“Listen, we are not keeping anything off the table but I can assure you we are not bringing tax increases to the table,” he said. [OTM/The Hill]
Related Posts
Millionaires Are Getting Hated On in California
These days the rich get hated on pretty much everywhere but millionaires in California have extra room to bitch now. The California Court of Appeals has rejected a taxpayer’s challenge to Proposition 63, “which imposed a 1% tax on annual incomes in excess of $1 million to fund state mental health services”.
The plaintiffs were claiming that they (and their fellow millionaires) were singled out: “In [the plaintiff’s] view, wealthy individuals are singled out to bear the burden of a public expense, while others are excused from that burden.” Yeah, non-millionaires. You mind chipping in?
Plus, the plaintiffs don’t really see the how their money and helping non-millionaire crazy people are even connected. From Jensen v. California Franchise Tax Board:
In this instance, the Taxpayers object that individuals with high incomes do not have a particular need or use for the mental health services funded by Proposition 63, i.e., there is not connection ‘between the group being assessed and the use of the funds collected.’ The argument fails, because there is no need to contrive a link between the taxpayer and the services being funded.
So apparently just because you’re a lunatic millionaire and can afford private mental health services doesn’t mean you get out of funding state-run mental health services. According to the court, millionaires need to help out the crazies that can’t afford to go to fancy-schmancy hospitals regardless of the lack of relevance.
Oh, and btw, the Plaintiffs are the real victims here, “The Taxpayers perceive themselves as victims of a populist movement to ‘soak the rich.'” How would you feel if you were a victim of a populist movement? People with torches and pitchforks outside your house. Nightmare. Think about the what the millionaires are going through, people.
California Court Upholds 1% Tax on Millionaires [TaxProf Blog]
The IRS Will Pay You for Snitching but You Better Have a Big Fish and Don’t Mind Waiting
Recently we discussed snitching on tax cheats in the UK and we speculated that tax rats Stateside would be less common because of the increasing trend of hating (or just plain killing) on the Federal Government.
Well, we were dead wrong. Since Congress passed the Tax Relief and Health Care Act of 2006, the payouts to whistleblowers increased from a maximum of 15% of the recovered proceeds to a maximum of 30%. So far the temptation is working as tips to the IRS have increased to 476 for the latest fiscal year (9/30) compared to just 116 in the previous year.
Continued, after the jump
The catch is that the IRS doesn’t want to hear about your elderly neighbor that’s running numbers out of their basement for extra cash. No, they want the serious scofflaws, according to the Tax Girl, “the tax, penalties, interest, additions to tax, and additional amounts in dispute must exceed $2 million for any taxable year (that’s the sother restrictions also apply).”
So if you crunch the numbers, you can see there’s plenty of motivation to flip on someone if you know they are a tax dodger. Problem so far is that because of the boring arcane nature of tax law and the swiftness of the American court system, not one payout has occurred to date.
Plus, the law isn’t exactly encouraging the most honest of folks to come forward when you consider that Joe Francis’s accountant ratted him out only to be accused of shenanigans himself. And as Joe Kristan points out, “…there is always something creepy about the IRS being able to horn in on confidential client-professional relationships…”
The IRS probably isn’t worried too much about who gives them the information, just as long as they get it, so they’ll probably make a run at this with an imperfect system and with sources of questionable motivation for the time being.
If You Pay Them, They Will Come [Tax Girl]
Informant Program Spurs IRS Whistleblower Tips [Web CPA]
30 Pieces of Silver or 30 Percent of the Gross [Roth & Company, Tax Update Blog]