#tax fraud with spirit | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

equalseleventhirds · 1 year

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"I don't understand how I'm losing," Reigen said, his hands flying over his keyboard. It was so late now—too late, maybe—if only he'd used the same technique as with the Player Killer from the beginning, he might have stood a chance, but he hadn't seriously thought he'd lose—

"Shishou," Mob said, "why is this so important? You already have second place from Twitter."

Reigen laughed, not at all nervously, and splayed a hand across his forehead. "You don't understand, Mob. The publicity from something like this, even a rematch, would do wonders for Spirits and Such. This is about business."

(He would never admit to his pride being on the line.)

"And anyway, who is this guy? A radio host? I've been on TV, you know."

Mob carefully did not bring up what had actually happened when Reigen made his television debut.

Ritsu had no such qualms. "When they exposed you as a fraud? That was publicity too, right?"

"Hey—!"

Serizawa leaned over Reigen's shoulder to see the computer screen, careful not to spill the tea he placed on the desk. "Oh, Cecil from Welcome to Night Vale? It's been a while since I listened to that, maybe I should catch up."

Reigen stared at him. "You? What? Serizawa?"

"Ah... yeah." He rubbed the back of his neck. "Back when I was... well, when I didn't leave my room much, the podcast was popular. I guess it gave a sense of... community? Feeling less alone, even when you are." He shrugged. "Plus, hearing another gay man in a show like that was comforting."

"He's gay? Canonically?" Why can't I be gay canonically?

"Sure, he got married in episode 100. It was very emotional."

"I nearly died in our chapter 100—"

-- -- -- -- --

Well, listeners, there's still a few hours left on the poll, but I'm now leading at 56%! I must say, I did not expect this, especially after Twitter users so clearly forgot—or perhaps never knew—about my Tumblr Sexyman Origins.

But, that's neither here nor there. I certainly am grateful, if a bit bemused, about all of this, but let us not forget that this is all a friendly competition. Unlike the annual War On Christmas—and let us all take a moment to remember our fallen allies against that terrible holiday foe—this is a battle of kindness. Love, even. The love we feel for Tumblr, for our favorite sexy men, for pressing a button on a meaningless internet poll. The love we feel, listeners, for each other.

And in the spirit of that love and friendliness, I figured I'd get to know my opponent a little better! A bit of googling, which of course you know means searching via every search engine but Google, what with the Town Council imposing the Google Search Tax and getting all Night Vale IP addresses shadowbanned, has led me to... oh my, listeners. I do not know who made this, but Reigen Arataka has the single most beautiful professional web page I have ever encountered. It's... words do not do it justice. I am tearing up. This... I could not make anything better myself.

A-hem. Listeners, now that I've wiped away the tears such beauty inspired in me, I can now see that Reigen's website advertises his business, one Spirits and Such Consulting. Well! We may be rivals in this moment, but I am overjoyed to learn that Reigen runs such an innovative and important business! I am nearly ashamed that, while my opponent works to make the world a better place, I, a mere community radio host, am winning the sexyman contest.

Nevertheless, we must respect the polls. Not respecting polls could get us in hot water with the Town Council, or with the demigods of numbers who lurk in the sharp edges of percentages. So since I can't hand my victory over to him, I think I'll do what I can as a community radio host, and promote Reigen Arataka's important business!

So if you're a spirit in need of counseling, a ghost in need of therapy, or an eldritch beast in need of a shoulder to cry on, head on over to Seasoning City and pay our good friend Reigen a visit! I'm sure he'll be pleased as anything to see you.

#long post #fanfiction #algie writes things #fjskdlfjdk SORRY ABOUT THIS BUT #i had to i had tooooooo #hammered this out v quickly and i am feelin v sleeby still so it's not polished but it IS funny #.......i think. i think it's funny. u kno.#anyway #sexymanotd #tumblr sexyman rematch #cecilsweep

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emissary-of-the-moon · 8 months

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Which Links I think would or wouldn't commit tax fraud with little to no explanation

Time: No, Malon did once tho.

Twilight: Yes, on accident.

Warriors: Yes. He forgot to pay a couple of times.

Wild: Yes, he forgot they were a thing after the amnesia.

Wind: No, he's a child.

Legend: Yes.

Sky: No, Zelda does his taxes.

Four: No. But he's been close.

Hyrule: Yes, he didn't realize they were a thing.

Bonus- Spirit: No, hes a child pt.2 but he is a victim of child labor /hj

#linked universe #lu headcanons #lu sky #lu time #lu wind #lu legend #lu twilight #lu warriors #lu hyrule #lu wild #lu four #lu spirit #late night rambles #moon emissary thoughts #edit: damn this was a real conveniently timed scheduled post

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lethologick · 1 year

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Okay okay so consider: Danny is a Laughing Magician himself. Disclaimer: I haven’t read every comic run to exist so I could very much be wrong about something. But straight from the wiki:

“The Laughing Magicians are magic-users from a particular bloodline, characterised by both their unique ability to utilise Synchronicity Wave Travelling and their tendency for rebuking and outsmarting Gods, Demons, Spirits and just about everything else. Laughing Magicians have existed for most of mankind's history, people who rebuked the Gods whom others worshipped. Some even managed to destroy or use Gods for their own purposes.”

Synchronicity is basically influence over luck, things fall into place at the right time- and how many times has Danny managed to get by by the skin of his teeth? Happened to improvise his way to victory? Pulling a last ditch attempt out of ones ass and it somehow being successful every time is peak Constantine. As for rebuking gods and outsmarting gods- Danny may not have literally cheated Death, but he may as well have. He died and survived it, he exists between life and death and can reap the benefits of both. That’s some Constantine soul tax fraud shit. He also: fought Pariah Dark, defeated several other very powerful ghosts, and made an ally out Clockwork (or at least, managed to gain his help several times). And maybe it explains all those powers that show up once never to be used again: those aren’t just an innate ghost power of his, they’re spells. Maybe part of the reason Danny ends up so much more powerful than other ghosts is because he already has a natural proclivity to magic that gives his powers a boost.

