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Putin's Internet Czar Wants To Ban Windows On Government PCs
SmartAboutThings writes: The Russian government is allegedly looking to ban Microsoft's Windows operating system, increase taxes on foreign technology companies, develop its homegrown OS and encourage local tech companies to grow. All these proposals comes from German Klimenko, Vladimir Putin's new 'internet czar, as Bloomberg describes him. In a 90-minute interview, Klimenko said forcing Google and Apple to pay more taxes and banning Microsoft Windows from government computers are necessary measures, as he is trying to raise taxes on U.S. companies, thus helping local Russian competitors such as Yandex and Mail.ru.
A re-branded version of some popular Linux distro...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
What's the downside?
http://chimpbox.us
I'm not Russian or from Russia but this is a good idea for them and any government that respects their own security and stability.
Any government interested in keeping its data and secrets safe but runs Windows is likely populated by imbeciles.
Hopefully Russian computer scientists will focus on either making ReactOS a usable replacement (better for us in the West trying to dump Windows), or making their own Linux distro (I suggest they call it... Kremlinux), which will likely be better for them in the long run.
Let me guess: he owns a Mac.
They rolled their own Linux distro to get away from Windows.
In the USA, we like stuff watered down, like beer, television, and freedom.
I can actually see a good reason for Russia dumping Windows... a Linux-based system gives them internal control over the source code to the OS they use - they can fork it and do whatever they want with it internally.
The taxation thing? That's just governments doing what governments tend to do - extract more money from those who produce wealth, especially from outside the borders where it's more politically palatable (and in some cases highly desirable). Shit, they've been doing this for as long as the word "tariff" has existed, and the "on a computer" aspect doesn't really make it all that much different.
Not sure if the pimped local options (e.g. Yandex) are any better or worse, though - only the Russian public can ultimately decide that.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
First this guy shows up America by bombing ISIS into oblivion - which the US hadn't been able (aka willing) to do in over a year.
Now he wants to ban Windows from government computers?
He's definitely doing something right and setting a good example for other countries - despite being an organized crime sleazebag mobster.
The ReactOS Project has made many contacts in the Russian government and there is an effort underway to get the government to fund the remaining development so that they have a domestic alternative to windows that can run the existing application pool.
Linux is still useful and should be present, however the existing pool of legacy applications does not leave many options except to either pay, violate the license or develop some sort of free alternative.
There is also quite a lot of Wine and Parallels development done in Moscow so they really are covering all of their bases with Linux, ReactOS, Wine and being able to virtualize the remaining cases.
Google has a limit to what it will put up with. They pulled out of China rather than deal with government bs there. The Russian government may not care if they leave, but Google may just decide it's not worth the hassle and pull out if the taxes are high enough. Apple would have to weigh whether sales justify the cost of any new taxes. Russia's biggest problem is that they don't really make anything anybody wants except gasoline and natural gas so being protectionist may have short term benefits for the Russian companies that compete but it doesn't really do anything long term about making anybody outside of the USSR, cough cough, sorry I mean Russia, care about their stuff.
You know which one
Another episode of Putin and his cronies making new plans and announcements, and it leaves this thread just begging for all kinds of snide remarks, jokes that are crass and crude. It makes sense as there are lots of US govt agencies that avoid Windows for various reasons, i.e. use Linux to avoid PC always calling home to Seattle. For secure systems, don't connect to internet (so simple but many just don't get it). I have a Windows system with very important stuff and I never connect it to internet (and the PC never crashes). Other than that, where's the "In Soviet Russia" comments?
mfwright@batnet.com
Hell, from ANYONES perspective banning Windows is a really good idea!
While our competing companies in Russia or spending their cycles mounting the CD drive from the command line and rebuilding the kernel to fix GPU failures, we'll be adding the innovation customers in a free market would choose to buy.
I haven't ever had to mount a CD from the terminal or rebuild my kernel, but it's nice that those options are available in case I need to.
Guess how fucked you are if your CD or GPU are malfunctioning in Windows?
With the baby boomers retiring, the work force getting smaller, and Social Security/Medicare consuming two-thirds of the federal budget in the next 20 years, someone will have to pay for all those taxes. Since corporations are people, they can pay their fare share.
