The United States is a country known for its separation of powers, and the top level of the country is the separation of powers, checks and balances on each other. To put it simply, they are not subordinate to each other and fight each other.
This is not only the case with the US power apparatus, but also with the major departments of the US government, most notably the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
During the drug war at the end of the 20th century, the DEA accused the CIA of supporting drug lords and helping them sell drugs in order to destabilize some countries. The DEA lawsuit has run to Washington, D.C., and has made several U.S. presidents big.
This department, which can initiate an investigation of any American citizen, can "suspect the crime", and cut it first and then play, it is the Internal Revenue Service, or IRS for short.
Drug trafficking in China, alcohol prohibition in Russia, and tax evasion in the United States are the three most difficult jobs in the world evaluated by netizens.
In the United States, you can "buy for 0 yuan", you can steal drug trafficking, prostitution, and most of the time you are safe and sound. But at the end of each year, these criminals struggle with one question: Should I voluntarily pay taxes to the IRS?
Yes, the IRS also taxes black income.
At the end of each year, drug dealers, thieves, and prostitutes should also take the initiative to file tax returns, and they can not fill in the source of income. Otherwise, once they are arrested, they will be charged with tax evasion in addition to the criminal offense, and the crime will be added to the crime.
And if you file a tax return, even if it's a drug dealer, the IRS won't divulge any of their information, and generally no drug dealer will be arrested for paying taxes normally.
In any normal country, the operation of the IRS is extremely outrageous, and it undermines the control and credibility of the state. But in the United States, the IRS has remained solipsistic for more than 100 years, and no president in office can shake the IRS.
So, how powerful is the IRS? Where does its power come from? How do Americans fight the IRS?
[a]
Only death and paying taxes cannot be escaped
In recent years, after the legalization of marijuana in the United States, there have been more marijuana fields in the central hinterland, and many large companies have squeezed their heads to invest in marijuana cultivation.
Before that, marijuana fields were illegal in the United States, and gangsters and illegal immigrants were engaged in marijuana cultivation, toiling in the desert where birds don't poop, dreaming of a rich future.
The location of the marijuana field is secretive, and it is difficult for the American police to find it.
The ledger is the most feared thing for American criminals, all gray income is clear, no matter how clean the money is, it must be taxed from the most basic income when it falls into the hands of the IRS, and not a dime can be escaped.
At the end of the conviction, there is a possibility that tax evasion is more serious than growing marijuana.
The reason why they came before the FBI was because the IRS was afraid that the FBI would not do a good job and let the criminals destroy the ledger. The IRS is absolutely confident in its armed forces and has always looked down on the police.
Even the gangsters who grow marijuana can't escape the palm of the IRS, so the legal income earners in the United States, from the delivery workers who do odd jobs to the senior white-collar workers and big bosses, are naturally the fish on the IRS's case.
Regardless of status, status, income, Americans must file a tax return on their income, and the IRS oversees all Americans equally.
So, Americans have a saying: "In the United States, there is no escaping only death and paying taxes." "To put it simply, as long as the income generated is related to the United States, most items are taxable.
Every person born on American soil naturally becomes a taxpayer and is given a social number, which is also an individual tax number, at birth.
In addition, foreigners who get a green card also have to pay taxes to the United States, even illegal immigrants who do not have a green card and stay in the United States for half a year, they also need to pay taxes to the U.S. government.
In the U.S., if the IRS suspects that someone is at risk of tax evasion, they can immediately investigate the suspect and obtain income from banks or other sources without following the "evidentiary principle" of normal law.
Once the tax evasion is confirmed, the IRS can immediately control all the income of the person under investigation without investigation or trial, including seizing real estate, cars, freezing bank deposits, and even sending the person to prison.
The IRS's enforcement authority comes from the U.S. Tax Code, which is a 100-year-old bill that has become more complex and restrictive over time.
Before the 19th century, the central government of the United States was very weak, the power of the states was very large, and the central tax collection was very weak, and the so-called "independent taxing power" could not make money at all.
