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The ‘Holding Billionaires Accountable’ Lie — Media, Big Tech Fact Checkers Mischaracterize Angst Toward Biden’s Tax Proposal

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The 'Holding Billionaires Accountable' Lie — Media, Big Tech Fact Checkers Mischaracterize Angst Toward Biden's Tax Proposal

U.S. citizens and financial institutions are concerned about the Biden administration’s goals to get banks to report to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) aggregate inflows from a customer’s bank account annually that exceed $600. Mainstream media is reporting and Big Tech’s swarm of fact-checkers have said that some lawmakers are mischaracterizing the proposal.

Biden Administration’s $600 Tax Proposal Ignites Heated Debate and So-Called Fact-Checking

In May, it was reported that Biden’s IRS planned to add more staff and focus on cryptocurrency exchange. The accounts stemmed from a Treasury Department report, and the department’s officials projected that during the next decade it could net $700 billion from tax offenders. The following decade later, the Treasury expects the plan to net $1.6 trillion, and the Federal entity believes those estimates are conservative. At the time of writing, the tax proposal dubbed the “American Families Plan Tax Compliance Agenda” is still being debated.

There’s a lot of confusion surrounding this proposal and if users post about it on Facebook, usually a fact-checker is assigned to the post that says lawmakers are mischaracterizing the rule. Twitter’s news feed says the exact same thing as it claims skeptics are conflating the definitions of the proposal in an attempt to say the IRS can view all transactions over $600.

“Most of the money [generated by the tax enforcement plan] —$460 billion—would come from the second big piece,” explains the Wall Street Journal. “That plan increases the government’s ability to see into a current blind spot—business income where there is no independent verification to the IRS, as there is for wages where W-2 forms go to workers and the government. Banks and payment providers would be required to report inflows and outflows from accounts each year, starting in 2023.”

Janet Yellen, the Treasury secretary, has been urging lawmakers to agree on the IRS proposal. “There’s a lot of tax fraud and cheating that’s going on,” Yellen explained to CBS reporter Norah O’Donnell. Furthermore, Yellen noted that the new requirement for financial institutions is “absolutely not” a way for the government to poke around into the financial affairs of average Americans.

Liberty Activist Asks: ‘Why Is the IRS Allowed to See Any of My Bank Transactions Without a Warrant?’

Yellen and Biden have continuously stressed that the goal is to have America’s billionaire-class accountable. Meanwhile, there’s a number of loud and vocal voices explaining that the proposal is intrusive.

“Whether it’s $600 or $10,000, the IRS has NO business monitoring your bank account,” Senator Michael Rulli tweeted on October 15. “For real though, it doesn’t matter if it’s $600 or $60,000 – why is the IRS allowed to see ANY of my bank transactions without a warrant?” liberty activist Naomi Mathew said the day before. Another Twitter profile “Juliesbac” exclaimed:

We should be completely flipping the script at this opportunity. Not only should the IRS not be able to look into $600 transactions. They need to be completely banned from looking at any transaction without a subpoena. They serve us. We don’t serve them.

The co-host of the broadcast “Breaking Points,” Saagar Enjeti, said that the “IRS is 3X more likely to audit someone making less than 25,000 than someone in the top 1%. The $600 dollar proposal would only give them even more ammunition to go after working-class Americans.”

Nancy Pelosi Says $600 Tax Proposal to Be Included in Reconciliation Bill, ‘Hold Billionaires Accountable’ Line Considered a Farce

Meanwhile, Nancy Pelosi explained that Democratic lawmakers plan to support Biden’s tax proposal. The new tax enforcement concept will be included in the Reconciliation Bill, Pelosi said.

“Yes there are concerns that some people have but if people are breaking the law and not paying their taxes one way to track them is through the banking measure,” Pelosi told the media last week.

A political columnist from The Hill, Joe Concha, told his 113,000 Twitter followers that the “hold billionaires accountable” line Yellen and others are saying “will win [the] lie of the year.” Meanwhile, there are many who simply scorned the government for the new proposal as the financial rules are consistently broken by the elite.

“Can’t stop thinking about how the IRS wants to know what I’m doing with $600 while the Pandora papers literally exposed the shadow economy and tax evasion of billionaires,” one individual said last Wednesday.

What do you think about the debate over the new IRS proposal backed by the Biden administration and Treasury secretary Janet Yellen? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.

The Pandora Papers Reveal What Bitcoiners Already Know

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The revelations are simply confirmation for a group that has studied the economic injustices of today intently.

The shocking, or not shocking, revelations given by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, known as the Pandora Papers, has revealed the truth in what Bitcoiners have been saying for years: The current system is broken.

Over 600 journalists, from 100 countries and an equal number of news outlets, came together for two years to deliver information on the financial secrets of the powerful. As the subtitle reads: “the Pandora Papers reveal the inner workings of a shadow economy that benefits the wealthy and well-connected at the expense of everyone else.”

For those unaware, this is a trove of over 11 million documents detailing the wealth management of current and former heads of state, public officials, sports athletes, celebrities and more. Around $11 trillion dollars was revealed to be hidden in tax havens across the world, nearly 10 times bitcoin’s entire market capitalization, which skeptics would have you believe is the main arena for this type of activity.

To highlight the issue, it’s important to point to a few stories, and a notable — but not unique — one from Lebanon. Riad Salameh, former head of the Lebanese Central Bank, and Marwan Kheireddine, Lebanon’s former minister of state and chairman of Al-Mawarid Bank, appear in the investigation, one for money laundering and the other for evading taxes.

In 2019, Kheireddine blasted his political colleagues for inaction during a severe economic crisis. More than half the population was living under poverty, struggling to find food and encountering closed shops everywhere. According to the Pandora Papers, he said: “There is tax evasion, and the government needs to address that.” Not long after, as the Pandora Papers reveal, he held assets in tax havens on the British Virgin Islands.

However, Al-Mawarid Bank was one of the many banks in the country that restricted USD withdrawals from citizens during the economic panic. Something Wafaa Abou Hamdan, a 57-year-old widow, hasn’t forgotten. According to an ICIJ article, “Because of runaway inflation, her life savings plummeted from the equivalent of $60,000 to less than $5,000. ‘All my life’s efforts went in vain. I have been working continuously for the past three decades,’ she said. ‘We are still struggling on a daily basis to maintain our living’ while ‘the politicians and the bankers’ have ‘all transferred and invested their money abroad.’”

These types of revelations are not new, nor will they end. However, they shine light into the inequality of a system built by the few, for the few. Through an opaque banking system, with economic incentives carefully placed in favor of the elites, and different rules for the upper echelons, once again the world is reminded of the unfairness.

The Bitcoin community has been ringing the high alarm for years. Our current financial order is rife with antisocial behavior, and the issues put forth by the Pandora Papers only continue to confirm the injustice. There are certain allowances for positions of power, while the 99% sits back and chews its rage and frustration.

This doesn’t have to be. The internet created an immense opportunity of resistance for most of the world. We found ourselves at the intersection of instant communication and collaboration, without the need for intermediaries and endless human possibility. The digital age ushered in the age of connectivity.

On top of the internet’s rails, we have created a system of value that is perfectly positioned to push back against the vices of the incumbent system. Bitcoin has built itself to create an alternative, a haven (pun intended), a system for everybody, by everybody with everybody.

Bitcoin is one of the key components toward resisting the revelations of the Pandora Papers. It creates a system of financial transparency, where rules govern and inform and disintermediation is the norm.

While the elites play by a different set of rules, we create a different system. One where collaboration, openness, censorship resistance and equality live at the forefront. No more politicians reaping certain benefits or the 1% squeezing the system. In Bitcoin, we are all the same.

I wanted to write this piece because the Pandora Papers have been largely ignored by the Bitcoin community. While they reveal nothing new, and perhaps not enough “high-level” individuals, it brings existing problems into the open: That billions today are struggling to make ends meet, while the elites dance to the beat of the roaring twenties.

This investigation should serve as a wake-up call. Over and over, we have seen a few purge the system, while the rest are left empty-handed. We no longer must be slaves of inflation, ask for permission to use our money, or live under the tyranny of the real shadowy system.

The role of Bitcoiners is to elucidate the perspectives of the alternative system.

As the internet allowed us to instantly communicate anywhere in the world, Bitcoin is now allowing us to instantly transfer value anywhere in the world. Beyond the reach of those that guard the watchtowers of our current financial system.

Bitcoin and the Pandora Papers are intimately intertwined. While one reveals the inner workings of a covert system geared toward the 1%, the other presents an opportunity for the billions excluded and sidelined.

The internet ushered in the age of connectivity, which let us find out about the Pandora Papers. Bitcoin is building on that connection, giving us an alternative to those fed up with what was inside the box.

This is a guest post by Pedro Solimano. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.

The U.S. Government Does Not Respect Autonomy. Bitcoin Does.

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The U.S. government wants to neglect the free will of the markets and Bitcoin is the only way to opt out.

The below is a direct excerpt of Marty’s Bent Issue #1094: “The kleptocrats have no respect for you, your privacy, or your ‘autonomy.'” Sign up for the newsletter here.

The government that brought you $28 TRILLION in debt that they are unable to pay back without a perpetual raising of the debt “ceiling” and forced confiscation of wealth via taxation and other means is here to tell you that “Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes you will need to submit to us invading your privacy to ensure the IRS knows about every single transaction over $600 you ever make.”

The mounting debt may be no fault of your own. It is likely the product of a run away bureaucracy drunk with power, greed, and an inability to do anything with any semblance of efficiency, but that does not matter. You must suffer. After all, this is YOUR government. You voted for the imbeciles making the decisions. Therefore, you should be liable for the consequences of their decisions. Deal with it, peasant.

Disregard the fact that the decrepit old bag screeching “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes” in your face as if it is an appropriate explanation to a valid question about government overreach has abused her position and the information it affords her (husband) to front run markets. YOU are in the wrong. YOU are guilty until proven innocent. Until the IRS takes the information handed over from the banks, scrutinizes every transaction you ever make over $600 and let you know whether you’ve paid your “fair share”, you are not absolved of your natural tax slave sin. DEAL WITH IT, MAGGOT.

This is how the US government views the US taxpayer at this current juncture. As we said yesterday, it is time to abolish this government drunk with power. These ignorant kleptocrats need to be left behind. They are actively attempting to push through a top-down centrally planned economic transition on the public.

They want to make “fundamental change” to the economy. In other words, they want to dictate what should and shouldn’t be done within the economy. They want to centrally plan industry. Completely neglecting the free and actual will of the markets and the participants who make it up. This is pure madness and it should be rejected at every turn. These people are insane. They are immoral. And if they get their way, they will destroy any chance of prosperity for the American people moving forward.

Nothing will ever be enough for them. When these terrible policies and central plans fail they will only ask for more. They will only tell you that you didn’t do enough. If you only let them steal from you a little bit more they would have achieved their utopian dreams. That is why they need to dip their dirty skeleton looking fingers into your pockets and personal life yet again.

These people don’t have any respect for you. They think you are a dumb compliant pleb to be milked for all your worth with absolutely nothing but shitty results from their capital misallocation in return. They think you are so dumb and such a danger to yourself that you should not be able to purchase things like tobacco, prescription drugs, or guns. Those things now need to be censored too. For your own safety, worm.

COMPLETE CONTROL. This is what these psychopaths want. They don’t care about your safety. They don’t care about your comfort. They don’t care about your future. They care about their ability to absolutely dominate your life.

And their number one tool to achieve that control is the current monetary, financial, and tax systems, which they are looking to leverage to cattle herd you into their trap. Well, if any of this makes you sick, as it should, Bitcoin is here to provide an alternative where these efforts are made exponentially harder.

It’s time to tell these assholes to leave you the fuck alone. You can do that by buying bitcoin and convincing as many people as possible to join you.

Crypto Firm Owners Plead Guilty to Tax Evasion, Face up to 5 Years in Prison

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Crypto Firm Owner Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion, Faces 5 Years in Prison

The owners of a cryptocurrency firm that raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors have pleaded guilty to tax evasion. “These crypto-savvy defendants exploited an emerging technology, lying to their investors, pocketing the proceeds, and concealing the income from the IRS,” said acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham.

Crypto Firm’s Founders Face up to 5 Years in Jail

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Tuesday that the owners of a cryptocurrency company have pleaded guilty to tax evasion.

Bitqyck founders Bruce Bise and Samuel Mendez were charged with tax evasion in August. Bise pleaded guilty on Sept. 9 and Mendez pleaded guilty Tuesday morning. Citing plea papers, the DOJ detailed:

Mr. Bise and Mr. Mendez admitted that Bitqyck raised approximately $24 million from more than 13,000 investors. Instead of fulfilling their promises to these investors, the defendants used Bitqyck funds on personal expenses, including casino trips, cars, luxury home furnishings, art, and rent.

“These crypto-savvy defendants exploited an emerging technology, lying to their investors, pocketing the proceeds, and concealing the income from the IRS,” acting U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham described.

The pair promoted the company’s cryptocurrency, Bitqy, “as a way for those individuals who missed out on bitcoin to get rich,” the DOJ noted, adding that they held their initial coin offering (ICO) in 2016.

A white paper posted on the Bitqyck website promised investors that each Bitqy token came with 1/10th of a share of Bitqyck common stock. However, Bise and Mendez admitted that they never actually distributed shares to token holders nor embedded the shares within the Ethereum Smart Contract.

About nine months after launching Bitqy, Bise and Mendez began marketing another token, Bitqym. They claimed that buying the token allowed investors to join “Bitcoin mining operations.” However, in reality, the pair admitted that no such mining facility ever existed.

Furthermore, Bise and Mendez underreported their income to the IRS in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, Bitqyck failed to file any corporate tax returns at all despite netting more than $3.5 million from investors. “The total tax loss joint and severally to the United States government between Mr. Bise and Mr. Mendez is more than $1.6 million dollars,” the Department of Justice revealed.

