#I OWE THE GOVERNMENT BILLIONS IN TAXES

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Microsoft put their tax-evasion in writing and now they owe $29 billion

I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.

If there's one thing I took away from Propublica's explosive IRS Files, it's that "tax avoidance" (which is legal) isn't a separate phenomenon from "tax evasion" (which is not), but rather a thinly veiled euphemism for it:

https://www.propublica.org/series/the-secret-irs-files

That realization sits behind my series of noir novels about the two-fisted forensic accountant Martin Hench, which started with last April's Red Team Blues and continues with The Bezzle, this coming February:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865847/red-team-blues

A typical noir hero is an unlicensed cop, who goes places the cops can't go and asks questions the cops can't ask. The noir part comes in at the end, when the hero is forced to admit that he's being going places the cops didn't want to go and asking questions the cops didn't want to ask. Marty Hench is a noir hero, but he's not an unlicensed cop, he's an unlicensed IRS inspector, and like other noir heroes, his capers are forever resulting in his realization that the questions and places the IRS won't investigate are down to their choice not to investigate, not an inability to investigate.

The IRS Files are a testimony to this proposition: that Leona Hemsley wasn't wrong when she said, "Taxes are for the little people." Helmsley's crime wasn't believing that proposition – it was stating it aloud, repeatedly, to the press. The tax-avoidance strategies revealed in the IRS Files are obviously tax evasion, and the IRS simply let it slide, focusing their auditing firepower on working people who couldn't afford to defend themselves, looking for things like minor compliance errors committed by people receiving public benefits.

Or at least, that's how it used to be. But the Biden administration poured billions into the IRS, greenlighting 30,000 new employees whose mission would be to investigate the kinds of 0.1%ers and giant multinational corporations who'd Helmsleyed their way into tax-free fortunes. The fact that these elite monsters paid no tax was hardly a secret, and the impunity with which they functioned was a constant, corrosive force that delegitimized American society as a place where the rules only applied to everyday people and not the rich and powerful who preyed on them.

The poster-child for the IRS's new anti-impunity campaign is Microsoft, who, decades ago, "sold its IP to to an 85-person factory it owned in a small Puerto Rican city," brokered a deal with the corporate friendly Puerto Rican government to pay almost no taxes, and channeled all its profits through the tiny facility:

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-irs-decided-to-get-tough-against-microsoft-microsoft-got-tougher

That was in 2005. Now, the IRS has come after Microsoft for all the taxes it evaded through the gambit, demanding that the company pay it $29 billion. What's more, the courts are taking the IRS's side in this case, consistently ruling against Microsoft as it seeks to keep its ill-gotten billions:

https://www.propublica.org/article/irs-microsoft-audit-back-taxes-puerto-rico-billions

Now, no one expects that Microsoft is going to write a check to the IRS tomorrow. The company's made it clear that they intend to tie this up in the courts for a decade if they can, claiming, for example, that Trump's amnesty for corporate tax-cheats means the company doesn't have to give up a dime.

This gambit has worked for Microsoft before. After seven years in antitrust hell in the 1990s, the company was eventually convicted of violating the Sherman Act, America's bedrock competition law. But they kept the case in court until 2001, running out the clock until GW Bush was elected and let them go free. Bush had a very selective version of being "tough on crime."

But for all that Microsoft escaped being broken up, the seven years of depositions, investigations, subpoenas and negative publicity took a toll on the company. Bill Gates was personally humiliated when he became the star of the first viral video, as grainy VHS tapes of his disastrous and belligerent deposition spread far and wide:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/12/whats-a-murder/#miros-tilde-1

If you really want to know who Bill Gates is beneath that sweater-vested savior persona, check out the antitrust deposition – it's still a banger, 25 years on:

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/09/revisiting-the-spectacular-failure-that-was-the-bill-gates-deposition/

In cases like these, the process is the punishment: Microsoft's dirty laundry was aired far and wide, its swaggering founder was brought low, and the company's conduct changed for years afterwards. Gates once told Kara Swisher that Microsoft missed its chance to buy Android because they were "distracted by the antitrust trial." But the Android acquisition came four years after the antitrust case ended. What Gates meant was that four years after he wriggled off the DoJ's hook, he was still so wounded and gunshy that he lacked the nerve to risk the regulatory scrutiny that such an anticompetitive merger would entail.

What's more, other companies got the message too. Large companies watched what happened to Microsoft and traded their reckless disregard for antitrust law for a timid respect. The effect eventually wore off, but the Microsoft antitrust case created a brief window where real competition was possible without the constant threat of being crushed by lawless monopolists. Sometimes you have to execute an admiral to encourage the others.

A decade in IRS hell will be even more painful for Microsoft than the antitrust years were. For one thing, the Puerto Rico scam was mainly a product of ex-CEO Steve Ballmer, a man possessed of so little executive function that it's a supreme irony that he was ever a corporate executive. Ballmer is a refreshingly plain-spoken corporate criminal who is so florid in his blatant admissions of guilt and shouted torrents of self-incriminating abuse that the exhibits in the Microsoft-IRS cases to come are sure to be viral sensations beyond even the Gates deposition's high-water mark.

It's not just Ballmer, either. In theory, corporate crime should be hard to prosecute because it's so hard to prove criminal intent. But tech executives can't help telling on themselves, and are very prone indeed to putting all their nefarious plans in writing (think of the FTC conspirators who hung out in a group-chat called "Wirefraud"):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/03/big-tech-cant-stop-telling-on-itself/

Ballmer's colleagues at Microsoft were far from circumspect on the illegitimacy of the Puerto Rico gambit. One Microsoft executive gloated – in writing – that it was a "pure tax play." That is, it was untainted by any legitimate corporate purpose other than to create a nonsensical gambit that effectively relocated Microsoft's corporate headquarters to a tiny CD-pressing plant in the Caribbean.

