Have you been filing your taxes?

Apparently a lot of people living in South Korea or other countries fail to file their taxes. The IRS is not only onto this problem, they seem to be offering avenues to get the problem cleared up without any penalty.

In a nutshell, if you don't owe any money thanks to the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion or foreign tax credits (two ways to avoid paying US Federal taxes if you live full-time in Korea), then the penalty is zero, but you need to get it squared away.

A great deal of information can be found at this website.

...

iheartblueballs on the "myth" of cutting taxes to increase revenues

iheartblueballs apparently hates my guts, but God bless the guy for really doing his homework and laying out some thoughtful (if expletive-ridden) essays on issues near and dear to this left-of-center Democratic voter.

Case in point, about the claims made mentioned in the above title:

So confident, so condescending, and so embarrassingly fucking wrong. I always have a good chuckle whenever I hear conservatives repeat this myth — and they repeat it a lot — because they inevitably fail to provide any statistical data to prove it. They’ll offer JFK quotes or isolated data from a few year period.

The reason for this is actually very simple. There is no comprehensive statistical data to prove that tax cuts increase revenues. In fact, all available data points in the opposite direction.

He then links to a worthwhile National Review article on the subject, while adding his own relevant points. He ends with this snarky attack on the true-believer conservatives who now have the reins of power in the House of Representatives:

I’ll go ahead and make a prediction: Plenty of conservatives who believe this myth will read the article I linked to, and because it’s in the NR they’ll have a hard time claiming bias or writing it off as liberal. And then they’ll go about ignoring it because it doesn’t fit the myth they’ve held so dear for so long. They’ll probably hit the google and search for some definitive data supporting their mythical claim, but they won’t find any, because there isn’t any.

None of this will matter. The myth will continue to perpetuate, because Rush repeats it, and Hannity repeats it, and all kinds of ignorant conservative politicians keep repeating it over and over and over until all the dupes are sold.

And hey, let’s not pretend the dupes actually care about statistical data or proof. They want to believe and they want to be sold, and that makes the selling all that much easier.

Sugo haessŏyo, IHBB. I just wish you'd change your ballsy avatar so I can read your comments while out in public.

Paul Krugman on making Bush tax cuts permanent

He's not in favor of the idea:

How can this kind of giveaway be justified at a time when politicians claim to care about budget deficits? Well, history is repeating itself. The original campaign for the Bush tax cuts relied on deception and dishonesty. In fact, my first suspicions that we were being misled into invading Iraq were based on the resemblance between the campaign for war and the campaign for tax cuts the previous year. And sure enough, that same trademark deception and dishonesty is being deployed on behalf of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

So, for example, we’re told that it’s all about helping small business; but only a tiny fraction of small-business owners would receive any tax break at all. And how many small-business owners do you know making several million a year?

Or we’re told that it’s about helping the economy recover. But it’s hard to think of a less cost-effective way to help the economy than giving money to people who already have plenty, and aren’t likely to spend a windfall.

No, this has nothing to do with sound economic policy. Instead, as I said, it’s about a dysfunctional and corrupt political culture, in which Congress won’t take action to revive the economy, pleads poverty when it comes to protecting the jobs of schoolteachers and firefighters, but declares cost no object when it comes to sparing the already wealthy even the slightest financial inconvenience.

So far, the Obama administration is standing firm against this outrage. Let’s hope that it prevails in its fight. Otherwise, it will be hard not to lose all faith in America’s future.

Man, I wish I made enough to pay $3 million in Federal taxes.