#dc x dp #danny phantom #dc universe #hellblazer #john constantine

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just-late-roman-republic-things · 5 months

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Roman stereotypes of Phoenicians crack me up because half of my family is Phoenician (more precisely, Lebanese). They will happily tell you that it's not piracy and duplicity, it's an entrepreneurial spirit, but if they were pirates they would be very good at it, and Rome deserved it anyway. And they'd never commit fraud, just smuggling and tax evasion. Hypothetically. And also that Rome's alphabet ultimately derives from the Phoenician one, so who really won the Punic Wars, hmm?

(Erich Gruen, "Romans and Others," in A Companion to the Roman Republic, ed. Nathan Rosenstein and Robert Morstein-Marx)

#^ all that is directly based on things my grandparents have said or done #phoenicia #jlrrt reads #erich gruen #carthage #just roman memes

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heliads · 2 months

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REQUESTS OPEN OMG EVERYONE CHEERED. hi i was thinking.. what if… hmm.. what if.. guardian angel y/n x connor lassiter where in unwind instead of lev saving him after the happy jack explosion its y/n. (they kiss at the end PLEase)

ANYWAYS ILY u survived exams i’m so proud !

'angel ex machina ' - connor lassiter

masterlist

They find Connor Lassiter staring at a billboard. He’s slumped against a wall, eyes hollow and vacant, like nothing in this world could possibly be more fascinating than a couple hundred square feet of boastful advertising. The bright colors seem to laugh at him, tantalizingly out of reach from where he crouches now, separated from the rest of the world by the walls of a harvest camp.

We have guardian angels! Low prices, high protection!

Even if Connor somehow managed to piece together enough cash for their exorbitant prices, it’s obvious that a guardian angel would be wasted on him. Connor is days away from his own unwinding. Not even a real guardian angel could pull him out now, let alone the vapid models in suits they’ve got bedazzling that billboard. Everyone knows you can’t actually hire a guardian angel. They just show up somehow, save your ass however many times you need it, then disappear. There, then gone. Intrinsically a part of your life, and then it’s like you’d never known them at all.

Guardian angels are extraordinarily rare. The closest Connor’s ever come to meeting one is hearing a story his dad used to tell, and even then, Kirk Lassiter had only briefly glimpsed one of his neighbors getting saved from a car accident by one of the angels. Not exactly a core memory for Connor. His mom had never seen one at all.

That’s the way it usually goes. There aren’t that many guardian angels in the world. Rare things, they are. Somehow, they decide that a person is important enough to save, and then they swoop in and do what they do best. That’s usually saving them from disasters– floods, tornadoes, you name it. There’s an iconic photograph of a guardian angel rescuing someone from a burning building that Connor sees annually in his textbooks; something about the wings silhouetted against the flames is irresistible to school publishers. Hayden swears that he heard about somebody who got a guardian angel to do their taxes, but Connor figures that’s another of the boy’s bad jokes. Guardian angels are for real problems, not tax fraud.

Hell, no one even knows what guardian angels look like. There are photographs, sure, but they always turn out strangely blurry, like when the sun’s too bright outside and all you can do is squint. Even the people who’ve seen guardian angels say that their memories faded oddly quickly after the incident. No one can decide if they look like people, if their wings always appear, if they’re even recognizable as guardian angels at all. The only thing the masses can agree on is that guardian angels do exist, and they’ll never be good enough for anyone.

Least of all Connor. He’s harbored a hope that he’d get to meet one at some point, obviously, everyone has. Imagining that you’d be important enough to warrant an angel sent to watch over you is everyone’s secret fantasy.

Connor’s a few hours away from getting unwound, though, so he’s pretty sure that dream will die like the rest of his: unwanted, unclaimed, unfulfilled. He’ll go to pieces as yet another boy who dreamed of being great, another poor soul ignored by the angels. The only difference is that, unlike most of the teenage population, he’s not even mediocre enough to live past sixteen. He’ll be in parts by tomorrow. Then, who knows? Maybe his elbow will go to a kid worthy of an angel. Connor wasn’t, but maybe his unwound pieces will be.

Connor shakes his head slightly to rid himself of the thoughts. He’s not usually like this. He’s not a quitter. He’ll go under the knife protesting his unwinding. It’s just a little difficult to keep up the fighting spirit when he knows that at last, despite all his running and hiding, he’ll be unwound anyway. There’s no fighting the Juvenile Authority. All his great efforts just delayed the inevitable. It cuts him to say it, but it looks like they were right after all.

In an attempt to get his mind out of obviously dangerous waters, Connor rips his gaze away from the offending billboard and glances around him. Only now does he notice another future unwind drawing close to him. Connor stretches and stands, forcing the corners of his mouth to upturn slightly so Y/N, his closest friend here and only ally among the cops and lambs to slaughter, don’t think he’s totally deranged.

“What are you doing?” Y/N asks, coming to a stop by his side.

Connor shrugs listlessly. “Nothing. Drafting my will.”

With anyone else, he’d probably stay silent, but Connor learned a long time ago that trying to hold his tongue around Y/N L/N is a losing game. They met in the basement of Sonia’s antique shop, Y/N having arrived barely a few minutes after Connor and Risa. Talk about a coincidence. They quickly hit it off, and as proof of their friendship, they’ve even ended up at the same harvest camp after it all went south back at the Graveyard.

If Connor were trapped with anyone, though, he’s glad it’s them. Not even Hayden can make Connor laugh as much as he does with Y/N. They understand him in a way that no one else ever has. If he were feeling particularly stupid, he would call it love, but Connor knows better. They’re both about to get stripped to pieces. If he spills his guts now and they friendzone him, Connor will have ruined the best part of his life for nothing.

So he stays silent, and watches Y/N laugh at his joke. “I want your car after they unwind you,” they inform him. “Maybe even the house.”

Connor pretends to be outraged. “Both? That’s absurd.”

