Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Secret IRS Files Reveal How Much the Ultrawealthy Gained by Shaping Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Tax Cut”:

Acres of Money Laundering: Why U.S. Real Estate is a Kleptocrat’s Dream Global Financial Integrity 


Lendlease fesses up to ATO tax scam audit, provisionally


Businesses with over $100,000 in tax debts have begun receiving letters from the Tax Office, warning them of the agency’s intent to disclose tax debt information to credit reporting bureaus if they do not make an effort to manage their debts within 28 days.

The ATO’s new powers come after the government passed a law in late 2019 to clamp down on businesses with tax debts of more than $100,000 that are at least 90 days overdue.

ATO wields new weapon to compel businesses to act on tax debts


ProPublica, Secret IRS Files Reveal How Much the Ultrawealthy Gained by Shaping Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Tax Cut”:

Billionaire business owners deployed lobbyists to make sure Trump’s 2017 tax bill was tailored to their benefit. Confidential IRS records show the windfall that followed. 

In November 2017, with the administration of President Donald Trump rushing to get a massive tax overhaul through Congress, Sen. Ron Johnson stunned his colleagues by announcing he would vote “no.”

Making the rounds on cable TV, the Wisconsin Republican became the first GOP senator to declare his opposition, spooking Senate leaders who were pushing to quickly pass the tax bill with their thin majority. “If they can pass it without me, let them,” Johnson declared.

In November 2017, with the administration of President Donald Trump rushing to get a massive tax overhaul through Congress, Sen. Ron Johnson stunned his colleagues by announcing he would vote “no.”

Making the rounds on cable TV, the Wisconsin Republican became the first GOP senator to declare his opposition, spooking Senate leaders who were pushing to quickly pass the tax bill with their thin majority. “If they can pass it without me, let them,” Johnson declared.

The Trump administration championed the pass-through provision as tax relief for “small businesses.”

Confidential tax records, however, reveal that Johnson’s last-minute maneuver benefited two families more than almost any others in the country — both worth billions and both among the senator’s biggest donors.

Dick and Liz Uihlein of packaging giant Uline, along with roofing magnate Diane Hendricks, together had contributed around $20 million to groups backing Johnson’s 2016 reelection campaign.

The expanded tax break Johnson muscled through netted them $215 million in deductions in 2018 alone, drastically reducing the income they owed taxes on. At that rate, the cut could deliver more than half a billion in tax savings for Hendricks and the Uihleins over its eight-year life.

But the tax break did more than just give a lucrative, and legal, perk to Johnson’s donors. In the first year after Trump signed the legislation, just 82 ultrawealthy households collectively walked away with more than $1 billion in total savings, an analysis of confidential tax records shows. Republican and Democratic tycoons alike saw their tax bills chopped by tens of millions, among them: media magnate and former Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg; the Bechtel family, owners of the engineering firm that bears their name; and the heirs of the late Houston pipeline billionaire Dan Duncan.








The Best Policies to Fight Pandemics: Five Lessons from the Literature So Far

Mining various studies on pandemic interventions to see which look most effective.



Famed epidemiologist Larry Brilliant – The world is nowhere near the end of the pandemic


Quartz Which vaccines mandates are legal? All of them: “To be clear, the White House says it is not considering a blanket mandate that would apply to all Americans. (Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, has also said “There will be no federal mandate.”) Indeed, what some people are calling a vaccine mandate for federal employees (announced by US president Joe Biden at the end of July) is technically not a mandate at all: Federal government workers who say no to the vaccine and yes to masks and regular testing can continue to go to work. But if the federal government did choose to make inoculation mandatory for all citizens, legal experts say it would have the legal standing to do so. Such a regulation would still allow people to opt-out for religious or medical reasons, such as an allergy to one of the vaccine ingredients…”

AP: Vaccination form for federal workers adds penalties for lies – “The Biden administration [on August 6, 2021] unveiled the attestation form that employees will need to fill out confirming whether they have been fully vaccinated against the virus, adding legal teeth to the president’s mandate. Federal employees won’t be following the honor system but will instead be required to acknowledge that making a “knowing and willful false statement on this form can be punished by fine or imprisonment or both.”



CNBC:

  • “The pandemic is not coming to an end soon — given that only a small proportion of the world’s population has been vaccinated, said Larry Brilliant, a well-known epidemiologist.
  • Brilliant, who was part of the WHO team that helped eradicate smallpox, said the delta variant is “maybe the most contagious virus” ever.
  • The doctor said vaccinated people aged 65 and have a weakened immune system should get a booster shot “right away.”


20121106-163734.jpg

Elvis Presley and Mohammed Ali


The Hill – One expert says if symptoms are mild, you could confuse your illness for allergies.


Launched in Summer 2020, COVIDoutlook.info is a volunteer-run website that provides independent data-driven analyses and forecasts about the COVID-19 crisis in the United States for policymakers and individuals. We hope our work can help people make the best decisions for themselves, their families, and their communities during this complicated time of heightened risk.”


Posted by at