Until 1862, when the Civil War broke out, the United States, which was strong and weak, reached the point of life and death.
For military spending, President Lincoln established the "Internal Revenue Service", later known as the Internal Revenue Service "IRS", which was responsible for taxing factory owners, merchants, and landowners throughout the North.
Before that, the U.S. government never put its hand directly into the wallets of the rich people in the states, so there were tax resistances all over the North.
In desperation, President Lincoln allowed the IRS to "collect taxes with guns," allowing the military to violently suppress tax protesters, arrest tax evaders, and confiscate their property.
Since then, the IRS has been the backbone of violent armed taxation, and that has not changed to this day.
[two]
From politicians to gangsters, tax evaders stay up at night
Today's IRS is a huge department of the U.S. government, with 110,000 members nationwide, one-third of whom are tax inspectors who are responsible for checking taxpayer information and investigating tax payment details, which can be understood as the IRS's version of "federal agents".
Federal agents have the authority to investigate the income and tax returns of all U.S. citizens, spy on each other's bank accounts, and investigate and arrest people without the court's permission.
Previously, the IRS armed forces consisted of a group of riflemen, driving wagons and carrying wolfdogs to surround the mansion of the factory owner.
Objectively speaking, there are very few people who really resist taxes by force, and in recent decades, only some farmers in the Midwest of the United States have rebelled against the government's tax department and fired a few shots to demonstrate.
Most of the time, the IRS is only a deterrent, and the strongest part of the department is the power that comes with complex, massive tax laws.
The tax law of the United States covers almost all the items and means of tax collection that people can think of, and "the upper hall and the lower kitchen" will be collected, and the taxes of the peddlers and pawns will be collected, the taxes of the capitalists will also be collected, and the taxes of the gangsters will not be able to escape.
All income born on American soil, part of Americans' overseas income must be taxed, and income stolen, stolen, and defrauded by the underworld must also be taxed.
A typical example, such as Al Capone, a gangster who started out as a bootlegger in the early 20th century, is a murderous tycoon who always keeps the FBI out of his grip and has to rely on the IRS to deal with him.
And the IRS's method of bringing down the gangster Capone is very primitive, which is to audit taxes.
Al Capone is a rough man, but he is a meticulous man, he makes money from crime, but he also has a legitimate business under his control, and he falsifies a large number of accounts every day to launder money, and the books are clean.
Capone himself also distributed the money to his subordinates to protect against high income taxes imposed by the IRS. The IRS investigated for several years without progress until an undercover agent sent in stole a private ledger from a casino safe.
The ledger records Capone's real income, as well as scattered cash, gifts to his subordinates, and so on. The money was huge, hundreds of millions of dollars, and Capone didn't pay a penny in taxes.
The IRS then indicted Al Capone, one of the most notorious mob bosses in American history, and ended up in prison for "tax evasion." His hundreds of millions of dollars in assets were confiscated, and he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, and he died of illness a few years later.
Before his death, Capone lamented that "he must pay taxes to the federal government on time", which is remembered in both black and white.
Over the next century, the U.S. tax code began to include gray income in the tax category, and the IRS considered it natural for gangsters to pay taxes because it was also income earned on American soil.
Interestingly, American criminals are afraid of capsizing on taxes, and sometimes the crime is covered up well, and the IRS comes to the door and everything is over.
[three]
In the end, it is the embodiment of justice or the whip of capital
The IRS's defeat of the Capone gang is a sign that the tax system is no longer just a money-making institution in the American order.
After World War II, the IRS grew in size and power, but it still ran into trouble.
In the era when electronic systems were not yet popular, tax evasion in the real economy was very common, and various accounting methods were varied, and IRS inspectors could not prevent them.
To take a simple example, Chinese restaurants in Chinese Americans were a nightmare for the IRS.
Since the 20th century, Chinese have immigrated to the United States in large numbers, and immigrants bring their families with them, and opening restaurants and laundry rooms are the main businesses. Chinese is hardworking, thrifty, and earns hard-earned money, but the U.S. government's lavish-mouth taxes are difficult for the Chinese to accept.