Y/N snorts. “Who else would you give them to? The tithe?” Then, in a quieter voice, they glance towards the billboard Connor was staring at, and add on, “Maybe an angel?”

Connor sighs. “They can’t sell real guardian angels. No amount of flashy billboards can hide that.”

Y/N nods. “You’re still tempted, though?”

Connor lifts a shoulder. “Who wouldn’t be tempted? The idea is great. I’d love for someone to save me right now. Or maybe just care enough to try.”

“I care,” Y/N offers.

Connor gives them a wry smile. “I know you do. But you’re stuck in the same mess as I am, so maybe I’ll hold off on believing in your escape plan until you’re out, too.”

Y/N looks at him for a second, too deep for Connor to understand, then cracks a grin. “You should believe in me, Lassiter. I’m tunneling out from under the dorms with just a spoon. I might make it halfway to Florida by the time we get the unwind order.”

Connor scoffs. “That only works in movies. You’d need a miracle to break through an inch of concrete, let alone all the way past the borders.”

Y/N smiles at him, a little secretively, a little knowingly. “I’m pretty good with miracles.”

“Sure you are,” Connor says, stretching his arms to rid himself of an unpleasant pinch in his muscles. “Any chance you can whip one up to save me from my impending doom?”

He isn’t expecting Y/N to respond, obviously, but when their face drops at the sight of something approaching behind him, Connor knows it’s not just from his lack of belief. “I’d have to make it quick, wouldn’t I?” They mutter under their breath.

Connor turns around to see a squad of Juvey-cops bearing down on him. He swears under his breath. “This is it, right? They’re going to take me away?”

Y/N’s face looks ashen and wrong. “I should have saved you. “

“We should have saved each other,” Connor corrects gently. Usually, he isn’t the sentimental type, but as the guards get closer, he can’t resist the urge to lean closer to Y/N and whisper to them, “Hey, I’m glad for the time we had, alright? It meant– It meant a lot to me. You know. If I was going to talk to anyone on my last day, I would have wanted it to be you anyway.”

Y/N sucks in a breath. “Don’t say that.”

Connor stares at them. “Why not? It’s true.”

Y/N looks like they want to argue– why, Connor isn’t sure, but the guilt in their eyes is like nothing he’s ever seen before– but before they can say a word, the Juvey-cops close in around him, cutting Connor off from Y/N like slamming a door in their face. They give him the usual speech about how it’s time for him to be unwound, but Connor can’t find it within himself to pay attention. It’s so typical of him, honestly, to be zoning out during what may be his last hour whole, but all he can think about is Y/N, who disappears into the distance as the cops drag him away, Y/N, who he’s now left here alone, Y/N, who will join him in this fate not long from now.

Connor doesn’t want to be unwound. Obviously. He doesn’t want this, and the sheer force of his not wanting overwhelms him as they lead him closer and closer to the doors of the Chop Shop. A crowd of other unwinds has gathered by the door; apparently the final moments of the Akron AWOL make for some good entertainment. The band is playing. Connor wants to run, run far and fast like he always does, but for the first time in his life he realizes how pointless it is. If he tried to flee, they would catch him. They would drag him back, and it would be like nothing ever happened. There is no way this day ends with anything but Connor in pieces.

Connor forces his legs to move him mechanically towards the Chop Shop entrance. Just before the darkness of the place swallows him whole, something tells Connor to glance over his shoulder one last time and he sees Y/N staring at him beseechingly. He doesn’t know how he’s able to spot them so easily in the crowd, but he can. Like he would know them anywhere. Like doing anything but looking at them is impossible.

Then the guards shove him into the Chop Shop, and Y/N is gone, replaced by the dark certainty of Connor’s unwinding. The hallway seems to stretch out forever, but before Connor can take even one more step, a few very confusing things happen all at once.

First: there’s this shift in the air. Connor can’t describe it. It feels strange and wrong, burning on his tongue like electricity. The hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and Connor knows at once that something is about to go wrong.

Second: the room erupts in fire and smoke. The bone-rattling boom of the explosion comes later, a little delayed, but Connor sees the white flash of heat and light first. He’s knocked off of his feet, and time seems to slow down. The entire world is gone, replaced only by Connor, floating hazily through the smoky air, and the blossom of fire around him, searing off everything else.

Third, and most confusing of all: out of nowhere, Y/N is right in front of him. Y/N, yes, but Y/N different somehow. It takes him a moment to realize why. Their eyes glow white, brighter even than the explosion, and their skin is radiating off this cool, pearlescent light. He has no idea how they could have possibly gotten in front of him so fast. He has no idea how they’re seemingly immune to the heat and force of the explosion around them.

Y/N reaches for him, pulling Connor into their arms. Their head presses against his, and they whisper quietly, forcefully, “Be safe, Connor.”

The command reverberates through Connor’s entire body. He doesn’t even remember hitting the ground, and when the explosion clears, he’s– He’s fine, actually. Nothing hurts. When Connor stares at his body, he’s utterly unharmed. Not even a scratch on his skin. He is totally untouched by the explosion that has just decimated the entirety of the Chop Shop.

Connor looks around him and realizes that Y/N is sitting in front of him. They’re both on the grass outside the Chop Shop, although he doesn’t remember getting there. Y/N is unharmed also, although Connor can say for certainty that there is still something wrong about them. It takes him a moment to get his scattered thoughts in order, and then he remembers. Y/N’s eyes wink pearlescent at him from a few paces away, and he knows.

“You’re a guardian angel,” Connor stammers out.

Y/N nods. “I am.”

Easy as that. They say it like it’s nothing. Like Connor hasn’t just had his life saved by a supernatural being currently sitting criss-cross applesauce in front of him on the waving grass. He’s had a lot of time to wonder what it would be like to meet a guardian angel, but it never would have occurred to him that one would have been in his life this entire time without him knowing.

