On the Road Toward Confiscation?

[aaron]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

How on earth can they even enforce this?

When or if this happens I will shut down my e-commerce store (1 employee- me) because it doesn't pay enough to be burdened with all that paperwork. It's been a labor of love. I built my website from scratch and got to the top of Google rankings for my field. Makes me sad and mad because I provide a real service to a niche market.

The small monthly profit my business generates supplements my husband's crummy teacher salary, allowing us to save a little for retirement. I guess we can live under a bridge in 10 years.

Multiply my situation by tens of thousands of small cottage industries and businesses around the country, all shutting down or becoming criminal because of this law. God I'm pissed!

I am in a similar boat. I wrote my congressman... do not know if it will help.

I hate paperwork. I will not do it.

By the way, wasn't that $600 dollar limit put in place when $600 was actually worth something?

[audrey_girl]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

isn't the point of this to prep for the coming massive VAT tax?

[cjppjc]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

Just be glad you are not in California. I too have a small business, and the paperwork on the taxes is unreal.

The State makes us file a special return for any purchases made over the net that we may not have paid sales taxes on, then the wonderful City of SF asks for two more returns, one for payroll taxes on any employees you may have, and another requiring an itemized list of business assets so they can be taxed as well. Now with the Feds looking for additional tax revenue, they may push small businesses out of business even if they are profitable.

I now make all business office supply purchases as a local "brick and mortar" to avoid having to declare Internet purchases, and I only have 1099 contractors working for me on a seasonal basis. I have purposely dropped clients and avoided hiring people to keep my taxes and the arduous paperwork associated with them at a minimum.

It is getting to the point where it doesn't pay to run a small business anymore. If I didn't enjoy the control and freedom it offered, I think I would just shut it down and just go work for someone else-I would probably make more money.

A very sobering tale. Good luck to you in the future, and to all you business owners.

[Jay]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

Doesn't seem to apply solely to gold or other PM . . . so it would be a stretch to relate this to confiscation . . . .

You infer confiscation to only include PM's. When it actually means your whole life.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

You infer confiscation to only include PM's. When it actually means your whole life entire wealth.

There - fixed for ya' .

Your life itself is of little value to them; indeed it is often an impediment, as living beings tend to create counter-claims.

[blazespinnaker]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

It's not a huge deal if you ask me. There's a lot of software which already makes all of this automatic. Just use quick books or something.

[Jay]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

It's not a huge deal if you ask me. There's a lot of software which already makes all of this automatic. Just use quick books or something.

If this is tongue-in-cheek, and it is so brilliant that I can't tell, it is my favorite post ever.

Edit: OK so from cows post it wasn't tongue-in-cheek, I need to infer better.

[ThePythonicCow]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

It's not a huge deal if you ask me. There's a lot of software which already makes all of this automatic. Just use quick books or something.

For businesses accustomed or adaptable to such automation of accounting functions, I agree with you.

Some smaller businesses and most individuals will not adapt as easily. A large number of individuals, when they file in April of 2013 for the tax year 2012, are going to have in hand more 1099's than they had before. Their errors in reporting them, and the 1099's that got lost along the way and don't match up, will result in a flood of notices proposing filing corrections (or whatever they're called) coming back from the IRS in late 2013 or early 2014, once the IRS finished checking for mismatches. Many four letter words will be uttered. The substantial majority of those filing IRS returns are not, in my estimate, prepared to deal calmly and efficiently with such a notice from the IRS. It will be a serious pain in the butt.

Stepping back from the details a bit, this rule change is an instance of what bothers me most about the income tax. The income tax is deeply intrusive into the private financial affairs of everyone (every law abiding individual or corporation who participates in the economy to any non-trivial degree.) This rule change makes it a notch more intrusive.

[doom&gloom]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

Like everything else that becomes too burdensome, this will force even more of the economy "underground"...

[shiny!]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

They're gonna kill my little e-commerce store one way or another:

Democrats Push for New Internet Sales Tax:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20...=2547-1_3-0-20

[tastymannatees]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

Another straw on the camels back.

In the last GD 4,000 anti tax leagues were formed, polititians were thrown out of office and over the period taxes Yo -Yo'ed up and down every couple of years.

I believe it's a matter of threshold's and many people are marginal as is, I read somewhere that whenever the government raised taxes to around 60% in the GD the economy dived and revenue collapsed forcing a tax reduction only to be raised again a couple of years later, so the cycle goes.

It's kind of a Hobson's choice for the taxpayer, pay the tax or the electric bill, put food on the table etc. When a large enough group of people are on the base of the hierarchy of needs it becomes personal at a real gut level.

Political upheaval is in the cards IMHO to be Captain Obvious.

The 1099 will be unpopular and it will negatively impact business and so may not survive in practice as many other planned revenue ideas/enhancements

[doom&gloom]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

while there is no doubt the government needs more tax money, there is plenty doubt the government is efficient at spending the money it already doesn't have. One has to wonder what level of taxation would make the tax & spend crowd happy they have bled the host producer organisms to the brink without killing them off totally.

[photon555]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

while there is no doubt the government needs more tax money, there is plenty doubt the government is efficient at spending the money it already doesn't have. One has to wonder what level of taxation would make the tax & spend crowd happy they have bled the host producer organisms to the brink without killing them off totally.

Since the "tax & spend crowd" are parasites, they neither know nor care that by killing the host they also will die. The group IQ of a bureaucracy or many other hierarchical organizations can be approximated by dividing the average IQ of the members by the number of members. Thus the group IQ of the "tax & spend crowd" is about the same as a tapeworm. Technological progress may be self limiting. As our society becomes more dependent on tech, and becomes richer, more people are distracted by inconsequentials, ie., celebs, movies, video games, even increasing their net worth. Then some end stage event overwhelms the support functions of the society, and a large die-off occurs. Since the physical support functions are provided by a relatively small number of people with little or no backup, their demise forces a return to a era of much less tech. Of course, that level of tech cannot support the large population created by the advanced tech. Worse, most people could not survive in a less tech advanced era. How many of us could survive on a few acres with hand tools like our great great grandparents.
If the Federal Government disappeared tomorrow we would get by somehow with minimal loss of life. If the people who run our power plants, distribution, water and sewer disappeared I doubt 20% of the population would survive a year.

[shiny!]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

Since the "tax & spend crowd" are parasites, they neither know nor care that by killing the host they also will die. The group IQ of a bureaucracy or many other hierarchical organizations can be approximated by dividing the average IQ of the members by the number of members. Thus the group IQ of the "tax & spend crowd" is about the same as a tapeworm.

BEST laugh I've had in a long time, and I really needed a laugh. Thanks.

If the Federal Government disappeared tomorrow we would get by somehow with minimal loss of life. If the people who run our power plants, distribution, water and sewer disappeared I doubt 20% of the population would survive a year.

Very true.

[Andreuccio]

Re: On the Road Toward Confiscation?

How about a boutique store specializing in items like torches, pitchforks, tar, feathers, and t-shirts saying things like "I'm fed up and I'm not going to take it anymore" and "I hate paperwork"?

It's baffled me that despite all the indignities Americans have suffered the past few years, we've failed to take to the streets. Maybe this will be the event that finally pushes us over the edge, since the time required to fill out all the damn forms will cut into watching Survivor and whatever it is that Jon & Kate Plus 8 has metastasized into. On the other hand, we'll probably be too busy filling out forms to put up much of a fuss.