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submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

The IRS plans to end a major tax loophole for wealthy taxpayers that could raise more than $50 billion in revenue over the next decade, the U.S. Treasury Department says.

The guidance and ruling being announced Monday includes plans to essentially stop “partnership basis shifting” — a process by which a business or person can move assets among a series of related parties to avoid paying taxes.

Biden administration officials said after evaluating the practice that there are no economic grounds for these transactions, with Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo calling it “really just a shell game.” The officials said the additional IRS funding provided through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act had enabled increased oversight and greater awareness of the practice.

“These tax shelters allow wealthy taxpayers to avoid paying what they owe,” IRS commissioner Danny Werfel said.

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[-] nkat2112 166 points 4 weeks ago

The officials said the additional IRS funding provided through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act had enabled increased oversight and greater awareness of the practice.

Thank goodness for that!

And, yes, do it!

This is the way.

[-] [email protected] 116 points 4 weeks ago

Indeed. Also, Republicans have already proposed dramatic cuts to the IRS, so we should be under no illusions about what will happen to this loophole and Direct File if Trump & Co. take control in November.

[-] [email protected] 29 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

They have been gutted for a decade. It was a genius move to circumvent their complete failure by using the inflation reduction act.

[-] [email protected] 47 points 4 weeks ago

Every dollar invested in the IRS give more than that in taxes from cheaters. Worth it

[-] [email protected] 28 points 4 weeks ago

Yeah, it's a whopping 600% in general and DOUBLE that for auditing the top 10%!

If you're for the government being fiscally responsible (rather than pretending that macroeconomic systems are identical to household budgets) you want rule changes like the one mentioned in the headline as well as more funding for auditing and other enforcement of existing IRS rules.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago

... for rich people.

Because historically it's been the middle class and poor that get audited, never the rich.

In fact the IRS could just drop every investigation into those and focus on the rich every time.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago

I'm down for also investigating the upper middle class. Some small business owners are scummy tax cheats whose entire success rests on stealing wages from their workers and taxes from the government. They need to be put out of business to open up market share for honest companies.

[-] Maeve 3 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago)

I once worked for a multimillionaire who got audited. He did have to sell a bunch of properties, cars and other toys, to pay taxes, interest, and fines, and got ten years in the pen. This was in the nineties, and he was well-liked, but I never* heard, nor heard of, anyone claim it was unfair, including those who benefited from his corruption, except one guy who bought and sold particular high-end products for him who was also audited, and avoided prison, but idk whether he had to pay delinquent taxes, penalties and interest or not.

[-] [email protected] 144 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

The IRS processed 162 million tax returns in FY 2023. If they raise $50 billion, then that means $308 for every taxpayer in America, courtesy of the IRS.

Honest taxpayers rejoice. Tax cheats, go cry about it.

[-] [email protected] 64 points 4 weeks ago

Really it has no impact on most of us. I have never used a partnership tax basis shift and almost certainly never would have. It is going to cost a bunch of obscenely wealthy jerks some money and cost the rest of us nothing. Win-win.

[-] [email protected] 44 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Really it has no impact on most of us

No NEGATIVE impact, you mean.

Taking money that would otherwise just be passed back and forth between billionaires and hectomillionaires hurts nobody.

Investing that money in any of the thousands of critically underfunded parts of the government (education, infrastructure including Internet, antipoverty programs, and public defenders being some of the most important ones) could be absolutely TRANSFORMATIVE, especially for those most in need and/or most abused by the current status quo.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

i'm a big fan of "hectomillionaires" (the term, not the system that allows hectomillionaires to exist to the detriment of us all, of course)

[-] [email protected] 2 points 4 weeks ago

What about decamillionaires and kilomillionaries? Gotta love metric system.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

Kilomillionaire literally means 1000 millions, aka a billion (short system) or a milliard (long system).

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Correct. Now let's wait for american scared of metric.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

I do think the long system makes more sense. That being said, I will not be using it.

—James Grime, mathematician, Numberphile

[-] [email protected] 16 points 4 weeks ago

That $50 billion is over a 10 year period.

[-] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago

$30.80 a year is still $30.80, and that is literally money that requires no extra work or payment on the part of the honest taxpayer.

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[-] [email protected] 89 points 4 weeks ago

What say you, "no new taxes, just close loopholes" Republicans?

[-] [email protected] 30 points 4 weeks ago

but they worked to hard to create those loopholes.

don't you value honest work?

[-] explodicle 27 points 4 weeks ago

"We have been dead for 20 years."

[-] [email protected] 18 points 4 weeks ago

"There are so many other loopholes, we should focus on the ones poor people use"

[-] [email protected] 16 points 4 weeks ago

Which republicans might those be? The only ones I hear about are “exploit the loopholes and cut taxes for the rich” kind.

[-] Varyk 41 points 4 weeks ago

Kick ass, IRS. Between this, tye free filing program and the new automatic taxes, I'm ecstatic about cheering them on.

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[-] [email protected] 35 points 4 weeks ago
[-] [email protected] 15 points 4 weeks ago

My dad be like the job creators need that money so it can trickle!

[-] [email protected] 34 points 4 weeks ago

Is there a way for Republicans to block this? Because if so, they'll block it.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Under Trump and Republicans, they were actively defunding the IRS and forcing them to reduce staff. Can't audit a billionaire when theyre shorthanded.

Even though every dollar invested in the IRS is a multiplier.

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 weeks ago

They could refuse aid to Ukraine until the new rules are scrapped like they did last time

[-] [email protected] 22 points 4 weeks ago

I wonder how many low income earners in America are getting riled about this right now.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 3 weeks ago

The IRS always says they're gonna target the wealthy, but most of their audits are lower income people because they're easier targets.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

Doesn't help when repubs are always cutting funding to the IRS. Sigh.

[-] [email protected] 14 points 4 weeks ago
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[-] [email protected] 11 points 4 weeks ago

I’ll believe it when it happens. And if it does, I won’t expect it to stand if the admin flips in November.

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[-] [email protected] 9 points 4 weeks ago

Wealthy taxnonpayers

[-] [email protected] 8 points 4 weeks ago

After watching Finding The Money, terms like “raise” and “revenue” applied to taxes seem deliberately misleading.

[-] [email protected] 7 points 4 weeks ago

What words would you use in their place?

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[-] [email protected] 6 points 4 weeks ago

Do it. Dont let your dreams be dreams.

[-] [email protected] 4 points 4 weeks ago

Could you also please allow those of us overseas to use silly things like retirement accounts without having it all be considered PFICs? I just wanna contribute to my current country's equivalent of an ISA/401K type of thing.

[-] [email protected] 2 points 3 weeks ago

It's still not enough!

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this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2024
912 points (100.0% liked)

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