April 14, 2019

"Income taxation in the United States began in public view. When Congress imposed the first income tax in 1861, during the Civil War..."

"... it required the disclosure of names, incomes and tax payments. Over the following decade, before Congress ended the tax, this data was posted in public and printed in newspapers. That practice was briefly revived in 1924. It’s time for another revival. The question is whether Americans are willing to endure a little sunlight in the interest of fairness and equality."

Writes Binyamin Appelbaum, a member of the NYT editorial board, in "Everyone’s Income Taxes Should Be Public/Disclosure of tax payments would make it easier to hold politicians accountable. It also would help to reduce fraud and economic inequality."

What about privacy?!
Calling for more disclosure may seem discordant at a time of growing concern about privacy. But income taxation is an act of government, not an aspect of private life.
So there you see. By taxing us, the government has taken away not just our money but our privacy.

The top-rated comment over there is:
I don’t want my tax return made public. I don’t want my kids, friends, clients, enemies, fraudsters seeing my business. Make politicians release. I’m not running for anything.
Second:
It seems weird that the Times would, while doing a whole series lambasting the decline of privacy, publish an op-ed calling for an end to privacy of tax returns.
Third:
What I make is none of my neighbor's business. Envy is the main driving force of unhappiness in our species and there's no better way to amplify it than to let neighbors know exactly where they stand in their neighborhood hierarchy of financial success....
Appelbaum seems to have no awareness that millions of Americans are embarrassed by how little money they make. Or may he thinks embarrassment is a small price to pay for creating pressure to equalize incomes.  Let's crank up the shame and the envy.

Because... Trump.

100 comments:

rehajm said...

Do they think they'll find a W2 signed by Putin?

Darrell said...

You first, Fuckhead.

rehajm said...

Failed to consider this: America will discover how overpaid journalists are.

Earnest Prole said...

The piece is beyond stupid because any real-estate developer with a competent accountant does not claim income.

mccullough said...

The NY Times uses anonymous sources constantly.

Now it wants sunlight?

How about we pass a law saying no anonymous sources. Get some sunlight in.

The Times doesn’t give a shit about sunlight. It makes its money passing off unsourced gossip from cowards with an axe to grind.


mccullough said...

There is no ending point in the quest for sunlight.

Why not make every financial record and transaction available for all to see.

I’d like to see what Appelbaumspends his money on. What companies he invests in. Where he banks.

It would tell me a lot more about him than his tax returns.

Let the sunshine in.

Susan said...

As a public school employee my wages are posted every year in our local paper. I don't have a problem with that. The public is paying me so they have a right to know how much. My husband, however, works for himself and it's nobody's business whatsoever how much he earns.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The issue of privacy and TRUMP'S tax returns being released is that in a complicated business system like Trump's much of the information that will be released will be that of OTHER PEOPLE. Other people's personal information

Is isn't like Trump is filing a standard form. His tax returns are probably pile 5 inches or more high of documents that most CPAs would find challenging to decipher.

Business partners. Corporate holders. Companies he has done business with. Donors to charities. etc etc etc. Which then will expose a plethora of private citizens to the piranhas in the media.

You can't have it both ways. Keep privacy for individuals and also expose an entity like Trump Inc. (or Bill Gates Inc. or Warren Buffet Inc.) to the uninformed scrutiny of the morons in Congress, the idiotic Democrat party and the sub morons in the media.

Everyone's personal business on the table?

Until every single person in Congress releases their tax returns from when they were private citizens and during the period that they are in office, Trump should tell them to pound sand.

chickelit said...

Does Carlos Slim, a foreign national, pay US income tax on his stake in The New York Times? I know there may be no income to tax. Asking for a fiend.

David Begley said...

Maximum TDS at the NYT.

Whatever Tom Friedman, Maggie Haberman, Charles Blow, Frank Bruni and Paul Krugman make, it is too much.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

The piece is beyond stupid because any real-estate developer with a competent accountant does not claim income.

This exactly. The tax code is unbelievably complicated and made that way on purpose by Congress and others who have vested interests.

