Tag: Tax

America’s ‘Zero’ Strategy – scheerpost.com

China’s “zero Covid” policy has sparked rare protests across the nation of nearly a billion and a half people. Which led me to think about our very own failed “zero” policy here in the United States. Zero corporate tax. To be fair, it’s not a policy per se, but is clearly an aspiration that has been achieved.

Scores of huge corporations — which have been enjoying record profits — have paid nothing in federal income tax over the past few years. Never mind the bargain basement rates of 30% or even 15%, these multibillion dollar corporations are paying 0%, or even a negative rate (which of course translates to a refund).

Source: America’s ‘Zero’ Strategy – scheerpost.com

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The Supreme Court Just Announced Congress Can Access Trump’s Tax Returns – Mother Jones

He’s an expert in the Art of Delay not the Art of the Deal

The Supreme Court refused to hear Donald Trump’s plea to keep his tax returns out of Congress’ hands on Tuesday. This action finally ends the battle Trump began fighting in 2016, even before taking office when he became the first president in modern history to refuse to reveal what was on his tax returns.

Source: The Supreme Court Just Announced Congress Can Access Trump’s Tax Returns – Mother Jones

Lifters and leaners: energy giants and Rupert bludging on tax again, big banks and miners pay their dues – Michael West

ATO Corporate Tax Transparency Report

The schism between the lifters and leaners in corporate Australia has deepened. BHP, Rio and the banks are tipping in massive tax while tax paid by fossil fuel giants remains paltry, abjectly failing to merit a social licence to operate in Australia. Callum Foote peruses the latest tax data.

Source: Lifters and leaners: energy giants and Rupert bludging on tax again, big banks and miners pay their dues – Michael West

The Usual Suspects: tax office dump lays bare Australia’s biggest tax dodgers – Michael West

What's the scam?

What’s the scam? It’s the fossil fuel corporations again, the usual suspects, paying no income tax despite billions in income. For yet another year: Exxon nought, Shell nought, Ampol, BP and APLNG nought, and Chevron putting them all to shame with the $30 in income tax paid on its $9bn in revenues.

Source: The Usual Suspects: tax office dump lays bare Australia’s biggest tax dodgers – Michael West

Punishment by partiality: Lendlease white-collars stick to the right side of the law no matter what

ATO – TAX

Cold comfort for the swimming teacher going to jail for attempting to claim $250k of false GST refunds, the doctor sentenced to seven months jail for non-lodgements, the bank manager sentenced to three years’ jail for attempting to defraud the Commonwealth of $390,000, and the other small (or no more than medium) players.Double standards are rife. When will the executives of a big corporate such as Lendlease be prosecuted?

Punishment by partiality: Lendlease white-collars stick to the right side of the law no matter what

Robert Reich reveals the 3 things Joe Biden can do to lower gas prices and save Democrats in the midterms – Raw Story – Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism

Robert Reich reveals the 3 things Joe Biden can do to lower gas prices and save Democrats in the midterms – Raw Story – Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism

Robert Reich reveals the 3 things Joe Biden can do to lower gas prices and save Democrats in the midterms – Raw Story – Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism

The Verdict: Labor tax solution better than Coalition, worse than Donald Trump – Michael West

tax avoidance, OECD, Labor policy

When your better than the LNP but still shite

Timid, worse than Donald Trump but better than the Coalition. That’s the verdict on Labor’s policy to combat multinational tax avoiders. Although large corporations have been subsidised through the pandemic like never before, they will still now enjoy years of tax-free profits thanks to gaping holes in Australia’s tax system. Callum Foote consults tax law experts.

Source: The Verdict: Labor tax solution better than Coalition, worse than Donald Trump – Michael West

Biden needs to start going after large corporations if he wants to win again | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Biden Commemmorates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, Washington, District of Columbia, USA - 08 Apr 2022
Mandatory Credit: Photo by REX/Shutterstock (12887286aa) United States President Joe Biden delivers remarks commemorating Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson historic, bipartisan US Senate confirmation of Judge Jackson to be an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. Biden Commemmorates Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's Confirmation as an Associate Justice of the US Supreme Court, Washington, District of Columbia, USA - 08 Apr 2022

Working Americans – many of whom voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 – are being shafted. Biden needs to deliver for them now or risk losing Biden

Source: Biden needs to start going after large corporations if he wants to win again | Robert Reich | The Guardian

Oil Company Profits Have Surged. It’s Time to Tax the Windfall.

Amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a chorus of voices is trying to convince ordinary consumers that paying higher gas prices is some kind of patriotic act. Big Oil doesn’t need the extra profits — it needs to have those profits taxed away.

Source: Oil Company Profits Have Surged. It’s Time to Tax the Windfall.

Senate GOP Agenda Would Hike Taxes on Poorest 40% by Average of $1,000

ITEP graphic

By contrast, the plan unveiled by Republican Sen. Rick Scott would not increase taxes on the top 1% by a single penny. Jake Johnson March 7, 2022 The policy agenda that Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida unveiled last month—and has continued to promote despite mounting backlash—would hike annual taxes on the poorest 40% of people in the United States by $1,000 on average while not raising taxes on the richest 1% by a single penny.

Source: Senate GOP Agenda Would Hike Taxes on Poorest 40% by Average of $1,000

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Late on your tax? One rule for the small guy, another for Lendlease and the Big End of Town – Michael West Media

Lendlease, tax, ATO

So, we had a call the other day from a nice woman at the Tax Office, or it might have been an outsourced call centre. In any case, there was apparently a late BAS statement or something, and we – that is the small business which operates Michael West Media – was in danger of incurring a fine. Michael West reports on the gaping double standards between government enforcement of big business and the rest.

Source: Late on your tax? One rule for the small guy, another for Lendlease and the Big End of Town – Michael West Media

Trump Sues Jan. 6 Committee To Block Archived Presidential Documents | HuffPost Latest News

The former president tried citing executive privilege in his attempt to keep information out of the hands of those investigating the insurrection.

Source: Trump Sues Jan. 6 Committee To Block Archived Presidential Documents | HuffPost Latest News

US’s wealthiest 1% are failing to pay $160bn a year in taxes, report finds | US taxation | The Guardian

The US Department of the Treasury in Washington DC.

The wealthiest 1% of Americans are responsible for more than $160bn of lost tax revenue each year, according to a new report from the US treasury.

Source: US’s wealthiest 1% are failing to pay $160bn a year in taxes, report finds | US taxation | The Guardian

When America’s richest men pay $0 in income tax, this is wealth supremacy | Robert Reich | The Guardian

FILES-US-SPACE-BLUEORIGIN-BEZOS
(FILES) In this file photo the CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos (R) gestures as he addresses the Amazon’s annual Smbhav event in New Delhi on January 15, 2020. - Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced on June 7, 2021 he will fly into space next month on the first human flight launched by his Blue Origin rocket firm. “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother,” Bezos said on his Instagram account. (Photo by Sajjad HUSSAIN / AFP) (Photo by SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images)

The super-rich have bought armies of lobbyists to keep their taxes minuscule and to create tax loopholes large enough to drive their Lamborghinis through

Source: When America’s richest men pay $0 in income tax, this is wealth supremacy | Robert Reich | The Guardian

The Prosecutors Cometh | The Smirking Chimp

Were I Trump’s Lawyer For The Day, I’d advise him to purchase a first-class ticket to Botswana or Brunei, neither of which has an extradition treaty with the United States. Because things are getting pretty ugly for him in New York.

The Prosecutors Cometh | The Smirking Chimp

Donald Trump’s tax returns to be released after Supreme Court ruling

SCOTUS denies Trump bid to shield tax returns Donald Trump suffered a major setback on Monday in his long quest to conceal details of his finances as the U.S. Supreme Court paved the way for a New York City prosecutor to obtain the former president’s tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation.

