• rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      It’s not about taxes, not really. It’s the hypocritical and one-sided scrutiny of citizens vs corporations and the military industrial complex.

      • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        It’s still wrong. Even when not about taxes directly.

        It demonstrates either ignorance about government responsibilities, ignorance about GAP, or combination of both.

        People passing this around should do better to come up with an applicable comparison regarding oversight the IRS has. There are many examples.

        But the IRS isn’t the GAO. Auditing the DoD will never be something the IRS handles.

        • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          Ok, so where is the missing 2 trillion dollars? You seem to be missing the forest for the trees. It’s about hypocrisy, not the highly specific functioning of an inept governmental office.

          Edit: I’ll spell out the hypocrisy. What happens when you fail an audit? You’re forced to pay back the money. What happens when the Pentagon fails their audits? Literally nothing. The 1990 bill has no penalties for failing, none.

          • gardylou@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            It isn’t missing, the media just doesn’t know how to report on financial reporting and then memes and internet just bastardize things into lowest common denominator pablum because that’s easier and more entertaining than actually reading about problems with old systems not being able to communicate with each other at the Pentagon and how this leads to trillions of dollars annually of accounting reconciliations and reporting delays where there are intermediate moments where the full picture isn’t immediately available. This is basically an old tech and information security issue, not a "evil fucking pentagon stealing monies again!’ or whatever other bullshit it is perpetually portrayed as.

          • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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            7 months ago

            Ok, so where is the missing 2 trillion dollars?

            That’s for the GAO to figure out. Not me or the IRS. The IRS is already understaffed and funded as is. And both the IRS and DoD are Executive branch. That’s why the audit authority rests with Congress to provide checks against Executive authority.

            You seem to be missing the forest for the trees. It’s about hypocrisy, not the highly specific functioning of an inept governmental office.

            If it’s only about hypocrisy there are still better examples. The DoD doesn’t generate revenue so there isn’t anything to tax. Meaning the IRS shouldn’t be involved.

            If to call out the DoD make it about how they expect this level of accountability with their own suppliers and staff that they’re failing. If to call out the IRS it could go with numerous options unrelated to the DoD.

            As is it doesn’t make sense.

            • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              The DoD doesn’t generate revenue so there isn’t anything to tax. Meaning the IRS shouldn’t be involved.

              I don’t know how else to say this. It’s not about specific agencies applying what penalty or anything else like that. It’s the fact that there are no penalties for the DoD for failing an audit.

              • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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                7 months ago

                So about my prior comment on ignorance of the government. Congress owns making penalties happen. As stated, this post suggests it’s the IRS not doing their job.

                You’re welcome to come up with an alternative interpretation of what’s plainly stated. But we can do better than misrepresenting the issues this post does a crappy job of bringing up.

                • rockSlayer@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  Ok, I see where you’re coming from. I looked past the error to see the point of what they meant. You’re stating the obvious that the IRS isn’t involved with government agency audits. We’re arguing about 2 different things.

                  • Zipitydew@sh.itjust.works
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                    7 months ago

                    It’s not obvious unfortunately. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

                    People have been repeating versions of this same post across social media for weeks. With common replies asking why the IRS isn’t doing anything about it.

    • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      My reading: Uncle Sam’s Ledger Logic:

      $2 trillion vanishes into the Pentagon void? “Oops, slipped through the cracks!”

      Your $600 Venmo transfer? “Caught you red-handed! Now, where’s our cut?”

    • paultimate14@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      On the other side of the meme, why shouldn’t money obtained via a 3rd party platform need to be reported to the IRS? I don’t understand the complaint.

      Is your business suddenly special and tax-exempt just because you sell your custom knick-knacks on Craigslist on or accept venmo for your at-home dog grooming service or whatever?

      • TonyTonyChopper@mander.xyz
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        7 months ago

        The joke is that they hold taxpayers to ridiculously high standards, to the point where the concept of $600 of unreported income is something the government will harass you for. While they can just accept billions of their own spending going unaccounted for without a second thought.

        And yes someone running their own small business struggling to survive is not worth taxing. Even if they were paying “what they owe” they would contribute nearly nothing compared to the rich people. And suffer far more for it.

    • gardylou@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Thank you, the internets tendency towards pure emotional reaction to things they don’t understand is honestly just exhausting sometimes.