#tax dodging

[nando161mando]

Literally nothing happened..

[tomorrowusa]

Corporations pay their CEOs extravagantly while trying to cheat on taxes.

It would be one thing if, alongside the exorbitant executive pay, the quality of American CEO-ing was going up. But these executives are making off with bigger bags of boodle despite their persistent incompetence: Media executives keep running their businesses into the ground, tech firms are laying people off because of vibes, the planes keep nearly crashing, and examples of insane eye-popping greed—like Rite-Aid’s decision to claw back severance paid out to laid-off workers on the same day they handed their CEO a $20 million bonus—keep on coming. So it may come as no surprise that there’s a robust connection between the overindulged CEOs and the firms that are most flagrantly dodging their fair share of taxes. For a report released Wednesday, the Institute for Policy Studies teamed up with Americans for Tax Fairness to spelunk into the balance sheets at some of America’s best-known tax scofflaws between 2018 and 2022. What they found was pretty consistent: The firms took home high profits and lavished their top executives with exorbitant pay, all while stiffing Uncle Sam. The excess is stunning. “For over half (35) of these corporations,” the study reports, “their payouts to top corporate brass over that entire span exceeded their net tax payments.” An additional 29 firms managed this feat for “at least two of the five years in the study period.” Eighteen firms paid a grand total of zero dollars during that five-year span, 17 of which were given tax refunds. All in all, the 64 companies in the report “posted cumulative pre-tax domestic profits of $657 billion” during the study period, but “paid an average effective federal tax rate of just 2.8 percent (the statutory rate is 21 percent) while paying their executives over $15 billion.” Which firms are the worst of the worst? You can probably guess the company that tops the list because it’s the one run by The New Republic’s 2023 Scoundrel of the Year. During the five years of the study, Tesla took home $4.4 billion in profits as CEO Elon Musk carted off $2.28 billion in stock options, which, since his 2018 payday, have ballooned to nearly $56 billion—a compensation plan so outlandish that the Delaware Court of Chancery canceled it. Tesla has, during that same period of time, paid an effective tax rate of zero percent through a combination of carrying forward losses from unprofitable years and good old-fashioned offshore tax dodging.

Elon Musk is either the world's richest or second richest person. But he still wants more. Give him credit for pathological greed.

In all fairness, Musk is not alone when it comes to enriching himself while screwing workers.

What sort of innovations have these CEOs wrought from this well-remunerated period? T-Mobile’s Mike Sievert presided over the Sprint merger that led to $23.6 million in stock buybacks and 5,000 layoffs. Netflix’s Reed Hastings poured $15 billion in profit into jacking up subscription rates. Nextera Energy has devoted $10 million in dark money in a “ghost candidate scheme” to thwart climate change candidates. Darden Restaurants has been fighting efforts to raise the minimum wage. Metlife has been diverting government money meant to fund low-cost housing into other, unrelated buckraking ventures. And some First Energy executives from the study period are embroiled in a corruption scandal that’s so massive that even Musk might find it to be beyond the pale.

These oligarchs are going to spend lavishly to elect Republicans who would give them even bigger tax breaks.

Fortunately, they can't literally buy votes. If we return to old school grassroots precinct work then we can thwart the MAGA Republican puppets of billionaire oligarchs.

One to one contact is a more important factor than TV or online ads in convincing people to vote your way. It takes more effort, but democracy was not built by slacktivism in the first place.

[themancorialist]

Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester.

[tenth-sentence]

Some towns insisted on giving women traders femme sole status to prevent them hiding behind their husbands' names, dodging taxes and shirking their civic responsibilities.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[reiverreturns]

probably a good thing i don’t live in london because i might be inclined to hunt this man down and kill him with my bare hands xox

[fvckw4d]

The difficulty with chilchuck is even though he is middle aged for his race and that's an important part of his backstory, thats also Exactly what being 29 is like.