But if other Microsoft execs were calling this a "pure tax play," one can only imagine what Ballmer called it. Ballmer, after all, is a serial tax-cheat, the star of multiple editions of the IRS Files. For example, there's the wheeze whereby he has turned his NBA team into a bottomless sinkhole for the taxes on his vast fortune:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/07/08/tuyul-apps/#economic-substance-doctrine

Or his "tax-loss harvesting" – a ploy whereby rich people do a "wash trade," buying and selling the same asset at the same time, not so much circumventing the IRS rules against this as violating those rules while expecting the IRS to turn a blind eye:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/24/tax-loss-harvesting/#mego

Ballmer needs all those scams. After all, he was one of the pandemic's most successful profiteers. He was one of eight billionaires who added at least a billion more to his net worth during lockdown:

https://inequality.org/great-divide/billionaire-bonanza-2020/

Like all forms of rot, corruption spreads. Microsoft turned Washington State into a corporate tax-haven and starved the state of funds, paving the way for other tax-cheats like Amazon to establish themselves in the area. But the same anti-corruption movement that revitalized the IRS has also taken root in Washington, where reformers instituted a new capital gains tax aimed at the ultra-wealthy that has funded a renaissance in infrastructure and social spending:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/03/when-the-tide-goes-out/#passive-income

If the IRS does manage to drag Microsoft through the courts for the next decade, it's going to do more than air the company's dirty laundry. It'll expose more of Ballmer's habitual sleaze, and the ways that Microsoft dragged a whole state into a pit of austerity. And even more importantly, it'll expose the Puertopia conspiracy, a neocolonial project that transformed Puerto Rico into an onshore-offshore tax-haven that saw the island strip-mined and then placed under corporate management:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/27/boricua/#que-viva-albizu

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/13/pour-encoragez-les-autres/#micros-tilde-one

My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!

#pluralistic #irs #puerto rico #puertopia #microsoft #micros~1 #tax avoidance #tax evasion #pure tax play #big tech can't stop telling on itself #corporate crime #rough ride #the procedure is the punishment #steve ballmer #pour encouragez les autres

[batboyblog]

I love your "What Biden did" series so much. I hate the absolute pessimism that people have about the Biden administration and how quickly people latch onto blatant lies about it. Especially since most of the things that people blame him for just show that they don't understand how the American government works at all. Anyway thank you for helping to restore my faith in humanity!

I find one of the hardest parts of living in the world right now is how much disinformation is out there, how many people don't know whats going on and like you said just latch onto any blatant lie or total misunderstanding that confirms their bias, and the bias is almost always "things are horrible and going to get worse"

we're living through a historically progressive and active Presidency, we're getting big things done and stuff we've been talking about for years but thought would never ever get done. I mean for years activists and progressive lawmakers (most famously Elizabeth Warren) have talked about how we could pull in billions of dollars in taxes by just funding the IRS because wealthy Americans are straight up not paying the taxes they owe. Such an easy fix but everyone thought the funding would never happen, Biden got it done.

So yeah I find it hopeful to talk about the big ticket things like climate change or student debt, but also like stories that don't get much coverage, like the lead pipes this week, or last week air line refunds, every week Biden is delivering stuff that is a big fucking deal for people.

also I usually get hate mail about them lol

#Thanks Biden #Joe Biden #ask #answer

[follow-up-news]

The nation’s millionaires and billionaires are evading more than $150 billion a year in taxes, adding to growing government deficits and creating a “lack of fairness” in the tax system, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS, with billions of dollars in new funding from Congress, has launched a sweeping crackdown on wealthy individuals, partnerships and large companies. In an exclusive interview with CNBC, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the agency has launched several programs targeting taxpayers with the most complex returns to root out tax evasion and make sure every taxpayer contributes their fair share. “When I look at what we call our tax gap, which is the amount of money owed versus what is paid for, millionaires and billionaires that either don’t file or [are] underreporting their income, that’s $150 billion of our tax gap,” Werfel said. “There is plenty of work to be done.” Werfel said that a lack of funding at the IRS for years starved the agency of staff, technology and resources needed to fund audits — especially of the most complicated and sophisticated returns, which require more resources. Audits of taxpayers making more than $1 million a year fell by more than 80% over the last decade, while the number of taxpayers with income of $1 million jumped 50%, according to IRS statistics.

#irs #taxes #tax evasion

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

The nation’s millionaires and billionaires are evading more than $150 billion a year in taxes, adding to growing government deficits and creating a “lack of fairness” in the tax system, according to the head of the Internal Revenue Service.

The IRS, with billions of dollars in new funding from Congress, has launched a sweeping crackdown on wealthy individuals, partnerships and large companies. In an exclusive interview with CNBC, IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel said the agency has launched several programs targeting taxpayers with the most complex returns to root out tax evasion and make sure every taxpayer contributes their fair share.

Werfel said that a lack of funding at the IRS for years starved the agency of staff, technology and resources needed to fund audits — especially of the most complicated and sophisticated returns, which require more resources. Audits of taxpayers making more than $1 million a year fell by more than 80% over the last decade, while the number of taxpayers with income of $1 million jumped 50%, according to IRS statistics.

“When I look at what we call our tax gap, which is the amount of money owed versus what is paid for, millionaires and billionaires that either don’t file or [are] underreporting their income, that’s $150 billion of our tax gap,” Werfel said. “There is plenty of work to be done.”

“For complex filings, it became increasingly difficult for us to determine what the balance due was,” he said. “So to ensure fairness, we have to make investments to make sure that whether you’re a complicated filer who can afford to hire an army of lawyers and accountants, or a more simple filer who has one income and takes the standard deduction, the IRS is equally able to determine what’s owed. And to us, that’s a fairer system.”

Some Republicans in Congress have ramped up their criticism of the IRS and its expanded enforcement efforts. They say the wave of new audits will burden small businesses with unnecessary bureaucracy and years of fruitless investigations and won’t raise the promised revenue.