I think this is more about not sending money to the US based firm, Microsoft. I do applaud anyone taking a hard look at what is best/most appropriate for their environment but this seems more about giving US companies a bloody nose than it does about the OS choice itself.
Heck I dont even trust Windows/Microsoft for home use. If I was Russia or any Government (including the US) I wouldnâ(TM)t allow any PC with Windows on it at all. Who knows what information Windows (especially 10) is collecting and phoning home with, or how many NSA back doors and just plain stupid security holes it has.
I'm curious how Microsoft and Apple would be compelled to pay more taxes - it's not as if they're manufacturing their computers there. If it's a tax on sales, that's not going to hit the companies... it'll hit the Russian consumers trying to buy Macs and Windows computers.
It's kind of funny, because I remember there was a lot of prominent Apple product placement in that "I will tear off my shirt for Putin" political ad - so their computers and phones are apparently popular there.
#DeleteChrome
Oxygen constitutes 80% of everything in the atmosphere right now, and is the basis for most common exothermic reactions. But, to be clear, it's not really necessary. There are other oxidizers, and other compounds which many things could be converted over to use. Some applications simply wouldn't be able to run anymore. Like mammals. But that's really just a reason to create new, better organisms from scratch. We know how they work, so it should be pretty easy. Right?
Oxygen is dangerous, even toxic, stuff, and I can absolutely agree that something better is a good idea.
You go first.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
While our competing companies in Russia or spending....
There is so much wrong with that posting that I don't know where to start. But the short list:
...mounting the CD drive from the command line....
While that always remains an option for those so inclined, it hasn't been necessary on major desktop Linux distribution for many years.
...rebuilding the kernel to fix GPU failures...
While that always remains an option for those so inclined, it hasn't been necessary on major desktop Linux distribution for many years.
...we'll be adding the innovation...
By "we'll", I presume you mean Microsoft. Microsoft hasn't been innovative in any positive manner in over 20 years.
...customers in a free market would choose to buy.
We haven't had a free market in operating systems in over 25 years, which is about the time frame that Bill Gates forced computer manufacturers to put only Windows on computers.
My favorite part of the article was when the writer said that it was unclear why Russia wouldn't want Windows on government computers. I almost laughed out loud. The writer actually phrased it in such a way as to imply that Russia would somehow be inflicting harm on itself by kicking Windows out.
"The Russian government is allegedly looking to ban Microsoft's Windows operating system"
Aaaand... that's an extremely good idea. There is an enormous problem and it's called 'Restricted level networks' in governments everywhere; combined, they provide an attacker an enormous treasure trove of information, and they are installed, configured and used by morons^Hnot very apt computer users. To expose yourself additionally to an American company that can just open the floodgates at a simple request out of Washington, is folly.
Religion is what happens when nature strikes and groupthink goes wrong.
>> they can pay their fare share
It looks like we should also continue to invest in education. That would be the only "fair" thing to do.
"While our competing companies in Russia or spending their cycles mounting the CD drive from the command line and rebuilding the kernel to fix GPU failures, we'll be adding the innovation customers in a free market would choose to buy."
Perhaps we could innovate a functioning grammar checker?
.
Other search bots do not seem to have any problems following the instructions I placed in the robots.txt. For some reason, yandex, mail.ru and bing think they're entitled to special treatment.
In Soviet Russia, Windows bans you.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Well at least, unlike France and Spain for example, he's being honest about his true reason for arbitrary and specious attacks and restrictions on, and extortion of, US tech companies.
Imagine all the people...
Yeah, the notion that a czar can be appointed, or self-appointed, just doesn't make any sense to Russians. Funny as this sounds, the expression "internet king" could be a better fit, even though "king" in this context in Russian would imply being #1 in a field rather than having actual authority over others in it.
Slightly off-topic, but the only way to make sure everyone pays their fair share would be to remove *all* loopholes/deductions/credits, and set a single tax rate (say, 15-20%). For charity's sake, the first $x/year income can be exempt (where x = 120% of poverty rate or similar metric).
Yes, a flat tax. But, it is ultimately fair for a zillionaire to pay in 20% of his income, which would be way larger than 20% of Joe Sixpack's middle-class income. As a beneficial side-effect, people would suddenly get very interested in any congressional action that would change the tax rate, no?