Connor stares unseeingly at them. Try as he might, he can’t force himself to believe that Y/N is anything other than, well, Y/N. His friend. His best friend. The person he’s been crushing on since they stumbled into him by accident in the dark of Sonia’s basement. He remembers the flighty beat of their heartbeat when they were in his arms then, and he remembers what it felt like when they embraced him again in the smothering heat of the Chop Shop inferno. All Y/N. All an angel.

“You were trying to save me,” he begins, then stops. That really sums it up.

“I was,” Y/N agrees. “It was always about you, Connor.”

The idea doesn’t compute to him. “Then why wait until now to save my life? Why not make sure the Juveys never found us out in the first place?”

Y/N tilts their head to the side, considering this. “The job of a guardian angel is to save their primary assignment, sure, but also to minimize suffering wherever they go. I knew the Chop Shop explosion would happen if I didn’t save you. This needed to happen so everyone else here could be rescued. Worse things would have happened if I didn’t interfere now. It may not seem that way, but it is.”

Connor can practically feel gears in his head spinning. “So you knew how this would end the whole time?”

“I knew the great catastrophes of your life,” Y/N corrects. “I knew many paths you could take. This was the big risk, though. I didn’t get to see any more after that. Now I know just as much about your future as you do.”

Connor whistles under his breath. “That’s comforting.” Then, a terrible thought occurs to him. “Wait, that means I was your assignment. Like a job? Were you ever really my friend at all, or was that just something you had to do to complete your assignment?”

Y/N rears back as if hurt. “I have always been your friend. Guardian angels aren’t supposed to ever reveal themselves. I was actually meant to never talk to you until I saved you.”

“What changed?” Connor asks. He can’t stop himself.

Y/N smiles softly. “I saw you. You looked like someone fun.”

“Someone fun,” Connor echoes. He tries to think about his life, if anyone could see that and decide he was someone worthwhile. Someone fun. Someone an angel could watch and want to befriend. A warm feeling blossoms in his chest. Pride, maybe. Or the realization that the one secret he’s been keeping may go both ways after all.

“Yeah,” Y/N says, growing a little embarrassed. “I like you. My bad.”

Connor laughs. “That’s not bad. I like you too, by the way. In case you didn’t see it when you were receiving visions about my life.”

Y/N’s eyes dart up to his. “Really?”

“Really,” Connor says. “What, you didn’t know?”

Y/N shakes their head. “Like I said, I could only see what happened to you up to the Chop Shop exploding. Everything after that is a mystery.”

“Well,” Connor says, drawing closer to them. “I’m glad I get to surprise an angel once in my life.”

Before Y/N can ask him what he means, Connor kisses them, and after a moment of shock, they kiss him back. He’s not sure if he’s the first person in the world to have kissed an angel before, but he wouldn’t mind having that accolade under his belt. Just so long as he gets to be the person to kiss an angel two times, or three. Or forever.

requested by @julysn, i hope you enjoy!

unwind tag list: @reinekes-fox, @locke-writes, @sirofreak

all tags list: @wordsarelife

#connor lassiter #connor lassiter imagines #connor lassiter x reader #connor lassiter oneshot #unwind #unwind imagines #unwind x reader #unwind oneshot #unwind dystology #unwind dystology imagines #unwind dystology x reader #unwind dystology oneshot #unwind connor #unwind connor x reader #unwind connor oneshot

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messymosaic · 4 months

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Hi same anon there, sorry I don't like the Legend of Korra and it's not my main fandom I just love Mako. Like being truthful here you guys probably don't want me in the groupchat.

That being said I hope As*mi's company gets shut down for tax fraud and also she has much legal trouble after tax fraud financing equalists and supplying war

hate that fucking capitalist more than i hate the krew combined

First of all, barely any of us identify as tlok stans. Deep down we’re all Makhoes who wanna protest the way the show treated him (srsly wtf was that).

Second of all, we have discussed in length the ramifications of the most powerful being on earth dating the world’s richest person while also being close with United Republic’s President. It’s controversial, it’s classist, it’s capitalistic. We need to sprinkle some poverty into this bond (enter Mako).

Third of all, Future Industries is out here speeding up global warming while the Avatar is the literal embodiment of the spirit world- and what are spirits strongly attached to? Nature! That’s right, I’m bringing pollution vs. nature into this and I’m shining a light on this huge, gaping conflict of interest.

And finally, how can you say we don’t want you when you are surfing on the same wavelength 😭😭 bestie plssss

#makorra #makorra 2.0 #makorra2.0

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empirearchives · 7 months

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Changes to the Tax Collection System in Revolutionary and Napoleonic France

My translation from Le prix de la gloire: Napoléon et l’argent by Pierre Branda.

This part is specifically about the reforms made to the tax collection system. Problems with taxation had been the source of many woes, so it went through major changes.

“The [tax] work of the Consulate mainly concerned the reorganization of tax collection. Until now, this essential element was not administered directly by the Ministry of Finance. The Constituent Assembly had wanted the tax rolls for direct contributions, that is to say the ‘tax slips’, to be established by municipal administrations. Their work was complex, because each year it was necessary to draw up a list of taxpayers, determine each person’s share of tax and send them the amount of the contribution to pay. Poorly motivated (or even corrupt), the municipalities had put little care in the execution of their mission since a large part of the taxpayers had not yet received anything for their taxes of year VIII, or even of year VII or year VI. Also, with two or three years of delay in preparing the rolls, it was not surprising that tax revenues were low (nearly 400 million francs were thus left outstanding). If the sending of tax matrices left something to be desired, the collection of direct contributions was hardly better. The tax collector was also not an agent of the administration: this function was assigned to any person who agreed to collect taxes with the lowest possible commission (otherwise called ‘collecte à la moins-dite’). With such a system, there were numerous inadequacies, often due to incompetence, but also due to the prevailing spirit of fraud. However, in their defense, the profits of the collectors were most of the time too low to provide such a service; also, to compensate for their losses, they were ‘forced’ to multiply small and big cheats. In any case, in such a troubled period, letting simple individuals carry out such a delicate mission could only be dangerous for the regularity of public accounts. In short, the mode of operation of taxation that Bonaparte and Gaudin inherited was failing on all sides and threatened to sink the State.”

