Coffee Talk VI: The Undiscovered Country

[forty_three]

 

[dash]

Just a reminder that there's going to be cuts to Social Security and health care (you know, things that are pretty important to average Americans) in order for McCarthy to be Speaker of the House.

 

[dash]

Because of course they did...

 

[forty_three]

Just a reminder that there's going to be cuts to Social Security and health care (you know, things that are pretty important to average Americans) in order for McCarthy to be Speaker of the House.

What could you buy with a trillion bucks? That almost completely funds Sanders' single payer health care system. It is said to cost 14 trillion over a decade. That's one third of the FULL infrastructure bill proposed by Biden. Every bridge in America fixed, renewable energy and broadband in every home.

I would look at more things that could be bought with a tril a year, but it's causing my blood pressure to spike, And I don't have good health care. I have private health insurance.

And who would be against the idea of providing more jobs in the IRS? Who could POSSIBLY object? And who that objects could possibly have the sway over McCarthy to make it happen? WHO

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

What could you buy with a trillion bucks? That almost completely funds Sanders' single payer health care system. It is said to cost 14 trillion over a decade. That's one third of the FULL infrastructure bill proposed by Biden. Every bridge in America fixed, renewable energy and broadband in every home.

I would look at more things that could be bought with a tril a year, but it's causing my blood pressure to spike, And I don't have good health care. I have private health insurance.

And who would be against the idea of providing more jobs in the IRS? Who could POSSIBLY object? And who that objects could possibly have the sway over McCarthy to make it happen? WHO

How much of that missing $1 trillion is due to inefficiency in the existing department and how much of the $78 billion allocated in the legislation will actually make a dent in that $1 trillion when time again the IRS has shown they go after the poorest of Americans in their crackdowns instead of the highest bracket earners (IRS Continues Targeting Poorest Families for More Tax Audits During FY 2022)

Trudeau govt gave the CRA a mandate to try and do likewise and all they’ve been doing is going harder on small businesses instead of bigger companies like, say, SNC or Bombardier. Give the IRS another $78 billy and I would assume the same will happen. Can’t have those pesky small businesses getting in the way of Walmart, after all.

Don’t have to like these people but tax collectors have all the resources they need to do their jobs, they’re just a massive bloated bureaucratic mess designed to avoid the biggest tax cheats in lieu of making examples of lower earners. Their budget should be cut, not expanded by such a grotesque sum.

 

[mattola]

 

[Comeds]

lol it has Nick Searcy in it too. Fine actor, but an ass.

Searcy has stated, "I know people have feelings. That's why I try to hurt them."[

 

[elocomotive]

How much of that missing $1 trillion is due to inefficiency in the existing department and how much of the $78 billion allocated in the legislation will actually make a dent in that $1 trillion when time again the IRS has shown they go after the poorest of Americans in their crackdowns instead of the highest bracket earners (IRS Continues Targeting Poorest Families for More Tax Audits During FY 2022)

Trudeau govt gave the CRA a mandate to try and do likewise and all they’ve been doing is going harder on small businesses instead of bigger companies like, say, SNC or Bombardier. Give the IRS another $78 billy and I would assume the same will happen. Can’t have those pesky small businesses getting in the way of Walmart, after all.

Don’t have to like these people but tax collectors have all the resources they need to do their jobs, they’re just a massive bloated bureaucratic mess designed to avoid the biggest tax cheats in lieu of making examples of lower earners. Their budget should be cut, not expanded by such a grotesque sum.

I love these kind of discussions because I don't know much about tax administrative from the standpoint of efficiency and I always research and learn things from primary sources. 'Do they have enough people? How do they compare to other developed nations?' were my thoughts after reading your post.

Turns out they generally don't (assuming the average of developed nations is efficient, still don't know enough to say otherwise, but the chart at this link is interesting (page 66):
https://www.oecd.org/tax/forum-on-t...cations-and-products/comparative/CIS-2004.pdf

Looks like the US has about 1 tax worker for every 2,261 citizens with the avg. among OECD nations at just under 1,000. Canada has 1 for every 810 citizens for example. Only 2 other developed nations with a worse ratio than the US. So I think it's fair to say we are at least likely understaffed, and possibly VERY understaffed.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

I love these kind of discussions because I don't know much about tax administrative from the standpoint of efficiency and I always research and learn things from primary sources. 'Do they have enough people? How do they compare to other developed nations?' were my thoughts after reading your post.