The Inflation Reduction Act gave the IRS an $80 billion infusion, yet congressional Republicans won a deal last year to take $20 billion of the funding back. Now they’re pressing for further cuts.

The Treasury Department said last week it estimates greater IRS enforcement will result in an additional $561 billion in tax revenue between 2024 and 2034 — a higher projection than it had initially stated. The IRS says that for every extra dollar spent on enforcement, the agency raises about $6 in revenue.

The IRS is touting its early success with a program to collect unpaid taxes from millionaires. The agency identified 1,600 millionaire taxpayers who have failed to pay at least $250,000 each in assessed taxes. So far, the IRS has collected more than $480 million from the group “and we are still going,” Werfel said.

On Wednesday, the agency announced a program to audit owners of private jets, who may be using their planes for personal travel and not accounting for their trips or taxes properly. Werfel said the agency has started using public databases of private-jet flights and analytics tools to better identify tax returns with the highest likelihood of evasion. It is launching dozens of audits on companies and partnerships that own jets, which could then lead to audits of wealthy individuals.

Werfel said that for some companies and owners, the tax deduction from corporate jets can amount to “tens of millions of dollars.”

Another area that is potentially rife with evasion is limited partnerships, Werfel said, adding that many wealthy individuals have been shifting their income to the business entities to avoid income taxes.

“What we started to see was that certain taxpayers were claiming limited partnerships when it wasn’t fair,” he said. “They were basically shielding their income under the guise of a limited partnership.”

The IRS has launched the Large Partnership Compliance program, examining some of the largest and most complicated partnership returns. Werfel said the IRS has already opened examinations of 76 partnerships — including hedge funds, real estate investment partnerships and large law firms.

Werfel said the agency is using artificial intelligence as part of the program and others to better identify returns most likely to contain evasion or errors. Not only does AI help find evasion, it also helps avoid audits of taxpayers who are following the rules.

“Imagine all the audits are laid out before us on a table,” he said. “What AI does is it allows us to put on night vision goggles. What those night vision goggles allow us to do is be more precise in figuring out where the high risk [of evasion] is and where the low risk is, and that benefits everyone.”

Correction: The IRS has collected $480 million from a group of millionaire taxpayers who had failed to pay. An earlier version misstated the amount collected.

#us politics #news #cnbc #2024 #irs #internal revenue service #Danny Werfel #taxes #tax evasion #private jets #audits #Inflation Reduction Act #treasury department #Large Partnership Compliance #eat the rich #tax the rich #tax the 1%

[howlingday]

Jaune: Ruby, no! We can't do lewd things! You're still too young for that!

Ruby: Are you fucking kidding me?! I'm over 500 years old, pussy! Immortal vampire, remember?!

Ruby: (Lights up cigarette) Look! I can smoke, drink, gamble, AND fuck! Those Atlesian Specialists ain't got shit on me! There's not a single government entity on Remnant that can touch me!

Nora: (Suit and glasses) Hello, ma'am. We're with the Remnant Revenue Services, and we'd like to ask you a few questions.

---------------------------------------------------

Ruby: (Handcuffed) Y-You can't do this to me! I'm literally a child!

Pyrrha: (Suit and glasses) Our records show that you owe more that six billion lien from unpaid taxes dating back well over three hundred years, since the creation and establishment of the Kingdom Tax Coalition.

Ruby: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Nora: We're bringing you in for questioning. Get in the car.

Ruby: YOU FUCKING MONSTER!

#rwby #baalbuddy #jaune arc #ruby rose #nora valkyrie #pyrrha nikos #vampire ruby

[tiggymalvern]

Bernie Ecclestone stole tens of millions from the UK government - and hence the UK people - every year for eighteen years. Almost half a billion in total. That we know of. His penalty is that he has to pay it back. Along with the interest. Which of course, he's been making on that money all the while in between. Oh, and he has to pay an extra 74k in court costs.

He does zero jail time, because rich old white men don't go to jail. His penalty is therefore effectively zero. Oh, you got caught? Well, after 7 years of trying to claim you didn't get caught, you pay what you owe and not much else.

If I broke into a bank vault and stole 100k, I'd do about twenty years. Even if I did it at night, didn't harm or threaten anyone, I'd do twenty years. The justification being to dissuade other people from trying it.

But rich old white men don't go to jail, so there is zero incentive for every rich old white man not to do the exact same thing. Tax fraud is effectively free, for as long as you can get away with it. I mean, why wouldn't you? If you're rich enough to have that much money, you're obviously already a scumbag, so just carry on doing you.

