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| Link | Quote | Stars | Tags | Author |
| 3c5f901 | seventy-three thousand pages of IRS regulations, he laughed at the very suggestion. | T.R. Reid | ||
| ced613f | 47% problem--that is, the significant number of people who don't pay income tax. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 939f46c | A consumption tax like the VAT is paid by everybody, including those who pay no income tax and those who are in the country illegally. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 0592f93 | Recently, there has been considerable public concern about the fact that 47% of Americans pay no income tax; the presidential candidate Mitt Romney opined that these are people "who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them. . . . These are people who pay no income tax." | T.R. Reid | ||
| b5c310f | A Congress that produces something like Section 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(IX) in the name of reducing complexity hardly seems likely to agree on any serious changes that would improve the system. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 688bb92 | We pour more money into national defense than anybody else; our defense budgets, in fact, are bigger than those in the next eleven countries combined | T.R. Reid | ||
| 3fa851d | The argument for a lower tax rate on capital income--an argument supported by many economists--runs as follows: (1) economies need capital investment to grow and create new jobs; (2) capital investment by definition is risky (you could lose it all); and (3) therefore, a lower rate of tax on potential gains is necessary to encourage people to make those essential, but risky, investments. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 47e113b | Only the richest smidgen of the population had to file a return, and even for them the top tax rate was just 7%. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 2f6f2a0 | broker or banker who invests other people's money can count his own salary as "capital gains" and thus pay tax on it at the reduced, capital gains rate." | T.R. Reid | ||
| a057ca8 | Go to Part IV of Schedule I to figure line 52 if the estate or trust has qualified dividends or has a gain on lines 18a and 19 of column (2) of Schedule D (Form 1041) (as refigured for the AMT, if necessary). | T.R. Reid | ||
| b0ae18f | Would ancient Tibetan medicine recognize the value of X-rays? "Absolutely!" the doctor said. "When patients bring me their X-rays from the clinic up at Khunde, this is extremely helpful in my treatment." On the other hand, Dr. Tenzin was mystified by other diagnostic practices in Western medicine. "When they do urinalysis up at Khunde, all they do is stick a slip of paper into the sample," he said. "But that can't be enough. I just don't th.. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 894bd63 | The widest definition of "wealthy" is in India, where a 1% wealth tax kicks in for anybody whose net worth is more than 3 million rupees, which comes to about $45,000. (In India, that still means a small percentage of the population.)" | T.R. Reid | ||
| f7eb29d | Most of them ran counter to the ethos of BBLR. Virtually all of them made the tax code more complicated--including that bizarre "anti-complexity clause," Section 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(IX). Three decades after the passage of the 1986 reforms, the U.S. tax code is a mockery of the BBLR principle." | T.R. Reid | ||
| 844f69e | IRS Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998, a voluminous and hugely complex new law, which included the laughable "anti-complexity clause"--that is, Section 7803(c)(2)(B)(ii)(IX)." | T.R. Reid | ||
| adced13 | the number one most serious problem facing American taxpayers. That problem is the complexity of the tax code. | T.R. Reid | ||
| e61840e | 2012 tax-reform act stipulated that members of the national parliament and the prime minister's cabinet would pay 5% higher rates than anybody else in the country. "We did it as a gesture of solidarity," Kazimir said. "The message was, okay, if the parliament is going to raise taxes, we'll see to it that members of parliament pay more than anybody else. "It's the same kind of political bullshit you probably have in your Congress," Kazimir t.. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 7e16db9 | BBLR means that if the tax base--that is, the total amount of income, or sales, or property that can be taxed--is kept as large as possible, then the tax rate--that is, the percentage that people have to give to the government--can be kept low. Virtually all economists and tax experts agree that this is the best way to run a tax regime. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 233985c | If there's no deduction for contributions, charities don't have to produce a certified receipt for each donation, and the contributor doesn't have to track down the nine-digit Tax ID Number of each charity she wants to support. | T.R. Reid | ||
| eef6e19 | ALL THOSE ISSUES SHOULD be enough to demonstrate that the deduction for charitable contributions is costly, unfair, and easy to abuse. But there's actually a more fundamental problem with this particular deduction: It doesn't work. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 7754bbc | The big gorilla of homeowner tax breaks is the deduction for mortgage interest, which reduces income tax revenues by about $100 billion each year. That is, this one tax deduction costs more than the budgets of the departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, the Interior, and the Treasury combined. | T.R. Reid | ||
