[HN Gopher] Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution: T...
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       Tax Evasion at the Top of the Income Distribution: Theory and
       Evidence (2021) [pdf]
        
       Author : whack
       Score  : 67 points
       Date   : 2023-04-01 21:39 UTC (1 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nber.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nber.org)
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | logicallee wrote:
       | Semi-related, I have a 1.5m invoice and need to pay taxes on it
       | in about two weeks, it represents the vast majority of my
       | business this year (95%+) and I have already borrowed around 10k
       | toward it but I've maxed out my credit in fulfilling the project.
       | It's on my books and I will collect it. If anyone here would be
       | generous enough to consider lending the tax burden portion at a
       | reasonable loan rate as a formal personal loan, please contact me
       | via my profile to discuss details. You can review the contract,
       | invoice and supporting documentation and check my references. We
       | can also meet digitally or in person wherever you want, I'm easy
       | to get a hold of and have been here for ten years.
       | 
       | Edit: country is U.S.
        
         | coolestguy wrote:
         | Your country doesn't allow you to file taxes on a "cash
         | collected" basis rather than an "invoiced but not collected"
         | basis?
        
           | logicallee wrote:
           | U.S.
           | 
           | From my searches it seems that since the contract is signed,
           | I've invoiced for it, have started to collect payment and
           | expect to finish collecting it and it is on my books, I must
           | declare it this year.
           | 
           | See: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/accruedincome.asp
        
       | xiphias2 wrote:
       | It's strange to have so much detail about tax evasion without
       | talking about tax avoidance.
       | 
       | Just because somebody keeps his money offshore and hides it from
       | his government, doesn't necessary mean that it's illegal (Google
       | and co are great examples of not hiding).
       | 
       | Most people want to follow the law, they just want to optimize
       | taxes.
        
         | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
         | The higher-end schemes have allegedly become so opaque,
         | obscure, and fast-evolving that much of what goes on is only
         | arguably legal rather than proven legal. This gray area has
         | spawned the term "tax avoision".
        
           | generalizations wrote:
           | > arguably legal rather than proven
           | 
           | In general, it's probably better if things have to be proven
           | _illegal_. I 'd rather that my life wasn't limited to only
           | doing those things which have been pre-approved. If there's a
           | problem with something, then it should be explicitly
           | prohibited; not the other way around.
        
         | yunohn wrote:
         | > Most people want to follow the law, they just want to
         | optimize taxes.
         | 
         | How does the average person avail these optimisation schemes?
         | Do they also get to lobby for the loopholes?
        
           | xiphias2 wrote:
           | Learn languages (Duolingo), change countries depending on
           | your income type, ask ChatGPT, set up companies for yourself.
           | There are lots of ways to do it, and many average people are
           | doing it already in different ways.
           | 
           | For example for me just moving to Switzerland made both my
           | tax percentage lower and more legal, salary much higher, and
           | cleaner streets from those lower taxes than anywhere else I
           | lived before. Somehow the government was able to afford
           | professional cleaning machines from those lower taxes.
        
             | yunohn wrote:
             | I'm not sure you understood my point. Moving continents
             | isn't an average person solution. In fact it exposes
             | another problem - companies can easily register anywhere
             | and restructure their finances for lower taxes.
        
         | dontreact wrote:
         | It's not a very fair system if only certain participants can
         | afford to avoid taxes. If these schemes were doable for most
         | folks and not only the very rich then no one would have an
         | issue with the system (assuming that it provided enough
         | revenue).
        
       | samstave wrote:
       | At what level should we expect "finDox'ing" vs "personal
       | privacy"?
       | 
       | i.e. ; Should we expect full transparency of billionaires, but
       | not minimum wage workers?
       | 
       | US Tax Code is horrific, and corrupt.
       | 
       | But, what do?
        
         | phs318u wrote:
         | How about full transparency for companies? Companies are not
         | people. The only way billionaires are able to evade taxes is
         | through complex networks of companies.
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | TBH, I am equally worried about the other side of the tax
         | party. How my tax funds are spent and how efficiently they are
         | allocated.
        
           | themitigating wrote:
           | Do you have information that it's not spent effectively?
        
         | sacnoradhq wrote:
         | It's regulatory/legislative capture by the very rich of the US
         | gov.
         | 
         | Change the political operating system from the top. It cannot
         | be reformed from within. The perpetual failures of campaign
         | finance reform proves this. The only path forward is nonviolent
         | mass mobilization. Never give in to learned helplessness.
        
         | themitigating wrote:
         | Enforcement
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-01 23:00 UTC)