The lost tax revenue from these deductions would pay for the wall a few times over.
Listen, corporations are just better people than you.
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Your ill-thought out arguments in support of the current law were addressed in this thread.
Interesting when you decide that government is competent at making a law and when they are not.
My comment was spot on. The fines are a legal write-off, just as I posted. Now what else would you like to contort?
The point being made is they should not be a legal write-off (most government fines arenât deductible- only those that can be reclassed as ânot finesâ that are levied against those who âbig playersâ are) because they are an incentive to continue for those players to âdo what they doâ.
Changing the law so that these types of payments are no longer tax-deductible will strengthen them as a deterrent and will not also put the big players out of business.
WowâŚnow weâre going in circlesâŚand would the amount of the fines be the same or would they be lowered due to the change in tax laws? Did you ever consider that when the law was written, all of this was equated into the amount of punishment the law makers were intending to levy for the crime committed?
So you donât a punishment should be punishing.
If one reads the report
One would see that the reason that they are legal write offs is because of the wording in the settlements.
The DOJ tends to use the wording âpaymentsâ instead of stronger terms like âPenaltyâ or âFineâ and it is this legal loophole where Billions of dollars are being kept from the American people in restitution.
I am glad that this loophole has been pointed out.
I hope that if enough noise is made, the DOJ will change itâs internal policies when it comes to writing out settlements.
This is something that can be fixed with no new laws.
Itâs a loophole in the law thatâs being exploited, as the report posted here in this thread lays out.
Corporations and the ultra rich play by a different set of rules than the rest of us. It will continue to be this way as long as gullible conservatives are trained to stupidly go along with it and not question the status quo.
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Interesting, with all the revenue ($ Billions) in fines levied against these high rollers, where does the money go? Iâm sure some goes for âcleanupâ costs (perhaps) depending on the nature of the infraction but other than the shuffling of the numbers on their respective P&Lâs weâre talking about a serious amount of dough being paid to the Federal Goobermint!
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Why donât you ask them?
Individuals and corporations are handled differently under tax law.
Personally, I believe that corporations shouldnât be paying income taxes in the first place, and if that were the case, the issue reported in the OP would be moot.
Actually, they are not profiting from this at all. They still lose money, even after deducting the settlement from taxable income.
My guess is- the fines are not nearly enough to account for the profit made from taking the short cuts and committing the fraud in the first place.
To me, thatâs a given.
Special note: Even the article linked in the OP points this out.
Corporations canât write off fines. But they can write off settlements as a cost of doing business.
Another reason why corporations most often âsettleâ these claims, usually with an attached statement saying âwithout admitting wrongdoingâ.
The article was also pointing out that these actually werenât settlementsâŚthey were fines that the DoJ decided to classify as settlements.
If I get a fine on letâs say a speeding ticket. I pay that on my post tax dollars. Whatâs the difference?
The laws.
