Discover and read the best of Twitter Threads about #TheIRSFiles
Most recents (4)
Here's something weird: in the wake of Roe v Wade in the 1970s, the Southern Baptist Convention repeatedly passed resolutions affirming the right to abortion and rejecting government interference in the decision to bear a child to term:
text.npr.org/734303135 1/
text.npr.org/734303135 1/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/06/25/roe… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/06/25/roe… 2/
Back then, white evangelicals were deeply suspicious of people who opposed abortion. Getting too worked up about the issue was a sign of crypto-papacy, and back then, white evangelicals *hated* Catholics:
doctorow.medium.com/schizmogenesis… 3/
doctorow.medium.com/schizmogenesis… 3/
Last June, @propublica announced that it was in possession of leaked IRS files detailing the tax affairs of America's richest people, and that #TheIRSFiles showed that taxes are - as Leona Helmsley famously quipped - for the little people:
pluralistic.net/2021/06/15/gui… 1/
pluralistic.net/2021/06/15/gui… 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/04/13/tax… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/04/13/tax… 2/
The initial reporting described how, for example, private equity raiders were able to debt-finance acquisitions of productive businesses, run them into the ground, pocket hundreds of millions of dollars, *and* avoid tax as they sprinted away from the wreckage. 3/
The Real Estate Investment Trust is (#REIT) a sixties-era tax shelter designed to allow mom-and-pop investors to buy into income properties. REITs are exempt from corporate tax, but they're also prohibited from managing the buildings they own. 1/
If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/rei… 2/
pluralistic.net/2022/03/01/rei… 2/
Banning REITs from management roles was supposed to scare off rich people looking for a tax break and keep REITs firmly in the realm of the "little guy." 3/
By now, you've likely heard about the #PandoraPapers - the landmark reporting on financial secrecy havens, corruption, and the hidden wealth brought to you by the @ICIJorg and its 140 media partners worldwide.
icij.org/investigations…
1/
icij.org/investigations…
1/
This isn't the ICIJ's first rodeo: they're the same consortium that brought us the #PanamaPapers and #ParadisePapers, leaks from the world's tax havens and the elite law and accounting firms that enable the wealthy and powerful to live by different rules from the rest of us.
2/
2/
Each of these leaks have been almost unimaginably large: millions of documents, the otherwise invisible paper-trail left by likewise unimaginably vast fortunes amassed by the 0.1%. The scale and scope of these secrets makes them too big for any one news org to report out.
3/
3/