[y-rhywbeth2]

What's Wyll keeping a gold abacus for, anyway? I'm pretty sure it's an abacus, I'm not sure what else it could be.

...is Wyll the party treasurer and accountant? Does he not trust us with money? ...do I trust us with money?

[im-still-watching-anime]

kakashi: dealing with the kids is exhausting they’re so immature

tsunade: well they are children so that’s kind of expected

kakashi: yeah but it makes it hard for me to relate to them since im an adult

tsunade: you asked me if and i quote “taxes apply to you” yesterday i really don’t think the gap is as big as you think it is

[polygondotcomvideoproducer]

thats not leaking blood the colours are just a little stylized 😭 i cant be the only person who genuinely likes that portrait

I said if u squint it looks that way, I understand that it's not the intention bud. And ur probably not the only one but it's certainly a niche opinion. Like I've been racking my brain to think of reasons the artist might want to make it look like he was painting on a meat canvas and none of them are particularly flattering to ol king chuck. The artist wanted the military uniform to fade into the background to bring the man himself into better focus and humanise him. Which. yeah trying to cover over their violent history by humanising themselves is certainly what the royal family are going for these days so shoutout to the artist for getting the assignment ig lmao. And the one fucking incongruous butterfly that was apparently Charles' idea really gets me

Anyway no royal portrait was gonna work for me, in the same way that I'd be pissed if my landlord was like "hey look what I spent ur rent money on" and it was a fuckin statue of themselves, yk? Royal portraits in general are flimsy fuckin propaganda that waste our damn money, and this one is no different to me, it's just a more self-serving version

[kirby-the-gorb]

[adrianastrix]

Jesus: "It's easier for a camel to pass through the hole of a needle than for a rich person to go to Heaven."

Jesus: "A servant can't serve two lords, because they will love one and hate the other. You can't serve both God and Money."

Jesus: "That widow who donated two coins donated more than the rich person who filled the vase with money."

Jesus: "Don't store up treasures on Earth. (...) For where your treasure is, there will be your heart."

Jesus: "Don't worry yourself sick about owning things. God always rewards work with the means for you to survive (food) and even the little luxuries you need to express yourself (fine clothing)."

Jesus: "Don't be like that rich fool that worked so hard to accumulate grain and was so happy when he finally got to a point that he owned enough to never go hungry again. He died that same night, so what was all that for?"

Jesus: "Woe to you who are rich, for you have already received your comfort. Woe to you who are well fed now, for you will go hungry."

Jesus (to a pious rich person): "Oh, you observe all ten commandments since youth? Good. But if you really want to go to Heaven, sell everything you have, donate to the poor and follow me."

(and I could go on, but you got the point)

----

"Christian" leaders: "If you work hard you will make lots of money because having lots of money is a sign that Jesus loves and blesses you! :)"

[chipjrwibignaturals]

i think gillion should have the magic debt ticker tramp stamp now. like he and chip basically signed that contract together and chip died so. guess who has full solo responsibility for that payment now !!!!!!!!!!!

[soft-serve-soymilk]

More random head children musings (aside from the really sad one because that deserves better than a throwaway post):

Honestly I think it’s very fortunate that Dism’s team isn’t *entirely* comprised of lucid dreamers.

[burntnotices]

[cleric-of-crows]

Shoutout to the dream version of myself who decided to write an entire persuasive essay to my mom and sister about why they should pay their taxes instead of "boycotting" taxes because of the war in Gaza.

Yeah my real self would fucking not.

[spotaus]

Thinking about how, ideally, my new Fresh x Dream take is very specifically about them annoying eachother while also very much needing eachother. (Dream doesn't regulate feedback very well, so when Fresh is suddenly in his head constantly giving commentary and taking control, he takes it personally. Meanwhile Fresh is just petty for the first few weeks before he realizes Dream isn't gonna just get eaten like the other bodies he inhabits so he's... figuring that out.)