Funny Illustrations Show How To Trick The Rich Into Paying Their Taxes, By Disguising Them As Various Things
Tax evasion is really trendy among the rich; Google ads probably suggest them legal packages titled ‘Not A Dime’. Take their idol Jeff Bezos and his company Amazon, for example. In 2018, Amazon posted an income of more than $11 billion, but the company paid $0 in federal taxes. Just like the year before. Yes, it was on the hook for a $162 million bill in 2019, but that was still just a fraction of the $13.9 billion in pre-tax income Amazon reported for 2019 — about 1.2%. Glorious. Why contribute to health, education, infrastructure, and other common goods when you can buy penthouses and private islands?
However, Polish artist Kasia Babis has an idea on how to get these people to pay taxes. Five, actually. And she has put them all in a humorous satirical comic that cleverly pokes fun at the shortcomings of our elite.
More info: kasiababis.com | Instagram | Facebook
Image credits: kasiababiscomics
Image credits: kasiababiscomics
Image credits: kasiababiscomics
On the Internet, everyone has their opinion. Especially when it comes to politics. Mix it up with the fact that sharing thoughts over a wire thousands of miles away from their recipient gives some people an excuse to become hella toxic, and you get quite the setup for political artists. Kasia, however, isn’t bothered by it. She has already grown a thick skin.
Kasia started dabbling in political satire while she was still in college and it became her job right away. “It’s really hard for me to imagine doing anything else,” she told Bored Panda. “There’s a lot of hateful messages and comments to deal with, but I guess it’s just a part of being on the Internet, especially as a woman, and especially a woman with political views. I have become immune to it after all these years.”
Image credits: kasiababiscomics
Image credits: kasiababiscomics
“I prefer progressive tax, which I explain briefly in another comic of mine,” Kasia said. “Basically, I think it’s absolutely absurd we allow people to accumulate billions while workers who produce their wealth are paid barely enough to survive. Nobody’s worth a billion times more than anyone else. If people were taxed accordingly, they could still live wealthy and comfortable lives, while the whole society would benefit immensely too.”
Interestingly, the income tax system in the United States is considered a progressive one, although it has been growing flatter in recent decades. In 2020, for example, there are only seven tax brackets, with rates of 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%.1 while in 1985, there were 16 tax brackets. That being said, many individuals and companies exploit legal loopholes and employ various tax credits and deductions to reduce their bills.
Here’s what people said after reading Kasia’s comic
These drawings nicely mock some activities allegedly rich people do, but the problems really are a different ones. Tax evasion is deeply rooted in national taxation schemes and instead of working together, countries fight each other, to the profit of the big companies. If taxes were to be paid based on value created per customer location (I am not implying I know how to do that!), the world would look much differently. For private people, the problem usually is that income from work is higher taxed than income from capital, which is absurd. Combined with (very) low taxation of heritage, this leads to an accumulation of wealth not based on contributions to society but based on...well, wealth. Free of any “socialist” ideology this is the Matthew principle, and it eventually will break societies.
... if everything making this situsation better is to be called socialism anyway, then why not try socialism? Anyway - I totally agree with you. Taxes should be paid whereever the taxed income is created - nowhere else. I cannot go to a tax-evader's oasis and still get unemployment-aide in various countries ... why can they? Why would anyone even want to in the first place? And, a specialty in the USA: the always mentioned patriotism ... doesn't that require that you contribute to keeping the oh-so-beloved country running and intact?
Load More Replies...I still believe that, as long as there are tax heavens, you can't pressure the rich to pay their taxes properly. All they will do is move the production to another country and register the company in another country with really low taxes, while living in the US.
I know that you meant to write "tax havens," but "tax heavens" is a pretty funny typo! To some people, tax heaven is the place where there are no taxes at all! To others, tax havens ARE tax heavens because it keeps the government's hands off their money.
Load More Replies...Seems pretty simple to me, eliminate the Income Tax, replace it with a National Sales Tax. That way the more you spend the more taxes you pay. Plus it's exactly fair to everyone.
Beyonce and Jay-Z, J.K. Rowling, Paul McCartney, George Clooney, Drake, Taylor Swift - all are worth millions upon millions, and I don't want to begin thinking about the evil, malicious things those people must have done to attain their wealth!
The problem is that if if taxes are raised, even a little bit, the wealthy people will sense the water getting hot and leap off to another country. Then in order to compensate the loss of rich people, the government would have to tax the people who haven't been able to flee like the poor people even more. Also don't forget that since the rich people fled with their money the economy and the job sector will take a great blow. Nothing ever good comes out of this situation, as was showm repeatedly in history.
In all "socialist" countries the tax rates for wealthy people are higher than in the US, rich people have got nowhere to run. Rich people are sitting on their money. The " sustaining the economy and creating jobs"lie is also another joke that only Americans believe. Nowhere in the world are wealthy people better protected by all kinds of exemptions and tax write offs as in the US. But it stays very entertaining to see poor people, who can't even afford to buy decent food, defending the wealthy 1% who sung a song for them when people were dying due to Covid-19. Imagine....
