The greed and impunity of the richest 1% is costing us $5,000,000,000,000.

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

A research paper by Lawrence Summers, a former Treasury Secretary, and finance professor Natasha Sarin found that lax enforcement by the Internal Revenue Service has led to hundreds of billions of dollars a year in uncollected taxes from the wealthy, which could reach trillions over the next decade.

Summers — a vocal opponent of the wealth taxes being proposed by Democratic presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — contends that one way to start making the tax system more fair and progressive without raising rates would be to plug the holes in collection.

The “tax gap” — the difference between the amount due to the IRS each year and the amount collected — grew to just under $400 billion in 2013, according to the IRS. Summers and Sarin estimate based on current income and IRS trends, the tax would total $7.5 trillion over a 10-year period from 2020 through 2029.

“The sheer magnitude of the tax gap suggests that there is substantial revenue-raising potential from shrinking it through well-targeted enforcement measures,” they write in the paper.

(snip)

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/11/19/tax-avoidance-by-the-rich-could-top-5-trillion-in-next-decade.html

[gibraltar72]

1. That's a lot of naughts.

[msongs]

2. one wonders which democratic candidates are in the top 1 percent in their states

of residence or the nation as a whole. fortunately this information is readily available via google

for the nation as a whole the top 1% need annual income of about $421,900

for Vermont the income is about $321,900

source cnbc
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/27/how-much-you-have-to-earn-to-be-in-the-top-1percent-in-every-us-state.html

[NYMinute]

10. hehehehehe nt

[sheshe2]

13. Bingo! nt

[ehrnst]

17. +1000.

[JoeOtterbein]

3. K n R!

Time to collect our due; MFA NOW!

[betsuni]

4. Fun fact: FDR famously loved (some say invented) the Dirty Martini.

It has olive brine in it! Eleanor disapproved of his daily cocktails and smoked clams ritual, thought it too much of a luxury when the country was suffering from the Depression. They often dined in separate rooms.

[Susan Calvin]

5. Ew.

FDR or not, that is just wrong. So wrong.

The only thing worse is a dirty martini with Grey Goose. Grey Goose. Ick. Ick. Ick.

[betsuni]

8. I love olive brine, I'm intrigued.

Martinis make me think of this scene from "Miracle on 34th Street":

[Susan Calvin]

15. The trouble with olive brine is adding it to perfectly good gin and vermouth. nt

I like that scene too.

[benld74]

6. Just read in Twitter before jumping into DU

Powerful to say the least

[Catch2.2]

7. Ain't that the truth!!!

Tell 'em Bernie!

[NYMinute]

9. ...

[myohmy2]

11. disgusting...

"...based on current income and IRS trends, the tax would total $7.5 trillion over a 10-year period from 2020 through 2029. "

...that's a huge chunk of the MFA cost...

" They must pay the taxes they already owe..."

...this is just what the 1% deadbeats would currently owe and not counting the new taxes we would levy on them...

...the way I see it, those opposed to MFA for monetary reasons have some explaining to do...

...we can fix it...

[Uncle Joe]

16. I agree myohmy.