Huge Hedge: ATTN: Homer Performify etc.

[kdog]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what to say kdog. It's clear you don't understand the purpose of what he wrote.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I understand it completely. YTF's purpose is to make OP aware that there are ways to avoid taxes if he so chooses.

Now...can you find ANY passage in that post where YTF advises, encourages, or RECOMMENDS that OP utilize this information? If so please quote it here. If not kindly STFU.

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what to say kdog. It's clear you don't understand the purpose of what he wrote.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I understand it completely. YTF's purpose is to make OP aware that there are ways to avoid taxes if he so chooses.

Now...can you find ANY passage in that post where YTF advises, encourages, or RECOMMENDS that OP utilize this information? If so please quote it here. If not kindly STFU.

[/ QUOTE ]

Haha, you make me giggle with your attitude.

[youtalkfunny]

OK, Thremp's motion has been seconded, so I'll rejoin the conversation.

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I don't know what to say kdog. It's clear you don't understand the purpose of what he wrote.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, I understand it completely. YTF's purpose is to make OP aware that there are ways to avoid taxes if he so chooses.

Now...can you find ANY passage in that post where YTF advises, encourages, or RECOMMENDS that OP utilize this information? If so please quote it here. If not kindly STFU.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, I *am* advising, encouraging, and recommending that people AVOID taxes. Doing anything else is just giving away money.

I do not suggest that anyone should EVADE taxes. There is a huge, gaping distance between AVOID and EVADE. I thought I made this clear in an earlier post, but I guess not, so I'll try again:

Example One: I don't own a home. I rent an apartment. I don't have extensive medical bills. I don't own a business. In short, it makes absolutely no sense to me to itemize my tax return. I can instead take the standard deduction, and lower my tax burden dramatically.

Taking the standard deduction, instead of itemizing, is a way to avoid paying thousands of dollars in income tax. There is nothing illegal or immoral about this. I didn't evade anything.

Example Two: I go down to the marina, to purchase a yacht. I haggle with the dealer, and we agree on a price. He then tells me that new yacht sales are subject to a 40% luxury tax. I tell him I am no longer interested in the deal. He tells me that used yachts are not subject to this tax. I buy an almost-identical yacht, for an almost-identical price, and by doing it this way, I pay no luxury tax.

There is nothing illegal or immoral about this. I didn't evade anything.

Example 3: I work fulltime. My employer pays me "under the table". He does not report my income to the IRS. I do not report my income to the IRS.

This is illegal and immoral. I am evading my responsibilities.

Example 4: I win the Powerball lottery. If I redeem the ticket now, I pay 50% to the federal government. Or, I can wait until January 1 to redeem my ticket, and take advantage of a new law that says lottery winners pay 10% instead of 50%.

I can avoid an unnecessary, huge tax burden. I am not evading anything. There is nothing illegal or immoral about this.

Example 5: I want to bet $20 on a trifecta at the race track. If I buy a $20 ticket, the win amount will trigger IRS paperwork. If I buy ten $2 tickets, the transaction remains outside the jurisdiction of the IRS.

I buy ten $2 tickets. There is nothing illegal or immoral about this. I did not evade anything.

Example 6: I want to build a thumbtack factory. If I make my thumbtacks in Vermont, I pay a hefty added tax on the sale of each tack. If I make my thumbtacks across the line in New Hampshire, I pay no such added tax. I decide to build my factory in New Hampshire.

Did I evade anything? Am I a bad person?

Example 7: An NBA player requests a trade to a Florida team, because Florida has no state income tax.

[/i]Is he a tax-dodging scumbag?[/i]


Example 8: See my long post about the reporting requirements of Regulation 6A (the CTR post).

[Thremp]

[ QUOTE ]
Example 5: I want to bet $20 on a trifecta at the race track. If I buy a $20 ticket, the win amount will trigger IRS paperwork. If I buy ten $2 tickets, the transaction remains outside the jurisdiction of the IRS.

I buy ten $2 tickets. There is nothing illegal or immoral about this. I did not evade anything.