#bernie ecclestone #injustice #the richest thieves #somehow never go to jail

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Mike Luckovich

* * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 19, 2023

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

APR 20, 2023

The debt ceiling crisis has brought the difference between Biden Democrats and the modern Republican Party into sharp relief. The debt ceiling is not about future spending; future spending is debated when Congress takes up the budget. The debt ceiling is a curious holdover from the past, when Congress actually wanted to enable the government to be flexible in its borrowing rather than holding the financial reins too tightly. In the era of World War I, when the country needed to raise a lot of money fast, Congress stopped passing specific revenue measures and instead set a cap on how much money the government could borrow through all of the different instruments it used. Beginning in the 1980s, though, Republicans began to use the debt ceiling as a political cudgel because if it is not raised when Congress spends more than it has the ability to repay, the country will default on its debts. Republicans focused on cutting taxes, initially promising that tax cuts would not require any cuts to services because they would nurture the economy so effectively that tax revenues would increase despite the cuts. Immediately, though, both deficits—the difference between what the government spends and what it takes in—and the debt, which is the total sum that the government owes, ballooned. That skyrocketing debt means that Congress repeatedly has to increase the amount that the Treasury borrows to pay the country’s bills. That is, it must lift the debt ceiling. Congress has raised the debt ceiling more than 100 times since it first went into effect, including 18 times under Ronald Reagan as well as 3 times under former president Donald Trump. The United States has never defaulted on its debt. When Republicans threatened to push a debt crisis in late 2021, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that a default “could trigger a spike in interest rates, a steep drop in stock prices, and other financial turmoil. Our current economic recovery would reverse into recession, with billions of dollars of growth and millions of jobs lost.” It would jeopardize the status of the U.S. dollar as the international reserve currency. Financial services firm Moody's Analytics warned that a default would cost up to 6 million jobs, create an unemployment rate of nearly 9%, and wipe out $15 trillion in household wealth. Now House Republicans under speaker Kevin McCarthy are insisting they will force the country into default unless Biden and the Democrats abandon their legislative program and do what the Republicans want. And what they want is to enact a drastic version of the Republican platform of the past 40 years. Today, McCarthy introduced a 320-page measure that would address the deficit and growing debt by drastic cuts to government programs across the board. It is largely a wish list of right-wing demands such as a repeal of key measures of the Inflation Reduction Act, including those addressing climate change and funding the Internal Revenue Service; additional requirements to qualify for benefit programs; and getting rid of the program to forgive certain student debt. It would lift the debt ceiling only for a year, meaning the government would be right back to negotiating over it almost immediately. There are two things at work behind this demand. The first is that the Republicans are in such extraordinary disarray that they are unable to put forward a budget—which is part of the normal process of funding the government—because they are unable to agree on one that can get enough votes to pass the House. Different factions in the party want cuts that, even if they could get through the House, would never pass the Senate, and the farthest-right group of lawmakers have indicated they won’t agree to anything. With this grab-bag measure, McCarthy is trying to cover all his bases, but already some of his conference is torn that it goes too far…or not far enough. That inability to get their way through normal political channels illustrates the larger story behind the Republicans' position: they want to destroy the government as it has existed since 1933, but since that government is actually quite popular, they cannot get the cuts they want by going through normal legislative procedures. Instead, they are trying to get their demands by holding the rest of us hostage. It is notable that while the Republicans are willing to slash education, food safety, and so on, they want to preserve the Trump tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that cost the Treasury $2 trillion. Their stated concern for financial responsibility is also undermined by the reality that repealing the funding for the woefully understaffed IRS is expected to cost the Treasury $124 billion as wealthy tax cheats continue to avoid enforcement. McCarthy is doubling down on his debt ceiling demands in part because the Republican base is wedded to Trump, which means the Republican Party is now wedded to Trump, and Trump insists that Republicans must use the debt ceiling to get what they want. Early hopes that they could run a Trump-like candidate without the Trump baggage—someone like Florida governor Ron DeSantis—are starting to fade. Today, Matt Dixon of NBC News reported that although the DeSantis team asked him to hold off on an endorsement, the co-chair of the Florida congressional delegation, Vern Buchanan, has endorsed Trump. Buchanan said that Trump will “get our economy back on track,” including lowering taxes and “promoting America-first trade deals.” A former chair of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, Buchanan is one of the wealthiest members of Congress. He clearly continues to believe that the key to boosting the economy is more tax cuts and is willing to accept all the other pieces of another Trump presidency—Trump has recently called for vengeance against his enemies, replacing civil servants with his own loyalists, and attacking Mexico—so long as the United States government embraces the supply side economics the Republicans have advanced since 1981. President Joe Biden contrasted his own vision for the United States to that of the Republicans when he spoke today at the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 77 in Accokeek, Maryland, in a corrugated-steel garage. His own vision, he reiterated, calls for building the economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not from the top down. He outlined how the Democrats’ many investments in infrastructure and manufacturing have benefitted working- and middle-class Americans, while Republicans have sought to cut those investments and cut taxes for the wealthy. Biden wants to address the deficit by rolling back Republican tax cuts on the wealthy and on corporations, saying it’s high time they paid their fair share. McCarthy is trying to spin the crisis in his own conference as Biden “playing partisan games,” and Republicans say they hope that passing their measure will force Biden to negotiate over the debt ceiling. But Biden has steadfastly refused to negotiate over the credit of the government, although says he is quite happy to negotiate over the budget, which is part of the normal legislative process. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries backed up Biden, saying: “The United States of America must always pay bills already incurred without gamesmanship, brinksmanship, or partisanship. House Democrats will oppose any effort to hold the economy hostage as part of any scheme by Extreme MAGA Republicans to jam its right-wing agenda down the throats of the American people.” Their refusal to negotiate over the nation’s finances puts them in good company. We have seen a scenario just like this one before. In 1879, when the positions of the parties were reversed, Democratic former Confederates won control of Congress for the first time since the Civil War. Once in power, they banded together, demanded the leadership of key committees—which the exceedingly weak speaker gave them—and set out to make the Republican president, Rutherford B. Hayes, stop protecting Black voters by refusing to fund the government until he caved. Southern Democrats told newspapers they had blundered when they fought on the battlefields: far better to control the country from within Congress. Extremist newspapers threatened violence as they called for Congress members to “drive or starve Mr. Hayes into signing a bill that sweeps these obnoxious laws out of existence.” House minority leader James Garfield (R-OH) noted: “They will let the government perish for want of supplies.” “If this is not revolution, which if persisted in will destroy the government, [then] I am wholly wrong in my conception of both the word and the thing.” A Civil War veteran who had seen battle at Shiloh and Chickamauga, Garfield understood revolution. Hayes stood firm, recognizing that allowing a radical minority of the opposition party to dictate to the elected government by holding it hostage would undermine the system set up in the Constitution. The parties fought it out for months until, in the end, the American people turned against the Democrats, who backed down. In the next presidential election, which had been supposed to be a romp for the Democrats, voters put Garfield, the Republican who had stood against the former Confederates, into the White House.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#debt ceiling #Mike Luckovich #Letters From An American #Heather Cox Richardson #US House of Representatives #debt default #Trump baggage #history #budget #McCarthy

[beardedmrbean]

A dozen poor countries are facing economic instability and even collapse under the weight of hundreds of billions of dollars in foreign loans, much of them from the world’s biggest and most unforgiving government lender, China.

