#taxes

Mother Jones | Why Billionaires Pay Much Less Tax Than the Average American by Gabriel Zucman AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information. Jeff Bezos recently argued that billionaires already pay a large share of U.S. taxes, but research by economists Gabriel Zucman, Emmanuel Saez and others shows this claim is misleading: when all federal, state and local taxes—including payroll, sales and excise taxes—are considered, the effective tax rate for all income groups is roughly 25‑30 percent, with billionaires actually paying the lowest rate (about 24 percent in 2018‑20 and as low as 15 percent for Bezos in 2018). The working‑class bears a substantial tax burden through regressive taxes, while the ultra‑wealthy can structure their income to minimize liability, a trend that intensified after the 2018 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, reducing billionaire tax contributions and expanding wealth concentration—today the richest 0.00001 percent own wealth equal to 14 percent of national income, up from 4 percent in 1910—highlighting a growing fiscal anomaly that calls for reform. Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/why-billionaires-pay-less-taxes-zucman-saez-jeff-bezos-irs-breaks-income-wealth/ #JeffBezos #EmmanuelSaez #GabrielZucman #incomeinequality #taxes

Mother Jones | Tax Me If You Can by Jeffrey Winters AI generated summary, Read the full article for complete information. Democracy in the United States has long tolerated a quiet oligarchy, but recent decades have seen that influence explode into the open: Supreme Court rulings such as Citizens United unleashed “dark money” and allowed a handful of ultra‑rich individuals—Elon Musk, the late Sheldon Adelson’s family, Timothy Mellon, among others—to funnel billions into elections, accounting for nearly half of 2024’s presidential‑contest spending. At the same time the IRS has been progressively crippled—first by the 1970s sabotage of investigator Dick Jaffe, later by drastic budget cuts that slashed enforcement capacity by more than 90 percent—leaving a colossal tax gap (estimated at $700 billion‑plus in 2022) that the government cannot close. Wealthy Americans evade taxes through intricate offshore structures and a powerful “Wealth Defense Industry” of former tax agents, prosecutors, and elite law firms that neutralize investigations, turn audits into costly, drawn‑out battles, and often settle for fractions of the owed sums while keeping the details private. High‑profile cases such as the Wyly brothers’ $3.2 billion claim reduced to $300 million, and the Smith–Brockman scheme that ended in non‑prosecution agreements and lavish philanthropy, illustrate how oligarchs routinely sidestep accountability. This combination of unchecked campaign spending, weakened tax enforcement, and sophisticated legal defenses has cemented an environment where the super‑rich can act with near‑impunity, eroding democratic accountability and reinforcing oligarchic dominance over American politics. Read more: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2026/05/oligarchy-tax-evasion-avoidance-irs-powerless-enforcement-books-blind-spot-excerpt-jeffrey-winters/ #CitizensUnited #IRS #oligarchy #politics #taxes #SheldonAdelson #ElonMusk #DonaldAlexander #RobertFSmith

Indiana's tax disaster "Last year's property tax cuts were the biggest business tax cut in state history. For close to 85% of businesses, SEA 1 marked a 100% elimination of business personal property taxes...To accommodate this huge business tax cut, SEA 1 pushed local governments to enact income taxes, while forcing property tax cuts for older Hoosiers." Indiana is making it cheaper to be old while making it more expensive to be young. https://commentaries.cberdata.org/1364/indiana-s-real-tax-problem #HoosierMast #Taxes

4 Ways You Can Get More Money by Filing Your Taxes Early https://bestlifeonline.com/ways-you-can-get-more-money-by-filing-your-taxes-early/ #Money #Finances #FinancialAdvice #Taxes

#USpol #Norway #taxes #tax

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s landslide election win saw a largely positive initial response from investors. But they remain wary of another market meltdown over her expansive spending plans. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2026/02/12/markets/bond-market-wary-takaichi-spending/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=mastodon #business #markets #bonds #japaneseeconomy #sanaetakaichi #debt #boj #taxes #consumptiontax

IRS Free File Is Now Accepting Tax Returns—Do You Qualify? https://bestlifeonline.com/do-i-qualify-for-irs-free-file/ #Money #FinancialAdvice #News #Taxes