Of course, often when people demand that $group pay their "fair share", what they often mean is "enough to make them suffer - hard!" I trust and am hoping that you're not one of those folks.
--
Now, on topic - as for Russia? They can set whatever rates they want... we have no sovereignty there, so even if they were taxed at 100% of income, the US government would not see a dime of it.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
Any government interested in keeping its data and secrets safe but runs Windows is likely populated by imbeciles.
But an OS designed to serve Putin's interests is a better alternative? The geek mind at work is a fascinating thing to watch.
Seriously, who can blame them?
Win 10 is basically spyware, and it would be the NSA's wet dream to have it installed on computers within the Russian government's offices.
I mean, how much easier could it get? No more having to spear-phish Russian officials and trick them into installing malware or spyware, just turn on the "Spy On Me" feature and paw through all their documents, emails, chats, forms, and file stores at will. Download nightly "backups" of their PCs and have a field day.
I don't want Win 10 installed on my PC, and I hardly have any secrets to keep.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
I trust and am hoping that you're not one of those folks.
I'm a firm believer that you need a personal corporation for the tax advantages and writing unlimited checks to political candidates.
so even if they were taxed at 100% of income, the US government would not see a dime of it.
Unless you're an American citizen working in Russia. You still have to file a tax return and pay taxes for your worldwide income to the IRS.
Such a simple system becomes exploitable. The exploits demand countermeasures, and that gets complicated.
For example, you tax income. But what is income? Company car? Company house? Company staff discount? You've set up a system where employers and employees agree to non-monetary compensation as a form of tax avoidance, which means you have to add all sorts of rules about calculating equivalent taxable values.
Any government interested in keeping its data and secrets safe but runs Windows is likely populated by imbeciles.
Hopefully Russian computer scientists will focus on either making ReactOS a usable replacement (better for us in the West trying to dump Windows), or making their own Linux distro (I suggest they call it... Kremlinux), which will likely be better for them in the long run.
It's funny because Microsoft is evil.
Seriously though, a government running Windows must be run by imbeciles, but a Kremlin doctored version of ReactOS or Linux would be better? Pot meet kettle my friend.
I get Windows is not the right tool for everything, but neither is it the wrong tool for everything. I don't really see a government ban on Windows across the board makes any sense. Nobody in gov will ever run MS Office, nothing in gov will every be developed in .NET, and all to protect from what exactly? Hidden back doors? Viruses? Depending on what level of data you are securing there are other answers that sometimes make more sense. Even within the CIA, if you have your super secret documents buried in bunker on a Windows AD server with the room cut off from external networks and inside a faraday cage and anyone working goes there physically, you are as safe as running Linux or anything else. Neither is Linux immeasurably superior and secure if you want to connect your server room to the internet while keeping super sensitive data on it.
Sometimes the blind prejudiced hatred for all things MS on here still just confuses me. If you work with computers you aught to know a bit better than stupid knee jerk HS level MS bad jokes.
Gold star for you, special snowflake!
That only works for grades one to three.
My guesses:
1) Basically, Windows is dead. Countries will have to move away from using Microsoft products, since Microsoft has shown it cannot be trusted in ANY way. For example: Windows 10 phones home (A LOT) even with all reporting and telemetry disabled.
2) Microsoft wants to make money in the Facebook and Google way. Microsoft plans to mine all user data on all computers connected to the internet and sell the information.
3) The reason there will be no more versions of Windows is that Microsoft will do what Adobe Systems has done: Force users to move to a subscription model.
4) Windows users will isolate Windows from the internet, and use Linux on a different network with a cheap 2nd computer to connect to the internet. (But how to allow information interchange between the 2 networks?)
5) In response to users isolating Windows from the internet, Microsoft will make Windows stop working after a few days of no internet connection. Adobe Systems does that, in my experience, with CS6. (CS6 is the last version before the forced move to a subscription model.)
6) Satya Nadella, the new Microsoft CEO, was chosen because he was the least annoying candidate. He is apparently not the real controlling manager, but only someone to advertise.
7) Microsoft has a contract with secret U.S. government agencies to make Windows into what users consider to be malware.