An Associated Press analysis of a dozen countries most indebted to China — including Pakistan, Kenya, Zambia, Laos and Mongolia — found paying back that debt is consuming an ever-greater amount of the tax revenue needed to keep schools open, provide electricity and pay for food and fuel. And it’s draining foreign currency reserves these countries use to pay interest on those loans, leaving some with just months before that money is gone.

Behind the scenes is China’s reluctance to forgive debt and its extreme secrecy about how much money it has loaned and on what terms, which has kept other major lenders from stepping in to help. On top of that is the recent discovery that borrowers have been required to put cash in hidden escrow accounts that push China to the front of the line of creditors to be paid.

Countries in AP’s analysis had as much as 50% of their foreign loans from China and most were devoting more than a third of government revenue to paying off foreign debt. Two of them, Zambia and Sri Lanka, have already gone into default, unable to make even interest payments on loans financing the construction of ports, mines and power plants.

In Pakistan, millions of textile workers have been laid off because the country has too much foreign debt and can’t afford to keep the electricity on and machines running.

In Kenya, the government has held back paychecks to thousands of civil service workers to save cash to pay foreign loans. The president’s chief economic adviser tweeted last month, “Salaries or default? Take your pick.”

Since Sri Lanka defaulted a year ago, a half-million industrial jobs have vanished, inflation has pierced 50% and more than half the population in many parts of the country has fallen into poverty.

Experts predict that unless China begins to soften its stance on its loans to poor countries, there could be a wave of more defaults and political upheavals.

“In a lot of the world, the clock has hit midnight,” said Harvard economist Ken Rogoff. “ China has moved in and left this geopolitical instability that could have long-lasting effects.”

HOW IT'S PLAYING OUT

A case study of how it has played out is in Zambia, a landlocked country of 20 million people in southern Africa that over the past two decades has borrowed billions of dollars from Chinese state-owned banks to build dams, railways and roads.

The loans boosted Zambia’s economy but also raised foreign interest payments so high there was little left for the government, forcing it to cut spending on healthcare, social services and subsidies to farmers for seed and fertilizer.

In the past under such circumstances, big government lenders such as the U.S., Japan and France would work out deals to forgive some debt, with each lender disclosing clearly what they were owed and on what terms so no one would feel cheated.

But China didn't play by those rules. It refused at first to even join in multinational talks, negotiating separately with Zambia and insisting on confidentiality that barred the country from telling non-Chinese lenders the terms of the loans and whether China had devised a way of muscling to the front of the repayment line.

Amid this confusion in 2020, a group of non-Chinese lenders refused desperate pleas from Zambia to suspend interest payments, even for a few months. That refusal added to the drain on Zambia’s foreign cash reserves, the stash of mostly U.S. dollars that it used to pay interest on loans and to buy major commodities like oil. By November 2020, with little reserves left, Zambia stopped paying the interest and defaulted, locking it out of future borrowing and setting off a vicious cycle of spending cuts and deepening poverty.

Continued in the link

#nunyas news

[correctopinionhaver]

i have done my taxes and concluded that the US government owes me 3.4 billion dollars. if they don't like my conclusions they should have done them themselves.

#taxes #america #the fact that it isnt tax season right now is not relevant #top

[sublimeobservationarcade]

Australians Are Really Dumb

Australians are really dumb if you go by their behaviour over the last 20 years. They have bought the whole anti-union narrative spruiked by conservative politicians like John Howard, Tony Abbott, Scott Morrison and their ilk. These guys demonised and attempted to criminalise unionists and their ALP mates. The whole anti-Bill Shorten campaign painted Bill as some union crook – for which there was no real evidence. Despite this voters bought it hook, line and sinker. Now, we are where we find ourselves with record low wage growth over decades. Unions stripped of power by laws. Labour hire companies ripping off workers. Workers with bugger all rights. Big companies lording it over little workers with no bargaining power.

Shabby Australians Deserve Qantas

Qantas has finally been pulled up by the High Court of Australia – after the unions took them on and fought their appeal against the wrongful dismissal of 1, 700 baggage handlers during the Covid pandemic. Australians didn’t stand up to Qantas, the Coalition government backed them with billions of tax payer’s money, whilst Virgin went down the gurgler. Australians have become pretty shabby people, sitting back and watching workers being shafted by Corporate Australia and not saying boo.

Alan Joyce has been an absolute disgrace, as Qantas CEO for years and years. Under his leadership this once great company has become a vampire for shareholders. Sucking the life out of long serving staff and treating its customers like shit. “ "It now stands their actions against these Qantas families as the largest sacking in Australian corporate history that has been found to be illegal," Transport Workers' Union national secretary, Michael Kaine said in the minutes after the landmark verdict was handed down. "These workers have been put through hell. Their families have been put through hell. Their lives have been dislocated, some of them forever … that's the consequence of this illegal decision.” - (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-14/qantas-workers-high-court-illegally-sacked-twu-compensation-bill/102848854)

Qantas flying off with your money

Joyce Took Australia On A Joy Ride At Our Expense

Australians are only just waking up to the litany of unfair and low life actions taken by the airline’s management and board. Joyce has walked away with $24 million in bonuses, after destroying the culture and reputation of a once mighty business and brand. Australians and Qantas shareholders should hang their heads in shame really. We all sat back and watched the destruction of people’s lives and livelihoods. What for? All for money, of course. We have very few standards of morality left in this nation, especially after a decade of Coalition governments under the guise of liars like Morrison and leering scumbags like Abbott.

