Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

This will not end until people will all "incorporate" and apply the same tax tricks as major corporations. In other words we need the revolution of the "personal corporation". The startup that offers this will be the next Apple. Or, will be shut down when the law is changed. Either way, it's a win for society.

Stripe Atlas is a step in the right direction, but it does only the low hanging fruit. Accounting, handling audits and winding down is where the pros are required.



Unfortunately, sophisticated tax advice simply does not scale down to the level that would make it applicable to most companies/people. This type of advice is heavily fact-specific, and if you create a complicated legal structure, you can't take your eye off the ball for a minute. Otherwise you can end up blowing the whole thing up, or worse.

I would note that the world you describe (where people have tax tricks just like corporations) used to exist. Before the tax reform bill of 1986, doctors/lawyers/dentists/etc. were able to take advantage of tax shelters that greatly reduced their wage income, without actually incurring any real losses. These passive loss tax shelters were heavily marketed by accounting firms because of their general applicability. But in 1986 they were eliminated by a tax reform bill that outlawed perceived abuses and lowered tax rates.


I have to say I like your replies on this topic here and elsewhere. Almost sounds like these tax avoiding entities are software and there's a big maintenance cost as laws change all the time. I've always thought that a big part of law should be "programable" and I think we are slowly getting there.

Next up, imagine a machine learning trained entity just roaming the international law landscape, just trying to survive.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: