Nosy banks
in Banking, Insurance & Loans ·
driftingmoose57 said:Man, I guess I was just being naive thinking they only kept tabs on people back in the old days. What even is this? First, they put cameras on every single street corner, and now we get this.
The "shadow economy"? Please. You can still do odd jobs and have the boss pay you straight into your checking account.😂I bet sock imports are gonna skyrocket.😂😂
@SHADOW ECONOMY
WHY BANKS HAVE TO START SENDING ALL CITIZEN TRANSACTION DATA TO THE IRS BY NEW YEAR'S—The government gets a shiny new tool to hunt down anyone looking suspicious.
Is communism some kind of Appalachian weed that grows everywhere—a necessary crutch for any political debate? And seriously, do you honestly believe the government only watched its people back in communist regimes? You can't run from the state even in the afterlife—they'll be coming for your heirs until there isn't a single cent left to squeeze.
The underground economy? Sure, you can pretend—do odd jobs and have the boss pay you under the table.😂Imports of socks will go up.😂😂
The black market and tax evaders bleed the federal budget dry (and I won't bore you with the reasons: either they can't pay or they simply refuse). A few of my old classmates each owe half a million in back taxes. That money is supposed to be in the treasury—you know, that massive fund that ensures you have basic healthcare coverage and someone actually patches a pothole before you hit it and break your neck—don't you think?
Having worked closely with finance, I’ve noticed how much people in Appalachia love to cheat and play the victim. Based on their tax filings, you'd think they were scavenging for scraps every day, yet I see them decked out in designer clothes, expensive shoes, and high-end gadgets.
I'm not saying everyone does it, but there's this pervasive habit of dodging responsibility—which leads to billions in tax and credit debt—avoiding accountability—which causes an uproar whenever they have to settle a tax bill, report a tenant, or face financial scrutiny—and above all, a staggering amount of economic ignorance that feeds directly into financial irresponsibility. If I were making the laws, I’d crank up the oversight even more just to protect children from their reckless parents (who, frankly, I've had to bail out after they've already mortgaged their grandkids' futures). I might even experiment with requiring parents to justify every cent spent on their kids—that would lead to better-cared-for children and more peace of mind regarding child benefits, ensuring they aren't wasted on booze and cigarettes. The Scots tried something similar once, and of course, there was pushback.
electricbadger89 said:Good grief. :-/
What an absolute joke.
So, from now on, it's strictly cash under the mattress. lol btw
Btw, I also transfer my paycheck from one bank over to another because the second one offers free transactions, savings options, and other perks... Is that even legal?
(Probably not. My salary is already taxed, and I figure I can do whatever I want with it between my own accounts. Pfft)
From iPhone 13
I honestly don't know if you're even reading what you write because you're asking such bizarre questions—about what you can do with your own money? Look, funds deposited as salary have a legitimate source. If one of your accounts shows your full salary while another account suddenly receives a random lump sum, of course it’s logical to ask where it came from—it doesn't necessarily mean it's criminal! I'd much rather people focused on why there aren't more massive fines for all those people dodging the federal budget on a massive scale.
vividranger8 said:I mean, what’s next? Maybe the government just wants full access to all our private emails to see if we're making side deals to dodge taxes—and their excuse will probably be that if you aren't doing anything illegal, why should you care if someone's snooping through your inbox? It's getting a bit wild, I guess...🙄
Do you seriously still believe you can operate incognito?
driftingmoose57 said:So, according to you, we’re all just public servants waiting to be screwed over by the IRS? Like everyone's a suspect? Honestly, it’s insulting. I’ve spent my entire life working hard and playing by the rules here in America, while the self-proclaimed "patriots," the high-ranking officials, and those "pillars of society" are busy stashing their cash in Monaco.
What are you actually afraid of if you're living an honest life? Did you report those Cayman Island funds, or is that just some dramatic figure of speech?
northernorca17 said:Let’s be honest, we’re all playing the same game, but nobody actually wants Big Brother hovering over every single transaction. Maybe they won't even do it, but just the thought is enough to make your skin crawl. Anyone smart enough to actually leverage the internet and modern tech now has to worry about some clueless bureaucrat at the IRS—someone who probably can't even navigate a Word doc—suddenly breathing down their neck with stupid questions about where an extra couple thousand bucks a month came from, whether it was ad revenue or whatever else.
