PayPal will require SS# & report receipts to IRS

[LesterSnodgrass]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

I've only ever collected the financial info I get and handed it off to the family accountant. Unwise, perhaps, but ...

Just know this: the IRS doesn't have to prove much, if anything, during an audit -- you do. Don't confuse a civil audit with the criminal system where government bears a high burden.

 

[interlockingny]

Originally Posted by LesterSnodgrass

Just know this: the IRS doesn't have to prove much, if anything, during an audit -- you do. Don't confuse a civil audit with the criminal system where government bears a high burden.

+1. To answer your hypotheticals, yes, it would be difficult for the IRS to trace gifts, etc. However, when one plays that game, it's normally not a one-time thing. And the more you do it, the bigger the potential trail can get. As they say, YMMV.

 

[MalfordOfLondon]

PayPal are also really hammering down on personal payments in the UK. I got a phone call the other day from them and had to sit there 10 minutes explaining away transaction after transaction.

I've never requested anyone pay for things as a gift but often I overlook it (especially when they give me the shipping address by email or PM).

 

[Dewey]

Originally Posted by taxgenius69

The lesson I would take is pay taxes when required, live like a normal person, make deposits when you need to and buy nice clothing.

/thread

 

[A Guy from Shanghai]

Originally Posted by interlockingny

+1. To answer your hypotheticals, yes, it would be difficult for the IRS to trace gifts, etc. However, when one plays that game, it's normally not a one-time thing. And the more you do it, the bigger the potential trail can get. As they say, YMMV.

That is true. Same as one has to report to the border control if he/she brings a large sum of cash (>$10,000) when entering US. There will be a consequence if one fails to report. If someone is laundering money, it's normally won't be just a one-time thing.

 

[M. Charles]

This thread has been for me about as good an advertisement for libertarianism as I have seen.

 

[M. Charles]

Originally Posted by A Guy from Shanghai

That is true. Same as one has to report to the border control if he/she brings a large sum of cash (>$10,000) when entering US. There will be a consequence if one fails to report. If someone is laundering money, it's normally won't be just a one-time thing.
I seem to recall that Manton said in a thread that he routinely smuggles Savile Row and Italian high dollar suits across the border. Aside from a conspicuous label, I suspect a customs agent would have an incredibly difficult time distinguishing the suits he brought with him from the suits he was bringing back, or that they were as expensive as they are. So would all of you report a bespoke suit purchased abroad when returning to the US as being over the $800 limit on imported goods?

 

[taxgenius]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

Well, for the record, I've never knowingly not paid the amount of taxes I owed, as I haven't done any of the things I'm mentioning here. Still, I'm interested in it just in principle and particularly how and why the government (IRS) defines and defends the scope of its intrusion into our lives.

If everyone paid the amount they were required to there would be no need for these reporting requirements.

 

[M. Charles]

Originally Posted by taxgenius69

If everyone paid the amount they were required to there would be no need for these reporting requirements.
True, although there will always be loopholes of one sort or another that the rich are able to exploit because they have the ability to pay people to find them. As for the phrase "the amount they were required," here we come to more philosophical turf and I'm more at home. Legally required, perhaps, but not necessarily morally required, and, as Aquinas and other philosophers have argued, if a law is not moral it is not truly a law, even though you can still be punished by the state for violating it. This conversation has left me unconvinced of the legitimacy of the government to imposes taxes to the extent it currently does, even in America, let alone Europe. Hence my comment about the appeal of libertarianism that has arisen in my being just within the last hour. In truth, it seems that underlying all of this is the question of what government is and what its proper sphere is; classical liberalism has one answer, and it appears to be different from those who would, for example, say that it is the business of government to help ensure equality of economic outcome. But this is a conversation for another time.

 

[rebel222]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

* * *

But this is a conversation for another time.

+1

 

[Aaron01]

Originally Posted by AlanC

Where's Geithner and Rangel?

Laws and legal punishment only apply to we serfs, not our benevolent overlords.

 

[AutoX]

Originally Posted by interlockingny

I believe by giving 15k of money to someone in a calendar year, you would trigger a gift tax. I believe in 2010, the limit is 13k in 2010, so you would pay tax on the incremental 2K.

I'm pretty sure there's a lifetime gifting limitation that may come in to place depending on who it is, not just the yearly limit.

 

[SpallaCamiccia]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

This thread has been for me about as good an advertisement for libertarianism as I have seen.



Didn´t Spalla told you about Obamism...

 

[Grenadier]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

So, tax genius, perhaps you can answer my question not just on the basis of 'what is' but give me some reasoning behind it. If I decide to give someone 15K of money I've already paid tax on as earned income, why the hell should the government care or get involved (i.e., if I give it to someone else just for the hell of it)?

The government cares because that $15k might be taxable income to the person you gave it to. It might be a non-taxable gift to him, but it might also be income out of which the government gets its share.

 

[chasingred]

Originally Posted by M. Charles

Yes, I'm aware of the 10K rule, and as I recall it applies to the period of 1 month. So the answer to the hypothetical I mentioned is simply to deposit $9,999 twice over the course of two months and tell the government to go F**k off, right?

I got into this discussion recently over inheritance tax. Perhaps one way around it is simply to purchase something very expensive (such as a 200K stamp or some such) and transfer it to your children? Maybe this would work with gold, too? I'm far from croaking but I love trying to use my brain cells to think of ways around these kind of absurd government infringements.

Jesus Christ, give it a rest Ayn Rand.