this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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Political Memes

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[–] Yaky@slrpnk.net 140 points 2 weeks ago (6 children)

/uj

The "money spent on survival" is the standard deduction and deductions in general. Deductions are viewed as if you never made that money in the first place. Whether standard deduction should be larger is another question.

[–] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 68 points 2 weeks ago (5 children)

Yeah, because $16k is enough to survive.

[–] errer@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago (8 children)

A diet of nothing but rice and beans, living in a rented room in a garage, and dumpster diving for all the remaining necessities and you can almost live in California!

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[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 36 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Person: $16k for food is part of standard deduction. No deduction for car or rent if you are an employee.

Corporation (which is legally treated as a person): $150k for food for one party. $150k for CEO's Mercedes. $500k for condo for ceo to use when visiting.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Pretty sure that's the point

[–] Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago

I'm pretty sure you are correct.

[–] piyuv@lemmy.world 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

That’s the thing. Corporations report their own deductions, but individuals have to follow existing law, when there’s a high variance among necessary spending

[–] Perky@fedia.io 20 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

You can also report your own deductions if you itemize. If your income is low, the standard deduction is probably just significantly bigger than your itemized deductions.

[–] Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Legal deductions are extremely limited if you are an employee. You can't deduct your car, your rent, or the big screen TV you bought.

For employers, anything that didn't end up in the bank at the end of the year is a deduction.

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[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 11 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (6 children)

People can report their own deductions, too. It's just not worth it for most people.

The problem is that the IRS "doesn't have the resources" to audit corporations and millionaires. They basically only audit small business owners.

Edit for sarcasm quotes

[–] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 10 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Even that though, you can only deduct part of your living expenses. There is no food deduction afaik, there is no deduction for insurance as far as I know.

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[–] Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world 75 points 2 weeks ago

Corporation: We planned the next 2 years on an ever increasing income stream but the most minor inconvenience disrupted that so we had to lay off 9,000 employees with zero notice so we could meet our bottom line.

Government: That's a shame, here's $500,000,000 to help "mitigate" "economic conditions".

The 9000 laid-off employees: Can he get $200 a week unemployment so we can afford to exist?

Government: You should have planned better.

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 55 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (5 children)

Well yeah, at this point the corporation and government are the same person.

I'm a Democrat. Not specifically in the party sense but in the genuine belief Democracy is the very best organizational form of government we have... But damn if it isn't dependent on having a well informed, educated citizenry to thrive. Wealth inequality got so out of control and foreign governments undermined us to such an extent our citizens are mostly clueless to being played.

[–] CannedYeet@lemmy.world 29 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

People usually call that a "lowercase D democrat"

[–] lennybird@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

I always mix those up, let alone wonder how well other people know the difference so I just tend to explain as I go kind of thing, if that makes sense

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

“D” is capitalizing a proper noun, the name for the political party. Proper nouns should be capitalized.

“d” for the system of governance, not a proper noun.

Anyone that cares to know the difference will likely note it. Hope that helps.

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[–] HulkSmashBurgers@reddthat.com 42 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If corporations are people (under the law) then the money they make is income and should be taxed appropriately.

[–] Impractical_Island@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

But since money is free speech, making corporations pay taxes is compelled speech, which we're protected against by our first amendment rights.

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[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 37 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.

--Rutherford B. Hayes

Corporation privilege has been a problem in the US and the western world for a long time.

Edit: I found the longer version of the quote by Hayes.

[–] henfredemars@infosec.pub 30 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

The best part is that, legally, they're both considered people.

[–] Gormadt@slrpnk.net 20 points 2 weeks ago

And in parts of Delaware, can both even vote!

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[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 30 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I'd rather just start with them taking the appropriate taxes out of my check rather than me paying a company for them to tell me I owe another 2-5k

[–] eestileib@lemmy.blahaj.zone 34 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Intuit bribed trump to kill irs autofile.

[–] Eat_Your_Paisley@lemmy.world 17 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

Yet this isn't all on Trump, his is just the most recent insult

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[–] too_high_for_this@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

Thank that company for lobbying against automated taxes.

[–] mechoman444@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (5 children)

This is fucked up. Don't get me wrong.

But if you want to end this just start taxing loans.

That's literally the only form of income in this country that isn't taxable. Kind of nuts.

Seriously with tax loans there won't be billionaires in this country.

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[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 18 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

I think part of OP's frustration is that corporations (and the wealthy, for that matter) have a lot more loopholes to be able to claim deductions compared to the average person. And people are spending money to just survive, which seems more important than making a profit. The average person doesn't have the resources to access these loopholes.

Loophole example: say you're just a common multimillionaire. You want to own multiple properties, but to just go out and buy them, you'd need to spend your income on them, which you can't deduct from your taxable income. Instead, you incorporate a private consulting company (just yourself) and instead of you buying those properties, your business buys them for you. You know, so that you can have somewhere to stay when you travel for business. Those become deductable expenses, and your company doesn't pay any tax on the income used to purchase them. You pay yourself a meager $50k per year, pay almost no tax, live luxuriously, and write condescending posts on LinkedIn. Congrats, you win capitalism.

[–] uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 2 weeks ago

That was the point of Occupy Wall Street. The movement formed in response to the subprime mortgage crisis and resulting bailouts, in defiance of capitalist principal, and without similar response to the people suffering thanks to the crisis and following recession.

In fact, even though Obama navigated through the crisis, almost everyone with financial investments gained profit through the ordeal while the common US worker was in worse straits, which made the people, specifically, uneducated white men, angry and frustrated and set them up to be manipulated by Trump.

[–] HasturInYellow@lemmy.world 7 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

When you say that OP is "frustrated" it feels like what I see everywhere. People see the most abhorrently FUCKED UP shit and go, "huh."

I WANT YOU TO GET MAD, GOD DAMNIT. I WANT YOU TO GET UP OUT OF YOUR CHAIR AND SCREAM, "I'M I HUMAN BEING GOD DAMNIT! MY LIFE HAS VALUE!"

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[–] TheFinn@discuss.tchncs.de 15 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] heartSagan5@lemmy.zip 9 points 2 weeks ago

They’re giving them an extra month, how charitable?

[–] Heikki2@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago
[–] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (7 children)

I don't know about you guys and your local tax laws, but I can deduct the costs of earning my income from my taxable income.

Transportation to the job, further education for the job, (if I had any) the costs of having my kids looked after while I work, that sort of thing.

Fundamentally very similar to how the business deducts operating cost from revenue, before paying taxes on profit.

[–] DahGangalang@infosec.pub 15 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

the costs of having my kids looked after while I work

Uh, this sounds like a "not in America" thing. Can you confirm that and/or link to the rules that let you deduct childcare expenses?

Ive got family members who would love to hear about that if it is a thing.

[–] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 9 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (2 children)

He's on a German server but I'm in the US you can deduct some childcare expenses. I use the Child and Dependent Care Credit

[–] Dnb@lemmy.dbzer0.com 13 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

It's very little. You can easily pay thousands out of pocket for child care to get a fraction of it removed from taxes / "back"

[–] WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world 8 points 2 weeks ago

It is very little and qualified. The place one of my younger kids go qualifies but not where one of the older one's is.

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[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Also, you're taxed on spending while businesses generally aren't

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[–] Tenderizer@aussie.zone 8 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

If we charged taxes on revenue, vertical integration would skyrocket. Because the more hands their product goes through, the more tax they need to pay.

We could exempt B2B taxes from the revenue model theoretically though.

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