David Dayen Profile picture
Sep 29, 2020 6 tweets 1 min read Read on X
Just one example of how to fix the terrible inequities in the tax code so it doesn't privilege the rich comes from the source of Trump's audit: the $72.9 million refund for carryback losses. Why was that refund given, and THEN checked out?
As the Times notes, the Joint Committee on Taxation reviews every refund of over $2 million to individuals. Why do we GIVE THE REFUND first and then review it?
JCT could review and only release the funds afterward. Anyone entitled to a refund of over $2 million is highly unlikely to need that refund quickly.
Making the refund contingent on JCT's review changes completely the dynamic of the audit. The IRS wouldn't be pleading with the rich person to give up their gains, because they wouldn't have them yet.
Sure, Trump or whoever could appeal the ruling, but they wouldn't be in the position of using the millions they may have illegally received because the current system routinely blocks poor people from their money but speeds it to the rich.
You could come up with 1,000 just-as-simple options to make the tax system not quite so attentive to the concerns of the wealthy. But then who would pay the campaign contributions I guess-

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More from @ddayen

Jun 14
This is the final day of our pricing series and we have two pieces for you.
First, @Bilalgwork of Groundwork looks at what policymakers can do about unfair, deceptive, and abusive pricing. Turns out there's a lot, some of which is already happening
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
One thing not brought up enough in the context of this pricing evolution, and corporate power more generally, is tax policy. Bilal does that:
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
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A graduated corporate tax above a certain profit level could reduce the urge to surge on prices.
Public options are also a strategy, one we're seeing in real time with IRS Direct File ending the pricing power of TurboTax. There are other options:
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
Image
Read 4 tweets
Jun 10
We continue our series on how pricing really works with one of my favorite pieces: Joanna Marsh on subscription pricing, which relies on dark patterns and absent-mindedness to keep consumers paying.
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
It's the inattention economy: "A survey found that consumers estimated they were spending $86/month for their subscriptions. The total was actually $219."
Subscriptions are so out of hand that there are now subscription services to help you manage them.
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
Image
The bigger problem is that companies have learned to protect their subscriptions with dark patterns, often tricking people into subscribing while locking customers in by making it nearly impossible to cancel:
prospect.org/economy/2024-0…
Image
Read 7 tweets
May 10
So:
Judge Pittman (Trump judge in Texas) got the Chamber's challenge to CFPB credit card late fees.
He said it wasn't germane to Texas, sent it to DC
The 5th Circuit said no, sent it back to Pittman
And now Pittman put it on hold.
accountable.us/wp-content/upl…
Pittman clearly seems mad about how the process went and mad at the Chamber. He even added this graph of the winding timeline of the case.
But that didn't stop him from ruling for big banks. Image
The preliminary injunction is entirely based on the 5th Circuit's ruling that CFPB is using unconstitutionally derived funds.
That's at the Supreme Court now & will likely be overturned, and then presumably Pittman and the Fightin' 5th will come up with another reason.
Read 5 tweets
Feb 22
The $138 billion in student debt that's been relieved by Biden has nothing to do with his "Plan B" for debt relief after the Plan A was shot down by the courts. It's just about Biden's Education Department running existing forgiveness programs with a modicum of competence.
Today's announcement, for example, involves the speedy implementation of the updated income-driven repayment (SAVE) program, which promised that people paying 10 years with less than $12,000 in debt would get it forgiven.
npr.org/2024/02/21/123…
$56.7bn in debt relief came from actually fulfilling Public Service Loan Forgiveness, which almost nobody successfully navigated before Biden.
Another $45.7bn came from fixing servicer errors on income-driven repayment to give debtors what they deserved
ed.gov/news/press-rel…
Read 7 tweets
Sep 15, 2023
The UAW's selective strike strategy is new for UAW, but it's been very successful for one other union. So much so that they trademarked the practice.
That would be @afa_cwa's CHAOS strategy. 🧵
CHAOS stands for Creating Havoc Around Our System. It began at Alaska Airlines in 1993. There was a protracted strike with the flight attendants, despite the airline earning record profits. Negotiations had dragged on for 3 years.
Under the Railway Labor Act, the flight attendants' union had the authority to devise intermittent surprise strikes, walking off flights at the last minute.
Read 7 tweets
Sep 8, 2023
I read @FranklinFoer's Biden bio The Last Politician, and found this disconnect between a peripatetic presidency of action and the public perception that nothing's happening. What accounts for it? Maybe it's the White House's theory of politics.
prospect.org/culture/books/…
Reading the accounts of Biden directing meetings and horse-trading with Congress—the work of politics—is so disconnected from this White House's extreme cloistering of the president that it called to mind the old SNL Reagan mastermind sketch:
No review has yet highlighted the bits about how much Biden dislikes Zelensky. At one point, CIA director Bill Burns had to give Zelensky “relationship-management tips.”
prospect.org/culture/books/…
Read 4 tweets

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