[erulabs]

You have to come into the article believing a ton of things:

1. Tax credits are illegitimate

2. Accelerated depreciation is illegitimate

3. Ownership of productive companies is "hoarding wealth"

4. Journalism is in a battle with the current administration

5. Paying taxes is a good thing

If you _don't_ buy into these premises, for which there is no argument given for or against, you'll be tilted against the author. If you do, you'll be tilted against Tesla. This is polarizing. There is no nuance, there is no learning, there is no insight.

[ryandrake]

How about simply the principle:

1. I should be able to deduct the same sorts of things from my individual income that corporations routinely deduct from their income.

If a corporation can legally shield all of their income from taxes, why can't I shield all of my income from taxes? Corporations can deduct the costs of all the things they have to do to make money and do weird depreciation tricks, but I cannot deduct the costs of all the things I must pay for in order to make my own income.

[SideQuark]

You do. The biggest of all tax giveaways is the home mortgage deduction and tax deduction on employer paid healthcare. The tax sheltered things like retirement accounts, HSAs, Roths, college savings plans, energy credits, home improvement credits, car breaks, annd do on, are also huge tax giveaways to citizens. Those are the biggest tax breaks in all US law, far larger than all of corporate breaks combined.

Then, as a citizen, you have tax cuts for kids, for school, for various small enterprises, for local this and that by jurisdiction, you do get depreciation on lots of goods. I could go on for the thousands and thousands of pages of personal income tax law.

Being ignorantly of a thing to arrive at outrage is still ignorance.

[ryandrake]

None of these things, or even the combination of all of these things, allows an individual to shield 100% of their income from taxes, the way corporations shield their income from taxes.

[freeone3000]

They absolutely do! Earned Income is a refundable tax credit - 47% of all Americans pay no net income tax, and some receive a refund in excess of any taxes paid.

[kccoder]

* excluding payroll tax deductions, both personal and employer paid (which is effectively still a tax you're paying). They also pay sales tax, which isn't an income tax per se, but when you have to spend every dollar you make to survive, it might as well be.

Everyone contributes.

[scotty79]

I think tax on labor is actually tax on corporations. The only tax on corporations that the corporations can't dodge.

[SideQuark]

If you have enough rolloverloss from one year to another, then you can pay 0%, same as a corporation. In fact, over 40% of people pay zero federal income tax, and a significant amount get lots of govt money, so they’re getting effectively a negative income tax.

The vast majority of corp pay income tax, unless (and this is nearly never many years in a row) they have such tax rollovers from prev year.

Now, they also still pay property taxes, enemployment taxes, half your SS, taxes on goods bought, and a host of other taxes, independent from income taxes.

All your outrage is simply ignorance of how taxes work, and so far you’re wrong about all your unfounded belief. Go read how taxes work, learn to read SEC filings. CBO has detailed solid reports prepared covering all this stuff.

When you think something about taxes is outrageous, it’s going to be because you don’t understand them, and you’ve filled your head with tripe from sources designed to mislead you. Read actual tax law and filings, and all this misunderstanding will go away.

[freeone3000]

I think it’s outrageous that the IRS doesn’t just compute taxes for us. And I think it’s ridiculous US citizens have to file regardless of where they are.

[iforgot22]

You mention mortgage interest deduction, EV tax credits, and energy credits. I'm pretty sure corps qualify for all of those, and with no SALT cap. Then they get to deduct food, rent, utilities, and car ownership/depreciation, which I can't. And their tax rate is flat. There's a reason people find loopholes to push personal expenses into businesses, not the other way around. I would most likely pay less tax if I were somehow a corporation, even if it meant losing my 401(k) and HSA.

Of course, you can't literally compare corps to people. Their profits are ultimately paid out to individuals and taxed again. People don't exactly have revenues. So I'm not saying the current way is wrong, but the statement you're responding to isn't ignorant.

[mindslight]

This is one of the most galling things you realize when you start doing business taxes. If individuals were able to deduct expenses necessary to earn income like businesses do, that would include most meals, full cost of housing (not just mortgage interest), most utilities, vehicles [0], etc. And there would be no "standard deduction" to clear, either.

[0] official IRS policy is that "commuting" expenses are not deductible, but practically you declare the principal place of business as your home, and then anywhere else you go is no longer commuting.

[downrightmike]

Didn't the Nortel CEO in the 90's get an allowance from the company for all that personal stuff?

[jldugger]

> 4. Journalism is in a battle with the current administration

Is this controversial?

[chrislongss]

Yes, as it should be. Criticize the policies, not an administration led by a party you don't align with.

[kccoder]

What about criticizing a lawless administration, filled to the gills with unqualified sycophants, bereft of empathy, kindness, and all human decency?

[iforgot22]

Two wrongs don't make a right. A news source that endorses a political candidate is difficult to trust, and plenty of them don't.

[smeeger]

yes, the biden admin was pretty bad but what do you think about the trump administration?

[tzs]

It's more the administration is attacking journalism than the other way around.

For example, the FCC regularly receives complaints against pretty much every broadcaster that they are biased and the FCC regularly dismisses those because broadcasters are supposed to be allowed to take positions that politicians may disagree with.

Until now. The new FCC chairman reinstated complaints against all the major network stations that were alleged to have a liberal bias and is now subpoenaing them, and did not reinstate any complaints against major network stations (e.g., FOX) that allege conservative bias.

[hobs]

One of the policies is that if you are at all a journalist you are an enemy of the state.

During his rallies he'd literally have the entire crowd riled up against the very concept of journalists, because they might not suck up to him every single second of every single day.

Seriously, where do comments like this keep coming from?

[iforgot22]

Maybe it's better to say the current administration is battling journalism, in a one-sided way. There's a real difference, but it looks too much like splitting hairs.

[johnnyanmac]

Why not both? The administration doesn't stop this, the policies suck and only transfer weath from the working class to the elite

[iforgot22]

I don't believe those things and still don't disagree with the author. Because the article is too devoid of real information for me to have an opinion on this.

[johnnyanmac]

context matters a lot, that's your nuance:

1. tax credits are legitimate. But who is using it and on what matters. getting hundreds of millions of tax credit to make horribly constructed cybertrucks does not inspire confidence. But I did want more EV benefits (those are gone now. Alas. "Drill, baby, drill"

2. I don't really know enough about accelerated Depreciation to comment

3. Ownership of productive companies is good. Keyword: "productive". Tesla has been cutting staff, closing dealerships, and again with the cybertruck. "profitable" does not equate to "productive" in my eyes.

4. Yes, Journalism for the most part is in a battle with the current administration

5. Always the fun topic to talk about. As a concept, paying taxes is good. Any more deliberation into reality may as well be its own separate topic. I do personally think corporate needs to provide more taxes, but Trump clearly disagrees this year (corporate tax cut from 21% to 15%, I believe).