American Liberty League - Tumblr Posts
These are all facts, but facts no longer count since America was colonised, only the rich have had influence on politics. When they have failed to do so, they have used their money to counteract with propaganda. And they were almost always successful. Why should that change in the present or in the future?
It is intolerable when companies only pursue profit maximisation - without regard for employees, the environment, the climate or tax justice.
You can only dream about the wealth of many super-rich Americans. And the same goes for the income tax they pay on it. In fact, they pay little to none, as research by "Pro Publica" shows - and: the whole thing is completely legal
How much wealth America's billionaires own is no secret. Billionaire rankings such as that of the business magazine "Forbes" reflect the wealth on a daily basis. How much tax the super-rich pay, on the other hand, is a secret - at least not really.
This is why the report by the research portal "Pro Publica", which analysed a data set from the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with documents from the richest Americans, has caused all the more of a stir. These include Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg and media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. According to "Pro Publica", the data set contains tax documents and information on investments, share purchases, gambling winnings and tax audits.
The research portal took a closer look at the 25 richest Americans. The result: from 2014 to 2018, they paid taxes amounting to 3.4 per cent of their wealth growth. "Pro Publica" refers to this figure as the "true tax rate". "The IRS data shows that the super-rich can - perfectly legally - pay income tax rates that account for only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, by which their wealth grows each year," writes ProPublica.
IRS wants to examine the case
The average tax rate in the US is around 14 per cent of income, the maximum rate is 37 per cent and applies to income from USD 628,300. None of the 25 richest US billionaires paid this tax rate between 2014 and 2018, according to Pro Publica.
The reason for this discrepancy: on the one hand, the income of many super-rich people often comes from shares, property and other assets that are exempt from traditional income tax. In addition, many super-rich people claim large sums of investment expenditure on their income tax returns, sometimes so much that they exceed their taxable income.
This is how little tax America's super-rich pay.
An example
Jeff Bezos
According to "Pro Publica", the discrepancy between wealth and income tax paid is particularly clear in the case of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. According to the US business magazine Forbes, Bezos' wealth increased by USD 127 billion between 2006 and 2018. He only declared USD 6.5 billion in his income taxes, for which he ultimately paid USD 1.4 billion in taxes. This corresponds to a share of 1.1 per cent. In 2007 and 2011, Bezos even paid no income tax at all because the investment losses he declared in his tax return balanced out his income - or even exceeded it. Because he earned so little according to tax legislation, he even applied for and received a credit of 4,000 dollars for his children in 2011.
The so-called free market is a joke, the state is making huge investments in Silicon Valley, and the state had the Internet developed. After the Second World War, all of America's richest men were given all the production facilities that the state had built with the citizens' war bonds as a gift, whenever the stock markets collapsed, the ordinary citizen had to pay the price. But as soon as there are profits to be made, they are privatised. Even with philanthropy and welfare you can reduce your taxes.
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You can easily measure who benefits from the legal system on the basis of laws and regulations.
How many laws are in favour of the richest people in a society and how many are in favour of the entire population?
There must be rules, even in capitalism, because capitalism has proven that without rules it is hostile to society.
The sad truth is that whoever tells the best story is believed by the unenlightened people.
And that still works in America.
The sad truth is that whoever tells the best story is believed by the unenlightened people.
And that still works in America.
When all the companies in America were converted to the armaments industry in a very short time during the Second World War and it was all so effective, the rich started to feel uncomfortable. They forgot that everything was financed with war bonds from the entire American people as part of their own advertising.
“The American Liberty League banquet marked the opening of their hate campaign of propaganda to defeat the reelection of Roosevelt in 1936.”
― Anne Venzon Jules Arche
