[JabavuAdams]

The super-wealthy can play accounting games to have relatively low income but huge assets.

[harryh]

That's largely a myth.

[caminante]

In what way?

[harryh]

As in it's something that people seem to think based on no real evidence.

[caminante]

I think I understand what you're getting at (i.e. it's not as widespread?), but at the same time, I can think of numerous situations where wealthy individuals use deductions and tax advantaged assets to shield income.

Wealthy individuals have greater spending flexibility and access to things like trusts, asset relocation to no-tax locations, deductions, etc.

In '09, 35K households with income over $200K reported 0 tax liability [1].

[1]http://www.businessinsider.com/some-of-the-wealthiest-pay-no...

[tiler]

You do know what happened in 2007-2008 which allowed for this, right?

[jessaustin]

Admitting that the wealthy played accounting games in one particular year doesn't exactly disprove the thesis that the wealthy play accounting games.

[caminante]

If only the story hasn't been repeating...Here's a similar article from 2013 [1].

Right?

[1]http://www.forbes.com/sites/beltway/2013/09/05/how-some-high...