Another win for the rich. Thank you Republicans. Not only do they avoid paying taxes (which we pay for them) but they avoid getting caught because their taxes are so complicated, it takes more people to analyze the legality of their submissions.It's so much quicker and simpler to take a middle class uncomplicated tax return and get someone on their silly little mistakes or lack of receipts. The return on employing more agents would have far outweighed the fears that they were coming to get you that the Republicans put out there. That is the real problem. It would prevent the professional cheaters from cheating and that doesn't go over well with the rich or the politicians they support.
Politicians that serve themselves, their families and friends before the general public......we know just who they are, and wonder how is it they still appear to actually get elected in the first place and/or re elected ???
Trump and the REPs only major legislation success story (when they had full control of House, Senate and Executive branch), was to give the top 1% and the large corporations a $1.4 trillion dollar break (and that number turned out to be much bigger in the end). The super rich got much richer, many individually by literally billions per year. The average middle class folks got screwed and will end up paying for much of this. IRS is underfunded, out of date, and we need a complete overhaul of the US tax laws. Don't hold your breath on them trying to fix it. REPs don't care about the "little people" they only want to line the pockets of their major donors. Ugh. I expect nothing but gridlock until the 2024 elections. All this as we face a cross country grounding of all airlines due to a FAA system failure that may turn out to be a hack (breach) of the system. America needs trillions to invest in all infrastructure and protection of high level technology that runs the daily operations of our country.
I have been a tax preparer for over 20 years. Part of the time for a national chain and for the past 5 years for a CPA. I have had people walk away from both places because we wouldn’t give them write offs without documentation. They will find unscrupulous preparers who will just throw numbers on the return to reduce their taxes. The IRS is needed not only to catch tax cheats but also bad preparers.
It’s amazing how many people want to be ruled by oligarchs. Along the same lines of the lying about the IRS agents being added is the newfound concern over budget deficits which didn’t bother the GOP at all when they were giving tax cuts to the wealthy that drove up the debt.
Poor Elise has become neither fish nor fowl. Marge Greene is the new It girl and McCarthy’s right hand. Nancy Mace is aiming for that sensible middle ground that was occupied by Liz Cheney. It seems there’s no place for the star of the North Country since she isn’t trusted by moderates or crazies. 😢 All that’s left is to hope Dear Leader puts her in his cabinet if he gets back in. Doesn’t look like she’s getting the VEEP spot. Any scuttlebutt about that was being put out by her people.
“yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office published an estimate showing that the bill would, counterintuitively, add $114 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade—since those 87,000 IRS hires wouldn’t be around to enforce the tax code.”
That’s from Joe Perticone at Bulwark. But yes, Republicans really, really care about the deficit. They just care about politicizing everything they can even more.
If anything is a sum-zero game, it must involve taxes: what the wealthy avoid through scams and loopholes must be paid by the rest of us. Thank you, GOP, for beating us up again.
This is the thing that has had me scratching my head. When I see people clamoring to see the IRS hamstrung so they can’t collect the taxes that are due to the US budget, I wonder. Do they feel those of us who pay our taxes are dupes? Or do they feel the system isn’t fair for them but have a right to cheat?
And worse --- from don the con to the waitress that doesn’t declare her tips --- who do they think makes up for that?
The system, like many things in government the tax code is slanted to the rich, who use power and influence to write the laws and to own the pos_tefaniks in congress.
When I hear ‘trickle down’ I want to laugh. those at the top, clenching their grubby hands around their millions... does anyone think those folks would ever unclench their fingers long enough to let a trickle of wealth slip from their hands.
No. If stefanik was transparent she would admit the first bill they passed was to repay corporate greed and the millionaires that fund her campaigns. And let’s add that during her #eightYEARSofFAILURE stiffy has achieved one thing. she is now worth $2 million. Quite an increase from only five years ago when her wealth was estimated to be $200,000.
