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Why tax returns should not be made public

joko104 said:
Depreciation deductions are to cause turn over of property and equipment. I don't know how it works now, but in the past depreciation rules lead to landlords basically selling each other their property back and forth for the depreciation aspect.

Tax deductions are not tax fraud. The government writes tax laws, not taxpayers.
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No, the lobbyists write the tax laws.
 
No business person wants to publicize tax returns because in it is the name of vendors and customers, among other reasons. Many a business has been destroyed by that info getting out. You learn who another business's customers are and what they pay, use the info to under cut their prices on a surprise attack - and boom everyone in the first company loses their jobs and the business is busted.

Here, a water delivery salesmen quit his job to take one with a competitor. He then showed up earlier than usual the next delivery day to the same customers, not stating for a different company, explaining the good news of a minor price cut. The original company didn't even know what happened until a week later when no one was paying their invoices. The owner said he lost 300 commercial customers out of it.

Get a company's vendor and customer list for many businesses and stealing that company away for yourself is fairly easily done.
 
Nickyjo said:
No, the lobbyists write the tax laws.
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I'll agree with that, buying off politicians.

Notice now NO ONE in EITHER party EVER talks about increasing taxes on Jeff Bezos, Amazon, Bill Gates, Apple, Microsoft or any other billionaires. When they talk about the rich no paying enough taxes, they mean successful small business, not the super rich who generally not only pay no taxes, but get money every year from the government for free.

Years ago a joint committee of retired members of Congress of both parties stressed the tax rate should be dramatically lowered to a flat tax with no exemptions. Why? Because the rich write the tax code exempting themselves. That report was basically thrown in the trash.
 
Acadia said:
I can see making an argument for not releasing tax information because there are so many blathering idiots out there who will misinterpret or not read beyond the headlines. This NYT story is yet another example of the MSM misleading people.
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Obviously that’s why Trump won’t release his tax forms, so that he doesn’t confuse us. Less sensitive presidential candidates have been tormenting us for years with excess information and he mercifully has ended the horrendous practice.
 
joko104 said:
Depreciation deductions are to cause turn over of property and equipment. I don't know how it works now, but in the past depreciation rules lead to landlords basically selling each other their property back and forth for the depreciation aspect.

Tax deductions are not tax fraud. The government writes tax laws, not taxpayers.
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You must be reaching back a long, long ways because I have never see landlords buying and selling each other's properties for the depreciation aspect. Simple reason is when they sell, they trigger a taxable gain. Now if there is a reason to recognize the gain such as having a bunch of losses to offset said gain, sure. But for the depreciation alone, no.
 
joko104 said:
No business person wants to publicize tax returns because in it is the name of vendors and customers, among other reasons. Many a business has been destroyed by that info getting out. You learn who another business's customers are and what they pay, use the info to under cut their prices on a surprise attack - and boom everyone in the first company loses their jobs and the business is busted.

Here, a water delivery salesmen quit his job to take one with a competitor. He then showed up earlier than usual the next delivery day to the same customers, not stating for a different company, explaining the good news of a minor price cut. The original company didn't even know what happened until a week later when no one was paying their invoices. The owner said he lost 300 commercial customers out of it.

Get a company's vendor and customer list for many businesses and stealing that company away for yourself is fairly easily done.
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Vendor/customer information isn't in a tax return. Information returns (such as 1096/1099) for vendors, sure. But no one is asking for that.
 
The Mark said:
I'm not at all sure what you're talking about, which is why I included the word "possibly".


I have no idea how business taxes work.

It sounds like you can deduct losses so you don't pay more taxes than you made in profit, or something.

Edit:
Decided to read the article in OP for the first time.

I would argue that the tax rules that allow this need to be reconsidered.

Basically, it sounds like these laws and rules allow companies/people to manipulate money in a way that allows them to make money and not pay taxes on it.

Legally.

I would argue that those rules need to be revisited and re-examined, but I don't expect they will be, since politicians are controlled by the very people whose income and wealth would be impacted by changing them in the way I envision.
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A family of four making $50K uses the family loophole among others, to pay no taxes. It's not just the rich who use loopholes.
 
jimbo said:
A family of four making $50K uses the family loophole among others, to pay no taxes. It's not just the rich who use loopholes.
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That's not a loophole, it's there so they don't have to use money they could be using to stay afloat for taxes.
 
Lutherf said:
I tell you what, if it's so important that all politicians should have their tax returns made public then ALL tax returns should be public. You never can tell if someone planning to run for public office will amend tax returns they've already filed so we may as well just put all of them out there on display for everyone to inspect. How about that? Does that sound like a good idea?
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If there is any possibility of a conflict of interest between the politician's private business, and their government business, then of course it sounds like a good idea. It sounds like a great idea.
 
The Mark said:
That's not a loophole, it's there so they don't have to use money they could be using to stay afloat for taxes.
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One man's tax write off is another man's loophole.
 
Winchester said:
One man's tax write off is another man's loophole.
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My point was that what you're terming a loophole is necessary for the financial stability of families like that, whereas the loophole I was talking about is not necessary for any such reason.


IOW, you're talking about apples and oranges, or something like that.
 
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