That’s right, I’m not a dupe, I’m an asshole!

But Daschle is a career bureaucrat in the American government.

I’ve got a degree in accounting and still got audited. I don’t think even Daschle, who helped passed many of the laws he broke, knows precisely what the code is.

This is especially galling when the fat cat in question is not really producing anything or creating wealth for society as a whole. I’m getting effing sick of the privileged class.

…We paid all in all 0% penalties all told, even though she’d specifically avoided paying taxes for several years because she knew of the fuckup.

The penalties just aren’t criminal. The IRS had its entire schedule of penalties changed about ten years ago.

The criminal aspect is how the Bush administration kept the IRS auditing the bottom 4/5ths more than the top 1/5th.

I think we should all go back to paying taxes as per the golden age of society – the 1950’s. I keep getting told by the right that the 1950’s were great. So lets revert to the tax rates that made the 50’s great!

Two excellent suggestions! If we audit everyone in the top 5% of income, for instance, the IRS will be hiring a few thousand new people right now (talk about your ’shovel-ready’ project!) and the money reclaimed over the next several years will *still* multiply by a factor of… well, the economists I’ve heard discussing the topic guess anywhere from 5 to infinity. And that includes the libertarian economists arguing that IRS enforcement is a bad bad thing ‘cuz it interferes with the entrepreneurs’ financial creativity.

And most of the vast shelves of financial creativity regarding the tax code have been added since those glorious days when Eisenhower ruled the airwaves, so even without reverting to a 90% confiscation rate for the Robber Barons, stripping away 90% of the “business deductibles” would return vast sums of multinational booty to American coffers.

While the furthest thing from being an accomplished writer, I have authored a few successful books and novels (two of which have been optioned for films), by-lined a few hundred columns that have run in all of the major papers, and even have a couple of screenplays bouncing around Hollywood.

Based on the quality of his editorializing it is very difficult to believe he has achieved any success as a writer.

I’ll be anxiously awaiting the sequel to Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

He should have led with this and saved everybody’s time.

As an accountant friend of mine told me years ago, whatever you send the IRS is a first offer. If they accept, fine. If not, you work towards another figure.

There’s nothing immoral about owing the IRS back taxes. If there are penalties, you pay them. If there is interest, you pay it. When you have income from many different sources, each with their own deductions, exemptions and schedules to file, it’s pretty easy to overlook paying some taxes, just as it’s easy to overlook taking some exemptions or credits. If you find that you’ve overpaid and file an amended return within 7 years, you’ll be repaid, sometimes with interest (but not with penalties, of course, since it’s still your fault), but that doesn’t make the IRS crxooks. It’s just a complex system, that’s all.

As long as you’re not taking positive steps towards tax evasion, you’re not a criminal scumbag, or any other kind of scumbag. [Disclaimer: I've done taxes for H&R Block, and they ARE scumbags, loanshark scumbags to be exact.] Ask any enrolled agent or auditor, and they’ll tell you that they can find something done wrong on just about anyone’s tax return.

You only have to put them on your tax form if you swap them for cash, i.e. actually get income. If you use them for award flights, upgrades, etc, you don’t; Google Announcement 2002-18 for details.

I’m not going to go for the ‘you haven’t responded hence you’re a light weight coward know nothing’ response but I’m still interested to know how immigration is destoying Europe.

Do these reviewers ever step into a mall? Were they in any malls during the holidays? Are malls, like the films of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, and Rob Schneider, never seen or visited by the proletariat?

[…]

Don’t worry. If you find it too traumatic or disgusting, you can always climb back up to your tower, take a shower, and then rip the next bourgeoisie movie that offends your lofty station in life.

There’s some analytical rigor for you.

A little more:

As for that non-stop media narrative that the economic sky is falling, a top investment banker I know in London tells me that the media negativity is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their reporting is contributing to and indeed fueling, some of the economic downturn.

A former Senator from Texas told me the same thing, so it must be true! The economic slump is only in our minds.

Yes, but do you also agree that he’s still an asshole?

Actually, you’d be speaking to the predominant moviegoing demographic, which is basically teenagers. When I was that age I went and saw pretty much everything that was on offer from Hollywood, which then, as now, was mostly crap.

Speaking of annoying, where’s that actor guy? He usually hand-feeds me. Don’t tell me he’s out “acting” or something.