Thread by @doctorow

This summer started with a bang, with @Propublica's #SecretIRSFiles leaks - a massive data-set detailing the tax-evasion strategies of the rich, confirming F Scott Fitzgerald's maxim that "they are different from you and me" (We pay tax. They don't).

pluralistic.net/2021/06/08/leo…

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If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2021/08/03/fit…

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When you are very rich, you can borrow money at interest rates that are next to zero; you can also take your income in stock, rather than cash. Stock is only taxed when you sell it, and then at the lower capital gains rate, because the IRS rewards gambling and punishes work.

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Put those two facts together, and you've got wealthy people who effectively never "earn" any taxable income - instead, they stake their assets as collateral on tax-free loans at sub-1% interest.

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The Propublica stories even reveal wealthy people illegally taking deductions on the loan interest, which the IRS doesn't seem to punish. Why would they? The rich are different from you and me. We pay tax. They don't.

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If you live in a $70k household, your federal tax bill is about 14%. If you're Michael Bloomberg, your IRS bill on 2019's $2b in income is 1.3%.

propublica.org/article/the-se…

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Propublica's series has continued, naming and shaming ultra-wealthy people who take Helmsley's Law ("only little people pay taxes") to heart. But they're being (appropriately) cautious, so we're really only getting a limited view of things - the big picture is still obscure.

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Writing in @NatCounterPunch, Sam Pizzigati delves into elite debt on a macro scale, noting that the total loaned out by banks' "wealth management" divisions has hit $600b for 2021 - 17.5% higher than last year.

counterpunch.org/2021/08/02/ame…

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That accounts for 22.5% of the banks' total loan book - up from 16.3% in 2017. Jpmorgan and Citi are loaning more money to a handful of super-wealthy people than they are to all US credit-card holders combined. 10 years ago, credit card debt outstripped elite debt 10:1.

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These loans aren't just risk-free - they're also good for business. The ultra-wealthy have an outsized say in the banking choices of large companies. A banker who cuts a sweetheart loan to a billionaire is setting themselves up for business with that billionaire's companies.

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So these loans are (per Bloomberg), "highly strategic" for banks.

Now, America has an army of simps for plutes who'll be along to insist all of this is legal, and if we don't like it, force Congress to change the tax-code. "Don't hate the sociopath, hate the game."

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This is simpleminded rationalization. For one thing, it's often NOT legal - the tax code contains a woefully underused clause called the "economic substance doctrine" that prohibits pretextual financial arrangements that exist solely to evade taxes.

prospect.org/economy/one-we…

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This isn't enforced, and it should be, AND the tax code should be updated, and while we're at it, we should adopt @senwarren's wealth tax - but we haven't, because the same people who evade their taxes use those savings to determine our political outcomes.

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That's why "Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."

cambridge.org/core/journals/…

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We don't need billionaires' money to fund our programs. The US government - not taxpayers - is where money comes from (money is spent into existence and taxed out of existence - the constraint on US spending is resources, not tax "revenue"):

pluralistic.net/2021/05/17/dis…

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The reason to tax money out of existence is - in part - to blunt the power of the wealthy, and keep it in the hands of democratic accountable lawmakers. The project of American elites is to transfer power from the workers and voters to bosses and investors.

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This infects every US political struggle. That "election audit" in Arizona? It exists because of the whims of a tiny number of billionaires, who act through think-tanks and other proxies to turn those whims into an existential crisis for democracy:

newyorker.com/magazine/2021/…

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We hear a lot about how the wealthy amass huge art collections, superyachts, rare wines and other assets, and think of them like Scrooge McDuck, filling a vault with bullion and art treasures.

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What's actually going on is a lot more cursed: these are part of an elaborate scheme to avoid taxation, amass political power, and wield that power at the expense of the rest of us.

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Image:
Sam Valadi (modified)
flickr.com/photos/1320845…

CC BY:
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.…

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