“One month after Gaudin’s appointment, on December 13, 1799, the Directorate of Direct Contributions was created with the mission of establishing and sending tax matrices. This administration, dependent on the Ministry of Finance, was made up of a general director, 99 departmental directors and 840 inspectors and controllers. The organization of direct contributions became both centralized and pyramidal, the opposite of the previous system, decentralized and with a confused hierarchy. The work of preparing the rolls, for so long entrusted to local authorities, passed entirely ‘in the hands of the Minister of Finance’ and in this way the taxpayer found himself in direct contact with the administration. The tax system no longer having any obstacles, the beneficial effects of such a measure did not take long to be felt. With ardor, the agents of this new administration carried out considerable work: three series of rolls, that is to say more than one hundred thousand tax slips, were established in a single year. It must be said that the ministry had not skimped on their pay (6,000 francs per year for a director, 4,000 for an inspector and 1,800 for a controller), which was undoubtedly not unrelated to such success.”

“Tax reform was slower. It was not until 1804 that all tax collectors were civil servants. The consular system gradually replaced the collectors of the departments, then of the main cities and finally of all the municipalities whose tax rolls exceeded 15,000 francs. At the end of the Consulate, the entire tax administration was thus entirely dependent on the central government. Subsequently, the one in charge of indirect contributions (taxes on tobacco, alcohol or salt) created on February 25, 1804 and called the Régie des droits réunis was built on the same pyramidal and centralized model. It was the same later for customs.”

“According to Michel Bruguière, historian of public finances, ‘Napoleon and Gaudin can be considered the builders of the French tax administration. [...] They had also developed and codified the essential principles of our tax law, so profoundly derogatory from the rules of French law, since the taxpayer has nothing to do with it, while the administration has all the powers’. Basically, after having clearly understood the true cause of the ‘financial wound’, Bonaparte wanted an effective, almost ‘despotic’ instrument to avoid experiencing the unfortunate fate of his predecessors. As a good soldier, he created a fiscal ‘army’ responsible for providing the regime with the sinews of war. It was also necessary to definitively break the link between private interests and state service in everything that concerned public revenue. The time of the farmer generals of the Ancien Régime or the ‘second-hand’ collectors of the Directory was well and truly over. Napoleon Bonaparte, with his fierce desire to centralize power in this area as in many others, undoubtedly gave his regime the means to last.”

French:

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whisperingrockandroll · 11 months

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Ranking Aquato family members by how likely they are to commit tax fraud (least to most)

8 - Razputin Aquato

Of all the members of the Aquato Clan, Raz is currently the only member confirmed to be working for the government. He's the absolute model of a federal employee. The kind of agent they would make naively optimistic 50s movies about. The kind of hero who is everything J Edgar Hoover was not. Honest, caring, loyal, hardworking, excited to chase the call of adventure alongside his heroes, who are also employees of the federal government. He's not a slave to authority, but he could best be described as "Lawful Good" in D&D terminology. As such, Raz would never commit tax fraud. He only wants to help people, rescue their brains, and occasionally commit arson and kill animals. But only when its cool. Also, he hates math.

Likelihood: Never.

7 - Dion Aquato

Dion is a contentious character. Some people hate him because of the way he bullies and insults Raz. Others like him because they see past that and see him as depressed and anxious teenager who's taking his insecurities and pain out on his little brother out of jealousy and the fear of his entire world changing around him. But we're not here to talk about that: we're here to ask if he'd commit tax fraud. The answer is he's simply not smart enough to. We're talking about a guy who heard from his toddler-aged brother that real living human beings reproduced via eggs. He simply isn't smart enough to figure it out. He'll either need a caregiver or spouse to file his taxes for him, or he'll download a terrible app on his phone that he can just barely navigate and might still have to go through an audit just because he got stuff wrong.

Likelihood: Too dumb to commit tax fraud. Even if he were smart enough, he'd probably get frustrated and bored very quickly.

6 - Augustus Aquato

Auggie won't lie to you, the thought of cheating on his taxes has definitely crossed his mind. There's a lot of overhead on a circus, even a small one. With how much the family struggles financially, the temptation has always been there to write off a few fake expenses. But he never has, because he's a responsible father and husband, and would never want to endanger his family by putting their finances and freedom in jeopardy.

Likelihood: Highly unlikely. Good dad energy too strong.

5 - Mirtala Aquato

The member of the family we know the least about. She seems kind enough, though often times sarcastic and smart-alikey. A spirited and adventurers young lass, she might find certain parts of the Internal Revenue Code to be arbitrary, annoying or overly cumbersome. The thought might occur to her to commit tax fraud, but its doubtful she'd ever go all the way through with it. The potential jail time and fines would likely be enough to make her decide against it.

Likelihood: Might do it under pressure, but very unlikely otherwise.

4 - Donatella Aquato

A very passionate Italian mother, often times theatrical. Also very uncool about guilt-tripping her kids! Not cool, Donna! Though in fairness it's treated as a gag, and seems to just be her way of burning off the conflicting emotions she's going through. Still, sometime in the VERY near future she needs to give her son a hug and an apology! Moving on to the tax fraud, she's most likely faced the same temptation as her husband, but likely has weaker moral reservations. Donatella strikes me as the rebellious type, the kind who'd angrily stare down the head of a government agency for talking shit to her. Were it not for Augustus reminding her of the dangers, she'd probably get "creative" with her return filings.

Likelihood: Possibly. Similar motivations to Augustus but less moral apprehension. It'd take some pressure before she gives in.

3 - Frazie Aquato

She's a bitch but I like her. She throws shit around and says fucked up evil things. But she still clearly has a heart, can have a pleasent conversation with Raz, and even admits she misses him. Like Dion, she's a dumb teenager with issues, she's just slightly less douchey about it. Slightly. Would she commit tax fraud? This girl breaks into private government property, tosses pinecones at people and skulks around in trees like a spider monkey.

