This recent brouhaha over Trump's taxes makes me laugh.
Despite that NYT article stating that Trump paid over a million dollars of income taxes in the "$750.00" years, the narrative persists apparently impervious to truth.
But what's even more amusing is that a veritable horde of people who' vast experience with taxation is their W2 income job, with government mandated withholding, and filling out their 1040EZ, (maybe the regular 1040 if they're lucky), who get giddy on the feds are benevolent enough to give them a $500.00 refund, are all of a sudden experts in taxation. People who wouldn't know what a schedule C is because they jealously guard their standard deduction, are all of a sudden experts on deductible depreciation and the rest. Not to mention that all of this is based on a newspaper story by people who haven't seen the returns.
I get that, taken out of context, many of the specific legal deductions sound absurd. Yet, like so much, the problem doesn't lie with the people who take advantage of every possible legal tax deduction, the problem lies with the people who actually have the power to change the tax code, but don't.
I'm going to guess that every one of these "experts" behaves exactly the same way that Trump does when it comes to taxes. They try to squeeze out every single legal deduction that they possibly can, and they probably take the risk of a few that aren't so legal in the hopes that they don't get audited.
I feel confident in saying that the problem isn't the Trumps of the world (y'all are lying if you think that the lefty 1% ers don't do the same things), it's the tax code.
8 comments:
You're absolutely correct, particularly with regard to what others are doing with their own taxes. I read an article that relates the NYT has taken similar losses by doing similar things. That's what hypocrisy looks like.
The best part, though, is that it shows no wrongdoing on Trump's part. To suggest the guy's in the wrong for taking legal deductions to minimize his tax liability is absurd and truly a case of jealousy and covetousness.
Like so many of the issues of the day, the left focuses on the wrong people. Don’t blame the cops who enforce the law unless your going to hold those who wrote the law accountable. Don’t blame those of us who utilize the tax law to its fullest extent, blame those who wrote it.
With regard to tax laws, I would also suggest that one must determine what the goal was for any given law and then determine if that goal is being met by the use of the law. Too many want to whine about tax law when they should be focusing on doing what would provide for them the same opportunities the laws provide. They aren't "for the rich". They're for those who aren't rich to encourage them to engage in the activity that results in wealth, because the more people who do that, the fewer there are who need handouts.
I wouldn't argue with that at all. My point is that people with tax returns more complicated that a W2, standard deduction, 1040, employ people to research and take advantage of everything that the legally can (some go beyond that). It's not the fault of the tax pros or the taxpayers who access what they legally can in order to minimize their taxes. In this case I'd argue that Biden, with half a century in positions of power in the federal government, bears some degree of responsibility for the existence of these deductions. Certainly more responsibility that Trump. For Biden to complain about deductions that he had some degree of power to eliminate, seems hypocritical at best. Of course, people who's taxes reach a certain level of complexity all utilize the same strategies regardless of their politics. The problem isn't the existence of deductions, it's the inconsistent application of shame for taking the deductions.
The other problem is, as I pointed out, a bunch of folx who's 1040EZ just got them a refund, acting like they're tax experts and like they wouldn't do the same things if given the chance.
I'd love to see just one of these folks show us their return where they didn't take any/all of the deductions or credits that were available to them.
Of course these are the folx who ignore the evidence that Trump has condemned "white supremacist/racist" groups repeatedly and that the Charlottesville comment was taken out of context.
By "shame", are you suggesting that shame is justified for taking deductions to which one is entitled? I certainly don't. The whole point, as you are well aware, is to determine what one legitimately owes, not what some lefty chucklehead thinks one owes. The left, including those from Louisville, believe that one who has amassed more than others owe not just more, but vastly more, simply because they've amassed more.
I think, though I've never tried to do the calculations necessary to know with certainty, that if one were to figure out how much tax revenue a wealthy person paid after the person's entire life of earning, profiting and creating, I doubt any of them could be found to have paid nothing in taxes. Likely, each really rich person has paid far more in taxes than many have earned in their life before taxes. To look at a few years of tax returns without considering the years spent developing the wealth is likely not at all a complete picture of what a given wealthy person has actually contributed to the federal coffers over the course of his lifetime.
I have no problem with those who produce the most getting the most tax considerations, since those laws ensure the lasting profitability of the means by which the wealth was amassed and by which the economy benefited. We need more of them.
I’m suggesting that people are trying to shame Trump for taking deductions he was legally allied to take.
The same folks who do that to all wealthy people and corporations. Somehow, though, they're not ashamed of their covetousness.
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