| b2c9a51 | anybody buying a qualified plug-in electric car--the list of approved vehicles includes sleek, sporty cars like the $105,000 Tesla Model S P85D and the $138,000 BMW i8--can subtract up to $7,500 from the income tax he or she owes Uncle Sam. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 17d7c09 | In the 1960s, the corporate tax brought in about 33% of U.S. tax revenues. Today, the same tax provides less than 9% of revenues; that means individual taxpayers have to take up the slack and pay more. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 2491880 | By the mid-1980s, the tax code allowed depletion or depreciation allowances that cut taxes for cement companies, Christmas tree farms, apple orchards, gravel pits, railroad cars, rubber importers, cattle growers, and many, many more. There was even a depreciation allowance for human beings; professional sports teams were allowed to write off their players as "depreciable assets" as they slowed down with age." | T.R. Reid | ||
| 3876152 | What had been the Internal Revenue Code of 1954 became the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, which it still is today. | T.R. Reid | ||
| 4fcbe2b | By routing its manufacturing through a tiny factory in Puerto Rico, Microsoft saved over $4.5 billion in taxes on goods sold in the United States" over a three-year period." | T.R. Reid | ||
| f90912b | And the design is quite brilliant," Vik said as he demonstrated the movable bottom that pressed all the blood into the lid. "Vampire Push Pops," I said. My sister grinned and elbowed me." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 025accc | How can you make jokes after learning such things?" You learn to laugh, or you paint the walls with your brains. But what I said was, "It's how we cope." -- | Eric R. Asher | ||
| bbb7f89 | The guests and I spent a glorious thirty minutes on some of the most uncomfortable folding chairs my ass has ever borne witness to, listening to a pastor who could make a sloth look like a gerbil on crack. | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 0c20dc7 | It was a little odd being single and watching an old girlfriend get married. It was also pretty funny knowing at least three people in the room, besides the groom, had slept with the bride. | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 341e942 | Look on the bright side," Foster said. "If it's not the right thing, you'll be too dead to worry about it." Carter grimaced. "Thanks, I feel much better now." "There is no better way to die, than to die with your enemies' entrails in your fist." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 2823c16 | What?" "There is no better-" "Stop, never mind. I heard you the first time." "What's up with the wolf?" Foster said as he looked at me. "Gee, I have no clue." "Was it the entrails?" | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 120c746 | He glanced down at the paper, then looked at Sam. His jaw opened slowly and he turned back to the picture of Elizabeth's mom. "Fuck me, is that a pigeon head in her hair? Please tell me you did that." "Yes, he did," Sam said." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 3fd720e | She's a firecracker, that one." "She's usually the most reasonable of the bunch," I said. The Old Man shook his head and stroked his beard. "You've obviously not seen her angry." "Ah, but I've seen her naked." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 4545efa | Every attack should bring death. Every death should be legendary. | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 0743d95 | Um, what did you say?" He was screaming again. "I said you almost hit the highway impact attenuation devices!" "The what?" "The barrels! The big fucking yellow barrels!" | Eric R. Asher | ||
| efa0f2f | Everyone let out a sigh of relief as Carter came into view. "Look what I found!" he said as he held up the decapitated head of the other Alpha. I grimaced and said, "Carter, you don't know where that's been." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| eae9546 | Some of us were not born to fight." "When the options are fight or die, everyone was born to fight." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 5b8e366 | I worked hard not to stare when she leaned forward, showing me more cleavage as she laughed. I'd consider my effort not to stare a moderate success. | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 425901e | I stared at my sister as she started walking back to us. Blood ran down her chin and was splattered across her face. "He's dead," she said. "Thank you, Captain Obvious," I said." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| bb96ac0 | Let's just go inside." "Amen," Dominic said as he dropped out of the shadows behind Dell, who proceeded to jump and squeal. It was a manly squeal." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| c68aa4d | Have you ever eaten meat on a Friday?" Mike asked as the stairs echoed beneath our footsteps. "What?" I said. "Does cow count?" "Ah, then you were already going to hell," Mike said." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 8606850 | Almost on cue, both vampires snapped out their fangs and slammed them into the top of the cups. "Vampire sippy cups," I muttered. Both of them stifled laughter in an effort not to spray the room in blood." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| 8b16cf3 | I'm impressed you survived your childhood, Damian," Alan said. "We all have our talents," I said." | Eric R. Asher | ||
| af74115 | He knew exactly what he was doing with every atrocity he committed. There is no hope for someone who loses themselves to righteousness. | Eric R. Asher |