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    Vox PopulistHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:59am

    Every tax collector/investigator here in Germany brings the government 4 Euros in additional tax revenue for every 1 Euro the government has to spend on his salary and operations budget. I imagine the numbers for the US are similar.

    There is simply no position within the government sector that is as great an investment as tax investigators.

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      ARP2Vox Populist
      12/03/15 11:11am

      I think until the ratio’s of cost to collection reaches less than 1:2, I see no reason why we can’t add more enforcement.

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      youve_got_juice_there_fellaVox Populist
      12/03/15 11:13am

      For every dollar the IRS spends on enforcement, they collect $6. That’s money owed to this country under current tax law. And the legislature doesn’t want us to get it. It’s absurd.

      http://www.cbpp.org/research/feder…

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    TRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)Hamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:53am

    Is the IRS too complicated? Yes, absolutely.

    If there were any good-faith attempts to reform the IRS without using that reform as a stealth way to cripple the government’s ability to collect revenue, I’d be all ears. No such attempts have been made.

    Until IRS reform is treated as an opportunity to actually reform, rather than an opportunity to cut taxes for the wealthy, IRS reform is anything but.

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      TheDataTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      12/03/15 10:59am

      I got news, dude. The IRS doesn’t need a single bit of reform. They are an enforcement agency, and they enforce the law.

      Tax law is written by legislators. The IRS follows those laws.

      Tax law? Yeah, really complicated. Unfair. In need of reform. But the IRS does its job really well. It should be properly funded.

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      King_jaffe_jofferTRUMP DELENDUS EST (fka Chatham Harrison)
      12/03/15 11:02am

      I swear you used to be a troll account but lately (past months?) You’ve been fucking amazing. Just saying. +1.

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    Bedroom EyesHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:54am

    As we head into tax time, just try to remember that no one is less pleased that you have to wait 3 hours to speak to a customer service representative than the customer service representatives. It gets difficult to apologize for absurdity well beyond your control when you’re really just empathizing.

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      TunaTrollinBedroom Eyes
      12/03/15 11:12am

      Is that what you do? I’m a tax CPA and have to call the IRS a lot. Over the past couple years, it is hard to even get someone on the phone even on the priority line.

      But when I do, I have to say that the people I talk to are very nice and helpful. I can think of only one time where I talked to someone with a bad attitude.

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      Jerry WallBedroom Eyes
      12/03/15 11:12am

      That’s why you let your lawyer our accountant do that. I’ve never talked to a tax agent in my life. I have been called when my lawyer is on the phone with one. I let them handle that BS.

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    ArkHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:59am

    Yeah, that’s the entire point. If they can’t pass tax cuts for the rich in Congress, they’ll strangle the IRS until it can’t stop the rich from evading what little taxes they do have to pay.

    Just another end run around the democratic process by the oligarchs.

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      Vox PopulistArk
      12/03/15 11:03am

      How many more tax cuts do the rich need? They’ve been geting one tax cut after another since Ronald Reagan became President 35 years ago.

      The massive loss of revenue compared to the tax code of the post-war era is directly responsible for the crumbling public infrastructure on every level in the US.

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      Sam BVox Populist
      12/03/15 11:12am

      The long term objective is to loot the entire country, like they did in Russia.

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    amtHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 11:08am

    Multiple Republican presidential candidates have even advocated abolishing the IRS.

    Considering Republicans are always talking about how the country should be ran like a business, I wonder how people would react if the CEO of a major corporation announced they were getting rid of their Accounts Receivable department?

    I’m pretty sure the board of directors would have him/her carted out of their office in a straight jacket, yet a presidential candidate says it and they cheer them on?

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      DisinterestedPasserbyamt
      12/03/15 11:33am

      I assume the government will make money on ad revenue in that case.

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      52ndstateDisinterestedPasserby
      12/03/15 11:43am

      Behold the future.

