Posted on 07/17/2002 7:21:20 AM PDT by wcdukenfield
Tax reform and Immigration reform, two issues that neither party will seriously address.
Yes, they can. Many folks and atty's end up giving up any client priviledge by including others in discussions, documents etc. Unless criminal activity is assumed from the get-go, most folks are pretty careless.
The code itself is probably about 4 inches. Its the regs, rules, notices, private letter rulings, case law etc. that fills the library.
Yeah, there're plenty of honest socialists that consider themselves patriots. They honestly think our traditions of personal freedom need changing. 'Course, I think socialism encourages dishonesty by its very nature.
I do think there are politicians deserving of any benefit an ordinary citizen gets. But when they set themselves up as being on another plane, IMO, they're defying the whole purpose of the constitution.
I often think that a politician with the two qualities of integrity and honesty would be unbeatable. But it's seems hard to even think of one (maybe W.) and you wonder if that would be enough to overcome the greed and envy the democrats appeal to anyway.
Yes, simplicity is a major component to compliance. So is fairness.
Get a simple, fair tax code and you'll have improved compliance!
BTW "flat income tax" = value added tax. WHile anything is better than what we have, I shudder at the thought of any income tax, flat or round. I shudder at the IRS staying alive, and I shudder at the thought of the "flat" tax's inevitable move toward progressivity.
You have to define "audit" as IRS has many different levels of underwear-staining interviews.
Nevertheless, the IRS is bigger (more employees) and sucks up more money annually, regardless of the number of "audits".
Sadly, the resources of the IRS are still increasing.
Two articles from which I quote a few paragraphs from. Both are from Action America.
US Taxpatriates
Compiled by the Internal Revenue Service
http://www.actionamerica.org/taxecon/taxpats.html
The following links are to the US Government's official lists of Taxpatriates, as compiled quarterly by the IRS, required under 26 USC 877(a)(1). Under this law, the people on this list may be taxed for ten years after they renounced their citizenship. Furthermore. under 8 USC 1182(a)(10)(E)), these persons may not be allowed back into the US for any reason.
* * *
The Privacy Factor
Yet Another Reason Why The
Wealthy Are Leaving The USA
http://www.actionamerica.org/taxecon/privfactor.html
Every time another millionaire leaves the United States, the US tax base is reduced proportionately and the remaining taxpayers take another small hit. It is the total of all of those small hits that makes this issue significant. But, there is a side to this issue, in which each expatriation is much more significant and that could be potentially much more devastating. I'm not talking about just the wealthy any more. I'm talking about the super-wealthy. BILLIONAIRES!...
...In the discussion that followed, a whole new light began to shine. This billionaire, who I have reason to believe would rank in the top 100, of the 538 billionaires on the Forbes World's Richest People list, was not on the list at all, because of one reason. He chooses not to be. He chooses PRIVACY. But, as he pointed out to me, that would not be enough, if he were still a US citizen....
...As a US citizen, he would have to report to the IRS annually, ALL of his worldwide earnings, regardless of where in the world the income was generated or where it was banked. That would mean that ALL of the financial information necessary to trace his net worth would be accessible in one place. Years ago, as his net worth approached the level that would have placed him on the Forbes 400 Richest Americans list, he found that scenario to be unacceptable; hence, expatriation. Are you beginning to see where this is leading?...
...The point is, that beyond fear of the IRS and their confiscatory powers, the super wealthy have a far more powerful reason for choosing expatriation - their desire for Personal Privacy....
Foreign Wealth is Leaving Too
...It gets even worse. Because of the IRS implementation, earlier this year, of "Qualified Intermediary" (QI) Regulations, privacy concerned foreign billionaires (and millionaires), who have until recently been responsible for large amounts of foreign investment in the United States, are now moving their investments to more "private" jurisdictions, as well. The reason is simple. The QI Regulations require foreign financial institutions who invest client money in the United States to reveal the true identity of individual investors or lose the right to serve as a "Qualified Intermediary" for US investments. Those billionaires (and millionaires) who want to preserve their privacy are just directing those financial institutions to invest their money elsewhere....
...So now, not only is the IRS driving privacy concerned US billionaires out of the United States, with all of their investment capital and tax base, but they are driving privacy concerned foreign billionaires (and millionaires) to invest their wealth offshore, as well. In today's market, there are many other places where the wealthy can invest their money for a similar risk and return, without having to sacrifice their privacy as part of the price.
With all the IRS does/has done, why would anyone keep them around? Odd that the feds don't see that their tactics are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Why politicians and bureaucrats eschew admitting their errors.
An eye-opening identification of the real reason why self-proclaimed authorities avoid at almost all cost admitting their own errors.
Not only is it in their eyes a sign of weakness to admit their own errors, they eschew demonstrating a demarcation point wherein an observer can delineate that the person does in fact have honor and integrity to act honestly.
The importance of that is overwhelming. Once a person has shown that degree of maturity -- that degree of honesty and integrity -- it is expected that they will continue to demonstrate a similar high degree of that character trait.
Thus, it is not a one time event of showing weakness they most fear, rather, it is an ongoing condition of honest charter development that they fear the observer will hold them to.
They -- parasitical politicians, self-serving bureaucrats and other high-profile self-proclaimed authorities -- know how often they intentionally deceive, and to demonstrate a rational and honest character trait of freely admitting one's own error would thwart their future deceptions. ...They would be called to the matt -- their feet held to the fire -- to again demonstrate mature character development to acknowledge/admit their error. For the alternative is far more destabilizing to their authority (which is really just their self-proclaimed authority). Destabilizing for them to defend their argument, to defend an argument that is indefensible. So they avoid at all cost demonstrating a mature character trait that the vast majority of adults take for granted in themselves. They fear being held accountable to a valid and real character trait that is respected by virtually every person.
Also, a person over time can admit to only so many errors before they become discredited. Admitting errors and positioning oneself as "everyone makes errors" only goes as far as people make a few errors, not several errors in their field of expertise. So they can't take that route either.
In effect, self-proclaimed authorities chose to pigeon hole themselves into continued irrationality that leads them to deceptions and dishonesty. All in effort to support their "authority" status. Which again, is merely their self-proclaimed authority status.
Bottom line, they have sullen self-esteem and envy others that have earned their self-esteem based on rational, honest and mature charter development. Those positive charter traits are the properties of the value creator -- the workers of the world that create the goods and services that increase the well-being, health and prosperity of self, others and society. They hold real and valid power. They create the sustenance for enhancing human life. They are the envy of self-proclaimed authorities.
The above identifications encompass -- to one degree or another -- all self-proclaimed authorities and especially politicians and bureaucrats with their supporting/complicit media and academic "authorities".
With all the IRS does/has done, why would anyone keep them around?
The Genie is Out of the Bottle.
Congress has created so many laws that virtually every person is assured of breaking more than just traffic laws. Surely with all this supposed lawlessness people and society should have long ago run head long into destruction. But it has not.
Instead, people and society have progressively prospered. Doing so despite politicians creating on average, 3,000 new laws each year which self-serving alphabet-agency bureaucrats implement/utilize to justify their usurped power and unearned paychecks. They both proclaim from on high -- with complicit endorsement from the media and academia -- that all those laws are "must-have" laws to thwart people and society from running headlong into self-destruction.
Again, despite not having this year's 3,000 must-have laws people and society increased prosperity for years and decades prior. How can it be that suddenly the people and the society they form has managed to be so prosperous for so long but suddenly they will run such great risk of destroying their self-created prosperity?
The government is the all time champion of cooking the books and it has the gall to point fingers at the whole business community because of a few bad apples. The entire business community and employees that support it should stand tall against a government feigning to protect the little guy from organizations that cook their books.
If there was ever a prime example of the fox guarding the hen house it is the government claiming to protect the little guy from organizations that cook their books. President Bush will have to militarily smash down terrorism. For that is his job. It's not the President's, congress' or the government's job to manipulate the economy.
The business community with their employees will have to stand tall against the PC-status-quo fox -- self-proclaimed authorities claiming/feigning they'll use the government to protect the little guy and a complicit media and academia that supports them; for they are all the fox -- to regain their rightful place as the champions of honest business that has always increased the well-being of people.
The government, having already manipulated the economy to almost no-end, President Bush can play the unbeatable five-ace hand of replacing the threat-of-force IRS and graduated income tax with a don't-pay-the-tax-if-you-don't-want-to consumption tax. For example, implement the proposed national retail sales tax (NRST). Not only would that win votes for Bush and republicans in congress it would boom the economy.
Where will it lead?
War of Two Worlds
Value Creators versus Value Destroyers
Politics is not the solution. It's the problem!
The first thing civilization must have is business/science. It's what the family needs so that its members can live creative, productive, happy lives. Business/science can survive, even thrive without government/bureaucracy.
Government/bureaucracy cannot survive without business/science. In general, business/science and family is the host and government/bureaucracy is a parasite.
Aside from that, keep valid government services that protect individual rights and property. Military defense, FBI, CIA, police and courts. With the rest of government striped away those few valid services would be several fold more efficient and effective than they are today.
Underwriters Laboratory is a private sector business that has to compete in a capitalist market. Underwriters laboratory is a good example of success where government fails.
Any government agency that is a value to the people and society -- which there are but a few -- could better serve the people by being in the private sector where competition demands maximum performance.
Wake up! They are the parasites. We are the host. We don't need them. They need us.
* * *
After all, in calling for the resignation of Securities and Exchange Commissioner Harvey Pitt, McCain declares, “Government’s demands for corporate accountability are only credible if government executives are held accountable as well." Does that mean U.S. senators? Congress, Accounting, and the Free Market (McCain is grandstanding again)
"Too often, we have cooked the books, exploited off-balance sheet accounting, fudged budget numbers and failed to disclose fully the nation's assets and liabilities. If we in Washington are to have credibility in the public eye as we address the corporate accounting mess, we must reform our own fiscal practices," said McCain. Social Security Called A Bigger Fraud Than Corporate Scandals
Prove it first. It's not like it's a new discovery or problem. It's a seventy-year-old problem. It's just that now politicians and bureaucrats have trapped themselves and the general public is becoming increasingly aware. They've been caught and McCain is getting interview time to peddle gussied-up compassionate government.
"Allowing Americans to invest responsibly a small part of their payroll taxes will not only save Social Security, but will provide them with greater retirement income than those who no or will soon depend on Social Security checks," said McCain. Social Security Called A Bigger Fraud Than Corporate Scandals
Notice McCain so readily wants himself and government to allow Americans to invest part of their own money. But he has a condition; it most be done responsibly. And who decides what is responsible? Certainly not the all-time champion, cook-the-books bureaucrats and snake-oil-salesmen politicians.
They -- self-proclaimed authorities -- are running citizens and society headlong into destruction.
does anybody know who heads the committee in the house that has oversite of the IRS and his E-Mail address? Releasing those names was outragous!
A M E N ! ! !
Fact is that We will never again be a free people so long as there is an Income Tax and an IRS! SCRAP THE CODE NOW!!!
B I N G O ! ! !
These measures will, of course, be different in different countries.
Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.
1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. 2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in he hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.
That's because it comes STRAIGHT out of THE MANIFESTO OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY!
Why? Could it be because they are... oh.... CORRUPT???!!!
I'm not talking about the average agent. Most agents try to be fair. But the leadership is not only dishonest but power-hungry. The only thing keeping the IRS alive is that congress is terrified that their contributors would be audited or their own reputations would be destroyed.
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