So this tax grift is one that benefits her. And I am sure she is planning on owning a stable of tax cheats
Even if some of this funding is used to go after tax cheats (which I am all for), the IRS has a lot of programs that help regular working people (Joe The Taxpayer?) which have been terribly under-resourced in recent years.
At the nonprofit where I work, we run VITA sites. VITAs are volunteer-driven free income tax preparation programs; there is a large network of them all around the country. The IRS has a long time equipment loaner program where we all could borrow laptops and and printers for the season. They stopped the loaner program a couple of years ago, not because there was no equipment- they have a warehouse full- but because they had no staff to ship it out and manage the inventory.
Our tax software from the IRS was delayed this year, we only got the approvals last week. Our seasonal sites open next week; we usually get the licenses a couple of months ahead so we can train the volunteers before we open. For the first time in 20 years, my programs lost access to the system because the old software license expired and they hadn't sent us the new one.
We also do free ITIN applications, so we can help folks without social security numbers get tax ids so they can pay their taxes. I have had a pending request for several months now to get several additional staff approved as acceptance agents..... still waiting.
Also, customer service has been decimated, it takes forever to contact someone at the IRS for assistance, we have a special number and even we can't get through.
And lower income clients have an especially high rate of identity theft with refunds being stolen, so I'm all for robust enforcement, it will be nice to see the thieves held accountable.
I don't think people realize all of the important services the IRS provides, defunding them only benefits the frauds and criminals.
Irene - I had no idea about these programs. This might be an excellent future story for me. Send me a note at tingleykenneth4@gmail.com and maybe we can talk about the programs in some more detail.
Another win for the rich. Thank you Republicans. Not only do they avoid paying taxes (which we pay for them) but they avoid getting caught because their taxes are so complicated, it takes more people to analyze the legality of their submissions.It's so much quicker and simpler to take a middle class uncomplicated tax return and get someone on their silly little mistakes or lack of receipts. The return on employing more agents would have far outweighed the fears that they were coming to get you that the Republicans put out there. That is the real problem. It would prevent the professional cheaters from cheating and that doesn't go over well with the rich or the politicians they support.
Well said.
Politicians that serve themselves, their families and friends before the general public......we know just who they are, and wonder how is it they still appear to actually get elected in the first place and/or re elected ???
Trump and the REPs only major legislation success story (when they had full control of House, Senate and Executive branch), was to give the top 1% and the large corporations a $1.4 trillion dollar break (and that number turned out to be much bigger in the end). The super rich got much richer, many individually by literally billions per year. The average middle class folks got screwed and will end up paying for much of this. IRS is underfunded, out of date, and we need a complete overhaul of the US tax laws. Don't hold your breath on them trying to fix it. REPs don't care about the "little people" they only want to line the pockets of their major donors. Ugh. I expect nothing but gridlock until the 2024 elections. All this as we face a cross country grounding of all airlines due to a FAA system failure that may turn out to be a hack (breach) of the system. America needs trillions to invest in all infrastructure and protection of high level technology that runs the daily operations of our country.
I have been a tax preparer for over 20 years. Part of the time for a national chain and for the past 5 years for a CPA. I have had people walk away from both places because we wouldn’t give them write offs without documentation. They will find unscrupulous preparers who will just throw numbers on the return to reduce their taxes. The IRS is needed not only to catch tax cheats but also bad preparers.
Thanks for another insight into the issue.
It’s amazing how many people want to be ruled by oligarchs. Along the same lines of the lying about the IRS agents being added is the newfound concern over budget deficits which didn’t bother the GOP at all when they were giving tax cuts to the wealthy that drove up the debt.
Poor Elise has become neither fish nor fowl. Marge Greene is the new It girl and McCarthy’s right hand. Nancy Mace is aiming for that sensible middle ground that was occupied by Liz Cheney. It seems there’s no place for the star of the North Country since she isn’t trusted by moderates or crazies. 😢 All that’s left is to hope Dear Leader puts her in his cabinet if he gets back in. Doesn’t look like she’s getting the VEEP spot. Any scuttlebutt about that was being put out by her people.