Likelihood: Would commit tax fraud, but doesn't make enough money. She lives in the woods.

2 - Queepie Aquato

This child is an agent of chaos. He runs around in the forest at the age of like 4 and is under no threat by wild animals. If anything, the wild animals are scared of him. His mind conjures up insane and silly conspiracies about psychics that he doesn't even believe and tells his older brother just to fuck with him. This kid will claim his toys and dependents to help fund his pirate radio station.

Likelihood: Already commiting tax fraud with his co-conspirator Morris Martinez.

1 - Nona Aquato

Nona has been committing massive tax fraud for decades, but only by accident. She's been filing as her dead sister, whose identity she unwittingly stole. By now, she's in her golden years, and I'm sure she figures it's too late to stop now. Might as well go the extra mile and fudge some of those numbers. Especially since she recently reconnected with her friend Cassie O'Pia, infamous criminal counterfitter. The stuff Cassie knows about cooking books will be instrumental to her fraudulent claims.

Likelihood: Serial tax scammer

#Psychonauts #The Flying Aquatos #Aquato Family #Frazie Aquato #Dion Aquato #augustus aquato #donatella aquato #queepie aquato #mirtala aquato #razputin aquato #nona aquato #lucrecia mux #pn2 spoilers

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hasmashdoneanythingwrong · 1 year

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Remember, the spirit of Moriarty is ever behind you whispering “Tax Fraud…”

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ff7ogzine · 2 years

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Making a zine?

Consider going ✨ digital first and free/not for profit! ✨

There are so many benefits to this approach:

Eliminates your risk of fraud, embezzlement, tax issues and legal liability (which might be on your mind after the latest scandal)

Reduces scope and logistical complexity while your zine is being produced

Makes your zine more accessible to readers, contributors, and first-time mods

Allows you to include whatever content you want without worrying about unfriendly storefront policies (often a concern for NSFW content)

Reduces your zine’s overall timeline to delivery

Allows you to have a nice big simul-launch party

Keeps your zine a community passion project rather than a professional commitment, preserving the spirit of fannish culture

You can still coordinate a print run later, if you want to!

Free + digital first is the strategy we took with Return to the Planet, and everyone on the team feels that it was an excellent decision. Our zine was a success! To give you an idea of our impact:

Our Twitter follower count is about 512, and our zine release has received 444 likes and 289 retweets (a 144% engagement rate), plus 697 impressions to our website, indicating that it has been pretty widely read among the audience we have

Although our zine was completely free, we raised $1300 USD and counting in at-will donations using Tiltify as a charity fundraiser platform – without a mod ever having to handle money or personal information

Even with the digital zine freely available, we still had enough interest to proceed with a print run, and sold 133 copies internationally (which we are now working to fulfill)

I cannot overstate how well this model worked for us! After the cut I’ll go into detail about the logistics and the benefits at each step. If you’re curious about this option, or just want to read about our process, read on!

We chose free + digital first for RTTP because of two constraints on the project:

As an anniversary zine, we had a fixed deadline we were targeting for delivery, which would have given us 7 months total from “hey let’s make a zine” to delivery. A print run was out of the question.

We had a team of first-time mods and wanted to minimize scope, stress and risk by taking money out of the equation

Here's how it turned out.

Timeline

Our mods are spreadsheet-loving workaholics, so YMMV, but the 7 month timeline from inception to delivery turned out to be just right. This broke down to:

1 month interest check and initial planning

1 month contributor applications opened and prep finalized

3 months for contributors to work on their pieces

2 months for zine production and promotion

We saved a significant amount of time that would have gone towards printing and shipping, which could have easily doubled the length of the project. We also had to make fewer decisions and do less research and setup up-front because we didn’t need to make decisions related to costing early on.

Although we were working towards a fixed deadline we didn’t want to move, choosing a digital release generally affords you better control over your timeline by reducing your dependencies on external factors such as shipping delays and changing import laws.

Contributors and Content

Under normal circumstances, printing or selling your zine comes with contributor and content restrictions.

The number of contributors a zine has will impact the size and weight of the physical book, which will affect its cost to print and ship. Digital zines simply don’t have this problem, and so our contributor limits were instead dictated by the amount of work our mod team felt willing to handle.

The same physical size constraints tend to cause zines to feature more art than writing because it takes less space per piece. Alternative, fewer writers being accepted with a much more restrictive word count. Because we weren’t worried about the size, we were able to accept many writers with a reasonable word-count, and invite essayists as well as fic authors for content variety.

Our zine was SFW, so we don’t have strong experience here, but going free/not-for-profit will also eliminate issues NSFW zines might encounter with trying to comply with storefront policies.

Charity Campaign

We decided later in the project that although the zine would be free, we should try to raise some money for charity while we were at it. We created digital merch that would be gated behind a minimum charity payment as an incentive. It was very painless to set this up without mods having to handle money directly. We used the charity fundraising platform Tiltify to accept payments on our behalf.

Anyone who contributed to the Tiltify campaign above a certain dollar amount received an email with a link to a Google Drive folder containing all the digital goodies. One could easily use this service to deliver a digital charity zine in the same way without having to manage a storefront. It's an excellent option for not-for-profit mods who want to avoid bookkeeping.

Release

Working toward a specific release date for the zine helped with the sense of community and morale on this project. We were very in control of our own delivery timelines and not beholden to external delays, so building the hype train was fun! Everyone involved got to see their work go out into the world at the same time and share in that sense of achievement.

Contributors also had a pretty minimal publishing embargo on their work, and were able to share their pieces approximately 2 months after the completion deadline, as opposed to having to wait for all shipping and fulfillment to complete.

Print Run

We had always entertained the idea of a limited print run, so we kept the project print-safe from the start, enabling us to do a print-run afte the fact.

