Smiling all the Way to the Ballot Box: Billionaires vs. Rest of Us

The Billionaire Koch Brothers

The Billionaire Waltons

The Poor Public Standing in Line

The original story follows this major update.

The headline of this story is: “Koch-tied group caught funneling dark money” from MSNBC News, but the eye grabbing sentence is: “Dark money group with ties to the Koch brothers was ordered to pay a fine for secretly funneling $15 million to conservative campaigns in California last year.” 

However, the real headline should have been “No Shït, Sherlock.” It's not as if we didn't see this coming following the lousy USSC (5-4) Citizens United ruling in 2010; the ruling that opened up these flood gates on practically unlimited amounts of money in the system already swamped with tons of money. (This would be the part to introduce the public noose).

From the original story at politico.com this part is and should be a major concern for all followers of this issue of runaway money in the political system:

“Democrats have their own vast web of secretive funders.” (Notes Freedom Partners President, Marc Short, and he is correct about that).

“But few liberals get or have gotten as much scrutiny as the Koch brothers over the past few years.”

“The proud donors are not so proud that they will publicly identify themselves as donors. Mr. Short refused to open up about the men and women behind the quarter-billion-dollar fund, beyond saying that Koch-linked entities provided a “minority” of the funds and that the largest single donor gave about $25 million.”

Original Post Starts from Here: How the IRS Tax Code benefits the ultra rich, or as the Pols like to say: for they are “the job creators” continues to be a big issue for me, and I hope everyone else.

This story comes from Bloomberg here.  I say right up front that I have nothing against millionaires or billionaires or their wealth. I do however have a very hard time comprehending their efforts through our system to continue to get the favors and power and players in DC that helps them sustain their wealth at the expense of the country as a whole.

Granted a lot of them give away their money, but they also give away jobs off-shore and a lot of them keep their wealth off-shore, too. The point is income tax equality, and right now it is lacking.

This story hit me personally and perhaps has hit you too. Here's why.

The IRS sent me a notice about an error in my 2011 1040 return, and I presume I will get one for my 2012 1040 tax return since the error was produced the same way. It regards the education credit and such documented on IRS Form 8863 for our daughter, who is no longer our dependent but still pursing grad school prepping for Dental School. We have helped here all the way wherein she has no debts. She also claimed the credit as the rules say since the documents for the credit are under her social security number. That is the glitch. I goofed and so did tax office at the military base that helped me file every year.

I probably will have to pay and yes, the penalty is already on the rise. I tried to call the IRS as their letter suggests, but guess what: they are shutdown and I got a recorded message. Talk about a Catch-22 – ouch.

It is not a lot of money, but the principle of the issue huge, I think. That is my point – I and my tax issue compared the rich and their loopholes. It’s their Grand Canyon compared to my backyard. If there are to be loopholes (which I do not totally support), then perhaps this is one that benefits parents like me who help their kids through college as they are non-dependents due to age and maybe they have a part time job while in schools, but little income.

But, who am I to talk about loopholes, right? I don't have a team of high-priced lawyers to keep my loopholes wide open and my money tightly closed.

So, the story goes: How Wal-Mart's Waltons hide their staggering riches (from Bloomberg). 

Extract: With a fortune that rivals the Rockefellers, Walton family (all of them are billionaires) might be expected to have a hefty tax bill. Instead they've exploited a series of loopholes (loopholes they may have gotten as a favor from their Rep/Sen in Congress or not, or may be routine loopholes in the IRS code.

Those routine loopholes this way, if so, need closed immediately — such loopholes in the vast majority of cases are only available to the super rich, who BTW: have teams of lawyers to rival any law firm in the country. Those loopholes virtually leave their fortune untouched.  And, tax tricks one expert calls “beyond belief” 

So it goes.