[/ QUOTE ]

This is evading. It is immoral and illegal. That was the whole crux of my argument.

I too am for avoiding taxes and understand where you're coming from, but IIRC gambling winnings are still taxable income.

[rush66]

If you dont try to beat the system, the system will beat you.

[Performify]

Asked and answered, your honor, asked and answered. Advice was asked for, and was received, and both sides have made their points about the morality of the advice that was given.

if you guys want to debate this on end, take it to Politics. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[youtalkfunny]

Sep. 21, 2006
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JANE ANN MORRISON: Nevada gaming to give up piece of autonomy in name of terrorism fight


Something uniquely Nevadan and historic is about to end today.

No, it's not the ability to get a marriage license 24 hours a day in Clark County. (Where would Britney Spears go the next time she gets liquored up and decides to get married at 5:30 a.m.? Who are we to deny her, or anyone, the right to be stupid by not offering 24-hour marriage licenses?)

Without fanfare, without regrets, the Nevada Gaming Commission today is expected to repeal Regulation 6a, a gaming rule designed to ferret out money launderers. Reg 6a, as it is fondly called, requires casinos to track cash transactions of $3,000 and more and report to the Treasury Department anyone whose cash transactions exceed $10,000 in 24 hours.

Doesn't sound too sexy, but Reg 6a violations cost MGM Mirage $5 million in fines in 2004, so the regulation obviously had some kick to it. And MGM Mirage wasn't alone in getting dinged with fines; that was just the largest ding.

The regulation that Nevada fought so hard to obtain in 1985 so the federal government wouldn't intrude now is going gently into the good night, all because of the Patriot Act. The federal government wants the ability to track cash transactions across state lines, and Nevada was the only state doing its own job of tracking such transactions.

Gaming Control Board Chairman Dennis Neilander said that repealing this regulation will free up bodies and speed up the rate of auditing casinos to make sure they're paying enough taxes. Instead of auditing a casino every three years, the state should be able to audit that same casino every 2 1/2 years.

Saving money to make money sounds like a good governmental principle. For the casinos, instead of filling out state forms, they'll be filling out federal forms, so for them, it's not a big switcheroo.

"Tracking cash transactions across state lines does make some sense," Neilander said, particularly during an era of terrorism in which terrorists prefer paying in cash so their whereabouts cannot be traced. Frankly, the Patriot Act didn't leave Nevada gaming officials a lot of options.

But 21 years ago, when Nevada and Atlantic City were the gaming meccas (and calling Atlantic City a mecca back then was a stretch), Nevada regulators fought with passion to keep the cash transaction reporting under their domain, not the feds'. First it would be reporting requirements, then federal taxes. Nobody in Nevada, casinos or regulators, wanted the feds in our industry, so a great deal of time and effort was spent crafting a rule that would make the Treasury Department happy and let Nevada monitor its own currency transaction reports.

"Nevada was the only state with a waiver, and we spent a lot of man-hours enforcing it," Neilander said.

The casinos weren't wild about the paperwork, and sometimes employees fell behind. The $5 million fine against MGM Mirage was the largest of its kind, but there was no evidence of money laundering, Neilander said. An employee fell behind, not in filing out the reports, but in sending copies to the Internal Revenue Service. Over a period of 18 months at The Mirage, some 14,903 currency transaction reports were not submitted to the IRS. Oops.

So today the Nevada Gaming Commission should vote to repeal Reg 6a and set July 30, 2007, as the drop-dead date when the feds assume responsibility.

One difference will be felt with the change: Smaller casinos caught a break under the state regulation, and that break is going away. The Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (with the catchy acronym FinCEN) requires reporting of cash transactions by casinos with annual gross gaming regulations of $1 million. The state's threshold for reporting is $10 million in gaming revenues, so smaller casinos no longer catch a break from paperwork.

Yes, we're letting the feds take over a state job, but from a practical viewpoint, why should Nevada pay to enforce federal rules when other states don't? But another piece of Nevada's unique gaming history fades away in favor of a federal system seeking uniformity, all in the name of fighting terrorism.

Goodbye, Reg 6a. We hardly knew ye.