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Our taxes go to punitive enforcement now. ICE has become massive, gulags being built, our military is massive, now trump is making agencies to spy on and amass data about Americans, etc. but social programs are being cut, scientific programs are being cut, citizens protections cut…
Plenty of money for punishment. None to improve lives.
Not sure about the title of this post. But I just really wish more Democrat voters would come to the realization that a lot of people didn't vote for Trump because they liked him. They voted for him because of how absolutely ineffective the Democratic party has been.
Zohran should really be a reality check for people. The people that voted for him were not politics Andy's like you and I. They voted for him because he had a clear message "free busses and rent freeze" is his "build the wall".
People are looking for real promises. The biggest difference is that a rent freeze and better public transit actually will improve their lives.
If you don't offer real improvements the masses will go for the guy with the xenophobic policy. A policy that promises to hurt "people not like me" and maybe then that will make my life better.
That's the reasoning. Simple as.
It's not because the masses love racism or rapists. It's because they are so desperate for a politician that will actually represent working class interest that the first idiot billionaire with charisma was a "why not" in 2016.
In 2024 it was a complete lack of the Democratic party to capitalize on that. There are people in America thirsting for the "change" that Obama promised. They just got wise. They realized that if it's called "change" or "abundance" it's the same stupid shit that maintains the interest of the rich.
They want simple promises of actual material improvement that a politician can be judged on. And Zohran will be. But he's brave enough to actually take a stand.
Edit: seriously, please don't fall for the same neoliberalism packaged as "abundance" this time.
The way things are looking with multiple challenges to the 2024 election one in rockland county NY and another in PA (maybe there are others but im unsure atm) and so many statistical anomalies/ impossibilities it really looks as if America did not vote for trump. Star link had been connected to tabulator machines. Ive personally believed the us election system Especially the presidential election has been rigged since Reagan maybe even back to JFK with his family connections to the mafia back when his dad was a bootlegger. So I feel trump was telling a half truth in 2020 who knows if the rigging actually affected the results in comparison to voter turnout in that election but since it wasn't rigged in trump’s favor he threw a massive hissy ass bitch fit because to trump it definitely doesn’t matter if it was rigged but only that it was not rigged to his benefit. But i think the wealthiest in our society get together and choose who they want to serve as their puppet but this year instead of participating Space Karen just went rogue and spent as much as possible to swing it in his favor. We have to look at this objectively. Our society has always been somewhat fascist but ever since lbj declined the party nomination in ‘68 and then Bobby Kennedy was assassinated after winning the California democratic primary the democratic party has consistently shifted to the right every election since. C Its the reality that the same financial interests are funding both the Dnc and the Rnc and since bush jr the usa has become extremely more Fascist. All of the 14 traits of fascism are obviously ingrained parts of our society but fraudulent elections is the only one that has plausible deniability.
But it is a fact that every aspect of our political system is up for sale and this was set into motion when Nixon nominated Lewis F Powell to the supreme court which paved the way for citizens united. Now we have legalized bribery, a foreign interest is dictating terms and may even be using Kompromat farming/honeypotting to maintain this control. So imo it is naive to think that this small group of ultra wealthy people who consider the rest of us to be vermin/ useless eaters feel as though they have been imbued with a divine provenance to manipulate our sociopolitical and economic systems to serve themselves at our expense, would for some reason consider the election processes of our government to be too sacred for them to touch. It’s Obvious that these people have no reservations about doing whatever it takes, whenever they can to get their way whatever it may be,
It's also a handout to Israel
So you don't go to jail.
They don't really care to have a reason any more.
somebody has to pay for ICE being one of the biggest armed forces in the world.
The threat of violence against our person and family, that's why.
We shouldn't. We should protest by organizing the largest tax fraud push the country has ever seen. Someone should create a website to coordinate this effort. Maybe it could even grow into a movement where everyone helps each other to not pay any taxes at all.
If you claim to be exempt from federal income taxes, you can withhold those on your paycheck. Talk to your HR department. If you switch jobs, when you sign up for everything make sure to explain the situation. As in, I am exempt, as I did not make enough money last year. Do not charge my paycheck for federal taxes.