Turns out they generally don't (assuming the average of developed nations is efficient, still don't know enough to say otherwise, but the chart at this link is interesting (page 66):
https://www.oecd.org/tax/forum-on-t...cations-and-products/comparative/CIS-2004.pdf

Looks like the US has about 1 tax worker for every 2,261 citizens with the avg. among OECD nations at just under 1,000. Canada has 1 for every 810 citizens for example. Only 2 other developed nations with a worse ratio than the US. So I think it's fair to say we are at least likely understaffed, and possibly VERY understaffed.

We also have one of the world's most complicated tax codes and the world's largest series of capital markets, which means that not only is the agents to taxpayers ratio real high, but they're also covering more complicated things like the tax code or extremely complex corporate returns.

And to one of BBB's original points, the House report on Trumps tax returns talked about the IRS not having the expertise to deal with auditing these ultra-complex returns of high wealth individuals.

And many of the articles that talk about them doing a lot more audits non-wealthy individuals ignore one key point, which is that very wealthy individuals aren't doing their own taxes with TurboTax or heading to H&R Block with a folder of oaystubs. They're paying expensive accounting firms to do their taxes for them. And even though there may be some shady loopholes, etc. that they're using, those returns are gonna be prepared extremely well. Many of the returns flagged for audit by the IRS are flagged by the computer system and most often for silly, stupid errors, not because John Smith there is trying to pull one over on The Man.

But when you've got high prices consultants making sure your returns are packaged up real nice, they're less likely to get flagged. Essentially, they're Calvin's report:

 

[forty_three]

Trump claims Capitol rioter Ashli Babbitt was shot by a ‘lunatic’ for ‘no reason’

Remarks came on anniversary of January 6

www.independent.co.uk

Except that there's video showing that the use of force was justified to protect the lives of government officials AND the entire group was warned and aware they were in danger of being fired on. But the dumb twat still went through the door.

Of course, reality doesn't matter to these imbeciles.

 

[forty_three]

Biden went to visit the border in El Paso to see first hand the ongoing situation there and meet with authorities to find out what they need. Greg Abbot showed up and said the visit is two years too late. "He should have been here from day one to fix the problem he created".

Ummmm, how could he fix a problem "he created" if he came down on "day one"? If the problem existed on day one, then he didn't create it.

 

[forty_three]

Search for Texas vigilante who fatally shot robbery suspect carrying fake gun

Man fired nine shots and then helped diners recover the money at the Houston taqueria restaurant before disappearing

www.theguardian.com

 

[dash]

Search for Texas vigilante who fatally shot robbery suspect carrying fake gun

Man fired nine shots and then helped diners recover the money at the Houston taqueria restaurant before disappearing

www.theguardian.com

 

[forty_three]

Thomas Nixon, a former Houston police officer and now a lawyer, told KPRC-TV that the customer was within his rights under Texas law.

“The person he shot was in the process of committing robbery and consequently his use of force in defense of himself and innocent third parties is completely justified,” Nixon said. “He was reasonably in fear of serious bodily injury or death.”

Shot the guy in the back 8 times from his seat (as the guy was leaving), got up, took away the bad guy's gun and then shot him again in the back of the head at close range. Went though his pockets to take out everyone's money and then fled.

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

I love these kind of discussions because I don't know much about tax administrative from the standpoint of efficiency and I always research and learn things from primary sources. 'Do they have enough people? How do they compare to other developed nations?' were my thoughts after reading your post.

Turns out they generally don't (assuming the average of developed nations is efficient, still don't know enough to say otherwise, but the chart at this link is interesting (page 66):
https://www.oecd.org/tax/forum-on-t...cations-and-products/comparative/CIS-2004.pdf

Looks like the US has about 1 tax worker for every 2,261 citizens with the avg. among OECD nations at just under 1,000. Canada has 1 for every 810 citizens for example. Only 2 other developed nations with a worse ratio than the US. So I think it's fair to say we are at least likely understaffed, and possibly VERY understaffed.

Per that chart most of the other countries’ employees also do that country’s property and/or motor vehicle fees (although the US is the only one that had a 15% reduction in staff from 1993-2001 - the Clintons are undefeated).

It says on some other charts there that a lot of those employees from other countries also admin benefit programs, including Canada. The US is also one of the few countries on that list that doesn’t have to admin a federal VAT.

And in Canada’s case the CRA says they are missing out on up to $23 billion/yr in taxes, which pales to the $1 tril number 43 put out there for the US (NPR says it’s $600 billion which if you adjust for GDP per capita and population is a lot closer to what Canada thinks they’re missing out on) there’s still a significant collection problem despite supposedly better staffing.

Which brings me back to my first point - if the additional resources doesn’t come with a mandate to go after high earning tax dodgers in creative new ways or tax code changes to hit higher-income individuals and businesses harder it’s just another poor tax and thus bad legislation. The Act does add new taxes for $1 bil+ businesses and a new tax on stock buybacks so let's assume some resources go to that. They also followed the implementation of the act by stating they were going to go after Venmo transfers of over $600 which kinda leads me to think they're still looking to do more collection from lower-income earners (they've delayed that after the outcry but my guess is it'll come back shortly). I guess the question is do you really trust them to actually start combing over every millionaire and billionaire's finances or to revert to the low-hanging fruit of middle-income and lower that are likely much easier to track?

 

[Bloody Brian Burke]

Biden went to visit the border in El Paso to see first hand the ongoing situation there and meet with authorities to find out what they need. Greg Abbot showed up and said the visit is two years too late. "He should have been here from day one to fix the problem he created".

Ummmm, how could he fix a problem "he created" if he came down on "day one"? If the problem existed on day one, then he didn't create it.

The narrative is that he campaigned on overturning all of Trump's border policies and thus by winning convinced migrants to flock to the border, overwhelming authorities.

Which is kind of hard to dispute at least in basis. It seems like the authorities haven't been overwhelmed judging by the massive arrest numbers (which is the funny information IMO - "THEY CAUGHT TOO MANY ILLEGALS!") but promising some kind of safe haven to migrants and then not having a plan to process them more efficiently seems to have created at the very least a bit of a headache. Of course, it's a lot easier to create new handling processes when the last guy didn't throw all the old ones into the woodchipper I suppose.

 

[elocomotive]

Per that chart most of the other countries’ employees also do that country’s property and/or motor vehicle fees (although the US is the only one that had a 15% reduction in staff from 1993-2001 - the Clintons are undefeated).

It says on some other charts there that a lot of those employees from other countries also admin benefit programs, including Canada. The US is also one of the few countries on that list that doesn’t have to admin a federal VAT.

Yeah, I saw that regarding the property/vehicle taxes. It might be a better comparison if you add the state/local officials who do this at those levels to the federal employees which I'm not sure if they are captured in that report or not. While a few of these countries may have similar arrangements, Canada and the US have a pretty different multi-tiered structure from many of them especially smaller geographic countries like France or Germany.

I agree with figuring out ways to go after high-income earners many of whom basically avoid or minimally pay taxes. That is probably less the IRS and more about tax policy/law. A lot of Presidents have claimed simplifying and changing the system, but it still always seems far too complicated.

Compounding this from the public side, allowing Turbo Tax to charge for people to have a better/easier/more thorough and making that process a pay-to-play (or free, but maybe not*) was dumb. They could have just given Intuit or another company (or both) a big contract and made that the filing system free to the public. It would have been much easier, reduced scammers, sped up and increased compliance, etc.

Patriot Act with Hassan Minhaj (super underrated show) covered this topic well. Sad it got cancelled. Was very funny, informative, and had one of the best TV theme songs of all-time.

 

[dash]

 

[mattola]

lol fuck shes stupid

 

[forty_three]

Marjorie Taylor Greene backs away from QAnon history

Georgia congresswoman stands to regain committee memberships under GOP majority

www.independent.co.uk

It appears the cro-magnon bitch has figured out she might be in a position to grift even more by playing normal. But what I hear is "I'm not crazy, I'm just stupid"