Reality of the IRS Scandal

Townhall.com ^ | July 13, 2014 | Bruce Bialosky

[RayChuang88]

Remember what I wrote as two of the eight downsides of the current income tax system:

6. Government uses the tax code as a political instrument to favor or punish political constituencies as little as ONE taxpaying entity. The recent scandal using the IRS to target conservative 501(c)(3) and 501(c)(4) groups is clear proof of this.
7. Because the IRS needs to know intimate details of personal and business financial records in tax return filings, there are potentially serious issues with invasion of privacy. Care to explain why former Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's private tax returns ended up in the offices of Senator Harry Reid (D-NV)?

The very fact we know know the IRS abused its powers on behest of the Obama Administration for political purpuses proves me right in these two assertions. This is why in the end, the only solution is to get rid of the income tax and replace it with this:

It would be the most liberating thing to happen to the USA since the American Revolution itself, in my humble opinion.

[Travis McGee]

[blueunicorn6]

There are two nations within our borders. There is The United States of America and there is Democratland. The citizens of Democratland take money from the citizens of The United States. One of the citizens of Democratland is now the President of The United States. Another citizen of Democratland is head of The United States Senate.

[WILLIALAL]

What about other work product that would have been lost; why has that not been discussed?..........

This is a very important point. Lerner, if her hard drive did actually crash, would need a new computer almost instantly, just to function and fulfill her day to day responsibilities. You just don’t get a blank computer and continue to run your office from that point. She must have had 10’s of folder filled with documented data that she would need to have recovered and placed on her new computer to be able to have her office function.
So obviously the lost data was available on a server somewhere. Obviously it was recovered and reloaded on her computer, almost immediately, not months later. Her email folder would have been an almost invaluable piece of that data. Almost invalualbe. It would be one of the first things anyone would want recovered and reloaded on their computer, and yet we are to believe they were able to recover all her other data but not the email folder?
This is an important area that needs to be investigated.
Maybe the Federal judges putting pressure on the IT people at the IRS will shed some light on this.

[Triple]

There are actually multiple sovereign entities within the geographic borders of North America. Most of them were here before the formation of the current United States of America.

Perhaps one or two of them would be viable alternatives two the current federal government.

Hmmmmm.

[Principled]

The only solution is to get rid of the income tax...

It would be the most liberating thing to happen to the USA since the American Revolution itself, in my humble opinion.

Agreed RayChuang88.

No business taxes.
No withholding.
No forms for private citizens to fill out
No gov agency knowing how much tax you pay or what you own or how many kids you claim, etc

Everyone paying the same marginal rate. Everyone from us citizens to illegals to tourists... everyone pays the same marginal rate. Everyone.

Exports become more competitive with removal of tax costs. Manufacturing becomes more competitive by having imports pay the excise.

[wintertime]

The Fair Tax is better than what we have.

The **best** plan would be the 50 state plan.

The federal government sends our 50 tax bills, one to each state. The size of the bill is set by the number of people over the age of 18 ( determined by the census) living in the state.

Let the states figure out how to collect the tax. With 50 state, eventually, the most efficient, least intrusive, economy friendly, and least expensive to collect for the citizen and the state, would emerge. In fact, the states would compete with each other to have the most efficient, least expensive to administer and collect, and compassionate plan to collect the taxes.

[Mycroft Holmes]

...So obviously the lost data was available on a server somewhere...

---

Since about the mid '90s most companies with an actual IT department required all of their users to place all work product on their "T" drive which was mapped to a server on the net. This way, if a user's machine crashed a new one could be provided immediately, be mapped to the appropriate server/directory and be up and running with no lost data right now. Anybody not doing it this way is just stupid. Not out of the question when talking about our benevolent masters.

	Freedom ≠ Free Stuff☭
	I, for one, welcome our new Cybernetic Overlords /.
Mash Dobbshead® for HTML, bop Hello_Cthlhu for XAMPP

[Flick Lives]

A flat tax will never happen. It would remove the ability of politicians to hand out political favors and punish their enemies.

[WILLIALAL]

when I worked for the government, the T drive was the location that data was stored automatically.
No government office could function,especially one as high up as Lerner’s, if all her hard drive data was lost.
Her office would basically cease to function, and that applies specifically to an email account.
So if her new computer was rebuilt with her old data her email would have been also.
It would have been a matter of standard practice.

[RayChuang88]

In short, we end the very idea of taxing the process of earning money . It would TREMENDOUSLY boost the US economy, since tax costs are a huge factor in locating a business.

[wintertime]

Yep!

And...A 50 State tax is even more unlikely.

[Titus-Maximus]

And when they run low on destitute, uneducated, unskilled, diseased people, they just import more to use as a political bludgeon.

[antidisestablishment]

It is a violation of Federal law to keep emails (or any other records) on a hard drive. All federal IT systems run on centralized servers with redundant backup systems. This entire scenario is not only unbelievable, but illegal on its face.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I like your 50 state plan.

All Federal expenses are apportioned by population, and the States are responsible for collecting them. 50 little laboratories. Some will opt for a flat tax, some a sales tax, some an oppressively progressive tax.

As you say, the states that do a bad job here will either improve or lose their productive population and businesses.

[wintertime]

One of the problems with the Fair Tax is that there is still a federal administration needed to collect the tax although far smaller and less intrusive that what we have now.

Also...As regards to rebates to citizens, that absolutely would become a political juicy plum for politicians to gnaw at.

However....The Fair Tax would be MUCH MUCH MUCH better than the income tax. ( Yeah! I am shouting.) I would definitely support it even if it is less than perfect.

[DPMD]

It’s been said that the IRS is the closest thing the US has to the Gestapo. There’s merit in that comparison.

[oldtech]

I can(and have)written to my senator/representative demanding something be done on a certain issue. Most likely,they will respond by saying that they are doing what they can,but are not directly involved with the issue or are not on that committee. The real troublemakers are not ones I can easily correspond with;they are not from my state.

[Principled]

Can you tell me how you see the prebate being used by pols?

IMO it will be difficult b/c any increase in prebate would necessitate an increase in the overall rate - which would affect everyone. No more negative tax rates paid for by a particular segment or group - the costs of any and all refunds/prebates will be carried by _everyone_.

thanks