Load More Replies...The definition of 'wealthy' is always moveable - depending on who is demanding payment. BUT, one of the reasons I hate celebrity foundations is because they are many times nothing more than a way for celebs to funnel money to pay their own expenses (and those of their family members and posse) while they get to swan around at their fundraising events where surprisingly little money is actually raised compared to the amount of money spent on the event.
You're saying the rich don't pay taxes? Actually, it's the poor who don't.
A fair share is a progressive one, relative to your income. The more you earn, the progressively more you ought to return to society, as it is the very society that enabled you to become what you are now. Taxes as a way to return to society is something acknowledged in the Nordic countries but frowned upon in most countries where people tend to distrust the state. This is a problem of distrust then, not of taxation in general.
Load More Replies...Some rich people are very intelligent. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos. Whether they’re good people are not is a different question. But a lot of people are rich solely from inheritance, or through no effort of their own. These are the lazy asses who pay someone to take an SAT for them, buy their way into college, and just sit around and do nothing because they already have more money than a normal, hardworking person will make in ten lifetimes.
Load More Replies...These drawings nicely mock some activities allegedly rich people do, but the problems really are a different ones. Tax evasion is deeply rooted in national taxation schemes and instead of working together, countries fight each other, to the profit of the big companies. If taxes were to be paid based on value created per customer location (I am not implying I know how to do that!), the world would look much differently. For private people, the problem usually is that income from work is higher taxed than income from capital, which is absurd. Combined with (very) low taxation of heritage, this leads to an accumulation of wealth not based on contributions to society but based on...well, wealth. Free of any “socialist” ideology this is the Matthew principle, and it eventually will break societies.
... if everything making this situsation better is to be called socialism anyway, then why not try socialism? Anyway - I totally agree with you. Taxes should be paid whereever the taxed income is created - nowhere else. I cannot go to a tax-evader's oasis and still get unemployment-aide in various countries ... why can they? Why would anyone even want to in the first place? And, a specialty in the USA: the always mentioned patriotism ... doesn't that require that you contribute to keeping the oh-so-beloved country running and intact?
Load More Replies...I still believe that, as long as there are tax heavens, you can't pressure the rich to pay their taxes properly. All they will do is move the production to another country and register the company in another country with really low taxes, while living in the US.
I know that you meant to write "tax havens," but "tax heavens" is a pretty funny typo! To some people, tax heaven is the place where there are no taxes at all! To others, tax havens ARE tax heavens because it keeps the government's hands off their money.
Load More Replies...Seems pretty simple to me, eliminate the Income Tax, replace it with a National Sales Tax. That way the more you spend the more taxes you pay. Plus it's exactly fair to everyone.
Beyonce and Jay-Z, J.K. Rowling, Paul McCartney, George Clooney, Drake, Taylor Swift - all are worth millions upon millions, and I don't want to begin thinking about the evil, malicious things those people must have done to attain their wealth!
The problem is that if if taxes are raised, even a little bit, the wealthy people will sense the water getting hot and leap off to another country. Then in order to compensate the loss of rich people, the government would have to tax the people who haven't been able to flee like the poor people even more. Also don't forget that since the rich people fled with their money the economy and the job sector will take a great blow. Nothing ever good comes out of this situation, as was showm repeatedly in history.
In all "socialist" countries the tax rates for wealthy people are higher than in the US, rich people have got nowhere to run. Rich people are sitting on their money. The " sustaining the economy and creating jobs"lie is also another joke that only Americans believe. Nowhere in the world are wealthy people better protected by all kinds of exemptions and tax write offs as in the US. But it stays very entertaining to see poor people, who can't even afford to buy decent food, defending the wealthy 1% who sung a song for them when people were dying due to Covid-19. Imagine....
Load More Replies...The definition of 'wealthy' is always moveable - depending on who is demanding payment. BUT, one of the reasons I hate celebrity foundations is because they are many times nothing more than a way for celebs to funnel money to pay their own expenses (and those of their family members and posse) while they get to swan around at their fundraising events where surprisingly little money is actually raised compared to the amount of money spent on the event.
You're saying the rich don't pay taxes? Actually, it's the poor who don't.
A fair share is a progressive one, relative to your income. The more you earn, the progressively more you ought to return to society, as it is the very society that enabled you to become what you are now. Taxes as a way to return to society is something acknowledged in the Nordic countries but frowned upon in most countries where people tend to distrust the state. This is a problem of distrust then, not of taxation in general.
Load More Replies...Some rich people are very intelligent. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Jeff Bezos. Whether they’re good people are not is a different question. But a lot of people are rich solely from inheritance, or through no effort of their own. These are the lazy asses who pay someone to take an SAT for them, buy their way into college, and just sit around and do nothing because they already have more money than a normal, hardworking person will make in ten lifetimes.
Load More Replies...
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