There's a secret, separate US tax system that rich people use to save billions

This is neither a system nor a secret. Just a travesty.

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So after they destroy this country, where will they go then? Just curious…

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Another headline which shows irrefutable proof that Cory is looking to be the next Alex Cox

Whenever I see an outrageous, hyperbolic headline, I know before even seeing the author line that it’s one of Cory’s. I’ve turned it into a game - seeing just how far off the actual content of the linked article his headlines can get.

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unfortunately there is no rolling-eye-smiley available so pls envisage one …

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I would actually prefer socialist-level. I guess the assumption is that an entrepreneur would be an arch-capitalist, but not me.

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Our premium for a bronze-level plan for our family of four increased 29% this year to $978/month, and our deductible increased from $5000/person to $6850/person. We received a notification estimating that our tax credit would be $458/month. We downgraded from that $978/month plan to one that was around $800/month from a different insurer.

Unfortunately, we’re not able to take advantage of that because of what seems like a technical problem between the Marketplace and our insurer. Our insurer kept listing our ten year old son as the primary on our policy. We would call them and they would say they couldn’t change it on their end, and we should go back to the Marketplace to fix it. Then we called the Marketplace and they said all of our data was correct, and we should call the insurer. Finally we cancelled the plan through the Marketplace and purchased it independently. Now everything is correct, but we will have to wait until the end of the year to take advantage of any tax credits.

The first year the Marketplace was available, our Republican state managed to Catch-22 us and keep us from using it. The Marketplace said our kids were eligible for Medicaid, and that we would need to fill out paperwork from North Carolina before we could move forward with our Marketplace applications. That was early December. The state of North Carolina finally sent the paperwork in August of the following year, long after we purchased insurance independently. Last year the Marketplace worked fine for us.

It is true that my goal is to earn enough money that we don’t qualify for subsidies. We’re not there yet, but we try to operate on the assumption that our health insurance costs us the full shot.

My point is that all of this is a kludge, and it’s not affordable, and it’s getting less affordable, and we should consider this part of our taxation in this country.

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For the record, that’s still better and cheaper than the insurance I had before ACA, and my insurance was procured before any medical issues had occurred.

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I could have fixed your technical problem in a half-hour, but I’m not licensed in your state. Your agent is a numbskull.

However, I’ll say I think you’re not paying enough for your insurance. You should have a silver plan at minimum if you have kids. Chances you’ll use your insurance are about 100%, and the better deductible will pay for the higher premium in a hurry.

It sounds like maybe you’re used to getting insurance from an employer. It’s a really good deal when somebody else pays 80% of the cost, but self-employed people have been experiencing horrific rate increases for years. It sounds like yours was particularly bad, but the ACA is actually bending the curve in most states. Just think about what your rate would be if your insurance company was allowed to boost their profits by denying you care like they used to. Hint: a lot more.

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Which word of the headline was unsupported by the reporting in the nytimes article?

The is a secret tax system that 90% of all Americans can use to collectively save trillions.

Google “Pete Hendrickson” and “Cracking the Code”. Tens of thousands of wage-earning Americans have received full IRS refunds for many years. The only things you need are an open mind, a willingness to learn, and the guts to act in your own interest. All perfectly legal.

It All Starts With A Return

MANY YEARS AGO, SOME TAX ATTORNEY OR IRS OFFICIAL made the unremarkable observation in a trial brief or in testimony that, “It [collection of the tax] all starts with the filing of a return.” The reference was to the filing of an “information return,” [IR] such as a W-2, 1099 or K-1.*

It IS an unremarkable observation. It is obvious that for the government to assert an excise-tax liability to itself on someone’s part, someone with purported personal knowledge must say that taxable events occurred, and this is what all Information Returns (IRs) say. Any amount reported on such a form as having been paid is being said to have been paid in connection with the recipient’s conduct of a taxable activity.

But as unremarkable as it might be to observe the significance within the liability-allegation-structure of IRs, Imagine that very few folks have seriously considered IRs from a pre-emptive perspective. That is, Imagine that few people have actually thought about the fact that it is ONLY because erroneous IRs have been issued about them, that it is necessary to go to the trouble of rebuttal in order to secure refunds of improperly-withheld amounts, with a serious eye toward preventing these inconveniences.

The fact is, no one should have to rebut anything, because no one should be falsely testifying about anyone else (or testifying in ignorance, which is morally no different than false testimony). And yet, such false testimony is a common-place-- so much so that beginning next month literally tens of millions of erroneous IRs will flood the mail and cyber-space like a liberty- and rule-of-law-destroying plague.

Secret & separate are both pretty much horse shit in this case.

“Operating largely out of public view — in tax court, through arcane legislative provisions and in private negotiations with the Internal Revenue Service — the wealthy have used their influence to steadily whittle away at the government’s ability to tax them. The effect has been to create a kind of private tax system, catering to only several thousand Americans.”

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First off “kind of” is a major use of weasel words. Secondly if it was so secret, how did so many people know of it? I just don’t buy into this sort of tin foil hat stuff.

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That’s what kills me. It’s so obviously an issue of two databases not talking to each other properly, but the two people from the insurer and the two people from the Marketplace couldn’t connect the dots. But I’m sure that when I need to trust my family’s health to them, they’ll all bring their A game.

Silver plans are not an option for my family. The money for that kind of healthcare simply doesn’t exist. I don’t know anyone who can afford to consider silver.

And that’s my whole point. Saying, “it could be a lot worse” does not make the current reality any good at all. Healthcare is not actually affordable right now. It certainly could be a lot worse, granted. But the reality is that it is unreasonably bad right now, and will not get better. This year our state insurance oversight people approved a 32% across the board increase to premiums. What will they approve next year?

Everyone is caught up in this partisan nonsense. Republicans want it to be every man for himself in this country. Democrats are spending all their effort saying how great the ACA is. In fact, it’s all terrible and no one is acknowledging that. Healthcare is already way too expensive, and no one is working to reduce the cost. Any effort goes into controlling the increase, and that didn’t stop the 32% increase we just experienced.

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Well, if it were actually socialist, we’d get something out of it.

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Cory–There is no hyphen in “tax-system” Stop it.

As the old saw states, it’s safe to conclude that any law which takes from Peter to pay Paul will be enthusiastically supported by Paul.

Yeah, that’s the truth. If I really have to pay almost $10,000 for my family’s premiums alone, I would love for someone to get some benefit from that. But I suspect that a huge portion of that money goes toward unnecessary administrative costs, and the part that is paying for actual healthcare is paying a hyperinflated cost for that care.

To tie all my complaining in with the original post:
A) It’s dishonest for us to pretend that the ACA isn’t taxation.
B) The rich can buy a gold plan and it amounts to a tiny fraction of a percentage of their income. The same plan for a middle class or below consumer would be a major percentage of total income. This is a way that our tax system is skewed in an incredibly unfair way in favor of the rich.

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Why would they bother? They know he’s not going to become president anyway.