atari email archive

a collection of messages sent at Atari from 1983 to 1992.

I just have to get this off my chest!

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	If someone offered to pay you $11,000 tomorrow if you pay them
	$10,000 today, would you do it?  Even if the party is backed by
	US government?  Well think twice and listen to my tale.  It could
	happen to you!!!!!

	Let's say you worked for the IRS and wanted to fuck some poor bastard.
	Suppose you sent him the standard form letter, saying that he deducted
	$5,000 from some investment that the IRS does not approve of.  The
	poor bastard thinks the IRS is out to screw him so he pays the $5000
	plus $10,000 in interest from his investment three years earlier
	so that the IRS does not continue to add more interest to the
	amount he owes.  The poor bastard is so confident that he is right
	that he pays an attorney $2500 to sue the IRS in court.  Court cases
	usually take several years but for our argument the IRS decides the
	day it receives the attorneys nasty letter that it has made a mistake
	and returns the bastards $15000 plus $1000 in interest.  (I should
	point out the IRS charges you 9% interest but only pays 8%.)  The 
	poor bastard thinks he has won until he has his taxes done.  His
	accountant tells him that of the $10,000 he paid in interest, he
	can deduct $6,500.  But the $11,000 in interest returned to him
	is ordinary income.  So the poor bastard has to additional taxes of
	33% x ($11000 - $6500) = $1500.  Not only has he lost $2500 in attorneys
	fees but has paid $1500 more in taxes!  So much for tax reform!
Message 1 of 1

Jun 03, 1987