After the zine’s release and a much needed several-month break for our mods, we felt we had the confidence, experience and trust we needed, and we set out to pursue that print run. We were unsure at the outset whether or not anyone would be interested in buying a copy of an already freely accessible zine. Turns out, the interest was definitely there!

We had no trouble at all meeting minimum order thresholds and have been able to move into the production phase. We are still in the process of delivering on our print run, so more reflections to come later, but I think having already delivered on our zine made the process less stressful and created less guesswork for us when it came to working out costs. We knew what our product would be like and we had a pretty good idea about the interest of our audience. This allowed us to stay pretty close to at-cost pricing for the zine.

Minimal Stress and Headaches

Our mod team had two mantras. One of them we repeated to each other whenever things felt overwhelming: “Free digital zine.” Just by removing any money from the equation we lowered the stakes – and therefore the stress – substantially. We were blessedly free of internal problems and drama, but if they had arisen, the “free digital zine” principle also would have helped to protect us, and protect the success of the project.

It also limited the stress on mods to break creating the zine and coordinating the production run into two separate projects. We were able to focus on one thing at a time and make sure that the details were all ironed out to the point that nobody lost any sleep over the project.

In the end, reduced stress + greater accessibility are probably the #1 reasons to pursue free and digital first. If you've made it this far - thanks for reading, and feel free to reach out with any questions. We'd love to see more free digital zines make it out into the world!

#free zines #zines on tumblr #zines #fandom zines #zine spotlight #ffvii zines #fanzines #zine #interest check

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skinnypaleangryperson · 4 months

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Can you believe that the very few things that even somewhat resemble even just a monthly community as a result just text me about things like meeting about tax fraud and about redundant political things that have been oversaturated that nobody understood why they even talked about it or why it was imported in the first place outside of their brainwashing. Where are the creative communities? Where is the attempt to enlighten the spirit and the sense of individuality? The stuff is even more achievable as an adult more than ever but if you try to find it you're pretty much stuck either screaming your living room on your own, doing isolated creative activities by yourself or maybe you have one or two friends that will help you if you're one of the lucky ones, but if you try to find community around here it's nothing but the most boring shit that we all know that nobody cares about that people pretend to care about because God forbid that anybody fights against the brainwashing that that's too late for them to have a spirit or to create.

#I am severely suffering and I'm seriously losing my mind #it's lonely being one of the few people capable of original independent thought #community

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sureuncertainty · 2 months

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okay so like how do you set boundaries with an internet friend that you don't wanna be friends with anymore? this is no one here, this is someone i know via instagram and I kinda just realized is actually a dick to me? all the time? and i don't wanna talk to them anymore much less have them edit my book (which they offered to do and I stupidly already said yes)

I don't wanna block them without saying anything, i literally have trauma around being blocked for no reason BUT like is that worse than like? just ghosting them forever? cause that's what I've been kinda doing already

this person CLAIMS to like my book but they've also given me stupid super nit-picky and mean spirited criticisms on it that make no sense that are literally like suspension of disbelief things (also they tried to say that it was "unrealistic" for Cain to not be arrested for tax fraud, which like. buddy you're european and you have no fucking idea what CEO billionaires in the US are fucking capable of getting away with apparently lol)

These criticisms were basically unprompted btw. they were like oh can i make some comments and I said yeah sure thinking it'd be something small and then they proceeded to tell me that my entire story makes no sense and kinda mock it and make fun of it and make me feel dumb

so they made me really insecure about my writing and also literally none of my headmates like them and we get that we can't stop them from reading our book when it's published BUT we just don't want to talk to them about it or have them read it for free

i asked a friend about it and they think they're jealous of me and that's why they say they like my book but are also picking it apart and idk if that's true but I don't think they're like... PURPOSEFULLY being an asshole they just are. i literally dread every message I get from them. OH also they called one of my headmates an ableist slur which like okay fine, it's a common slur that people throw around but it was still hmmmm not great (we are not out as a system on instagram btw)

they send me videos that are completely irrelevant to my interests, they've been BUGGING me about when i'll send them the chapters of silence agenda I told them they could edit (which now will not be happening lol). also our very first conversation was them trying to tell me that studying titanic history doesn't matter WHEN I WAS LITERALLY GRIEVING AFTER THE SUBMERSIBLE DISASTER LAST SUMMER AND VENTING MY FRUSTRATIONS ABOUT IT. and i did snap at them that time and we worked it out and both apologized for making assumptions which was fine but still. like i almost blocked them the moment they sent me that message and now i really really really wish I had bc I feel like i'm in too deep

we also have several mutuals in common and i would worry that if I blocked them on everything, they'd ask one of our common mutuals about it (or a mutual would share my art or something) and they'd realize that I have them blocked, and then i'd have to like. explain myself. and i don't feel comfortable telling those mutuals about it bc i DO NOT want to be that person that's like 'hey jsyk you're following this person who is Problematique' bc i DESPISE when people do that

anyway yeah i just don't know how to handle it and any advice would be appreciated. idk how i've been putting up with this person's bullshit for so long like dear lord i kinda felt like i yanked the wool off my eyes today and realized how fucking awful they are to me

#sorry for the massive vent i just wanted to get these feelings out #and i did end up blocking an ex tumblr mutual once and haven't regretted it but they were a radfem #this is different obviously #but yeah none of us want anything to do with this person ever again. we don't wanna put up with their bullshit #win rambles #vent /

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piermanwalter · 3 months

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According to self-proclaimed experts and leading crystal glass manufacturers online, apparently the answer to "Does this glass contain lead, and if so, how dangerous is it?" is "Go fuck yourself. If you don't buy from me, you deserve to die." I swear to fuck, the *ting* test must be a conspiracy to ensure that every resale hustler grindset shithead and every pretentious blue blood snob shithead will advertise lead crystal any chance they get. "Ooh the unmistakable lasting ring of true crystal-" It's a big bowl. Of course it will fucking *ting*. If I struck a mass produced cake cloche, it will *ting*. If you melted broken beer bottles and gravel into a big bowl, it will *ting*.

