"The president has long sold himself as a self-made billionaire, but a Times investigation found that he received at least $413 million in today’s dollars from his father’s real estate empire, much of it through tax dodges in the 1990s."
When the alt-right blames the "Deep State" for hijacking the country, they always have in mind some unelected technocrat buried deep in the bowels of Foggy Bottom. They never think of the real criminals shaking down the country, that they themselves elected to the Roman Senate. And the faux they elected to the hen house.
Various right wing outlets including Faux News are out assuring Americans that their lower tax refund or unexpected tax bill is "good news", but they're just too dumb to know it...
"Fox & Friends" had a big laugh on Thursday at the expense of Americans who are unpleasantly surprised at their diminished tax refunds, after assuming returns would be larger due to President Donald Trump's tax cuts."
Here is their messaging in a nutshell:
"Listen morons, why would you assume that your refund would get larger due to a tax cut? Every American knows that tax cuts mean you receive less money, unless you're rich. You should have never been lending the government free money in the first place. So what Treasury did was reduce your withholdings for you. They did you a favor. Of course they didn't tell you, they wanted it to be a surprise. An unexpected gift. You thought you were going to pay down debt with your refund, but instead you get to borrow more money. Everyone knows that large unexpected cash shortfalls and 14% APR on your credit card are just proper cash flow management. Not what you were doing: setting aside a buffer in case of emergency. Who does that? The other good news is that you already got the money and you spent it. Because you thought it was a tax cut. Shame on you for not figuring out how much of your pay increase was a tax cut and how much was a con job. Most accountants don't know either, but that's beside the point. You people can't be trusted with your own money. That's why Trump is managing it for you. Since you're incompetent we didn't feel that you had the right to know"
And where did you get the idea that this money in your paycheck was from the tax cut in the first place?
And where did you get the idea that this money in your paycheck was from the tax cut in the first place?
The people advancing these arguments should all be in jail. And I suspect many will be in the due course of time.
Getting back to reality, there were many good reasons to over-withhold this year: First and foremost because with a tax law change no one - including accountants - knew for sure how it would affect various people. The IRS was still finishing up the final tax forms into late January 2019. Therefore conservative over-withholding would have been the wise choice. Secondly, most people have debts to pay off after Christmas, and a February refund is the quickest way to pay it down. At 2% bank savings rates the opportunity cost is negligible. Thirdly, three quarters of Americans like to receive a refund, because it's the ONLY windfall they get. Unlike Wall Street, they don't get a big pay day at the end of the year.
But most importantly it's THEIR money so if they want to get a refund, then no pile of dog shit, fraud, entitled con artist should EVER tell them any different.
All of which leaves aside the fact that this fraud was planned in advance a year ago, to help win an election.
"The IRS is facing its first big challenge implementing the new tax law: deciding how much in taxes to withhold from millions of Americans’ paychecks. The agency is under pressure to take as little as possible so people will see big increases in their take-home pay ahead of this year’s midterm elections."
But that would come at a cost: smaller or even nonexistent refunds next year, though millions rely on them to plug holes in their family budgets."
