Tax Dodgers Today

[irishbobcat]

So, where should our taxes go? name only the essentials that we should pay taxes for?

[Rick Rowlands]

Do you think I have a lot of money just because I refuse to play the "class warfare" game? I'm as poor as you are, but I don't feel that I am somehow entitled to money that "rich" people have.  I just want the equal opportunity to make as much as I would like to and to keep what I do make. I don't really want a lot of money, just enough to finish my industrial museum and live comfortably. 

The biggest fallacy is to equate income taxes with a citizen's full tax load.  The income tax is just a small part of it.  When determining how many taxes someone pays, please add in sales taxes, property taxes, fees, fines, assessments, cost of compliance with regulations, lost opportunity cost due to regulation, and the million of other innovative and hidden ways that government takes your money, a dollar at a time. 

[irishbobcat]

Wow, it must be nice to have lots of money like Rick, and towntalk not be be  upset that companies can hide $100 billion dollars of tax monies from this country while the poor and middle class pay their taxes as scheduled so they are not harrassed by the IRS.

[Towntalk]

Add to that list Bill Gates.

All of these people or at least the Americans would be condemned as "tax dodgers" by Dennis, yet look at the good they have done with their money.

[rusty river]

Dennis:

Name one "POOR" or "MIDDLE CLASS" man who has created jobs, and through his own sacrifice built them into a successful business.

I can do better than that. Forbe's Magazine states that 2/3 of the world's 946 (as of 2007) billionaires fit the "rags to riches" theme. I'll name some of the notables.

Oprah Winfrey grew up in poverty.
Steve Jobs (Apple Computers) dropped out of college because he couldn't pay the tuition.
J.K. Rowling (author of Harry Potter novels) was a single mother on welfare when her first book was published.
Roman Abramovich (richest man in Russia) was an orphan.
Richard Desmond (United Kingdom) dropped out of highschool to work in a club cloakroom.

And what about the millions of foreign immigrants who came to this country and became successful small business owners compliments of The American Dream?


http://www.forbes.com/2007/06/22/billionaires-gates-winfrey-biz-cz_ts_0626rags2riches.html

[Rick Rowlands]

Thats a good one Towntalk! 

It wasn't until 1914 that the US even had an income tax.  We seemed to do OK from 1776 until 1914 without forcibly taking away the citizens' money. 

Its not the sidewalks that we don't want to support.  Its the foreign aid, welfare, ADC, CHIPS, wraparounds, bailouts, yadda yadda yadda that has no business even existing.  Heck they spend so much on stuff that there is no constitutional authority for that there is nothing left to fix sidewalks, pave streets, build levies; things that are legitimate functiosn of government.

[Towntalk]

The Rev. Jonathan Mayhew in a sermon preached in Boston in 1750 proclaimed "No Taxation Without Representation!" Boston politician James Otis was most famously associated with the term, "taxation without representation is tyranny"

Dennis: Who is it that is constantly complaining about Charlie Wilson and Tim Ryan not representing his interests?

[irishbobcat]

Let me get this right:

You don't want the rich to pay taxes.....

You don't want companies to pay taxes even if it cost you $4 billion dollars a year in more taxes

and you don't want to pay taxes?

So who is going to pay for that sidewalk you want to protest on? God?

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party

[Towntalk]

Dennis:

Name one "POOR" or "MIDDLE CLASS" man who has created jobs, and through his own sacrifice built them into a successful business.

How many jobs have you created?

You have no problem with the government funding businesses the Green Party can support, and ten will get you one that you wouldn't object to them getting tax writeoffs.

[irishbobcat]

And Ohio losses $ 4 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR from these companies, taxes that ARE PASSED ON TO YOU, RICK!

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party

[Rick Rowlands]

Dodge as many taxes as you can.  After all, it is YOUR money!

[irishbobcat]

April 15.

For you and me, it's the deadline for filing our tax returns.

But for many of America's biggest and most well-known corporations, it's just another day at the beach.

That's because while you and I pay our fair share, these multi-billion dollar corporations have set up off-shore "headquarters" in places like the Cayman Islands to dodge their tax obligations.

While the rest of us struggle to do our part, and America looks for ways to fund urgent priorities -- including education, health care, modern infrastructure and middle class tax relief -- it's unacceptable that even one company skips out on paying its taxes.

But it's a lot more than just one company.


AIG * American Express * Bank of America * Comcast * Coca-Cola * Dell * Exxon-Mobil * Pepsi * Pfizer

President Obama has proposed a budget that closes the loopholes that allow corporations to set up off-shore tax havens.

But lobbyists for many of these powerful interests are lining up to make sure they keep these loopholes intact. Congress is preparing to debate the president's budget right now.

So when Congress bails out AIG....they pay no corporate taxes today.....It must be nice.....

And Charlie Wilson let AIG executives keep 3.9% of their bonuses for cost of living inflation. Thanks Charlie for helping the little guy out again.

Dennis Spisak
Mahoning Valley Green Party
Ohio Green Party