politics
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
view the rest of the comments
Tax returns in US should be public to anyone and everyone, like they are in many countries.
Are they? Where? It seems odd to me that a government would disclose how much everybody makes.
Here in Finland it is public. Reality is that nobody actually cares how much normal people make.
If you want to know how much your CEO or boss pockets money, why is it a bad thing. It is good for income equality.
It's one thing to not be "confidential" and another to be made "public" though. I wouldn't want the government disclosing my info publicly.
Why would anyone be interested in your income and wealth?
I dunno - I don't know anything about Finnish taxes but In the US there can be personal information beyond just income. Like deductions for children, loans, child support, marriage status, etc.
It's a question of privacy. Like how does this not violate the GDPR?
GDPR cannot override Finnish law (or any EU nations law). And Finnish law states that tax info is public.
Included infos are:
Person's name, year of birth, and province
Income and capital income taxed in state taxation
Income taxed in municipal taxation
Income tax
Municipal tax
Total amount of taxed and charged fees
Total amount of prepayments
Amount to be paid or refunded in tax collection, i.e., remaining tax or tax refund
Edit: maybe wrote poorly, GDPR on course override any Finnish privacy laws, but GDPR has exceptions if local nations law has requirements for data, i.e. police, security, military and government.
Thanks - that's very interesting! I'm still not sold on the idea as I believe it violates the same provisions that I think are good in the GDPR (for which they seem to have carved out an exception). But it's an interesting idea. I wonder if it has had the intended effect of income equality (verified through studies)?
Generally speaking I think people are "aware" that rich people make obscene amounts of money. So telling them "how much" doesn't seem like it would be worth the privacy violations. Though from what you've listed it seems like Finnish tax information may not leak as much information as a US return does.
Something to consider... Thanks again!
I read once that maybe Sweden or Norway has publicly available tax returns. BUT, the person whose return you look at gets notified when you view it, so you can't just go around subtly snooping on your friends and neighbors without being noticed. Idk if that's true though.