In 2006, W. and his team wanted the estate tax out. They wanted lower taxes across the board (the argument: lower taxes will actually increase revenue; reality, you will get about 30-40% of the revenue). They could only get so far in Congress. So they used Andrew Jackson's tactic - if no one is enforcing a law, it doesn't really exist (see Trail of Tears).
If 2006, W. authorized the firing of half of the IRS's auditors. These were the men and women responsible for catching those defrauding the government of income tax, of estate tax, of capital gains taxes. For every hour each auditor worked, they brought in $2000 of revenue. Best case, that's:
157 employees x 40 hrs x 48 weeks x $2000 = $602,880,000 per year.
That is, of course, best case. That is, also, 3/4 of the cost of the stimulus package.
The Republican congresses of the Bush years also failed to close the tax loophole that allows hedgefund managers to effectively move millions of dollars of income right out of the American taxflow. They allow deferred compensation to corporate execs, spreading the taxation over years and potentially into entirely different tax brackets. They allow a "stock option double standard" to let businesses give away stock options but claim a deduction nonetheless. There are billions in these loopholes. I, on the other hand, have to follow the rules in the 1040 rules because I don't want to go into debt just to invest.
THIS ISN'T RIGHT.
Idea 3: Hire back the IRS auditors and more. Close the loopholes in individual and corporate tax law. Fix the AMT once and for all.
Do I need to explain the justifications here? Before W. fired the 157 auditors, the IRS was actually requesting more auditors (see this NYTimes article for starters). Let them do their job, give them the teeth to do it well, and let those out their looking for cheats that they will be caught and they will pay.
Oh yeah, and make the hedgefund loophole closure retroactive, say, for 8 years.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment