• davel@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    54
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    1 month ago

    I don’t hate the IRS. They don’t write the tax code, and it’s not their fault that they’re underfunded. That’s all on Congress.

    This might upset a few people, though: Your Taxes Pay for Nothing

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      13
      ·
      1 month ago

      Sort of… but saying that the government can issue as much new currency as they want is disingenuous and this is addressed later in the video, but it literally says that the tax money is “destroyed”… this is not really correct.

      The value of a government currency like the dollar comes ultimately from confidence in the US economy. If the economy produces value, then the dollar represents a piece of that value. If the economy is unproductive (less value is produced) then tax revenue is lower, and less new money can be issued.

      So to close the circle, your taxes do pay for something… the government’s capacity to issue new money, which it then uses to pay for government services &etc. Saying that “your taxes pay for nothing” is kind of a pointless argument over semantics, because without the tax collection the government would not be able to pay for anything.

    • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      1 month ago

      FWIW the US federal budget for 2024 is going to be about $6.8 trillion dollars. So that $1.3 billion is about 0.019% of the total budget. I’d call that a slap on the wrist for the billionaire class except that you can actually feel a slap on the wrist.

      • spidermanchild@sh.itjust.works
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        3
        ·
        1 month ago

        That’s entirely the wrong denominator for this comparison. IRS doesn’t write the budget nor do they write tax law, they just collect.

        • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          5
          ·
          1 month ago

          Fine, revenues are $4.9 trillion. My point is that $1.9 billion is literally a drop in the bucket - hardly an example of the IRS “going after rich people”.

          • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            1 month ago

            But … It’s an increase, right?

            Are we okay with incremental improvements, or will only big bang headline news story type improvements be okay?

            • ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              1
              ·
              1 month ago

              Is it an increase? The article @macattack cited does not give any data on how much the IRS collected from high-income earners before this additional push supposedly funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The article does mention that Republicans in congress recently rescinded more than $20 billion in additional IRS funding, which does suggest that the net benefit was far less than $1.3 billion and might even have been negative. It seems like the kind of breathless article the impact of which relies on people not well understanding the difference between a billion and a trillion.

  • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    38
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Who the fuck is the rich chef lmfao?

    Every chef I know looks like the dude on the left, but he hasn’t had adderall since work insurance pays shit so instead he subsists on alcohol and cocaine with the rush of order and chaos working the kitchen.

    • PriorityMotif@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      8
      ·
      1 month ago

      All of your local business people either are or have just not paid taxes on income. If it’s a cash business or they accept cash, there’s a high likelihood that they just put that in their pocket.

  • RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    5
    ·
    1 month ago

    Right panel could do better.

    Tax evasion, loopholes, offshore accounts, tax breaks, are all terms that belong as “steps.” Also, stepping on the person holding the “work” steps up should be part of it. Successful people almost all earn money on other’s work at some level. That’s how wealth and employment work.

  • toastal@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    4
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    Other countries hate the IRS & FCC too. It is quite difficult to open a foreign bank or crypto exchange account… if not just outright blocked all Americans from even trying.

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      11
      ·
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Ah yes, the evil government system that gets in the way of good people trying to run digital Ponzi schemes and collect ransomware payments.

      Bad gubmint.

      • toastal@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        3
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        Baby. Bathwater.

        Not all of the cryptocurrency behave as a Ponzi scheme even if many do. It also happens to be the most convenient way to transfer money between myself & the foreign friends I have—especially with Monero & Zcash hiding the transaction like cash would. I mostly use cash daily but if I have to do it digitally, I would rather it not be logged thru the government, some US-based tech firm, & all their third-party advertizing affiliates as is the case with credit cards and other mobile apps.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    2
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    1 month ago

    oddly enough,long as i keep myself out of jail and not homeless i am successful. this requires work. it is on you to decide to keep at it or not. just saying that your blanket doesnt keep me warm

  • M600@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    7
    ·
    1 month ago

    It kinda feels like this sometimes.

    My single biggest expense each month is tax.

    Last time I went to Costco, my the second most expensive thing on the receipt was tax.

    • grue@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      7
      ·
      1 month ago

      Last time I went to Costco, my the second most expensive thing on the receipt was tax.

      That just means you bought a whole bunch of cheap things.

    • Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      1 month ago

      Are we?

      GE made nearly 7 billion dollars in 2023. Do you know how much tax they paid? They didn’t, they got a refund of over 400 million dollars.

      Tell me again that tax evasion isn’t a real problem.

      • NauticalNoodle@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        1 month ago

        i didn’t say tax evasion isn’t the real problem. i said that the meme is blaming the wrong people.

        it’s GE’s (And politicians) fault that GE is evading taxes, not the IRS.

    • ComradeSharkfucker@lemmy.mlOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      ·
      1 month ago

      Idk how thats what you got from this post. I don’t believe billionaires paying their taxes will solve all of our problems of thats what you are getting at