Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

Comment by exelius | Hacker News Reader

I am actually worried about Trump from a solvency standpoint. Hear me out on this.

Trump has unquestionably shaken faith and trust in government. To the point I’m willing more than a few voters are thinking “jeez, if these guys are gonna screw me, I’m gonna take what’s mine”. Hell, our president has admitted to avoiding taxes in multiple on-the-record accounts!

As a result, everyone I know has admitted to cheating a little bigger on their taxes this year, and omission of personal investments like Bitcoin is one of the easiest.

From what I’ve read in the past (I don’t know if this is true), it would only take a 2% decline in personal income tax filings to cause serious cash flow problems for the US government. The republicans have spent years weakening the IRS’ enforcement power, and now Trump has given a lot of people both motive and a role model to avoid paying taxes.

Maybe if it breaks our current social contract enough, we’ll get to create a new one appropriate for a 21st century world leader.

If literally everyone you know is cheating on their taxes, you need better friends.

Everyone has always cheated on their taxes; thanks to years of cuts the IRS audit rate on individuals is so low that you never get caught unless your finances get reviewed for some other reason.

I don’t personally do it because my job audits my finances anyway; and the risk just isn’t worth it for me. But for the average person making less than $400k, risk of getting audited is basically nil.

I don't think Trump ever claimed to have done anything fraudulent (whether he did or not is another matter). I'm not trying to get into a political debate or argue over Trump's flaws or merits, but there's a big difference between using legal loopholes that are available to you and deliberately not reporting things to pay fewer taxes.

>but there's a big difference between using legal loopholes that are available to you and deliberately not reporting things to pay fewer taxes.

Legally that's true, but I think the average person upset about this sees zero difference at all. Myself included, in my opinion using legal loopholes to get out of tax is morally just as bad, if not worse than deliberately not reporting things to pay fewer taxes.

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands."

-Judge Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810 (2d Cir. 1934), aff'd, 293 U.S. 465 (1935)

Especially with taxes, the area between “creative” and “fraudulent” is very murky.

I also doubt Trump himself has a distinction between the two based on every single account of the man I have heard.

And he’s been busted a few times in the past for doing verrrrry similar shady things; but there are different rules when you’re rich and you can just pay a fine and send a lawyer to jail instead (not a political comment; this works for the rich on both sides).

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