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
this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2024
727 points (96.9% liked)
Memes
45729 readers
972 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
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.
Just want to reiterate that the IRS get their marching orders from the party in charge which is why they targeted rich people under Biden: The IRS has recovered $1.3 billion from rich American tax dodgers since the fall of 2023 — relieving a painful burden from ‘ordinary citizens’
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.
That's entirely the wrong denominator for this comparison. IRS doesn't write the budget nor do they write tax law, they just collect.
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".
But ... It's an increase, right?
Are we okay with incremental improvements, or will only big bang headline news story type improvements be okay?
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.
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.
I think it’s Chef Boyardee
Respect to the Spaghettios.
Gordon Ramsay
He's not even 1/4 of the way to being a billionaire. He may as well be scraping shit off the street then trying to pass it off as one of his lavacakes.
Site supervisor waiting for both of them to deliver that wheelbarrow full of bricks:
The “rich parents” blocks are off screen.
everyone needs a little push to help them get over the basics
not just tax evasion, there's the factor of wage theft and keeping over 99% of the profit to yourself too
Then you need to fund the IRS enough to go after these rich fucks
Thats the thing though, those rich fucks usually run the IRS or practically own the people who do
I mean when your rich what don't you run.. To destroy from within
Conclusion: succes comes from defying the laws of physics.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Ahn Papa Louie, that brings back memories
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
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.
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.
If other peoples' tax evasion is your big concern then you hate the wrong people.
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.
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.
Ah, so it's the IRS that was the wrong target. I see.
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