What's actually terrifying is the fact that people still don't realize they're under a microscope every single second—especially since most data isn't even secret anymore, and people hand over info without even being asked. Nowadays, it's not hard to find anyone in voter registration, property records, court filings, financial statements for a specific period, or even photos of family members (which everyone shares constantly on social media).
Taylor Edwards80 said:privacy rights, separation of powers, presumption of innocence
How exactly is your right to privacy being violated?
Nathan Morris3 said:I think you might be mistaken about that. My bank actually tried to pressure me into handing over all this info about where my money came from and a bunch of other stuff I didn't even need to provide. They kept bringing up facts, federal laws, international treaties, and things like that. Luckily, I know enough about these things to hold my ground, but I guess a lot of people get spooked and just fall for those tactics. It’s honestly pretty wild how little people realize their rights; I mean, they often end up feeling powerless because they're just uninformed or scared, and they don't even use the legal tools they have to fight back.
I have no idea what kind of data you were giving them, but they only asked me about extra income and real estate holdings (and that's true for every bank I use). If I can give the FBI my fingerprints along with biological traces—which is way more personal and invades my actual physical being—then I can certainly hand over some data about my income. It's not like I'm taking my petty assets to the grave anyway.
Nathan Morris3 said:Loan interest rates are at their lowest levels since the old America days...[/I]
The example above sort of shows the tragedy we're talking about.
I'm looking at a situation where I'm paying 1% interest in Austria, while a friend of mine in America is paying 4.8%. It’s honestly pretty sad how we reached a point where my friend (or this user above) thinks 4.8% isn't that bad just because, you know, "it's never been higher." I guess the level of brainwashing people deal with is actually kind of worrying. When you live in isolation for so long, I suppose you start accepting everything unhealthy in society and find ways to spin even the worst stuff as something positive. With a mindset like that, banking secrecy is probably the least of our problems.We're repeating ourselves again... Is it the banks' fault, or the state that passed laws they have to follow? Banking secrecy doesn't even exist anymore in Switzerland, which everyone claims is such a special place.
Personally, I can't think of any other country with laws that completely ignore data privacy and protection. To me, America feels almost like some sort of test case to see how much you can enslave people without them even noticing. I guess America wasn't chosen by accident.
How exactly are Germany and the US politically, socially, or economically comparable?
ironcyclist58 said:I don't know how things work in other countries, but from where I'm sitting, there are some massive gray areas here.
For instance, once you finally explain where your money is coming from, does that cover just the past transactions, or are you set for the future too?
Take someone who mentioned they get their paycheck at one bank and then immediately wire the whole thing over to another account just to dodge fees or whatever... the IRS is going to start waving red flags pretty fast. It looks like that person is pulling double wages every single month. Once they explain their setup, is that a one-and-done deal, or will they be getting flagged again every few months because the pattern keeps repeating?
Then there’s the headache of gambling winnings. Apparently, people aren't getting official payout slips, which sounds sketchy to me. If that's the case, how are you even supposed to prove where that cash actually came from?
Explain the math to me: if you have a salary of $2.00 and you move it from one account to another, where is the "double salary" coming from? When you transfer an amount labeled "salary" to your own second account, that transaction doesn't carry that label anymore—it's just a transfer between accounts owned by the same person.
driftingmoose57 said:So they finally did it. They went and slapped taxes and local surcharges on students after promising them the moon before the elections. Did anyone actually vote for this?😕
The government is taxing any student making more than $5.00 a year.
Twitter says that since January 1st, 2017, students working under those specific student contracts can only pull in up to about $1,100 a month before the government starts dipping into their pockets. Once they hit that magic number, every single paycheck gets hit with a 24 percent tax rate, plus whatever local city surcharge applies depending on where they live. Not that the money stays with the government forever—they supposedly give it back as a tax refund in August 2018, according to College Times. Just typical, right?
http://www.nytimes.com/news/example-article-about-living-normally
If that actually worked, it would be the ultimate insult.