Therefore, the false accounts of Chinese shops are very common, and the IRS is miserable, and in the end, they even send undercover investigators like gangsters, just to collect taxes from Chinese people.
Of course, these undercover agents will not directly enter the Chinese store to work, but pretend to be partners and diners, observe the store's revenue for a long time, and even compare the income of the same area and industry, and then compare it with the store's account books.
Once the more obvious loopholes are discovered, the IRS arrests the shopkeeper, controls the family, conducts an inventory of their assets, and finally pays taxes, fines, and jails.
Although the IRS is very clever in its methods, the Chinese still go their own way in the face of meat-cutting taxes. Later, in order to prevent IRS raids, the Chinese community gave birth to underground banks, and the money earned during the day was saved at night, and Americans could not find it.
Some people can't help but wonder what is the purpose of the IRS's battle of wits and courage with the bottom, running around for tens of thousands of dollars a year in taxes?
First of all, as a civil servant in the United States, the IRS is not much better than other civil servants, but in addition to basic insurance and benefits, the salary is more generous - after all, this department is never short of money, and it can be said that the wealth of the United States is born from here.
In addition, the IRS has a strict internal management mechanism, members are loyal enough to the organization, attach great importance to their work, and internal supervision is also in place to prevent bribery or internal laxity.
It can be said that this is an efficient and honest system, so it ensures combat effectiveness.
The IRS seems invincible, but in fact, there are a group of people in the United States who they are helpless, one is the top rich, such as multinational corporations, technology companies, and real estate tycoons.
They employ a large team of lawyers, know the tax law inside out, and there are dozens or hundreds of ways to avoid taxes, even without paying a dime.
For example, former US President Trump had a net worth of billions of dollars, but in the 15 years before he became president, Trump did not pay a penny in taxes.
Trump's tax avoidance relies on loopholes in the tax law, and although he earns more than 100 million yuan a year, he creates a lot of losses in some companies to apply for tax exemptions from the government.
He also runs charitable foundations, or runs a leather bag company to take advantage of government subsidies, which are all tax avoidance methods for the wealthy in the United States.
There is another type of organization that can perfectly avoid taxes, and that is religious groups.
The U.S. government exempts religious groups from taxes, and churches, temples, and other organizations can be exempt from taxes, so many wealthy people can register a religious institution and donate their assets as religious property.
Because in the United States, small roles cannot afford to hire good lawyers, and they cannot use social resources to avoid taxes.
At present, the United States has nearly $5,000 billion in tax revenue every year, of which the majority is personal income tax, and the main force of this money is the middle class and petty bourgeoisie.
The American middle class is notoriously dissatisfied with the government, because of the ubiquitous taxation, and the slightest inadvertent tax evasion, even if it is not subjectively malicious, will be investigated or punished by the IRS.
Due to the unscrupulous means of collecting taxes by the IRS, some people have long criticized the way the IRS works, believing that the outdated tax laws they follow are a backward product of the era of big capital, a product of opening back doors for capitalists and exploiting civilians.
There are also people in the U.S. government who advocate revising the tax code, especially after Trump took office, seeing that the billionaire with $2.5 billion in cash in the bank has only paid $2,500 in taxes, many politicians can't sit still.
But Trump is calm, and whenever he is asked about his taxes, he says:
"All my deeds are lawful, you can check them. What I do, the Democratic Party funders are doing, and that's the way this system is. ”
Taxation is the cornerstone of any country's stability, but the U.S. tax system is like a villain who "robs the poor and gives to the rich", and such a cycle is naturally not long-lasting.
There are also proposals for reform within the IRS, but as a capitalist democracy, the parliament is the basic plate of the capitalists, not the home of the common people, and the rich are by no means willing to pay out of their own pockets.
Reforming the U.S. tax system to make it more "just" may require another statesman as great as Lincoln.
Literature / Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "The Internal Revenue Service: The Most Feared Government Department", Gao Rongwei
2. "America's Most Feared Government Department, The Internal Revenue Service That Doesn't Spare a Rich Man", Pothos