“yesterday, the Congressional Budget Office published an estimate showing that the bill would, counterintuitively, add $114 billion to the federal deficit over the next decade—since those 87,000 IRS hires wouldn’t be around to enforce the tax code.”
That’s from Joe Perticone at Bulwark. But yes, Republicans really, really care about the deficit. They just care about politicizing everything they can even more.
Every person who voted for our current congresswoman should be considering that information today.
If anything is a sum-zero game, it must involve taxes: what the wealthy avoid through scams and loopholes must be paid by the rest of us. Thank you, GOP, for beating us up again.
That says it about as succinctly as possible.
A $75,000 deduction for a horse
This is the thing that has had me scratching my head. When I see people clamoring to see the IRS hamstrung so they can’t collect the taxes that are due to the US budget, I wonder. Do they feel those of us who pay our taxes are dupes? Or do they feel the system isn’t fair for them but have a right to cheat?
And worse --- from don the con to the waitress that doesn’t declare her tips --- who do they think makes up for that?
The system, like many things in government the tax code is slanted to the rich, who use power and influence to write the laws and to own the pos_tefaniks in congress.
When I hear ‘trickle down’ I want to laugh. those at the top, clenching their grubby hands around their millions... does anyone think those folks would ever unclench their fingers long enough to let a trickle of wealth slip from their hands.
No. If stefanik was transparent she would admit the first bill they passed was to repay corporate greed and the millionaires that fund her campaigns. And let’s add that during her #eightYEARSofFAILURE stiffy has achieved one thing. she is now worth $2 million. Quite an increase from only five years ago when her wealth was estimated to be $200,000.
So this tax grift is one that benefits her. And I am sure she is planning on owning a stable of tax cheats
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafalca
four Pinocchios
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/10/87000-irs-agents-is-zombie-falsehood-setting-house-agenda/
The first move is not transparency, not honesty, not to help the American people
The first bill a senseless lie... one of many that will continue. Jan 2023 was not the beginning of stiffy's lies
just a continuation
Even if some of this funding is used to go after tax cheats (which I am all for), the IRS has a lot of programs that help regular working people (Joe The Taxpayer?) which have been terribly under-resourced in recent years.
At the nonprofit where I work, we run VITA sites. VITAs are volunteer-driven free income tax preparation programs; there is a large network of them all around the country. The IRS has a long time equipment loaner program where we all could borrow laptops and and printers for the season. They stopped the loaner program a couple of years ago, not because there was no equipment- they have a warehouse full- but because they had no staff to ship it out and manage the inventory.
Our tax software from the IRS was delayed this year, we only got the approvals last week. Our seasonal sites open next week; we usually get the licenses a couple of months ahead so we can train the volunteers before we open. For the first time in 20 years, my programs lost access to the system because the old software license expired and they hadn't sent us the new one.
We also do free ITIN applications, so we can help folks without social security numbers get tax ids so they can pay their taxes. I have had a pending request for several months now to get several additional staff approved as acceptance agents..... still waiting.
Also, customer service has been decimated, it takes forever to contact someone at the IRS for assistance, we have a special number and even we can't get through.
And lower income clients have an especially high rate of identity theft with refunds being stolen, so I'm all for robust enforcement, it will be nice to see the thieves held accountable.
I don't think people realize all of the important services the IRS provides, defunding them only benefits the frauds and criminals.
Irene - I had no idea about these programs. This might be an excellent future story for me. Send me a note at tingleykenneth4@gmail.com and maybe we can talk about the programs in some more detail.
Hopefully our leaders won’t give up on trying to bolster the IRS.
Republicans don’t want the wealthy taxed any higher than they are.
Saving our democracy is the most important because it will allow us to tackle climate change and the others.
Elise disgusts me on a daily basis.