ProPublica, a nonprofit investigative journalism site, obtained and then published details of the tax returns of billionaires including Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Warren Buffet, and Michael Bloomberg. Their reporting echoed across the internet, but did it really justify stealing people’s private information? “ProPublica has obtained a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the…
Yes, taxes would be higher under President Biden. Enough to raise $2.4 trillion in the next ten years. You almost certainly won’t be paying them, though, unless you make more than $400,000 a year or run a decent sized business. Just a reminder: these Rationalist Papers posts are for the group I call the deciders: conservative, moderate,…
Who is Donald Trump? Who is Joe Biden? What are their accomplishments, and how can we view their character? We may have more information about these two candidates than we’ve ever had in any other presidential election — especially with the recent information that the New York Times revealed about President Trump’s tax filings. Just…
I had a great year in 2017. I’ve been pleased to be able to basically replicate the income I had as a very senior analyst working for a research company, but to control my own destiny and work hours, and work only on projects that I like. But one thing is different. My income tax…
The New York Times, reviewing leaked documents from the law firm Appleby, described how Apple reroutes profits to avoid taxes. Apple’s denial is full of facts but lacks clarity. In Monday’s New York Times article “After a Tax Crackdown, Apple Found a New Shelter for Its Profits,” here’s what we learned: Five months after [Apple…
The Republican tax plan reduces government receipts by $1.5 trillion over the next ten years. This is not a bug, it is a feature: it is, after all, a tax cut. But a trillion is a hard number to wrap your head around. Just how big is a trillion and a half? So, here’s a…
The repeal of the Affordable Care Act has gone down to defeat. Democrats are cheering. Trump and Republicans have now failed at everything significant they’ve attempted, except for confirming a single Supreme Court Justice. Trump will now find success with a middle-class tax cut, an effort that will remake the political framework of Washington. Let’s…