitching and moaning about how you "need" to be a wage slave in order to survive? Your SHITTY ATTITUDE is why you are a FAILURE, not the machinations of the "rich."
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?
Unbelievable, you come everyday repeating lies after lies after lies. Do you get up in the morning and look at yourself in the mirror? I might have missed your sarcasm, if I have, I apologize in advance.
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"?
You're confusing investment in activity with idle savings, which doesn't earn anything anyway because of the actions of the Federal Reserve. Investment in activity is NOT something you want to discourage. That leads to stagnation.
Taxes are only necessary to fund the core functions of government, and the only beneficial function of government is protecting individual rights. Everything else is tyranny.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
We are 16 trillion in debt thanks to the radical left and capitulation of the RINOs. The people want to see someone in charge who understands what a budget is.
Is G.W. Bush still available? Maybe we can call him in to deal with these profligate liberal scum.
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.
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.........
Yes, because crackers / hackers, in general, break into large accounting firms, and (this is the kicker) instead of quietly modifying the servers to send large payments to an account outside of the country, they steal the tax returns of a presidential candidate, and publicly black-mail him
Per the summary it was a physical theft.
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.
Don't know something? Look it up. Still don't know? Then ask.
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
43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury
44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.
Or in other words, a man paying $100,000 in taxes when he earned $10M pays less taxes than the man earning $45,000 and pays $10,000. The raw dollar amount spent does not tell the whole story - not even close.
If "enough" for me to pay in taxes is X% of my earnings, "enough" for him should not be X-Y%. Even moreso if you chose to acknowledge the moral implications as he is paying 'of his abundance' whereas the tax dollars I pay could have purchased a second car for my family or been put away towards college for my children. I do not begrudge (much) paying taxes (primary exception is sales tax on food, collecting this is an evil practice as it only really impacts the poor - I'm looking at you, the State of Utah), it is my duty as a citizen; I do, however begrudge the wealthy exploiting the system to pay a much smaller share than I while at the same time proclaiming that they carry the greater tax burden. It's just dishonest.
As for Mitt, I respectfully ask you to put your money where your mouth is. You claim to have payed no less than 13%, well the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Your father knew this; said T. George Harris in "Romney's Way, A Man and an Idea"
"He balked when I badgered him for a copy of his latest Form 1040, the Federal Individual Income Tax Return," Harris wrote. "Release of the document, while it might serve a political purpose, would not prove very much, he argued. One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show, and what mattered in personal finance was how a man conducted himself over the long haul."
"Stumped by this argument, I was not prepared for the move that it eventually led him to make: He ordered up all the Form 1040's that he and Mrs. Rome had filed over the past twelve years — including those profitable ones from when he saved the American Motors Company from bankruptcy and became a millionaire on the company's stock options."
I want to like you, Mitt. The promises of Obama that caused me to vote for him have largely not come into fruition (Guantanamo Bay detention camp is still open, Patriot Act is still law, TSA is bigger and stronger than ever), but you appear to also be no different. It's no wonder so many are completely disenchanted by the whole system of politics today.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
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; }
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/
There's a lot to like if you're a 19 year old college girl. I mean the man is ready to join the Silver Fox club with Bill Clinton. I happen to not like either men (at all, I have no guy friends) or old people.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
"..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......
His Harvard Law Review writings do not reveal a person with "very high" grades.
Honestly we don't even know on most of those, because the majority of those are sealed too.
Om, nomnomnom...
"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.
When making your tinfoil hat, the shiny side goes out.
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 suspect he pays more in taxes than you, based on $$ amount alone."
So you don't know. More BS for /.
And guess which Swiss bank Mitt used? UBS
Except we know what Harvard's standards are: "The degree summa cum laude is for those who have attained ninety percent on the general scale, or have received Highest Honors in any department, and carries with it the assignment of an oration on the list of Commencement parts." If anything, Harvard is likely to have upped the scale in the century and a half they've been awarding honors.
Occasionally living proof of the Ballmer peak.
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.
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.
A masterful example of Poe's Law. I can't tell if you're serious or satirical.
Don't blackmail Romney! Release his tax returns right now and let the voting public consider his competition.