Trump Thread

[Husar]

The US tax system is a byzantine thing, designed by special interests and tax accounts/attorneys so that there are any number of ways to legally 'game' the system. Trump almost certainly did nothing illegal with his taxes -- but paid fair money to reasonable shysters to insure that he did not have to pay much if anything.

All taxes are paid by individuals. The only thing various tax laws determine is who is responsible for collecting those taxes. The government collects some, but lets businesses collect even more on its behalf.

I don't think this is in any way special in the US. Maybe a little worse, but other countries' tax codes are just as weird and partially written by lobbyists.
As for the last part, technically yes, but that doesn't make the effect the same, because there is a difference in which individuals pay more. When a corporation has to pay(collect) more taxes, it cuts into the profits, profits which would otherwise go to wealthy investors. It's more of a wealthy people tax than, say, an income tax that only applies to wages and not capital income. The argument that the big business will then create fewer jobs is invalid, because by taxing the little man less, he can start more smaller companies that also create jobs. If only billionaire investors can create jobs anymore, you did something else wrong and have basically made them your inofficial rulers who you depend on.

Legally, I guess you are right it isn't fraud.

But common sense tells us this is all a rigged game to simply move and hide money that otherwise should be going back to the state. And we all know it. Every dollar moved out of the country through these means is a dollar stolen from a hungry mouth on SNAP or from a sick person on Medicare or from a research grant.
Guess that makes me a dumb lefty, but whatever.

The argument that "he did nothing wrong...legally" gets more and more tenuous when the law clearly doesn't bind everyone together but partitions people apart. Ahhh fuck I became Monty.

I wasn't making a moral argument, if you were going to prosecute moral fraud and/or adjust the laws accordingly, two thirds or more of your billionaire class would probably be in jail. Though to be actually moral (throwing everybody in jail for revenge is a bad idea), you'd just nationalize most of their assets.
Then again nationalizing assets they have in Caribbean states might cause some moral issues again (invasion? bullying?).