New IRS unit designed to target super-rich

Yes, that's the way it's supposed to be, sounds good, looks good on paper, but I'm not buying that corporations or the extremely wealthy actually pay that percentage. I've watched it done over and over by corporations and individuals who can pay huge sums of money to accountants and attorneys to end up with a refund or paying much less than they're supposed to. The rest of us would end up upside down hiring someone to find all the loopholes so we just have to sigh and pay up.

lol...does this really surprise you? Jammer thinks democrats are of the devil.

The devil it he devil.

Democrats have cheated on their taxes. Let's not have party blindness.

And what a terrible way of quoting you did....totally out of context. It was a question, not a statement. You just shared a lie.....awww.

They don't need a smear campaign, they smear themselves.

Some of them would probably stand up in the house and DEFEND the hiding of assets overseas. After all, those folks are the "winners" and it's those working class "welfare" folks that are destroying America.

You tell 'em, Saladin! Very good point.

..."cause they can print money faster then you'll ever be able to earn it!

that is what they want---people to think it's good so that when they "succeed" in doing it they'll get a pat on the back...even though they've failed at almost every corner prior.

Ha! So true. I used to work as Ex. Asst. for a multi-millionaire who was owner and CoftheB of a public company with 16 subsidiaries. Every year I was there (6 years), I paid and he got a refund.

'Despite what right wing propagandists tell you, the burden of taxes fall on the working class. Period.'

I will agree with that 100%. Too bad many Americans seem to worship the idea of the rich lording it over the rest of us. The gap between the have's and the have not's just keeps growing, with no end in sight.

oh really calyjj05...

But income tax isn't the only form of taxation, and the creep of conservative freakonomics has made its way well across into even liberal states like California.

public services....you mean public services like the colossal war machine we are funding, right?

Good post Lola.

Yeah, you're right, the country is rolling in money right now so why bother. Whether we agree with how it's set up or not most begrudgingly follow the rules and don't cheat. Changing that is another topic.

Hmm, so were I to be successful and rightfully earn tens of millions of dollars, choosing to put my assets where I feel they are the most protected.... now would target me for investigation and possible prosecution because this corrupt government can not easily gain access to seize it?

***
Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us.
-> Bill Watterson, cartoonist, "Calvin and Hobbes"

...'punishes success and investment.' Really? Bill Gates be damned I suppose. The rich get richer and everyone else can just fuck themselves, seems to be the motto of choice in America.

You can put your assets anywhere you want, you just can't claim they aren't there, that it wasn't earned income and not report it. Nobody is going to seize it unless you lie about it, the IRS wants you to report the income and pay taxes on it.

“Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere.” - Einstein

With the IRS unlimited power to seize assets wherever they find them, any convenient pretext can and will be used to justify their actions, and how can you not see that this is just another example of government invasions into our lives -- yes, our lives...because you may not be rich, think not that there will not be a trickle-down even into your own lives even more so than it is already?

***
A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them.
P. J. O'Rourke
US humorist & political commentator

I really don't foresee the IRS seizing everyone's assets for no particular reason, but they're hard hearted enough with many who can ill afford it, so why should the wealthly get away scott free. I'm angrier at the finance companies with their run away interest rate hikes, the banks with their mega recent income from check charges and the CEO's who benefit from it and hide the income away without paying taxes.

"A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining and wants it back the minute it begins to rain." - Mark Twain

fuck the irs, fuck corporations, fuck the old white men.

One of the few times the IRS is standing up to the rich and their lawyers who keep them from paying their fair share may not be the time to discourage them. But hey, your choice.

They also bully the poor...so let's not pretend they are doing good when it's just for show.

What about "one of the few times" did you not understand?

because few hasn't happened and will not happen.

Fuck the IRS before they fuck you!

You're right.

Cheat on your taxes and you're a democrat guess what you get?

You get to be in the Treasury Department.

Go figure.

Since we haven't paid our taxes since the Democrats have been in office . . . and don't know yet who's doing the cheating this year, and since the Bush administration was in office last time it was verified, and the treasury czar has changed since then, you must be basing your history on the Republicans, right?

Timmy Timmy didn't pay thousands of dollars in taxes....and yet he got to be on the cabinet.

You must have forgotten Obama's early transgressions in picks.

Oops.

Neo, lack of knowledge again rears it's ugly head. Gaining access of off shore accounts started during the Bush administration. We, the United States just got final approval to go after 4500 out of over 100,000 evaders. The new administration (read Obama) has given them months and months to clean out their accounts. This may hit the fan but in small terms. Your Governor was correct in his firing of the agents. After all they could do nothing about off shore accounts till next month. Now they might have been able to do somethings locally. I doubt very much. Using the excuse that they could ( maybe ) bring in their salaries is pitiful. Their salaries along with about 2 million might help your state. Then again the State would just piss it away. So where were you going with this?

