Category Archives: Taxes

IRS Hiring Spree Is The Biggest Police-State Expansion In US History, by David Harsanyi

The government desperately needs your money, and it doesn’t care how it gets your dollars. From David Harsanyi at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

The Democrats’ new reconciliation bill isn’t just going to be the largest-ever expansion of a government agency. It’s going to be the largest expansion of the domestic police state in American history. Only a statist could believe that a federal government, which already collects $4.1 trillion every year—or $12,300 for every citizen—supposedly needs 80 battalions of new IRS cops.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre answers questions during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington on Aug. 5, 2022. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

The average American has less reason to be concerned about cops with guns—though the IRS is looking for special agents who can “carry a firearm and be willing to use deadly force, if necessary”—than they do bureaucrats armed with pens who are authorized to sift through their lives. If you pay your taxes you have nothing to worry about, Democrats claim. But most law-abiding citizens know they have something to fear from a state agency that doesn’t concern itself with your due process, has no regard for your privacy, and is empowered to target anyone it wants without any genuine oversight.

And, please, spare us this nonsense about the IRS expansion focusing exclusively on “high earners.” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre promised that the IRS wouldn’t engage in new audits of anyone making under $400,000—a claim she has no authority to make and could not possibly predict even if she did. Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy also said that the bill was passed to stop an “epidemic of tax cheating amongst the millionaires and billionaires” and promised that “audit rates won’t increase for anyone making under $400K.”

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Tax Freedom in Puerto Rico, by John Stossel

If you move to Puerto Rico you will pay no federal income tax and only Puerto Rico’s 4 percent tax. From John Stossel at townhall.com:

Tax Freedom in Puerto Rico

Source: AP Photo/Carlos Giusti

Want to pay no federal income tax?

Move to Puerto Rico.

Really. If you move to the island, you can legally pay none. There’s also no capital gains tax.

You just have to give 4% of your income to Puerto Rico.

The tax break was started by a Puerto Rican politician who’d watched years of high taxes fail to improve life on the island. He decided to try something different.

Obviously, it’s a popular idea, when people learn about it.

Tens of thousands have applied for the exemption, and applications tripled last year.

YouTube star Logan Paul moved his show from California to Puerto Rico to take advantage of the tax deal.

Investor Peter Schiff says, “I did it for the obvious benefit of being able to keep most of what I own … It’s too bad that Puerto Rico didn’t do this decades ago. They wouldn’t be in the economic trouble they are today.”

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Is the IRS Coming for You? By MN Gordon

One way or another the government is coming after your income, your wealth, your freedom, and eventually, your life. From MN Gordon at economicprism.com:

This week, while you were busy working, President Biden signed what he says is, “one of the most significant laws in our history.”

It’s called the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022.  The name implies it will reduce inflation.  How pumping $750 billion into preferred sectors of the economy will reduce inflation is unclear.

But what is clear, and as confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office, is that the bill will force working-class Americans to pay an estimated $20 billion more in taxes over the next decade.

For the Biden administration, this is all part of its plan to consolidate power, push its socialist agenda, bury workers with crushing taxes, and destroy the middle class with soaring inflation.  The Build Back Better Act may have failed.  But the IRA, which cobbles together much of the trash from BBB, is now federal law.

We’ll have more on this in just a moment.  But first, some context is in order.

Where to begin…

Money provides the means for trading available goods and services.  If a person wants to increase their portion of goods and services, they must first increase their productivity.  They can do this in one of two ways.  By working harder.  Or by working smarter.

In an economy with stable money, those who gripe about not having enough money are, in essence, pointing out they should be more productive.  But in an economy with unstable money, like most economies of the world circa 2022, not having enough money can be a function of where your place is on the money trough…

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Trump Voter Excited To See Whether He’ll Get Raided By FBI Or Gunned Down By IRS

From The Babylon Bee:

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DENVER, CO — Local man Walter Bishop is reportedly excited to find out whether he will soon be raided by the FBI or gunned down by the IRS. The longtime conservative is reportedly ecstatic to show people how right he was about the slippery slope he’s been warning everyone about.

“This is terrific!” he told next-door neighbor Phil Astrototop. “I wonder which it will be — a raid or an epic showdown with IRS agents.”

Phil, a moderate Democrat disapproved of Bishop’s oddly gleeful attitude. “Nothing’s going to happen, man. It’s not like you’re breaking the law. Don’t do anything wrong and the government won’t bother you.”

Bishop laughed. “That’s what you think! I voted for Trump. I guarantee they’re coming for me. You’ll see, I’m right!”

Friends and family members of Walter Bishop are concerned that his optimistic anticipation of a pessimistic event may be a mental disorder.

“We’re really worried about him,” said Bishop’s wife. “Also he’s kind of scaring me. I don’t want to be raided by the FBI! They’ll see my unmentionables!”

At publishing time, the home of Phil Astrototop was raided by a team of federal agents working in conjunction with the IRS but, because Astrototop is a known Democrat, Walter Bishop was unable to gloat that he had been “right all along.”

Former IRS Whistleblower Says Middle Class Americans Will Be Targeted Under Inflation Reduction Act, by Katabella Roberts

The IRS is tasked with shrinking an already shrinking middle class even more. From Katabella Roberts at 2ndsmartestguyintheworld.substack.com:

The IRS is an unconstitutional “Federal” agency that terrorizes America.

A detail of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) headquarters building is seen in the Federal Triangle section of Washington, on April 27, 2020. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A former Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower has said that the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will see the government target middle-income Americans with increased scrutiny and audits.

William Henck previously worked as a lawyer for the IRS for 20 years until 2017, when he was terminated for allegedly revealing sensitive information to the media about how the IRS had reportedly failed to identify a multi-billion-dollar corporate tax credit scheme involving a source of energy known as burning pulp byproducts, or black liquor.

Speaking to Fox Business, Henck disputed claims by the IRS and other officials who have said that increased funding for the agency under the IRA, which is set to be signed into law by President Joe Biden this week, would only lead to more audits for wealthy millionaires and billionaires and large corporations.

“The idea that they’re going to open things up and go after these big billionaires and large corporations is quite frankly [expletive],” Henck said in the interview on Aug. 15. “It’s not going to happen. They’re going to give themselves bonuses and promotions and really nice conferences.”

“The big corporations and the billionaires are probably sitting back laughing right now,” he said, adding that it was “insane” to double the IRS budget.

Henck also said he believes that the agency will go after businesses that don’t have enough money to hire Washington lobbyists.

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Want To Be One Of The New IRS Agents? Here Are The 17 Job Requirements

From The Babylon Bee:

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President Biden just solved the economy by creating thousands of IRS jobs! We know you’ve always dreamed of working for the IRS, but do you have what it takes?

Here are the job requirements in case you’re interested:

  1. Must be a U.S. citizen
  2. Minimum education: Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting
  3. 5 years of Krav Maga martial arts experience
  4. Maintain a level of fitness necessary to perform a chokehold until a tax delinquent is subdued and/or dead
  5. Must derive pleasure from human suffering
  6. Comfortable with firing squad-style executions
  7. Unable to think for yourself
  8. Ability to use force lightning preferred but not required
  9. Cheered for Agent Smith in The Matrix
  10. Must hate children
  11. Proficiency in ignoring people who tell you to mind your own business
  12. Passionate about auditing Etsy moms selling crafts just trying to make ends meet
  13. Fluent in German, goose-stepping experience is a plus
  14. Comfortable with firing RPGs at the homes of conservative activists with tax “discrepancies”
  15. Previous waterboarding experience
  16. Pass a psychological exam to determine if you sympathize with the government while watching Jason Bourne movies
  17. Looking for the type that shoots first and does the math later

If you meet all these requirements, apply today and make all your dreams come true!

https://babylonbee.com/news/want-to-be-one-of-the-new-irs-agents-here-are-the-17-job-requirements

Alexander Bidenton’s Standing IRS Army, by Thomas DiLorenzo

We need an army of IRS enforcers to collect the taxes that are used to pay the army of IRS enforcers. From Thomas DiLorenzo at lewrockwell.com:

The Biden administration’s “Inflation Reduction Act” will increase inflation with hundreds of billions in additional government spending and money creation by the Fed while making supply chain problems even worse with onerous new corporate taxes, especially on energy, and myriad new “Green New Deal” environmental regulations.  Increased government spending and reduced production will cause higher prices, not lower.

To collect all the new taxes for this latest election-year spending binge the administration is proposing to spend some $80 billion to more than double the number of IRS agents, hiring 87,000 new ones, 70,000 of which are reported to be armed.  The Democrat party wants a standing army of armed tax collectors to enforce its will.

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The End of Tax Havens? By Jeff Thomas

A tax haven is just a place where the government lets you keep more of your own money than other places. From Jeff Thomas at internationalman.com:

The image above is of a World War II German Panzer tank. So, what does that have to do with tax havens? I’ll get to that soon.

But first, let’s look at the Isle of Jersey, one of the islands in the English Channel. Most people think of it as a British tax haven, but it’s not, strictly speaking, a part of the UK and not a member of the EU. It’s a self-governing parliamentary democracy under a constitutional monarchy and has its own legal, judicial, and, most importantly, financial systems. For decades, it’s been a choice location for those who seek to avoid taxation.

Income tax was first created in England to pay for the Napoleonic Wars (maximum: 10%) and was raised in World War II to a maximum of 99.25%, again to pay for warfare. It was reduced after the war, but climbed again (on investment income over £20,000) to a maximum of 98% in 1974.

Jersey emerged as a tax haven as a result. Since Jersey was not obligated to pay tax to the UK, Britons increasingly deposited their wealth there.

It’s important to mention at this juncture that most of the world’s tax havens first sprouted as a result of similar situations – supply created in response to a clear need. Most people will abide low to moderate taxation but, whenever governments have become truly rapacious in taxing their people, those people have sought to escape enslavement from their own governments. Sometimes, this has meant physically leaving the country (as so many Britons did in the 70’s) and, sometimes, this has meant moving one’s money to a jurisdiction that has either low, or no, direct taxation.

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Supersized IRS Will Shrink Liberty, by Ron Paul

Taxes and liberty cannot coexist. From Ron Paul at ronpaulinstitute.org:

West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin recently claimed the 15 percent corporate minimum tax contained in the Inflation Reduction Act, which should be called the Inflation Creation Act, is not a tax increase. Instead, he claimed, the bill simply closes a loophole that allows corporations to avoid paying all the taxes they owe. Despite what Senator Manchin says, the fact is the new minimum tax increases the amount of money some corporations must hand over to the government; in other words, it increases their taxes.

It is common for politicians, policy wonks, and even some libertarians to demonize loopholes for making the tax system too complex, but loopholes are simply ways that individuals can keep more of their money. Loopholes are thus pro-liberty and pro-sound economics.

In addition to raising taxes, the Inflation Reduction Act provides 80 billion dollars to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Some of the money will go to improving taxpayer services so, for example, taxpayers may actually talk to a real person who can provide information about the tax law when they call the agency. But, over 50 percent will be spent on enforcement.

The IRS is expected to hire approximately 87,000 new agents. Supporters of the expansion say the IRS will use the enhanced enforcement capacity to target only “the rich.” However, it is not necessary to massively increase the IRS’s enforcement capacity just to go after “rich tax cheats.”

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American Kleptocracy. By Raheem Kassam

A classic money sentence: “In other words, they just used your taxes to increase your taxes so they could hire 87,000 IRS agents to rifle further through your taxes in case you owe more taxes.” From Raheem Kassam at raheemkassam.substack.com:

“Nations do not escape from their past merely by making a revolution.”

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) commissioner Charles P. Rettig told Congress his agency wouldn’t increase audits on households earning less than $400,000 after being handed circa 87,000 more agents in the Orwellianly-monikered Inflation Reduction Act hurried through the U.S. Congress this weekend.

Which means they absolutely will be doing that, if historical promises by agency heads in front of the lawmakers they pretend to answer to are anything to go by. And they are.

In other words, they just used your taxes to increase your taxes so they could hire 87,000 IRS agents to rifle further through your taxes in case you owe more taxes.

Welcome to American kleptocracy.

IRS estimates (which we know are always excellent) reveal supposedly uncollected taxes of around $1trn each year. Or, as I like to call it, one-eighth of a “war on terror.”

Can you imagine how many nuclear drag queens, beagle experiments, or foreign abortions your government could (and will) buy with that cash?

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