Dirty Deeds Done In Australia Think about Robodebt and the disgraceful and unlawful scheme of these same jokers. Vulnerable people, wrongly accused of owing thousands of dollars, killed themselves. Ponder on the billions of dollars going to companies like PwC and KPMG, who have been taking the Australian people for a very expensive ride. These are Coalition initiatives and trends massaged and mined for every penny possible. Insider mates getting all the plumb jobs and big government contracts without the normal scrutiny that the public service would be under. Opaque transparency in shady town. Stuart Robert and Alan Tudge have scarpered already to avoid taking any responsibility. Marise Payne has likewise ducked out of the building, just in case people are actually held accountable. I would not hold your breath, however. Australia is a white collar crime and corruption Mecca. Only poor and powerless people get prosecuted and go to prison.

Neoliberal champions who led us where we find ourselves - ripped off by our own economy! Governments Need To Get Back In The Game Of Building Things Will Australians awake from their slumber and pay attention to WTF is going on? Neoliberalism still haunts the halls of power and politics, despite having delivered zero results for the majority of us. The ALP needs to get its head out of its arse and stop playing it safe. The ALP still sucks on the teat of neoliberalist economic beliefs. The housing crisis is a direct result of government neglect in this regard. The market will not take care of everything – that is complete bullshit. Pull your finger out Albo! The housing fund is a cocka-doodle crock of monetary madness. We need governments to get back in the game of building infrastructure – like houses where the working poor can live. It is an emergency and the market is not going to magic up a shit load of social housing.

Richard Goyder Must Go Goyder must go, as he has been the enabler in the whole Alan Joyce disaster. Qantas has been accused by the ACCC of selling seats to 10, 000 customers, which had already been cancelled. This could cost the airline a fine of $250 million. Australian must get back to holding Corporate Australia accountable for its actions. The LNP anything goes days are over. Australians would be best served to remember who has led this trashing of our standards. John Howard used to boast about making us all shareholders. Well, the vast majority of Australians are not shareholders but we have been screwed by Corporate Australia. High prices and rising inflation have been caused by a profit-price-spiral. Record profits have been announced by Qantas and the banks. The duopolies and oligopolies means that they can set the prices in most markets. The ACCC has failed us in terms of protecting competition. Our governments have been asleep at the wheel or looking the other way on the back of grift and graft. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQKnazRIEc8 Australians Are Not What They Used To Be Australians are only really arcing up right now because airfares are really expensive. Self-centred shabby Aussies did bugger all when Joyce was sacking airline staff left, right and centre. Neoliberal economics has pervaded the leadership of our nation and gutted things like mateship and social justice. People are just out for what they can get. Scumbags are the new normal downunder. You know unions have done a lot for this country over the journey. Apart from protecting the basic rights of workers, they have been involved in preserving things like our historical buildings, anti-apartheid campaigns against South Africa, fighting for equal pay for Australian women, and getting equal pay for Indigenous workers on cattle stations. “In January 1965 the North Australian Workers’ Union lodged an application with the Arbitration Commission to delete the provision of the award covering workers at cattle stations that prevented Indigenous workers from gaining equal rights. A campaign of public pressure in support of the claim for wage equality was launched across the country. The Cattle Producers Council submitted a series of racist arguments to the Commission, degrading the contribution of Indigenous workers to the industry.  In March 1966 the commission handed down its decision in favour of equal wages – but in a racist insult to Indigenous workers, deferred this equality until December 1968. Indigenous pastoral workers took action, demanding equality immediately. “ - (https://www.actu.org.au/about-the-actu/history-of-australian-unions) If you have ever lived or spent some time in regional Australia you will well know the heightened level of racism in these communities. Not everyone, of course, but far more blatant expressions of racism than in the city are frequently voiced. You have to ask yourself why is Queensland, especially in the regional parts so racist and anti-union? A history of blackbirding – the indented servitude or enslavement of First Nations people – exists there. The current folk are the descendants of such people. The Lutheran German migrants and other European migrants are well known to be anti-union on the basis of their experiences in their old countries. They hand these attitudes down to their progeny for better or worse. Interestingly the polls predict that Queensland and Tasmania will be bastions for the No vote in the October referendum on the voice to parliament for Indigenous Australians. Two states where massacres of First Nations people were prominent in our history. Robert Sudha Hamilton is the author of Money Matters: Navigating Credit, Debt, and Financial Freedom. ©WordsForWeb

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#AlanJoyce #Australia #BillShorten #CorporateAustralia #JohnHowrad #LNP #moralfailure #neoliberalism #politics #Qantas #TonyAbbott #unions

[supbreak20-ofa]

Pit reminded you of TAILS!?

AWWWW

Wait...is THAT why you agreed to help save him?

Nope. That's not why.

It's 'cuz he reminds me of myself.

Yeah, sure, he did remind me of good ol' Tails, but with time, I saw more of myself in him than I did Tails.

And if you ask me, we need more people like me and him in the world.

People who refuse to let the world fall apart.

And maybe also owe the government several billions of dollars in fines, taxes and damages.

#omori food administration #[sonic answers] #sonic sez: taxation is theft

[butchniqabi]

had a dream my friend got called out for something and i went to defend her bc whatever that something was (can naut remember) it was like blatantly untrue. now that im thinking on it i think they said she was a hindu n*tionalist despite her being viet and buddhist. so i went to publically defend her and say like ??? you guys are blatantly wrong, but it was a trap set for me by the belgian government because i owed them billions of dollars in unpaid taxes...the last thing i remember was being dragged away by what i assume to be the Sûreté de l'État (idk why they were the ones to get me...) and yelling over my shoulder about how ive been framed. which should have been obvious because im not a belgian citizen nor have i ever been there so there was no way i could owe them so much money adgehddbd

#its funny now but this was 100% a stress dream #not being believed despite the obvious evidence that supports me....police....tax evasion this dreams got it all

[hully-gully-gee]

I wrote down what the Owl says!

I am positive this has been done before, but I wrote down what the Owl says in this spoof video, and it contains some really good advice.

Hoo hoot! Little Link… Look up here!

It appears that the time has finally come for you to start your adventure!

You will encounter many hardships ahead…

Like playing with your Legos one day and realizing it's not fun anymore.

Coming to grips with the concept of time.

Gradually losing the freedom whick exists in knowing nothing.

And learning that your friends are relative to where you are in life.

Most friends only stay for a season, and usually because of your shared interests.

But when you move on or your priorities change, so will a majority of your friends.

That is your fate.

Don't feel discouraged, even during the toughest times!

(Link is shown)

One day you'll find out that you owe the IRS $3,000.

Then you realize you misread the letter and you actually owe $30,000.

And you'll learn that Chipotle isn't nearly as healthy as you thought

Sure they list the calories, fat, carbs, cholesterol, and the 0g of sugar on the menu but they omit the amount

of sodium drenched in everything. A single burrito with carnitas, cilantro- lime rice, sour cream,

roasted chili corn salsa and cheese will fill you up with almost a day's worth of sodium.

Enjoy your high blood pressure, stroke, heart failure, osteoporosis, stomach cancer, kidney disease,

kidney stones and headaches. Maybe this isn't that great of an alternative to McDonalds after all.

Convenience isn't very healthy.

You have to eat 3 times a day for the rest of your life. You should learn how to do it well.

You'd be surprised to see how much better your life goes when you eat well.

That is your fate.

Don't feel discouraged, even during the toughest times!

(Link mashes the buttons)

And learning that, despite all the government gorges out of you with taxes, they still waste billions of our

hard earned dollars on programs like studying mountain lions on treadmills, injecting hamsters with steroids and

making them fight, and studying beer koozies.

Beer koozies

The thing that keeps your drink cold. The $1.3 million dollar study conducted by 2 bright University of

Washing students was to determine if beer koozies work.

It turns out they do work. Groundbreaking stuff.

Then there's accidentally spending $28 million on green camoflage uniforms for the Afghan National Army.

Afghanistan is 98 percent desert.

They wasted $2 million attempting to increase trust between Tunisian political parties and citizens.

$10,000,000 on "green growth" in Peru.

$2,120,040,355.35 (italics) attempting (/italics) to turn and (their typo, not mine) abandoned mental hospital into a Department of Homeland Security HQ.

And don't even get me started on the billion dollar Medicare schemes.

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid paid $48,000,000,000.00 in improper payments in Fiscal Year 2018.

Since Medicare is such a big program, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for abuse.

It's all in Dr. Rand Paul's Summer 2019 Edition of "The Waste Report."

[Link mashing buttons some more]

Go straight this way and you will see Hyrule Castle.

You will meet a princess there…

If you are lost and don't know which way to go, look at the Map.

The areas you have explored will be shown on the map.

A map is a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features,

cities, roads, etc. The word "map" can also be used to talk about a chart or drawing that shows relationships

between ideas, people, events, or anything else you can think about.

Press START to enter the subscreens and Z or R to find the map.

On the map subscreen, you will also see a flashing dot showing you which way to go next.

Did you get all that? ==> No Yes

Hoo hoot! Little Link… Look up here!

It appears that the time has finally come for you to start your adventure!

You will encounter many hardships ahead…

Like playing with your Legos one day and realizing it's not fun anymore.

Coming to grips with the concept of time.

Gradually losing the freedom which exists in knowing nothing.

And learning that your friends are relative to where you are in life.

Most friends only stay for a season, and usually because of your shared interests.

But when you move on or your priorities change, so will a majority of your friends.

That is your fate.

[Link mashing buttons, and screaming]

Did you know the hashtag symbol is technically called an octothorpe?

Or that the 100 folds in a chef's hat represent 100 ways to cook an egg?

And that some cats are allergic to people?

And that M&M stands for Mars and Murrie?

And that you can hear a blue whale's heartbeat from more than 2 miles away?

And that the odds of getting a royal flush are exactly 1 in 649,740?

And that the lyrebird can mimic almost any sounds it hears, including chainsaws?

And that the speed of a computer mouse is measured in "Mickeys?"

And did you know that sushi actually originated in Southeast Asia, and spread to South China before being

(blocked by ocarina) introduced to Japan some time around the 8th century?

And did you know that a male emperor penguin can go without eating for 120 days?

And did you know that the smell you smell after it rains is called "petichor?"

[Ocarina smashes into Owl's face]

#the legend of zelda #the legend of zelda: the ocarina of time #ocarina of time #terminal montage #something about legend of zelda #too much time on my hands #Youtube

[nebulousmistress]

Political ads that deliberately lie about the IRS and its employees are a shameful new ploy that is misleading voters about their own government and endangering hard-working civil servants, said Tony Reardon, national president of the National Treasury Employees Union. “House and Senate candidates across the country are using deceit and fear to try and win elections,” Reardon said. “For the safety of the IRS workforce, I call on these candidates and political committees to take down their ads that misrepresent IRS employees and their role in our democracy.”   Even before the campaign attacks ramped up, NTEU requested, and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig ordered, a full review of security protocols at IRS worksites around the country because of the increasingly hostile rhetoric about the IRS and its mission. NTEU members who work for the IRS say they are afraid to identify themselves as IRS employees and are taking extra precautions themselves, such as hiding their badges when they leave the work site. The Department of Homeland Security this summer issued a National Terrorism Advisory bulletin that listed government facilities and personnel as potential targets of "domestic violent extremists." The hostility escalated during the debate over the Inflation Reduction Act, when critics claimed falsely that the agency would hire 87,000 new armed agents to terrorize taxpayers. While multiple organizations, including NTEU, the administration and numerous media outlets debunked the claims, the disinformation persisted to the point is has now become a centerpiece of too many political campaigns.   "It’s completely fair to have an honest debate about the size of government and tax policy, but these political ads do not do that. Instead, they blatantly misrepresent how IRS employees do their jobs as public employees who serve our nation’s taxpayers. In today’s epidemic of political violence, I’m concerned about the safety of the employees we represent,” Reardon said.   After a decade of budget cuts that slashed the workforce, hampered customer service, diminished enforcement and caused delays in processing tax returns, the Inflation Reduction Act provided more than $79 billion for the IRS to rebuild over the next 10 years. Treasury officials have already said the initial focus will be to upgrade antiquated computer systems and improve customer service, including hiring more personnel to answer phone calls from taxpayers and fully staff in-person Taxpayer Assistance Centers around the country. They’ve also said the new funding will not be used to increase the rate at which audits are performed on households with less than $400,000 in annual income.   The IRS predicts it will lose more than 50,000 employees over the next six years to regular retirement and attrition, so much of the new hiring envisioned over that time will be to replace existing workers, which is far from “doubling” the agency, as some have claimed.   “Honest taxpayers should be thrilled to hear that the IRS will be given the resources and personnel needed to help them file their taxes accurately and receive their refunds quickly,” Reardon said. “For those intent on avoiding their tax obligation, a fully staffed IRS is much more likely to hold you accountable and collect the revenue that is rightfully owed.”   Reardon added, “The IRS collects 95 percent of the revenue that funds our national defense, cares for our veterans, facilitates lifesaving medical breakthroughs and many other services the American people depend on every day.”

NTEU Press Release: Political Ads that Lie About IRS Employees Should be Taken Down

#vote #just go fukkin vote #my life and livelihood literally depend on it #'extra precautions' includes getting a concealed carry license because this IS the US #and my life is worth less to the cops than their racist cronies' comfort

[realasslesbian]

just in case anyone is wondering exactly how successful the government propaganda around robodebt has been; this bro literally could read my whole-ass submission, to the robodebt royal commission, which has for months now been loudly investigating the tonnes of illegal shit that the government did via robodebt, shit that eventually ended up costing him, a tax-payer (presumably), $1.9 billion in legal fees, which is the literal biggest government fuck up in a courtroom, in the entire history of Australia, but apparently the government brainwashing has worked so well for him that he still has no problem with anything the government has done, and instead is choosing to come after innocent victims of this atrocity, because that’s what the government has hardwired his singular brain cell to do, and this sort of mindless government bootlicking isn’t even particularly rare, I’m still getting loads of people harassing me about my robodebt, and how I should just pay whatever fake debt the government wants to hold me hostage over, as though if someone told them to do the same they’d just be like ‘oh sure please have tens of thousands of my dollars, no need to actually prove I owe anything, or even how you came to that particular sum of money, also thank you so much for ruining my life and killing thousands of people, just a top-notch job, I love Australia uwu’ like, as if they would just be that way if it were them in this situation, but anyway I just genuinely don’t understand how all these people can be so wilfully stupid, like, it doesn’t even matter what side of politics you’re on, if you’re supporting the government over robodebt victims then clearly you’re a fucking dunce who will shoot themselves in the foot just to keep sucking off the prime minister of the day

#honestly australian moids are a different breed tho #robodebt #australia #auspol #propaganda #brainwashing #welfare #authoritarianism #anti-authoritarianism #authoritarian state

[hauscrashburn]

"we had no tax before 1913"

yes, yes we did.

We called them "tariffs." They were taxes on products. Ever hear of the Whiskey Rebellion? A tax on whiskey to help the fledgling American government fund itself and pay its tax.

We also had income taxes during the Civil War and after, although only on certain incomes (for example between $600 and $10,000 were taxed at 3%)

In 1892, the Us passed an income tax on all incomes over a certain amount ($3,000 maybe? Not sure on this). This was a flat tax. People who made $3,000 were taxed at 2% of their income, same as someone making $10,000, same as JP Freaking Billionaire of his time Morgan (He did not have a billion dollars but tens of millions, similar to billions in our currency value). Flat taxes, like sales tax, are regressive taxes where an individual who makes less income gives up a greater portion of their worth to pay the tax ($100 is more to someone making $3,000 a year than someone making $10,000 a year)

States also had their own taxes, including income and property taxes (like New York). You had to raise revenue for your armies and your legislative bills and processes somehow.

In 1895, the Supreme Court called a federal income unconstitutional in Pollock vs Farmers. But the gov't crashed again in 96 or 97, Morgan loaned the federal government to get it through and the rumblings began on the Republican side to bring back an income tax.

The new tax proposed was a progressive tax, where the wealthy would pay a higher share. Unlike today, it was proposed by Republicans, lead by Taft and Teddy Roosevelt, who said that wealthy people needed to pay their share as part of their patriotic duty to their country. Rockefeller hated this and lobbied against it, saying that when someone is as wealthy as him, he owes people nothing (I believe it was a Vanderbilt who said "the public be damned" (ok this was about railroads but the sentiment stands).

The bill passed, it became the 16th amendment in 1913. Then the battle became with states enacting their own codes and conforming to Chapter 26 of the US Code. The first income tax was levied at $4,000 income which meant most Americans didn't pay because the Average American salary was about $1,000. This is in keeping with now, as about 40% of American households don't have taxable income--that is income after deductions subject, subject to tax.

The road to filing statuses (America required people to file by marriage status, while most other countries file by economic earner with credits for children, etc. This means choosing to file separately, if you are married, functions as a tax penalty as you lose credits) is really interesting and rife with sexism, but that's for another thread.

So the next time someone says "Americans used to all pay their fair share" and "America never had a tax before the 16th Amendment" kindly inform them that they were wrong, wrong, wrong.

#us history #politics #taxes #tax policy #the republicans are freaking wrong #they don't even understand the tax forms or tax calculations #i actually think most people don't #and this is what i try to show when i'm reviewing taxes with clients #know what you are looking at