59
In short, because the government is not required to honor your characterization of the transaction.
A gift is something given without receiving anything in exchange. In almost all taxable contexts this is not a plausible argument. A judge would almost surely rule for the government that your money transfer was rent and not a gift, for example. And, if you ...
48
The original 1913 Revenue Act only required the reporting of income from "lawful" sources. In the 1921 Revenue Act the word, "lawful" was removed requiring all income to be reported.
[IRS Publication 17] states:
Illegal activities. Income from illegal activities, such as money from dealing illegal drugs, must be included in your income on Form 1040, ...
32
No. You have to pay taxes no matter what currency you are paid in, or for that matter, in most barter transaction as well. You would have to pay taxes even if you were paid in goats.
Also, the counter-parties in transactions in which you are paid in Bitcoin and earn money often have an obligation to file information tax returns to the IRS.
If you don't ...
24
There are no copyright restrictions, since tax forms are government works and statutorily not protected. The IRS in fact says that you can use a substantially identical form for W9, as long as you don't do certain things and do do other required things. You do not submit W-9 to the IRS, but they provide a document describing substitute tax forms. Basically, ...
23
There is no general law making it illegal to lie about debts, or anything else. It is illegal to lie to a law enforcement officer in the course of an investigation. (And of course it is illegal to lie in court testimony or when otherwise under oath.) But it is in no way unlawful to decline to answer, unless a proper court order has been obtained, or other ...
22
The reason that you are being asked to comply with a US law is because PayPal, a US company, is required to comply with US laws. If you do not comply, it is likely that they will be non-compliant and subject to sanctions.
For more background, FATCA reporting is used to identify businesses that a company does business with. In this scenario PayPal does ...
17
The Internal Revenue Code found at Title 26 of the United States Code. Title 26 is the full compilation of all the laws passed by Congress relating to tax liability and every other legal obligation, definition, exemption, exception, etc. The Internal Revenue Code is the law that requires people to pay taxes and if you believe the folks who say it's only a ...
15
A common phrase regarding US cities is, "cities are creatures of the state." All of their authority comes from the authority granted states, and states can limit the authority of cities, counties and their other political subdivisions. In the US cities cannot have additional authority beyond the authority the containing state has, as opposed to, for example,...
15
Why doesn't everyone in UK just pay with exempted gifts?
Very short answer to complement ohwilleke's one:
Gifts cannot be paid with.
If you are paying with something it is a payment, not a gift.
14
Since you asked, and it's a perfectly legitimate question, here's why it doesn't violate the Fifth Amendment (from Garner v. US):
The Fifth Amendment doesn't say "you can't be made to say anything that hurts you." It says "no person...shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." The only time Fifth Amendment protection applies ...
12
Paying taxes need not have any legal connection to citizenship or potential citizenship. There is no constitutional provision, or law, which limits taxation to citizens or those on a path to citizenship. Legal immigrants, those on visas, and indeed tourists, must all pay various taxes, including hotel taxes and sales taxes. Lawful immigrants who work in the ...
11
It depends on whether your tax accounting is on an accrual basis or cash basis. The UK government (at least) refers to the former as traditional accounting.
In that method of accounting, whatever it's called, you book the income when you invoice the work (that is, when it accrues). If you're paid in the next year, your balance sheet will show the ...
11
They aren't "imposing tax laws at the state level", and the states are still perfectly free to award whatever credits they like. There's a more complete explanation here.
Before 2017, if you paid, say, $30,000 in state taxes, you could take a $30,000 deduction from your federal taxable income, thus reducing your federal income taxes by some fraction of $...
10
There are even laws against acting on the various claims that are advocated by tax protesters. Typically these are referred to as "frivolous tax arguments," and make for entertaining reading.
9
On your tax forms there is a field for how much of you income for the filing year was gained from illegal sources. It pretty much is a check box and then write the dollar value amount and how much of that do you need to write a check for the government for.
If Jimmy Jones robs a bank of $1,000,000 (Dr. Evil pose), he can get out of being investigated for ...
8
26 USC 7206:
Any person who— (1) Willfully makes and subscribes any return, statement, or other document, which contains or is verified by a written declaration that it is made under the penalties of perjury, and which he does not believe to be true and correct as to every material matter [...] shall be guilty of a felony and, upon conviction thereof, ...
8
Summary
If they didn't steal your withholding, it depends a great deal. But if your employer stole your withholding, the IRS will sue them on your behalf. You will absolutely have grounds to sue them, and because tax law is so cut and dried in these situations, in that case, you will almost certainly win.
You need to contact the IRS immediately and advise ...
7
First of all, the USA's legal system is not here to be referee to every single little "gotcha" mistake, and every little mistake doesn't mean a payday for someone.
The employee at the tax preparer screwed up. They mixed up your folder with the other guy's folder. It was an honest mistake, which is another way of saying "nobody stands to gain from this."
...
7
Fraud
wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain
So, you knowingly deceived the US government in order to make a financial gain by not paying the right amount of tax. Sounds like fraud to me.
Specific penalties for the IRS are here. Of most relevance is Title 26 USC § 7201 Attempt to evade or defeat tax:
Any person ...
7
I know of no specific provision of the Constitution that would forbid it.
I know of no court case in which it has been found unconstitutional.
There's no "irony" clause in the Constitution. Taxation without representation may have been a grievance, but there's no inherent reason why the framers would have had to forbid it.
US citizens do still have the "...
7
That really sucks. I've had similar experiences when handling the probate proceedings of lawyers who were not good about returning original wills to clients. I am providing an answer under general principles without researching Oregon specific accounting, record retention and probate laws, to at least give you a start although I recognize that a better ...
7
TL;DR: No.
In the United States, schools tend to be funded by property taxes locally, occasionally with an added income tax. Those funds go to the schools' local taxing authority. That taxing authority may cover multiple schools. At minimum, it will almost certainly cover an elementary school and a high school, but it often covers multiple elementary ...
7
Not all income is taxed at the rates you cite. Special rates apply to long term capital gain and qualified dividends (maximum rate 20%). There are $1,349 of qualified dividends in this case and $3000 of capital losses that can be taken in the current year (this is the cap for capital losses against ordinary income).
The benefit the Warren receives from ...
6
The purpose of the inheritance tax is to raise revenue for governmental activities, just like like income taxes, sales taxes, value-added taxes, excise taxes, property taxes, and other taxes.
6
As Tom says and these guys reiterate (I'm quoting those guys), "Employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will” in all U.S. states except Montana. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries where employment is predominantly at-will". Montana (Dept. of Labor and Industry) also states that they are the only ones in the US like that. Montana Code 39-2-904(...
6
The 24th Amendment states:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any
primary or other election for President or Vice President, for
electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or
Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the
United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll ...
6
Why not Seychelles? Because Seychelles is internationally recognized as a tax haven in important ways that Ireland is not, particularly with respect to tax transparency and disclosure rules. Locating yourself in the more egregious haven states will subject you to additional scrutiny in the United States and elsewhere.
Why Ireland? Ireland's tax structure ...
6
Yes, money received from Kickstarter campaigns is usually considered taxable income. Who pays the taxes and how much (if any) they pay depends on how much the teenager makes, how old they are, and whether they are claimed as a dependant by someone else. For information about taxing children see IRS Pub. 929.
As pointed out in the comments, certain campaign ...
6
The key difference is that Best Buy is a corporation, and you are probably thinking of a painter who does not do business as a corporation. (They might be a sole proprietor, for instance.)
As far as I know, the $600 rule isn't about Form W-9 itself. Rather, the rule is that when your business pays more than $600 for services, you may be required to file ...
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