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    Low Information BoaterHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:58am

    It worked out pretty swell for Greece. What's the issue?

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      Lizabethie: of the New WorldLow Information Boater
      12/03/15 11:10am

      Came here to say this, so I’ll just double down on your comment. Honestly, do these assholes know that a well run and efficient government first has to be able to fund the departments it wants?

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    IskaralPustHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:56am

    Defunding the IRS is just good, salt of the earth common sense. I mean, the government is like a household. As the head of my household, I recently tightened the belt a little myself. I needed to save money for food, so I sold our refrigerator. Now we have all the money we need, and my belt is a lot tighter thanks to the diarrhea from those moldy cold cuts.

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      Tom JopsonIskaralPust
      12/03/15 11:01am

      Eh... that’s not exactly how it works. I hear this comparison all the time and governments just aren’t like households. They just aren’t. They are totally different and you can’t compare the two.

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      IskaralPustTom Jopson
      12/03/15 11:26am

      Um, yes, I agree. I admit that the level of seriousness in my comment was perhaps less than extreme.

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    Vanguard KnightHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 10:53am

    You act like this wasn’t the plan from the beginning?

    A weak IRS really only helps large and sophisticated tax avoiders.
    Tax investigators don’t exist to go after regular Joes, and regular Janes generally don’t avoid their taxes beyond simply not paying them.

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      K JVanguard Knight
      12/03/15 11:08am

      A weak IRS really only helps large and sophisticated tax avoiders.

      This isn’t already the case? It’s why the Mitt Romneys of the world are paying 12%, and I’m paying 3x that.

      Simplify the tax code. You make x dollars, you pay x percent. Doesn’t matter if it’s salary, or capital gains, or your rich uncle leaving you his pension. The simpler the tax code, the fewer resources we have to commit to bloating the IRS’s payroll.

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    FlazloHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 3:25pm

    Also - idiots who want to replace the income tax with a national income tax:

    If you dislike the invasiveness of the IRS now, just wait until an organization has to go over everything you buy in order to determine whether or not you paid taxes on it. Understand that the labor and the burden of proof will fall on you, not the big companies that sell stuff.

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      LilaMeadowsFlazlo
      12/03/15 5:50pm

      Wouldn’t you just pay the tax when you bought the item? Why would you even need to file a return if we just had a national sales tax and no income tax?

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      FlazloLilaMeadows
      12/03/15 7:14pm

      If all sellers were honest about collecting and charging the tax, and if no buyers ever tried to seek out situations where they could evade the tax, then yes.

      Without oversight, do you expect honesty and compliance?

      It’s not like you’d have to file a return, but how would the government know that you were actually paying the tax? You, or someone, would have to do something. This is critical if sales tax is the main source of income for the federal government.

      As one example -let’s say a rich person buys a very expensive car overseas. Does she have to pay the sales tax on it? If not, you lose a huge chunk of income, because the whole point of a NST is to capture big purchases. If so, how do you catch something like that?

      Also - the “national sales tax” is probably not going to be, like, %8, if it’s replacing income tax. The IRS brought in 2.7 trillion dollars in 2013. Retail sales were 4.5 trillion. I don’t know if that includes services or groceries, but, on the back of an envelope, you might be talking about a sales tax of %30-%40, maybe more. People are going to want to dodge that, and the government has two choices - raise the rate to make up for it, or stop people from dodging it.

      It would be a skinless, shrieking, nightmare.

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    FacebonesHamilton Nolan
    12/03/15 11:10am

    For the Republicans and Tea Partiers, that’s the point, isn’t it? If the IRS can’t collect money then they can’t “waste” it on welfare layabouts and environmental regulations and Obummercare and Benghazi cover-ups. The job creators can keep all the money! Then, when the country is bankrupt, all the Very Serious Pundits can tell us how we have to gut Social Security, and how it’s morally wrong to expect to retire at 73. Seems to be working out pretty well for them so far.

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