8) Because Microsoft often releases buggy software, possibly because it is paid to do so by secret U.S. government agencies, Windows 10, with its many ways to connect to the internet, is now FAR less secure than before.
Not a guess, because verified by others: Microsoft is shockingly badly managed. The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the BusinessWeek cover in this article: Steve Ballmer Is No Longer A Monkey Boy, Says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called Ballmer Monkey Boy -- on its cover.
Slashdot commenters called Ballmer "Monkey Boy" for years before BusinessWeek called him that on the cover of its magazine.
Worst CEO in the United States: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today." Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)
We haven't had a free market in operating systems in over 25 years, which is about the time frame that Bill Gates forced computer manufacturers to put only Windows on computers.
My favorite part of the article was when the writer said that it was unclear why Russia wouldn't want Windows on government computers. I almost laughed out loud. The writer actually phrased it in such a way as to imply that Russia would somehow be inflicting harm on itself by kicking Windows out.
Really? Bill Gates hold your family hostage so you couldn't build your own PC and load Linux or go out and buy a Mac? People have always had alternatives, they are just not as simple or cheap as buying the "Black Friday Special" at your local big box electronics store.
It's possible to have an unfree market without having a gun pointed to your head.
Pubuntu.
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
So many benefits to doing it. Let's assume they take ReactOS: Right now ReactOS has wifi/networking, GPU, and basic desktop support. With 20 Russians hacking on it, they could very quickly implement SAMBA 4.0 on ReactOS, BIND, DHCP and Openchange. That's most of the core windows stack and gets them a usable e-mail, file/print/domain controller. An RDP client/server implementation gets them Windows Terminal Server replaced. Most of this code exists right now, it just needs to be adapted from Unix back to ReactOS.
I feel you man, I feel you!
+1
~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
No, because it's a massively overused term, which seems completely random and pointless for an over inflated title, and has NOTHING to do with any historical meaning. Think King, Emperor, Dictator, Supreme Leader, High Priestess.
Czar sounds like a bullshit title which is handed out for no defensible reason.
So, much like we don't have Privacy Emperor, and Internet Emperor ... why the hell do we even call these things 'czar'?
It's like some idiot heard a cool word, and then next thing you know everybody is a freaking czar of something. It just seems like a totally misplaced superlative in English, or anywhere else.
Take every place you see the word czar these days, change it for "Asshole", and it's probably a more accurate title.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to do see what the Marital High Priestess wishes to do for dinner.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
He, you figured out that 20% of a million is more than one fifth of a hundred thousand.
But whose life is impacted more by paying each thousand dollars of income?
I don't know why flat taxers think that nobody can spot their BS, but it smells, it really does.
Why don't you just propose a universal sales tax so we can be sure of it?
With the baby boomers retiring, the work force getting smaller, and Social Security/Medicare consuming two-thirds of the federal budget in the next 20 years, someone will have to pay for all those taxes. Since corporations are people, they can pay their fare share.
Ah, you noticed the problem with the Republican/Tea Party platforms - they want to reduce taxes without increasing the deficit, without cutting military spending, so that means health care and social security have to go. Not immediately, of course, they will phase this in 20 years after the seniors who voted them into power have died, so it's the voters' kids and grandkids who get screwed.
Oh, yes, many people using many different OS's is UTOPIA!
I don't respond to AC's.
I don't know what's really behind the appointment of this guy, but, this is interesting that he owns a torrent site, and is against web-blocking for being piracy, cited the current bad situation of the economy.
The same dodges are just as exploitable now. It's not like Barter will suddenly be invented once the tax code changes...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
At a big enough volume, Russia could make Microsoft code to what they demanded just like they did for access to China. I would think however that the the amount of work in auditing and trusting the changes and updates and stripping out telemetry by MS is better spent removing themselves from needing the OS in the first place. MS is making the ROI lies they used against Linux impossible to believe even among the simplest of admins and pundits.
A few of the many stories about backdoors in U.S. hardware:
D-Link: Reverse Engineering a D-Link Backdoor (Oct. 12, 2013)
Arris: 600,000 Arris cable modems have 'backdoors in backdoors', researcher claims (Nov. 20, 2015)
Juniper Networks: Juniper drops NSA-developed code following new backdoor revelations (Jan. 10, 2016)
Cisco: Snowden: The NSA planted backdoors in Cisco products (May 15, 2014)
Netgear: Netgear Patch Said to Leave Backdoor Problem in Router (April 23, 2014)
Windows 8: NSA Backdoor Exploit in Windows 8 Uncovered (Aug. 22, 2013)
Windows: NSA "backdoor" mandates lead to a computer-security FREAK show Quote: "Microsoft Windows OS vulnerable to hackers, thanks to National Security Agency requirements." (March 6, 2015)
Windows: NSA Built Back Door In All Windows Software by 1999 (June 7, 2013)
Hard drives: Breaking: Kaspersky Exposes NSA's Worldwide, Backdoor Hacking of Virtually All Hard-Drive Firmware (Feb. 17, 2015)
Is every backdoor the work of the NSA? There is no way of knowing.
It is a simple system.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pd...
36 pages defining income compared to the tax code that is how long?
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
They can be exploited now, but there are all sorts of really convoluted tax rules to stop that which you need to spend years studying in order to comprehend - and you need someone who knows all those rules in order to find the loopholes. Your alternative proposal would scrap the rules, which means every business large and small would be finding new ways to barter efficiently. 20% of payroll costs will easily justify hiring a specialist who knows how best to set up a good untaxable benefits system.
That's why in many countries, there exists the concept of "money worth advantages". They get taxed as income. Company provided dental insurance? Higher taxes. Company car? Higher taxes. Company provided lunch? Higher taxes.
36 pages defining income compared to the tax code that is how long?
Last I heard it was 6,500+ pages. Strip out all the exemptions, sweetheart deals and corporate giveaways, the actual tax code is ~125 pages.
The same way it is caught in Linux. The updates go through evaluation. If a source of updates with REALLY bad/improper updates - it gets banned. And no more updates from the bad source.
My my heart bleeds for your ignorance. Plenty of major security flaws have gone undiscovered and unnoticed in open source projects for long time frames. Simply saying we can trust changes by guys Putin hired because "open source" is naive in the extreme.
Income taxes are based on your taxable income with exemptions taken. The tax code, which is 6,500 pages long, describes both what qualifies as taxable income as well as the exemptions that can be taken to reduce how much of the taxable income is taxed. For the purpose of income tax, what qualifies as income can be described in 36 pages. 36 pages describing what all gets lumped together to be taxed at the 15-20% rate that was proposed.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
Especially Putin.
"It's like some idiot heard a cool word, and then next thing you know everybody is a freaking czar of something. "
I expect it's not like that at all. It is that. Exactly.
After the third grade, I became known as the kid who doesn't get any awards on the day that the principle gives awards to everyone for no particular reason.
Three facts seem inescapable at this point.
1. Microsoft has proven itself to be untrustworthy.
2. Microsoft refuses to adequately respect the privacy of Microsoft's own customers.
3. Microsoft is a US corporation.
US government has authority to extract "Any tangible thing" from Microsoft for any reason it wants.
If I were a head of state I would be pushing for an alternative too. It would be malpractice not to.
Can Russia have an internet Czar since they aren't a monarchy anymore?
A true flat tax (and nationwide sales tax) is doomed because they will "hurt" the poor. Right now, millions of poor people get thousands in earned income credits without working or paying a penny of income tax. Those EICs (aka over-the-top freebies from the gov't) will be eaten up quickly in (or completely removed from) a flat tax system.
And no, people wouldn't suddenly get interested in any congressional action or civics/politics at that point. You'd just have a millions-strong mob of relatively uneducated poor people tearing the country apart before you could say "economic theory".
If the gov't actually got that mess under control, then you'd have a mini-recession due to the loss of income to all the businesses that rely on that infusion of deficit spending fueled cash every spring. The poor go out annually and buy that new hot water heater, even larger TVs, newer and better cell phones to make rap videos about their SNAP cards, the family vacations they couldn't take otherwise, etc.
And don't underestimate the long-term importance of higher income taxes (and inheritance taxes) keeping a class of super-rich people (think old-school European royalty - dukes, etc.) from really taking a firm hold in the USA. Yes, those higher taxes are cruel and patently unfair to the wealthy that work their butts off to get into the top 10%, but they are an unfortunate necessity in a society where too many of the super rich don't share their wealth domestically. Instead, they ship the money out to other countries - all in the name of increased profits, to feed Wall Street's insatiable need for higher stock prices. (Why can't a company's growing profits be re-invested back into society via more R&D expenditures and wages while still turning a handsome profit? Why this unending need for increased profit at the expense of everything else?)
Disclaimer: I'm a GOP guy that loves balanced budgets and is sick of ideological rot within my own party.
Bill Gates doesn’t pay Microsoft’s taxes. You and I pay it in the form of higher prices when we buy Microsoft Word. The corporate income tax is a regressive tax that falls more on the poor. It amazes me that people can’t see this.
No Windows on government desktops !
If our internet czar would do the same, maybe we wouldn't be seeing the data breaches.
I know my info was lost about 6 months ago, all the DHS & FBI employees more recently.
Go Unix ! In all it's glory Unix,SysV, BSD, GNU/Linux, Hurd & Apple !
A test suite for web/application/os for known types of attacks should be required.
How many holes have to be reimplemented over and over.
sql injection, hard coded username/password, buffer overflow, etc...
watchout for the first AI that gets loose, A script kiddie can cause a lot of grief.
The AI will go thru the net like a hot knife thru butter, then disappear.
This is my opinion based on what little I know and understand of the rumors and lies Thanks, Randal
I, and presumably you, can not even worry (though we might not like it) if they take 20% of our income. If you take $2000 out of $10000 that's must more painful than taking $20,000 out of $100,000.
If the subject is a business, it's actually pretty easy to avoid making much of a profit at all. For example, if you own your own business then just pay yourself a salary and pay the taxes on that. The business isn't taxed, really, you are. To the IRS, that's a legitimate business expense. Open a new office, give folks a raise, or whatever and those become expenses and the profit is less... Then, well, you add in depreciation and all sorts of things - it gets pretty damned complicated.
Which leads to this: Those who can better afford it are more able to take advantage of the loopholes. I don't think it's possible to set up a tax system that does not have potential for abuse. Sadly, those who can benefit the most are the least able to afford the professionals to do their taxes. I recommend everyone hire an accountant and pay a lawyer, and I recommend that they consider incorporation, but many people can't justify the expense. Oddly enough, they probably *could* justify the expense (in many cases) based on how much they'll save but many folks don't seem to look at it like that.
Finally, I've said this before but I think it bears repeating, I don't think my government has an income problem so much as it has a spending problem. I have no problem with the amount I pay in taxes and could easily bear a higher tax burden but I'm not just going to give it to them so long as I can (legally) avoid it. We've got enough bombers, aircraft carriers, and tanks.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
The problem with that reasoning is that it's entirely irrational. Yes, some of what you pay for a product goes to pay the taxes. Your income comes from where? Would you say that you employer pays the income taxes for Microsoft when you buy a product from them? The business gets its income from where? Would you say your employer's customers pay your employer, who pays you your salary, who buys Word which portions of the sales price going to the taxes that Microsoft pays? And who pays the person who purchased the products made by your employer?
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Heartbleed was a mistake and got missed for years. Imagine how hard it would be to find something that was built to be hidden?
If you're in the US, losing the entire Russian government market is a blow to the balance of trade and local economy. This single contract is just representative of everything that's happening across the industry - it's far larger.
But Americans seem to WANT NSL's and are willing to sacrifice the entire tech sector, the basis of their economic growth, for an increased police state. Maybe they'll get to pick the size of their grey tunics.
The tech sector is a small, concentrated, educated market. The population as a whole consists of many non-expert distributed voters who are afraid of terrorism, have never lived in a police state and don't understand the risk to privacy that this creates, and being manipulated by their leaders into believing encryption is bad and surveillance are good.
"By my count, Windows is a 4 time zombie even under the nicest interpretation."
To a lot of people, it seems different this time. Yes, it would take a long time to adjust, but companies don't want buggy Windows 10 tracking them.
Touche !
When will the USA outlaw MS Windows?! This latest version is a blatant attack against our very constitutional rights as citizens - privacy! I find it hard to believe that We, the People, would allow corporations to continue to manipulate and control us! C'mon, Bernie, make a stink!
Self-importance and self-indulgence is the root of ALL evil.
Your alternative proposal would scrap the rules, which means every business large and small would be finding new ways to barter efficiently.
Barter is considered income -- and is subject to the same income tax.
Since corporations are people, they can pay their fare share.
Run a corporation for a while, then tell me about them having to pay their fair share. You'll find they pay plenty. I'm sure way more than you imagine.
Run a corporation for a while, then tell me about them having to pay their fair share.
A former boss converted his masonry company from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. He paid significantly less in taxes as an individual for drawing a salary, Since he set up a qualified retirement, he stashed away about $53,000 in corporate profits each year. The only significant tax burden that the corporation had was salaries and worker comp.
A former boss converted his masonry company from a sole proprietorship to a corporation. He paid significantly less in taxes as an individual for drawing a salary, Since he set up a qualified retirement, he stashed away about $53,000 in corporate profits each year. The only significant tax burden that the corporation had was salaries and worker comp.
Sole prop.... That's not a very smart thing to have done. That's like a business 101 mistake.
Does he realize that he's paying taxes on that money twice? I bet he doesn't or he wouldn't have said that, or you misunderstood what he said. Sure, his individual tax could be lower, however that money was already taxed at the corporate level at the higher rate. You're not comparing apples to apples.
If he had any brains, he had is SP set up such that his finances and the companies are in the same pot. I'm sure he had it set up that way where he is. As it is now, money is taxed at the corporate level, then he has to pay taxes on what he receives. So before max tax would be 35%. Now it's likely going to be 70%. It's like a double tax. Really depends, on a LOT of things.
That's why I said open up a business and then we can discuss it. We work very very very hard for what we get. Sure, some guys make a great deal of money. However they went through a lot and paid a LOT in taxes to get there. One way or another they paid a lot. Oh and by the way, that $53,000 in profits - he has to pay at least 15% tax on that. Depends on how he did it. Dividend, capital gain, etc. He didn't just get that money tax free. Sooner or later they will get their cut. If he thinks he doesn't have to pay taxes on that, they'll catch up with him. When they do, it won't be pretty. I know a former CEO that is still trying to pay off about $750K settlement for some stuff he didn't declare right.
BTW, if you do run a company - get legal advice. It's always cheaper to get good (you paid for it and the guy knows what he's doing) legal advice rather than being caught in violation. It's easy to get in trouble as well.
How many pages of regulations are required to cover barter?
>> they can pay their fare share
It looks like we should also continue to invest in education. That would be the only "fair" thing to do.
Maybe he was talking about the taxi ride to the tax office?
Wanna buy a shirt?
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Sole prop.... That's not a very smart thing to have done. That's like a business 101 mistake.
His grandfather and father ran the business as a sole proprietorship for 50 years. He converted it to a corporation because his CPA showed him how it would his overall tax bill by two-thirds as an individual taxpayer.
Oh and by the way, that $53,000 in profits - he has to pay at least 15% tax on that.
My understanding with his qualified retirement plan is that his paycheck contributions are pre-tax dollars and the corporate contributions are expense deductions.
He didn't just get that money tax free. Sooner or later they will get their cut.
He took salary and paid taxes on that, which was significantly less than being taxed as a sole proprietorship. The corporation paid whatever taxes it had to pay on what little profit was left over after expenses at year end.
He didn't just get that money tax free. Sooner or later they will get their cut.
He'll pay taxes when he starts drawing on his retirement account.
How many pages of regulations are required to cover barter?
Not to sound like a presidential candidate, but what difference does it make?
You can use the existing regulation defining barter and still get rid of tons of the tax code.
Because it ruins the rhetoric. Simplification of the tax code is certainly possible, but anyone who claims they can 'get it down to thirty pages' or that you'll be able to write your tax return 'on the back of a postcard' are making promises that they cannot deliver on, and trying to deliver on them would be disastrous.
you'll be able to write your tax return 'on the back of a postcard' are making promises that they cannot deliver on
1. How much did you make, including from barter:
2. Multiply line 1 by 0.20 and write that amount here:
3. Enter the amount withheld:
4. Subtract line 3 from line 2, this is how much you owe: