To borrow a quote from a favorite MST3K episode, “Well, he’s rich and white, so he’ll be ok.”
Finally! A hide amendment I can get behind!
^^^I can admit when I was wrong^^^:
The ridiculously wealthy are very different from you and I. They play by completely different rules. $400,000,000 is just a drop in the bucket to him.
Robert Heinlein popularized the idea in his novel The Number of the Beast. Not many Heinlein fans will admit to liking that book and I wondered if you were one of them.
Thanks!
Taxation is low, simple – and contains a surprise. The Federal
government is supported by a head tax paid by the States, and is mostly for military and foreign affairs. This state derives most of its revenue from real estate taxes. It is a uniform rate set annually, with no property exempted, not even churches, hospitals, or schools – or roads; the best roads are toll roads. The surprise lies in this: The owner appraises his own property.
There is a sting in the tail: Anyone can buy property against the
owner’s wishes at the appraisal the owner placed on it. The owner can hang on only by raising his appraisal at once to a figure so high that no buyer wants it – and pay three years back taxes at his new appraisal.
This strikes me as loaded with inequity. What if it’s a family homestead
with great sentimental value? Zeb laughs at me. “Jake, if anybody wants six hectares of hilly land and second-growth timber, we take the profit, climb into Gay – and buy more worthless land elsewhere. In a poker game, you figure what’s in the pot.”
Number of the Beast was published in 1980; well after Harberger advocated such a scheme. (And yes, we had most of the Heinlein books lying around, though perhaps not I will fear no evil, his novel about genderplay.)
They only lie cheat and do crimes because they love America TOO MUCH
Then I submit Mazars is doing a shitty job. They would never let him deduct $70,000 for hair styling after the courts have already ruled in similar tax cases that you cannot deduct that as a cost of doing business UNLESS you’re a “hair model.” And he was not. Clearly. Because who else is running around with THAT fucking rug on their head?
The hair styling alone is tax fraud. I haven’t dug any deeper, because if he’s stupid enough to take that deduction, I’m sure there are massive amounts of additional fraud on his returns. And if we lived in a just system, he’d be toast.
Of course we don’t.
President Trump Is Putin’s Drug Holder and Other Things We Learned From Trump’s Taxes
Exactly what I was saying above. And I wouldn’t dismiss it as quickly as the character above does.
I’ve already gotten “It’s just goes to show he has smart accountants”.
I pointed out he was given about 400 million from his dad, bragged that his businesses made a lot of money, but he’s about 400 million in debt. If this was anyone else, would you say that his accountants were smart? Or that he was receiving sound financial advice? I haven’t gotten an answer yet.
Also, the high end market is there because it’s conspicuous consumption. Outside his cult, many wealthy people don’t want to be associated with his crassness.
He is not utilizing accountants to make money he is utilizing them to cover up his crimes.
If it ever comes to it, they’ll argue that he’s a TV personality and this is the cost of hair and makeup for that Big Brother presence. But that’s the thing: it won’t ever come to it. It hasn’t for 15 years, scratch that: 30, and the hair never will be a central issue in any dealings he has with the IRS. Right now they’re shielding him because he’s the boss, but in years past, he wasn’t the boss and they still didn’t really go after him in a way that he couldn’t just stall indefinitely.
Maybe this time will be different. I don’t know yet. But wishing it so isn’t the same as it being so.
Repeat: courts have already said it cannot be taken as a deduction EXCEPT if you’re a hair model. They’ve literally ruled on this. So if it ever comes to it, he’s screwed on that one. And that should open him up (and has) to a MUCH more thorough examination of all his tax filings.
Yes, that’s 100% correct and I agree with you. Because the IRS knows it’s painful and expensive to go after the big fish when they can go after smaller value filers and win. They have been fundamental crippled for decades by the GOP and some right-center Democrats. I am, however, a firm believer in shoving the “rule of law” down the throats of the rich and hope to see a President Biden reconstitute and empower the agency to take these billionaires to the mat each and every time. Until they hurt, they’ll keep committing crimes.
We are where we are because we weakened oversight over the wealthy, even while we massively increased the jack booted thugs on the street. Time to change that around.
ONE MORE TIME FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK! PREACH! (all-caps intentional for enthusiastic agreement)
He’s not screwed yet because his lawyers will just appeal forever until SCOTUS rules in his favor, thus overruling any precedent. We may as well write off a federal tax evasion conviction and look to individual states to eventually get him on racketeering or solicitation or who knows what.
Definitely. LOOOOOOONG overdue for the richy riches to pay their fair share. And stop with all the unnecessary roughness and street murders! Way overdue.
I’ve had a “Q” level security clearance check for a contractor job at a national lab. They investigate everywhere you’ve lived and who you’ve worked for. And it’s performed by the FBI. I didn’t warn my landlord at the time that they might come to ask, and it freaked her out. Also, some friends I hadn’t seen in years got some calls to ask about my character.
There’s no way he passes. Kushner couldn’t pass. That fateful trip to Moscow would’ve disqualified him immediately.