The DOJ stated:

Both men now face up to five years in federal prison.

Bitqyck has also settled with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company “agreed to pay an $8.3 million penalty to resolve claims that it defrauded investors and operated an unregistered digital asset exchange.” The DOJ added that as part of that settlement, Bise and Mendez “agreed to pay disgorgement and penalties of $890,254 and $850,022, respectively.”

What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Reconciliation Bill May Accelerate Bitcoin Adoption In The U.S.

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The proposed bill includes intrusive tax collection measures which would inhibit the productivity of the nation.

There’s a strong reason behind the recent wave of bitcoin adoption among the world’s least stable and poorest countries. Bitcoin disproportionately benefits the underbanked and underprivileged because it gives them access to an open global monetary network with predictable policy and low barriers to entry. Although the U.S. has attracted substantial amounts of bitcoin interest and investment since its inception, it’s safe to say that the average American citizen knows little beyond what the mainstream media headlines and FUDsters say.

While this runs counter to the U.S.’s typical affinity for technological advancement, it makes sense. As the home of the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. is uniquely positioned to provide wide access to basic financial services and stable infrastructure to its constituents, who rarely see the need to transfer money outside of that ecosystem. Consequently, the average American doesn’t sense any pressure to move beyond pseudo-decentralized platforms and the legacy bank he or she has been using for a lifetime. Most Americans haven’t witnessed repeated defaults like those which have occurred in Argentina. Most Americans don’t face the high fees and dangerous circumstances associated with sending remittances through legacy international money transfer services like Western Union. Most Americans haven’t experienced the despair concomitant with a collapsing currency such as that in Zimbabwe or Venezuela. And most Americans don’t know what it feels like to watch the currency they regularly use magically materialize, only to be given away to citizens in a country not theirs. It makes sense that U.S. media and unsuspecting Americans see bitcoin as only a speculative investment. They simply don’t understand its deeper purpose because the U.S. financial ecosystem has yet to give them reason to.

This may soon be about to change. If the effects of unprecedented stimulus and spending, negative real returns, increasing inflation, rising institutional distrust, and frighteningly high traditional asset prices aren’t enough, the recently-proposed $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill might give Americans reason to consider alternative financial habits — and not for the reasons you may be thinking. Although extraordinary in size and scope, the budget reconciliation bill also proposes unprecedented tax compliance measures that would dramatically change the financial landscape for many Americans. As it is currently written, the bill introduces requirements for banks and other financial third parties to report to the Internal Revenue Service net inflows and outflows on all accounts valued at $600 or more, or with at least $600 worth of annual transactions. While these measures are ostensibly intended to cut down on tax evasion by wealthy individuals, they almost certainly will have second- and third-order effects on those not so fortunate, most notably small businesses and everyday individuals.

Though many Americans currently enjoy reliable and accessible banking services, the proposed methods for enforcing tax compliance will have dramatic impacts on banks’ abilities to efficiently do their job, threatening their capacity to offer cost-effective products and services to those who struggle with access as is. Extensive reporting requirements will unquestionably introduce enormous amounts of additional red tape to an already-overburdened banking sector. Banks and institutions will be forced to pass higher operating costs on to consumers, making it more difficult to access basic financial services in the future.

More importantly, however, is the fact that approval would give the IRS authority to collect information on every American bank account valued at as little as $600. Many Americans are probably not very keen on banks reporting their account data to be examined by the IRS. And while this intrusion into U.S. citizens’ financial privacy is morally questionable, it also poses a tremendous security risk to the average American citizen. Large institutions aren’t exactly known for keeping data secure from malicious cyber actors. Even those with the world’s top tech talent have trouble with keeping data secure. How much more secure can we expect the public sector to be? There are far too many examples of government breaches to cite, but let’s not forget about the 2015 incident in which 700,000 IRS accounts were compromised.

Regardless of what is ultimately included in the 2021 budget reconciliation bill, the mere presence of popular political support for such intrusive levels of financial surveillance and irresponsible fiscal policy illuminates how desperate we’ve become to perpetuate a system that seems to be reaching a breaking point. If the U.S. continues to embrace elements of modern monetary theory — excessive spending, endless stimulation and higher taxes — it will continue to reduce taxable activity, along with its chances of collecting the revenue needed to support the policies that largely introduced these issues in the first place. Add in the potential for extensive financial surveillance and U.S. citizens find themselves in a tough predicament. Their incentives for finding a better way will align with those in similar situations throughout the rest of the world. As many around the world have already discovered, bitcoin is an escape valve in a system that is beginning to show some cracks. Adoption is just beginning.

This is a guest post by Drew Borinstein. Opinions expressed are entirely their own and do not necessarily reflect those of BTC Inc or Bitcoin Magazine.