Donald Trump’s tax returns to be released after Supreme Court ruling

The Usual Suspects: oil and gas majors star in Australian tax heist – Michael West

Top40 Tax Dodgers

Angus Taylor’s rescue package for the oil industry is a testament to the ability of large corporations to game governments. The latest Tax Office transparency data shows that oil and gas juggernauts are, again, Australia’s biggest tax cheats, yet are demanding and getting more public subsidies to prop up their oil refineries. Michael West reports on the good and the bad in multinational tax dodging land.

The Usual Suspects: oil and gas majors star in Australian tax heist – Michael West

Private Equity Firm Blackstone Actually Had a Sub-Zero Tax Rate Last Year

Even though Blackstone, the world’s largest private equity firm, raked in billions in profits last year, new documents show their tax rate actually went below zero. This may help explain why CEO Stephen Schwarzman has spent nearly $25 million to help Trump and GOP senators win: to ensure the tax breaks enriching Blackstone stay in place.

Private Equity Firm Blackstone Actually Had a Sub-Zero Tax Rate Last Year

Donald Trump paid just $750 in US income taxes in 2016, 2017: report

President Donald Trump gestures while speakings during a news conference at the White House, on Sunday, September 27.
Smart Business Fake News

President Donald Trump paid no federal income taxes in 10 of the past 15 years, according to a bombshell report in The New York Times. Trump, who has fiercely guarded his tax filings and is the only president in modern times not to make them public, paid $US750 in taxes to the federal government the year he was elected, 2016, and $US750 again in his first year in office.

Donald Trump paid just $750 in US income taxes in 2016, 2017: report
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Phoenixing: how unscrupulous dealers rise debt-free from the ashes of failed companies | Australia news | The Guardian

The Australian tax office claims it has been ripped off by as much as hundreds of millions of dollars under mass tax evasion schemes allegedly run by professional advisers

Phoenixing: how unscrupulous dealers rise debt-free from the ashes of failed companies | Australia news | The Guardian

You want a strong economy? Start by raising corporate taxes

Collect the taxes they haven’t paid. Remember Abbott shrunk the Taxation Dept of 3500 of it’s most experienced tax investigators. Well, now they have jumped the gutter and are working for the tax minimisation industry.(ODT)

via You want a strong economy? Start by raising corporate taxes

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Trump is blocking tax returns subpoena to secure immunity: court filings

US President Donald Trump continues to fight moves to release his tax returns.

The leader of the Birther attack on Obama refuses to show his tax papers (ODT)

New York: US President Donald Trump’s latest efforts to block a grand jury subpoena for his tax returns could provide him with the immunity from prosecution that the Supreme Court has rejected, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said in a court filing on Monday.

Trump was dealt a blow by the Supreme Court last month when in a 7 to 2 decision, the court said he was not protected by presidential immunity from state-court level actions. The court allowed for the case to get sent back to the US District Court in Manhattan for any additional challenges Trump would seek to make.

via Trump is blocking tax returns subpoena to secure immunity: court filings

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SCOTUS May Have Just Decided to Exempt Trump From the Rule of Law | The Nation

Mystal-Supremes-J.-Scott-Applewhite_img

Trump has already succeeded in his goal of running for president twice without disclosing basic financial information. He has already succeeded in using the office of the president to shield himself from potential prosecution of his suspected financial crimes. Trump has already won. The only question now is how much the rest of us will lose.

We should expect decisions on these two cases in late June. The Supreme Court will then tell us how much more of our democracy must be sacrificed in the service of Donald Trump.

via SCOTUS May Have Just Decided to Exempt Trump From the Rule of Law | The Nation

ATO data reveals one third of large companies pay no tax – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

A tax magnet collects dollars from a map of Australia.

Key points:

The ATO’s corporate tax transparency data again shows that hundreds of companies have been able to reduce their tax bills to zero
ATO deputy commissioner Rebecca Saint said the agency was still seeing some companies avoid tax by shifting profits offshore
Company financial accounts do not always give the full picture of tax positions and the ATO wants companies to be more transparent

via ATO data reveals one third of large companies pay no tax – Politics – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The US Tax System is a vast Ponzi Scheme that only Benefits the Wealthy

The 1% impose the intrinsic instability of their system on the entire population, and then get the government to respond with deficits that even further benefit and reward the greed of the very same 1% oligarchs and corporations.

Ironically, we’ve borrowed so much as a nation from the rich, large corporations and some foreign countries that even they now are unsure they want to continue to lending to us because of today’s astronomical debt. To maintain their loan profits, they want us to eliminate/severely reduce programs for poor and sick people with austerity/cuts in all social and public health programs, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc.

The absurdity and danger to our community of such an economic policy is exceeded only by its gross injustice.

via The US Tax System is a vast Ponzi Scheme that only Benefits the Wealthy

Old Dog Thoughts- Stealing Chinese Ideas; Politics of LNP Bushfire Blaming; Tax give away;

Biometric facial map. The federal government is experimenting with facial recognition for users of its online services.

Fighting Fake News with REAL, 26/12/19; We are turning Chinese and denying it; LNP’s Politics of Fire, Silence of the Tax Giveaways,

Billionaires to 2020 Presidential Hopefuls: ‘America Has a Moral, Ethical, and Economic Responsibility to Tax Our Wealth More’ | Common Dreams News

protester

It’s a cry for adjustment not systemic change (ODT)

via Billionaires to 2020 Presidential Hopefuls: ‘America Has a Moral, Ethical, and Economic Responsibility to Tax Our Wealth More’ | Common Dreams News

‘Other people’s money’: Trump’s lifestyle while his businesses bled billions confuses tax experts

https://static.ffx.io/images/$zoom_0.341%2C$multiply_1%2C$ratio_1.776846%2C$width_1059%2C$x_0%2C$y_81/t_crop_custom/w_800/q_86%2Cf_auto/a63f17c1f2a7d9511cfbdd060a7afa510ebdacbc

Real-estate developer Donald Trump in 1992 lived in a New York luxury apartment, travelled by limousine and had personal bodyguards. That year, he also reported a negative $US750 million ($1.08 billion) adjusted gross income to the IRS.

Trump is the primary “expense” that drains his companies dry to the state of Easter eggs “hollow” and all debt and then they simply implode. There is nothing new particularly when banks aren’t regulated. He gets loans from banks too scared to declare their over risk and  first valuing assets and packaging not on collateral security of the company but on a dream. He doesn’t do the financing himself but happily pays a premium for any broker or banker that will secure the loan on a 0% asset.

Get the money spend it as wages and expenses on himself  then devalue back to the real  asset assett value and bankruptcy or reveal the banking folly. Every banker shyster and broker will help avoid the worst if the commissions are high enough and more commissions. All he needed to hand his request to Wall St  and they’d jump. They after all they created the art and caused the GFC and sent nations to the wall like Greece.  Mind you, you the paid rating and credit agencies handsomly to assist in the scam but that wasn’t Trump’s problem. Effectively Trump was always the face of a scam, a Ponzi scheme, a chain letter a business that shared profits with the top end of town. There was never anything new to be seen just bigger. All a little bit legal but a top down scam that the nation bailed out.

Alan Bond said it if your looking for a small loan the banks own you.  When that loan is too big you own the banks because they can’t reveal it. The difference Bond went to jail aan Trump became President. (ODT)

‘Other people’s money’: Trump’s lifestyle while his businesses bled billions confuses tax experts

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Trump sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to block release of financial records | US news | The Guardian

Donald Trump

A representative of Deutsche Bank said in a statement: “We remain committed to providing appropriate information to all authorised investigations and will abide by a court order regarding such investigations.”

Attorneys and representatives for the two sides were not immediately available for comment late on Monday.

via Trump sues Deutsche Bank and Capital One to block release of financial records | US news | The Guardian