I also shouldn't have expected better from professional sources because of fucking course they will mangle all information into advertisements. "Timeless beautiful luxurious lead it contains is harmless unless you misuse it in which case we are doing the world a favour by ridding it of you crystal is softer than glass so it can be cut into intricate shapes crystal is harder than glass so it can be made thinnnnnnerr crystal is softer than glass so you must never put it in the dishwasher crystal is harder than glass so it will last forever unless you destroy it with your clumsy insensate undeserving ill-bred low-class subhuman paws-" Shut the fuck up. I'm losing more brain cells trying to comprehend this fucking shit than I ever will from lead. People like these are personally responsible for half of Earth's extinctions. If I don't get a straight answer soon, I will be personally responsible for half of their extinctions. "Skill issue" you may say, but the only "skill issue" here is how you don't know shit about lead glass either, and/or can't explain a single fucking thing in a way that someone who wasn't carried out of the maternity ward on a crystal platter can understand. If you can't explain everything online, at least have the humility to admit it.

The next time one of you hacks makes another smug asshole video where you *ting ting ting* lead crystal with no comparison with a similar piece of regular glass or posts a "new" article the same as sixty thousand other articles all competing with each-other to be the most useless piece of text ever formulated by mankind like grain entrapment except each grain is a Swarovski jewel that goes *ting* each time it moves, the last *ting* you hear will be my axe bouncing off your thick fucking skull. I hope you go into debt throwing every last cent into your twee Daisy-Fay-wet-dream-ass Etsy antique shop and then you get shut down for fraud and then you get investigated by government tax authority and then you get banned from doing business forever and then 500 vintage-collecting grandmas with no prior association beyond deep justified contempt for you specifically trash your name across every media platform and in-person social agglomeration in perpetuity. I hope every crystal artisan at your company is simultaneously possessed by the spirit of Hephaestus to march into your office en masse and bodily drag you onto the factory floor where they hoist you on their shoulders like the first Olympic athletes did with sacrificial cattle to drop you into the glowing crucible, but as your shoes melt they come to their senses and pull you out so you only have a few superficial burns, but then the glass formulation reacts to your shoes so badly that every batch coming out of that crucible is ruined, but even after the crucible is replaced, the curse of Hephaestus lingers so that every piece of glass produced in that factory is fucked up in some way, and then the company fires you and fines you for all damages and repair costs forever and the curse of Hephaestus follows you until you are living in a hollow tree planting onions in holes you dig by hand. I will throw you down an oubliette and feed you overnight oat breakfast bowls and juice blend sun teas prepared and served in whatever the hell random glassware I find at thrift stores and yard sales. If your own skill in identifying lead glass does not exceed what you deemed fit to share, I will feel no guilt when you die.

#glass #engineering #crystal #antiquing #personal #graphic injuries #profanity #shitpost #long post #food #religion #ting

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sinfulscream · 6 months

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character essay: topaz from honkai star rail

strap your seat belt in, we're going for a ride.

topaz is a debt collector.

now you may start thinking: did belobog commit a tax fraud? if so, how? i thought this was a very interesting thought process. because have you ever considered interplanar debt or financial settlements in sci-fi media? unless if they were sky pirates or very simple transactions of sale and purchase - it is often not explored and perhaps, most might even consider it not interesting.

for those who played the game and dedicated their time to the events, you'll find and agree that the influence of the interastral peace corporation (ipc) is wide - considering they hold a stake in an underused freight vehicle for the aurum alley business event. the ipc was also painted as calculating, for wanting to take back not only the freight vehicle, but any semblance of a bustling city. the ipc is a capitalist loaning body, driven by its "philanthropy", until it's time to reap the benefits."

when topaz walked into the story, that painting proves to have more details - more than just freight vehicles, the ipc could do more than just assistance in business, but repairing an entire planet.

topaz's exterior personality leaves readers with quite literally no hint to who she is or where is she from, aside from her love for animals, but playing the story leaves you to find out that she came from a heavily polluted planet that the only choice left was to leave everything to the ipc. however, it was also because of this upbringing and story that topaz would prioritise survival, more than its people's freedom. after all, protection from natural disaster as well resource allocation for a planet's rebuilding is a tempting deal - especially for belobog, that had only recently been cleared from its stellaron crisis.

not only that, belobog had also borrowed funds from the ipc prior to the planet's isolation from the rest of the world due to its extreme weather. the contract topaz offered to rebuild belobog and employ its citizens under the ipc would clear the arrears owed for over seven centuries.

despite the ipc's opportunistic nature as a body, topaz came to belobog and spoke to bronya with unmatched sincerity. topaz was a character that did not come from a privileged place, yet took the steps to dance alongside the work opportunity she was provided with. even if the contract offered by the ipc was tempting, even she was amazed by the thriving spirit of belobogians, looking toward a future with their intelligence and enduring the coldest blizzards. she could no longer compare the environment between jarilo-vi and her home planet.

despite having objectively failed her mission, she was humble, and did not assert her task more than necessary. if this was what the people of belobog wanted, then she would not force it upon them.

which comes at the cost of her current position, and she was demoted by one rank. even so, she still found beauty on this planet.

as a character, one would assume that her position meant she was always out for money, but she herself said that she was past working for the money, and thus did not mind the pay cut that came with her demotion. but more than that, she maintains a headstrong personality through it all - a marketing expert who knew how to use her story to resonate with potential clients, yet endearing for her love of animals.

she is also noted to be very capable and places the interest of the planet's ahead of work - the probability of success among her planet projects stood at 80%, higher than the ipc's average of 60%.

topaz is a multifaceted businesswoman: friendly with her network, assertive with her staff, a marketing expert and most of all, good-natured. as an experienced businesswoman, her story clashes at the differences in culture and ideals against bronya, a fresh-faced leader trusted by her subjects.

this blog entry was originally posted on stormofblood.

#honkai star rail #hsr #topaz (hsr)#character essay }#character: hsr

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