The worst government theft...

Halifax2TheMax wrote:

And if its such a meaningless number, why the kerfuffle?

I lost my father on June 4th and I will soon find out what the tax implications are for his estate and my inheritance. But as hedonist stated, in the end, the money doesn't really matter.

Peace.

First I want to say sorry for your loss. I lost my father almost 3 years ago now out of nowhere and it still feels fresh.

I wasn't just referring to the federal gov't. They are one of the few who do an estate tax. I think the state gov'ts that tax an estate are are wrong as well. Most states do an inheritance tax. One happens for dying, the other for receiving income. I am hesitantly ok to have 1 of them, but taxing someone for dying is stupid.

I don't know why in my head I switched it to 200 million when I did the math, thanks for the catch. Thanks, but the 20 billion dollar number becomes 2% of the trillion dollar deficits that have been run. That isn't even measuring it against the percent of the entire amount of revenue.
The amount of money doesn't matter to me, it is the principle of being taxed FOR dying. Tax the living when they receive the money, do not tax the dead. There are a lot of taxes i don't agree with, the amounts of each may seem insignificant, but they add up to allowing a bloated war machine the money to operate the same way they always have. What is the impetus to change if they just keep on getting money to do all the evil shit they want?
So you may say why fight it if the number is small, I say why ask for it if the number you get is small in comparison to all the money spent on dumb/evil shit, and could be easily made up for in utilizing the inheritance tax if you just HAVE to have the money

libertarians thoughts on this?

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commenta ... rizon.html

This is the text of a letter sent on Wednesday to Prime Minister Stephen Harper by U.S. consumer advocate Ralph Nader concerning the possibility of U.S. telecom giant Verizon entering the Canadian market:

Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper:

I read with interest that you are considering allowing Verizon Communications to operate in Canada with unique acquisition rights.

Bad idea.

Before you proceed any further, I suggest that you read a report by the highly regarded Center for Tax Justice and Good Jobs First titled, “Unpaid Bills: How Verizon Shortchanges Government Through Tax Dodging and Subsidies.”

Bottom line: Verizon is one of the country’s most aggressive corporate tax dodgers.

Related:

· Verizon bargaining for better Canadian terms: Analysts

· Industry Minister James Moore denies 'courting' Verizon

· Harper betrays Canada’s interests in telecom fight

· Ralph Nader’s life in three words: ‘I was right’

The report found that Verizon enjoyed some $14 billion in federal and state corporate income tax subsidies in the 2008-2010 period, even though it earned $33.4 billion in pre-tax U.S. income during that time.

At the federal level, Verizon should have paid about $11.4 billion at the statutory rate of 35 per cent during the three-year period.

Instead, it actually got $951 million in rebates, putting its federal tax subsidies at $12.3 billion.

Its effective federal tax rate was 2.9 per cent.

The report found that at the state level, Verizon should have paid about $2.3 billion in corporate income taxes during the period but it paid only $866 million.

Its aggregate state rate was only 2.6 per cent, far below the weighted state average rate of 6.8 per cent.

This gave it state tax subsidies of about $1.4 billion.

Verizon also used a special tax loophole called the Reverse Morris Trust to avoid paying about $1.5 billion in federal, state and local taxes on the sale of its landline assets in various states.

The report found that Verizon also aggressively seeks state and local tax subsidies through credits, abatements and exemptions.

There is no centralized reporting on these subsidies, but the report documents $180 million in special tax breaks and grants Verizon and Verizon Wireless received in 13 states.

In addition to aggressively dodging taxes, Verizon also overtly rips off our federal government.

In April 2011, for example, Verizon paid $93.5 million to settle whistleblower charges that it had billed the government for “tax-like” surcharges it wasn’t entitled to impose on the government.

Hidden surcharges on communication services have long been an unwelcome cost to business and consumers, and the General Services Administration had negotiated a firm, fixed-price contract with limited surcharges precisely to avoid being hit with hidden surcharges, the whistleblower alleged.

“Verizon was not only charging the government for the costs associated with communication services, but it also was pumping up its revenues by charging the government for Verizon’s own property taxes and other costs of doing business,” said Colette Matzzie, a Washington, D.C., attorney with Phillips & Cohen LLP, who represented the whistleblower. “Under federal law, Verizon was responsible for paying those costs, not the government.”

The settlement agreement covers the period from 2004 to 2010, when Verizon allegedly billed the government for a variety of surcharges including property tax surcharges, carrier cost recovery charges, state telecommunications relay service surcharges and public utility commission fee surcharges.

Question: why would you allow one of our country’s most aggressive tax dodgers, a company with a track record of overtly ripping off our government, into your country?

What’s bad for the United States will be bad for Canada.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

Prince Of Dorkness wrote:

Well... To be frank.. When old man Hilton finally croaks, I'd rather the Money go back to the public than to Paris Hilton and he slutty sisters.

Call me crazy.

crazy