Comment by turc1656 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by turc1656 | Hacker News Reader

Any time anyone says they "want to pay taxes", you know they are lying. No one anywhere wants to pay - no one looks forward to it.

Not that I'm a fan of big government, but I don't understand why, if they really are just ignoring the law in most jurisdictions (which they are), none of these states just issue arrest warrants for the people in charge of these decisions? Why isn't there an outstanding warrant for the CEO of AirBnB from any one of the 50 US states for flagrant tax evasion? Or even going further to actually request the state where that CEO is present in to be arrested and extradited to that state? The CEO can't possibly claim they didn't know this was an issue. So then the battle will be forced in court for them to prove that they weren't responsible for collecting the tax and that if instead the property owners were in fact responsible, that AirBnB wasn't guilty of facilitating criminal tax evasion.

I'm sick and tired of these Silicon Valley companies deciding that their big idea is to decentralize so that they can ignore regulations and licensing requirements by saying "we're just a platform, the users need to do that". Same bullshit with Uber claiming their drivers aren't employees but rather "independent contractors", even though Uber sets all the rules, prices, etc. I've never heard of an independent contractor who can't determine how much they charge.

Similarly, these AirBnB places aren't legally zoned for the activity they are engaging in, nor are virtually any of the property owners licensed to do business as a lodging facility or registered and authorized to collect the occupancy taxes. AirBnB knows this and the grand scale of the illegal activity, at bare minimum, proves that the purpose of the platform is to circumvent the laws/regulations but not with an actual loophole, just by ignoring them and hoping they can grow fast enough so that they aren't just shut down hard.

I, as an individual want to lay taxes and I want them to be put to good use. I also think my income bracket pays too little taxes.

I want a thriving, stable society and I’m well aware on an intellectual level that if faced with the constant decision whether I should donate here or donate there or pay more for child-care so that they can subsidize people with less income, I’ll become overwhelmed and fail. I already fail at deciding if and where to direct an end of year donation.

A thriving society needs money to serve all the needs that a thriving society has: infrastructure, education, governance, just to name a few. I don’t always agree how and where tax money is spent. I also sometimes feel cheated when paying taxes, but more often than not it’s because I see someone else, possibly a large Corp such as AirBnB actively avoid paying their due share.

So please, make me pay taxes, but make everyone else pay theirs.

"make me pay taxes, but make everyone else pay theirs" If you want to pay, as you stated, no one needs to force you. That was the point of my original statement. It sounds like you approve, in general, of the tax structure and the manner in which money is spent - which is totally fine. But no one needs to make you do anything that you already claim to want to do. To be clear, it sounds like you want what the taxes pay for and that's entirely different than wanting to pay. Paying is just a reality that we have to with. When I go to a restaurant, I want the food. I don't want to pay, it's just a requirement of obtaining what I desire. If for some reason the restaurant told me my meal was free, I would never be like "oh, no no. I want to pay you for this meal".

If you really want to pay taxes and feel the tax rate for your bracket is too low, you are more than welcome to make a donation to the treasury at any time: https://www.pay.gov/public/form/start/23779454

You can also skip claiming deductions on your tax return to increase your liability and reduce/eliminate your refund (assuming you get one). This also eliminates the stress related to the end of year donations you mentioned.

It also sounds like he wants to pay higher taxes but only if that means forcing others to pay higher taxes, otherwise he could simply do as you suggested and pay more via less deductions, etc. It seems like a common leftist ideal, where in example, celebrities and politicians decry fossil fuels in the name of global warming but do absolutely nothing to set an example -- even doing the opposite.

Your claim is that no one wants to pay tax. I think Xylakant disproved your claim. Maybe you want to modify your claim that someone wants to pay tax so long as everyone else does the same?

> When I go to a restaurant, I want the food. I don't want to pay, it's just a requirement of obtaining what I desire.

IME, most people do want to exchange something for the goods and services they consume. For some, if not only so they can complain about them. I personally don't like handouts, and will go to lengths to avoid them.

If you want to pay more taxes, just donate to the government.

Donate to the US Treasury: https://fiscal.treasury.gov/public/gifts-to-government.html

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