Don't explain the situation to anyone. All HR (actually, the payroll department) needs is a new W4, instructing them on how much to withhold from your pay for taxes.
You dont need to explain your reasoning to HR, and HR probably shouldn't know your intentions anyway.
Very true and correct.
Yeah but the orange manbaby did funny impression of a disabled person, and that speaks to my inner dickhead
That isn't how taxes work in the usa. The government borrows money from your/our future prints it to pay all its bills. Taxes just cover a bit of the expenditures when they come in. The government can care less about balancing the budget. So it doesn't matter if they get their money throughout the year or in April you wont hurt them. Only thing at risk is general people being audited and hurt also i believe you pay a penalty for not paying through the year. Since I have been alive we never have had a surplus. It would take years of a democratic presidency for the surplus to hit as the programs take years to produce profits and reduce the deficit. Sadly a democratic president/platform never stays popular for long enough.
How does the american tax system work?
I remember hearing 10 years ago that it was a hell of a lot of work to figure out how much taxes you had to pay to IRS, and that for filing your taxes, you often needed a lawyer or sth like that.
And then they changed it and implemented sth like "direct tax" or sth, and that means that they take your taxes from you automatically, without your intervention. Is that accurate?
To add on to the other explanations: The thing you heard about 10 years ago was likely Trump's tax bill that increased the standard deduction - a set amount that you can deduct instead of having to do a lot of math - and took a way a lot of deductions.
A deduction just means "you don't pay taxes on that money."
The big deductions that hurt was removing deductions for items people bought for work. The idea is that the employer should be providing that stuff, but that's not always realistic.
Without a doctor's note, lots of businesses aren't going to buy an employee an ergonomic chair because it costs 10 times as much as the Amazon special. They also aren't going to buy you a wardrobe of business suits that you'll only use for meetings. Being able to write that stuff off was huge for some of us.
I had to convince my side gig (teaching scuba and underwater photography) to change me from employee to contractor because I suddenly couldn't write off my gear.
Tell me about it. I'd been fully remote for about three years before that took effect, and I could take a pretty hefty deduction for my home office because of how it was calculated
It's pretty straightforward for most people if you're filing for yourself. It only gets complicated if you do itemized deductions which only makes sense if your total deductions are greater than the "standard deduction" (which I think is like $12,500 or something? The tax app does it for you).
You decide how much withholding that your job will do when you are hired (you can have it changed if you want). You can choose to have them estimate based on how many dependents you have and deduct that from each paycheck. It will usually be slightly more than you actually owe, so you get a return when you file once a year. Or you can choose to not have them deduct anything, and then pay the IRS the total amount when you file.
The latter is probably the smarter way to do it in that you're not essentially loaning money to the IRS, but in a country where most people live paycheck to paycheck, people don't like the idea of having to write the government a 4 to 5-figure check every year.
I'm self employed. My taxes are about six forms that cross-reference each other, a pita for sure. Also I pay a higher tax rate than billionaires.
Or you can choose to not have them deduct anything, and then pay the IRS the total amount when you file.
There are dangers with that.
The federal income tax is a pay-as-you-go tax. You must pay the tax as you earn or receive income during the year.
If you didn’t pay enough tax during the year, either through withholding or by making estimated tax payments, you may have to pay a penalty.
Its both. Your taxes are deducted from your paycheck then from January to April you have to "file taxes" often with the assistance of a tax service or accountant then either pay extra or wait several weeks to get the amount you paid "too much" into.
No, not entirely.
We have taxes taken out every paycheck that is kind of like an estimate of what you actually owe. At the end of the year, you file complicated paperwork to determine what you actually owe. Big tax companies lobby hard to keep it this way.
For anything more complicated than a very basic life, people often use a tax company (like TurboTax or HR block) for help, which costs money. For even more complicated ones, people may use an accountant.
It's a ridiculous system and the lobbyists keep it like that
Cool. Hiw about a national tax exempt status followed by a general strike. Starve them out.