The agents fired in my state were not trained to investigate offshore accounts, but rather the wealthiest within the state. Funny you should mention the figure $2 million as if I recall correctly, that was the estimate they were expected to obtain.

As for offshore accounts, it was during the Obama administration that Switzerland's UBS was pressured to release records. Nothing similar happened during the Bush administration. During those 8 years however, the use of offshore accounts exploded.

Your tone and ignorance may respectfully kiss my ass.

Neo, Just admit when you are wrong. There is no harm in it. Be a man. This off shore investigation has been going on for years and years. The off shore banks have been the hold up, not us. Try a new angle, your present one is getting to be old hat.

I don't believe that he is wrong, here. You haven't completed a logical argument, yet.

You haven't addressed the huge explosion in the use of these accounts, and you haven't explained how having a task force dedicated to rich people's tax returns is somehow disadvantageous.

Neo should admit he's wrong when he actually is, not when you just say so. That's not how logical dialectic works. At least you are trying it... baby steps, republicans, baby steps.

Credit. Please read the entire banter. Neo, tries to skirt the issue using his home State as some sort of basis for his argument. This is not about internal banks, The artical is about off shore banks. On this he is weak and uninformed. In the weeks to come more will be in the news about this and you will see I'm right. As far as you believing that Neo is correct is concerned, believe away. I'm always amused by the posts on this site. So, I'm guessing that it is you taking the baby steps. Oh how I love this site!

Skirting, that's quite a stretch Mark. Neo is pointing out what was done in his state as an example of the status quo because that bs doesn't stop at his state line - it's pretty much a universal attitude.

so your ok with the fact that George W. Bush gave tax cuts to the ultra rich? Thats not archaic, leg. signed less than 10 years ago. not to mention overlooks individuals by allowing them to funnel cash through their phony corporations. I know multi millionaires that paid less income tax than I did last year, about 33%, and I'm a city worker and claimed about $25,000.

I think the IRS should be bullying anyone making over 5 million a year. Thats the problem with capitalism, it's never enough, you'll never be satisfied with what is earned. It's a broken careless system that has left us broke and spiritless.

IRS is a waste of money, hu? I suppose we should go find some indians to invite to diner, then once we gain their trust we'll murder them and take their land. No system is the best system, right?

Exactly, if you aren't satisfied at $1,000,000/year, you aren't going to be satisfied(it doesn't matter where you live), that's why we should tax income over that amount at heavy rates.

I agree with JJ, the tax laws are archaic have been fucking us for the last 33 years. We all know that supporting greed can result in things like... the most recent economic meltdown. It's time to overhaul the system, and tax the shit out of people making more than a mil a year... Call it greed tax.

JJ is even more correct, in that the IRS shouldn't be bullying anyone for press, they should have been bullying these thieves since they started evading taxes. I don't care how much it costs, legally. These pricks shouldn't think that they can buy their way out of an audit. I would consider these legal fees an investment.

These pricks shouldn't think that they can buy their way out of an audit. ...True, not even the FED. yeah?

Never be pleased when the government bullies anyone---because it might be you they bully on next.

Absolutely! Like in NOT holding cheaters accountable like everyone else.

Not at all.
It's perfectly natural that they go after the citizens who are hiding the most money- the super rich.

It's like pursuing the drug dealer, who has 10 kilos, instead of the user, who might only have a gram.
Is that discriminatory?

Targeting a group that is breaking the law is not discrimination that is the opposite of discrimination they have decided to not pay their fair share as an individual and many individuals in that group have made that same decision. Whenever that happens it is not discriminatory to go after them it is justified as going after a group of similar people all breaking the law

"Targeting any group is discrimination." - no, it's not. Targeting the super-rich in this case is just common sense.

Why worry about it? Are you one of them?

I don't think he understands that the IRS used to let the big fish off the hook because the super rich are willing to go to court and fight for their $XX million dollars with the best lawyers and accountants money can buy. Then the IRS spends more money on Laywers and accountants than it would have even gotten in back taxes. The average middle class person isn't going to fight the IRS over a few thousand dollars because their accountant/lawyer fees would be more than that.There was a higher profit margin on going after the middle class and they claimed the "resources weren't avaiable" in most big fish cases.

where do people like this come from - seriously I just don't get it. your getting robbed by the ultra rich and you want to protect them from discrimination? you probably voted for bush because the church told you too, hugh? It's time to grow out of the - believe everything I'm told mentality.

I put myself in the place of a rich person who has always paid my fair share of taxes: would I want the IRS targeting me? No. So if I accede to the IRS targeting anyone, what's to stop them from targeting me, a poor Democrat? Certainly not the rich who don't pay their fair share of taxes.