Any rational business person will take advantage of the codes to minimize taxation during and AFTER life. Not cheat or commit fraud. Just use the tools that are already legally there.

Gahrie said...

When did "ending income inequality" become a legitimate goal of government?

chuck said...

It would certainly change the dating scene.

Kevin said...

Let's crank up the shame and the envy.

Because... Trump.


Please. This has nothing to do with Trump.

The sooner we recognize this is central to the left’s plans for the country, the sooner we can see their plans for what they truly are.

Trump is just today’s rationale. There always have been, and will always be, others.

buwaya said...

This is just another symptom of the all-out war American castes are waging against each other. Its not a matter of this issue or that, of this custom or constraint or restraint or discipline going, but that all of them are already gone. None are left.

There are no limits anymore, other than those imposed by the balance of power. This is your actual, functional condition.

This realization is only breaking through slowly, the rate of understanding hampered by lifetimes of contrary education and practice, of obsolete knowledge cluttering up the minds of older people, of a mass media dedicated to concealing the true state of things, and the human tendency to fall victims to complacency.

There is no good reason for complacency.

MountainMan said...

Repeal the 16th Amendment. And the 17th, too, while we’re at it.

Henry said...

Given how easy it is to guess at people's wealth in terms of other public records, this seems like a big yawn to me.

Temujin said...

Socialism is envy. It is driven and sold by making people envious of others wealth and life (real or perceived).

The Federal income tax system as we know it came into being in 1913, but until 1943, citizens wrote checks each quarter, or annually, for the amount of tax they owed. That went away in WWII when the government needed a regular flow of dollars to fund the war effort. Thus started a payroll tax withholding system, making it easier for the government to collect money, and easier for the citizens to pay their taxes. However...from then on, it made it less apparent to the public just how much they were paying in taxes.

I suspect if there was no payroll withholding, and if everybody had to actually write a check each quarter, or annually there would be some eyes opening up.

Michael The Magnificent said...

A never-Trump neighbor of mine wants to see Trump's tax returns, because he suspects Trump might have paid no income taxes.

I agreed with him that it is a possibility, given that Trump is a real estate developer, that we'd recently gone through a crash in the real estate market, and so it was quite possible that for one or more years Trump's losses exceeded his gains, so he might not have have any net income to tax. But none of this loss-gain-net-taxable-income matters to him, nor to the rest of the never-Trump crowd; Trump is rich, therefore he should pay, regardless.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
daskol said...

Sometimes libertarians can seem a bit paranoid, locating a totalitarian impulse in even commonplace political positions. Pieces like this remind me that the totalitarian impulse is about as prevalent as the "craziest" libertarians say so.

Ignatius Acton Chesterton OCD said...

I’ve got a better idea...

Pass a flat tax with ZERO deductions and no EITC. Alright, I’d allow one: per child deduction. And most everyone can see how many kids someone has (Disclaimer: I have no children).

Then the tax return doesn’t matter, unless this idea is being floated to merely to satisfy Binyamin’s hatred, envy and distrust. I suspect that is the case.

And it’s the tax code, stupid. How ‘bout some transparency there, eh? And thousands of pages of publicly-vilbke rules is NOT transparency... it’s corruption by sheer volume.

Henry said...

It's interesting to compare this taxation issue to Glassdoor, the Internet company that compiles employee reviews of companies and includes salary estimates. Glassdoor will share information if you provide it information.

Zillow will give you the real estate history and current estimated value of any address.

Maybe the IRS should recast itself as the Internal Revenue Social Media Service. The more information it entices you to make public, the more memes you get to share with your quintile.

traditionalguy said...

What? Is Trump colluding with the IRS now? Impeach , Impeach before he puts 80% of DC in jail for taking bribes from foreign countries.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Does this mean we'd be able to see Fusion GPS's tax returns? I'd love it if someone would hack that outfit's financial records to see how much money it got from Hillary's campaign.

Mr. Majestyk said...

Wow. What a coincidence that this piece appears just as the dispute over Congress's demand for Trump's tax returns heats up.

William said...

I think it would be informative if we had access to the tax returns and business dealings of the banker husbands of Nancy Pelosi and Maxine Waters. Those were some shrewd bankers who really know how to make money........I remember reading about what a shrewd businesswoman Lady Bird Johnson was. She bought some rural Texas radio stations and made millions off them. A lot of companies with business before the Senate found it advisable to advertise heavily on her radio stations. Only a shrewd businesswoman such as Lady Bird was able to realize how lucrative the market for rural radio advertising would become.

MD Greene said...


DBQ is right. If you work for a multinational company or one with offices in many states or if you have multiple income sources, your tax returns (on paper) are thicker than the St. James Bible. They involve tangential people and entities who didn't sign up to be part of your public dossier.

How about a more targeted approach? Publish the lists of people who cheat on their taxes, and by how much. Then let us shame them.

There are parts of this country -- and I'm thinking Southern California here -- where the size of the underground economy is as unknowable as the number of undocumented immigrants. I'm not even talking about migrant labor, but the built-out nail parlors/beauty salons on main streets that route charge receipts to a woman's name, not a company; about thousands of contractors who give one price for legal work and another price for cash; about homeowners who do major improvements without telling the zoning department so as not to have to pay higher property taxes, etc.

Now the state is talking about arresting people who buy untaxed marijuana ILLEGALLY from nonregistered dealers.


Bay Area Guy said...

Got hammered by taxes this year. Why? Because of California state taxes.

Before Trump? Tax returns are private!

After Trump? You must let us see them!

The Dems have no standards. They want to scrutinize Trump's taxes to find some "irregularities" and then leak them to politically damage him.

Surprise, surprise.

Must ignore the NYT.

West Texas Intermediate Crude said...

A true flat tax:
Total government expenditures/number of adults=what every US person pays every year.
Everyone pays the same for government, just as for hamburger or the NYT.
Best way to limit government, maximize freedom, eliminate secrecy.
Also not socialism, which is what we have now in government. Socialism has killed more people than any other form of government.

Sebastian said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sebastian said...

Wait, people are upset about progs wanting to destroy remaining vestiges of privacy for the sake of higher taxation and ending "income inequality"?

Sorry, people. It's the prog MO: your privacy means nothing, your liberties mean nothing, you shall sacrifice for the greater good, as determined by your prog overlords. Hand over your money, and your privacy, to their power. Once "income inequality' becomes something government must eradicate, the rest follows with iron leftist logic.

The question for the Althouses of America is: will they vote to enable prog oppression?

rehajm said...

...to the uninformed scrutiny of the morons in Congress, the idiotic Democrat party and the sub morons in the media.

When Presidential candidates like Elizabeth Warren lack a basic understanding of taxation and reporting periods what chance to Congressional back benchers have?

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Crazy Jane brings up a good point about "the underground economy".

Politicians are incredibly naive (stupid) when it comes to unintended consequences. Make all tax returns public and watch the underground economy blossom.

When people turn to cash and bartering systems, and they will, the tax revenues will fall precipitously as previously legal payers will no longer be willing to expose their personal information to the world.

Tax revenues fall and more people are turned to shady deals and become unwilling criminals. The size of this will be impossible to control or police. Unintended consequences.

Krumhorn said...

Every time I read a post like this from our gracious hostess, I struggle to see how it would ever be possible for her to vote for, or support in any way, a leftie. Whenever they get power, they cause immense damage and are remarkably dangerous.

But they mean oh-so well, and they occupy a plane of virtue many flight levels higher than us deplorables.

- Krumhorn

buwaya said...

Nothing is "unintended".
The system is not stupid, though of course any individual politician can sound stupid.
A clever system is one that can make good use of stupid people.
It works the way it does because it has a track record of success. However, a significant part of it is under stress from an unexpected and formerly discounted group, a major revolt in the hinterlands, to which it is attempting to respond.

Howard said...

Hard cases makes bad law

David Begley said...

Bay Area Guy

You are always welcome in Nebraska. Real estate taxes are high but you can buy more real estate for your money,

tola'at sfarim said...

But reporters sources- those are sacrosanct, even when they lie.

Michael The Magnificent said...

How about we divide the federal budget by the number of able-bodied working-age adults (working or not), and then give every one of those able-bodied working-age adults an equal tax bill. No deductions, no exceptions, no EITC.

Bay Area Guy said...

Thanks, Begley!

My youngest is still in high school, so when she graduates it's off to Nebraska!

Amexpat said...

Here in Norway, a summary of your tax return is made public (taxable income, taxes paid and net assets subject to taxation). Before the age of computers, the information was made available in large binders in the lobby of the local tax office. Reason being that you could check that your neighbor was paying their fair share and journalists could get tax info for public figures.

This wasn't controversial until the internet came with all this tax information now online for all to see. The newspapers would use the data to give all sorts of results, such as the 10 richest people in your zip code. And your tax info would of come up first if you Googled your name.

The independent government data protection authority didn't like this. They rightly called it tax porn because many would anonymously look online to see what their friends, colleagues and neighbors made. To remedy this, the law was changed so that any resident of Norway who wanted to see another's return could do so, but that everyone would be able to see who was looking at their return. That pretty much stopped the tax porn.

Howard said...

Krumhorn: everyone knows the elites low-level nap of the earth in rotary winged ships.

Jeff Weimer said...

Invading everyone's privacy to own Trump.

Narayanan said...

If you seek position of public trust reveal your self. I can go with that.

Applies to ...
Who wants to go first...

Mike Sylwester said...

I heard that Robert "The FBI Whitewasher" Mueller found that Donald Trump's largest tax deduction for charity is the Retirement Home for KGB Veterans. Mueller included that finding in his report.

However, William Barr did not mention that finding in his summary.

PackerBronco said...

Maybe Binyamin should first call on the NYT to identify all of its anonymous sources. After all, doesn't the public have a right to know?

FullMoon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Francisco D said...

The piece is beyond stupid because any real-estate developer with a competent accountant does not claim income.

I consulted to a few large real estate firms in the day. It is a tremendously complex industry when it comes to partnerships, tax schedules and deductions. Only an experienced and specialized team of accountants can understand and manage such corporate books. I doubt if anyone in Congress would understand the Trump corporation returns.

Most businesses have accounting firms audit their books every year in order to stay out of trouble with the IRS. It is just the cost of doing business. Trump has certainly been audited every year he has been in business. Everything is kosher.

Note that Trump's personal returns are separate from his corporate returns. The Dems want his personal returns to find ways to embarrass him. There is no other reason.

SteveR said...

Roe v Wade was about privacy, right? Goose...Gander

Nunya!

Ann Althouse said...

I assume Trump's taxes are very complex, but how would that play out if they were made public? I'm sure his enemies would point to all sorts of things and say it's a crime, but it will be horribly complicated to understand and who will believe the charges? It will be impenetrable mud. I dread being asked to look at it and figure anything out. Demands will be made that we believe the experts, 97% of whom will say Trump is a tax criminal. Trump's people will be ready to explain — until you can't stand it anymore — why it's not a crime.

Mattman26 said...

“Calling for more disclosure may seem discordant at a time of growing concern about privacy. But income taxation is an act of government, not an aspect of private life.”

What a charming bit of totalitarian logic.

John henry said...

Jeff Bezos is worth around $100,000,000,000.

Anyone have any idea how much income tax he pays?

Anyone care to opine how much he should pay on that $100,000,000,000?

John Henry

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Note that Trump's personal returns are separate from his corporate returns

Not really. The personal returns will include sources of income from the pass through entities. Things like the K-1's from the partnership side. Corporate, Reit, and other types of pass through income will show on the personal return.

The underlying structure and tax gyrations of the pass through entities would be essential to understanding the totality of an entity like Trump Inc. (I use that for convenience as there are many many layers of Trump's business empire). To do that will expose many peripheral persons private information.

Pass through income is also not subject to FICA or self employment taxes. One of the main reasons that small businesses, partnerships, LLCs etc use this structure.

Only foolish people do not use the tools provided and Trump is no dummy.


bleh said...

How would it make politicians more accountable? Seems to me this information would mostly be used to silence voices through shame, abuse and intimidation.

Not Sure said...

The only way to stop the invasion of privacy by and through the IRS is to repeal the 16th amendment and then enact a value-added tax. But it has to be a package deal.

gypsy rose said...

This needs the "Trump Derangement Syndrome" tag.

hombre said...

Funny, I would think this schmuck would be more concerned about the federal government’s refusal to honor FOIA requests which, according to Judicial Watch, reached an all time high during the Obama years.

Oh, wait. He’s an NYT guy.

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

Have noted some are unclear on this: income != wealth.

n.n said...

First act was a yellow star. Second act was warlock hunts and trials. Third act is a Hutu-Tutsi revival.

Rob said...

When this article was first published in the Times, I wrote a comment suggesting that the Times editorial board set an example by releasing their tax returns, and that Appelbaum set an example for the editorial board by releasing his. The Times won’t publish my comment.

n.n said...

stress from an unexpected and formerly discounted group, a major revolt in the hinterlands

This is why immigration reform is an imperative and in their desperation have overtly engaged in democratic gerrymandering. It is also why they shutdown a human rights demonstration, even at the risk of destroying the viability of their PC arsenal.

JAORE said...

There is no subject left to explore where the left can't tie it to Trump.

Undermining long held beliefs? No problem if it undermines Trump.
Support antisemitism? No problem if it undermines Trump.

My gawd these guys are nuts.

n.n said...

the Times editorial board set an example by releasing their tax returns

The People are entitled to know domestic and foreign conflicts of interest. NYT, reveal your sources.

rehajm said...

Things like the K-1's from the partnership side. Corporate, Reit, and other types of pass through income will show on the personal return.
It will be numbers from an entities with cryptic names. Maybe the type of income from like say options/futures or more detail in the case of MLPs but not much else to go on, creating more questions than answers. That is the whole point isn’t it?

JAORE said...

"The issue of privacy and TRUMP'S tax returns being released is that in a complicated business system like Trump's much of the information that will be released will be that of OTHER PEOPLE. Other people's personal information"

Thank you DBQ. An angle I'd not thought about.

buwaya said...

One reason to do this is to harm, or threaten, Trumps business interests or that of his heirs, by discouraging current or potential business partners from dealing with him. This is one of those underlying strategies that bypass politics according to the civics-textbook fantasies.

Reality is very different. There are no rules, there is no separation of correct processes from any expedient tactic. It is a conflict with no rules and no limits.

Yancey Ward said...

Let's pass a law that you have to name your sources in news stories. I mean, politicians and government hacks shouldn't be able to hide behind "Anonymous", right?

Anonymous said...

"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from all the oligarchies of the past, in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were- cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just round the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship.” 1984

The left has been assaulting the Second Amendment for decades. Now, we see that they are attacking the first, the fourth and the fifth amendments. Orwell saw it coming.

Friedrich Engels' Barber said...

The government so needs money that it must require, at gun point, a massive invasion of citizen privacy – the tax return. Why are the people who were so upset at examination of non-US citizens’ emails for anti-terrorism under Bush so eager to make tax returns public? Personal financial data is usually much more sensitive that random emails. I think, if the government is going to continue extracting extremely sensitive and personal financial data from its citizens, that it should be illegal to reveal such information, even with a person’s own approval (to stop extorted uses), for any other purpose – mortgages, political office background checks, verifications for coop membership, anything but paying taxes. And no one outside of the IRS, including the President and law enforcement, should have access to that information.

FullMoon said...

I'm sure his enemies would point to all sorts of things and say it's a crime, but it will be horribly complicated to understand and who will believe the charges? It will be impenetrable mud.


The usual suspects will believe the charges, because they want to believe bad things about Trump.
Dems in Congress will latch on to a few stupid things, NYT and WaPo will write about it, rest of MSM will repeat over and over and over, making a mountain out of a molehill. Kinda like emoluments.

FullMoon said...

I;d like to see Maddows returns. Striesnad, DeNiro, Redford, Milano Snoop Dog, Bette Midler Jake Tapper and especially Soros..

MacMacConnell said...

Everyone should post their full name, date of birth and social security number on their mail box.

tcrosse said...

Rather than do this, why don't we just hold a Presidential Election, say, next year. We could choose some nice person to run against Trump and remove him from office. Then the balance of the Universe and the Mandate of Heaven would be restored. It's just crazy enough that it might work.

Gk1 said...

Hey, I got a great idea. Let's start with publicizing tax returns of the entire staff at NYT and the other socialist wannabes and take it from there. Sounds like a deal? Or better still STFU unless you want to lead by example. It's not any of your goddamn business what your neighbor is making.

Fen said...

It's interesting how the Left has weaponized the IRS to go after their enemies.

First with the Tea Party, and Lois Lerner getting to the courts to protect her privacy out of concern that her testimony admitting to targeting Conservative groups would endanger her and her family.

Then, after Mueller came up empty, the go-to escalation (now that Impeachment seemed unlikely) was to cry for the release of Trump's tax returns. As if has wasn't already audited for the last 10 years running anyway.

Pelosi redefined hypocrisy in this regard. Her families wealth is a result of kickbacks. I doubt her tax returns are clean. The GOP should start counter-demanding to get Pelosi's returns made publuic. That'll shut the Democrats up.

Anonymous said...

That guy at the NYT can go fuck himself.

But for Trump and TDS, he'd never advocate for this.

narciso said...

Yes and Lerner's atty Taylor and Murphy are defending Greg craig.

Seeing Red said...

They’re free to publish theirs any time they want.

Anonymous said...

I can only imagine the outcry if a Democrat presidential nominee had not released his tax returns. The double standard and excuse making for all things Trump has become a national sickness.

Leora said...

This is an admission against interest as more than half my income is from income tax compliance. One of the reasons the income tax is bad idea is that it requires the surrender of privacy to a government agency who needs to know about your domestic arrangements and the details of your business to assess your tax. I'd strongly support the replacement of the personal income tax with a national sales tax.

Big Mike said...

I'd strongly support the replacement of the personal income tax with a national sales tax.

I wouldn't. A national sales tax would be highly regressive.

But I'd be on board with Binyamin Appelbaum and the rest of the Times editorial board publishing their tax returns. Notarized, of course.

Bay Area Guy said...

Any person calling for Trump's tax returns is a bozo - to be discredited.

It is tantamount to calling for Obama's birth certificate which was stupid, too.

Yes, before he was Prez, Trump called for Obama's birth certificate (which was stupid).

Mercifully, in Sept 2016, Trump moved on from the birth certificate. .

It's way past time for Dem elected officials to stop calling for Trump's tax return. They think they're gonna find W-9 consulting forms paid by Vladimir Putin? They are stupid.

Rusty said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
"I can only imagine the outcry if a Democrat presidential nominee had not released his tax returns. The double standard and excuse making for all things Trump has become a national sickness."
Uh. No. Classic liberalism doesn't care how much or how little you make. Who you fuck and what diety you pray to. The left are the only ones concerned with other peoples taxr eturns. Besides. You wouldn't understand Trumps if you did get to see it. Now explain 'equalization of income'.

Bay Area Guy said...

"I can only imagine the outcry if a Democrat presidential nominee had not released his tax returns.

Well, I dunno about outcry, but some voters would vote against him, and some would not care, and then the election results would likely validate the decision to disclose or not disclose.

cyrus83 said...

Great idea in the making there, let everybody be able to publicly look up how much everyone in their organization makes and watch the flames of envy consume every work place. There is a reason payroll data is considered confidential at most places, although apparently Appelbaum has yet to figure out why the people who paid him to write the article don't publish what they pay their staff. Can we kindly publish the payroll journal of the NYT as a first step on this road to hell?

How much anyone makes and how much in taxes they paid are irrelevant questions. The only question that is relevant is whether the tax returns filed are accurate and whether any deliberate illegal attempt was made to avoid paying taxes. If the IRS thinks it has a case, it can pursue the issue. Trump has already indicated that the IRS has him under audit, and probably has done so numerous times before (which makes sense, the IRS has the potential to collect more money auditing people who make more). Doubtless if the IRS could get him on tax evasion, it would have by now.

If people have a problem with how much or how little someone paid while following the law, the culprit is Congress, full stop. Income tax is something of an art due to its complexity and there is a reason most people who make 6 figures or more use a professional to help them file their taxes.

Even for people making less than that, I have seen constant honest mistakes in personal and business tax compliance. Anyone who put a 0 on line 59 of their NY IT-201 is almost certainly guilty of tax evasion if they so much as made a single purchase subject to sales tax anywhere outside their resident sales tax jurisdiction, just because of the way sales and use tax is written. Most typical violation? Going on vacation out of state, buying souvenirs, and bringing them home. Going shopping in a lower tax jurisdiction in-state also is a violation.

narciso said...

They audited Nixon in 1969, just revenge for him challenging the establishment at least in some views.

narciso said...

The ostensible excuse was that of a change in the deductibility with private paper, but that was just a subterfuge.

Rabel said...

It's all about the Binyamins.

Rick said...

What about privacy?!

Don't worry we never expected that meant anything other than abortion. We all knew that was bullshit for the rubes.

Rick said...

Demands will be made that we believe the experts,

We should be explicit though, these demands will be to believe political experts. Remember when the left asserted Romney deducted his hobby expenses? This was not true but the left's "experts" presented the information to imply it and the left's activists (including the media) ran stories supporting only that narrative.

Pettifogger said...

Imagine grandparents whose grandchild is in the custody of their child's former spouse, whether because of death or divorce. Public tax returns might expand the imagination of the custodial parent regarding how much to extort in exchange for access to the grandchild.

Achilles said...

Dust Bunny Queen said...
Crazy Jane brings up a good point about "the underground economy".

Politicians are incredibly naive (stupid) when it comes to unintended consequences.


This is not naivete. They know exactly what will happen.

This is evil. These people are evil.

Period.

Jim at said...

I can only imagine the outcry if a Democrat presidential nominee had not released his tax returns.

Tax returns? Hell, we'd settle for some simple college transcripts from the last guy.

Achilles said...

Fen said...

Pelosi redefined hypocrisy in this regard. Her families wealth is a result of kickbacks. I doubt her tax returns are clean. The GOP should start counter-demanding to get Pelosi's returns made publuic. That'll shut the Democrats up.

No it wouldn't.

They would happily sacrifice Pelosi on the alter to get Trump.

They would also have a wonderful new tool to destroy anyone they wanted.

Pelosi is a tool. A wealthy well compensated tool, but still a tool.

FleetUSA said...

To the layman taxable income and taxes are simple, but in reality the tax code creates many distortions and looking at one year's taxable income could be a complete distortion of reality. Reason: depreciation, investments, losses, non-taxable income, lumped deductions, etc etc. also, there are assets which may be owned but not known.

Therefore publishing anyone's 1040 pages 1 and 2 could be completely misleading. My own humble return ran to over 100 pages because of a rental property and a small K-1.

JOSEPH ANGEL said...

This is just more jew sophistry and deceit. The current (((Demotard))) clamor over Trump's tax return is the 'Get Trump' meme of the week. So, every jew and jew outlet will be pushing this meme in the media as something that is positive for all of us goyim, but the jews will be excepted-- Jew Privilege, you know.

k said...

Because... Trump.

That is all.

Michael said...

How would open tax returns fix “economic inequality” and what exactly is it. Would I get closer to George Soros in income if I knew his taxes? This again proves my thesis that writers for the NYT are really not that smart. But they have buckets and bipuckets of buzz words.

Rusty said...

Michael.
The usual suspects are strangely quite when this subject comes up. it's almost as if they intuitively understand that taxation is theft.