@angstrom said:
Seriously, though: are one's tax returns really so sensitive?
A bit off topic, but this has always puzzled me. Here in Sweden tax returns are public documents, you can lookup exactly how much income someone has and how much they pay in taxes.
But Americans (maybe others too, haven't really paid attention to nationality) seems to go to great length to keep it a secret. I cant really see why, in what way could it hurt me if people know how much I pay in taxes?
As I tried to say above in connection with Donald Trump, it's usually because one wants to hide something: often, that one didn't pay enough in taxes. But it could also be that one wants to hide the fact that one made more money than people think, or that one made less money than people think. (But, indeed, this seems to be more an American phenomenon than a European phenomenon.)
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
@angstrom said: If one doesn't trust a particular VPS provider in this respect, then one shouldn't have a VPS at that provider.
Well there's trust and then there's trust. Do I trust them enough to keep my mp3 collection there? Sure. Do I trust them enough to keep my unencrypted tax returns there? No. The consequences for being wrong are higher in the second scenario.
I can't store MP3 collection on VPS because they could be suspected as "copyright infringement".
All my MP3 files are downloaded 15~20 years ago from ad-supported sites, so there's no proof of payment.
Only a small subset is copied from CD-ROM bought in bookstores.
I moved my tax return back to Dropbox, where 3-device limitation applies.
@rcy026 said:
A bit off topic, but this has always puzzled me. Here in Sweden tax returns are public documents, you can lookup exactly how much income someone has and how much they pay in taxes.
But Americans (maybe others too, haven't really paid attention to nationality) seems to go to great length to keep it a secret. I cant really see why, in what way could it hurt me if people know how much I pay in taxes?
I'm not sure how much information is available on Swedish tax forms but at least in my case it's more a concern about identity theft. I agree with you that I don't care who knows what.
( My opinion ) Most of the people truly trying to hide them is usually because they're paying less on their six and seven figure incomes than someone making $35k. They don't want the lower income folks getting restless and trying to fix things. Once you've successfully rigged the game the last thing you do is gloat about it.
@rcy026 said:
A bit off topic, but this has always puzzled me. Here in Sweden tax returns are public documents, you can lookup exactly how much income someone has and how much they pay in taxes.
But Americans (maybe others too, haven't really paid attention to nationality) seems to go to great length to keep it a secret. I cant really see why, in what way could it hurt me if people know how much I pay in taxes?
I'm not sure how much information is available on Swedish tax forms but at least in my case it's more a concern about identity theft. I agree with you that I don't care who knows what.
Basically it lists your income from work, selling of stocks and things like that. Expenses like paying interest on loans and a few other things that is deductable is also listed. And, of course, how much tax you pay.
Not really anything that could facilitate identity theft that you cant get from somewhere else anyway.
( My opinion ) Most of the people truly trying to hide them is usually because they're paying less on their six and seven figure incomes than someone making $35k. They don't want the lower income folks getting restless and trying to fix things. Once you've successfully rigged the game the last thing you do is gloat about it.
I can kind of see the motives behind it, but I find it hard to understand why people accept it.
In Sweden we have something called "offentlighetsprincipen" (the public principle, freely translated) that carries quite a bit of weight everywhere. It means that nothing should be kept secret unless you have a damn good reason to do so. This means basically every government communication such as email and fax is public, every case in courts are public once settled, criminal records are public, company finances are public, and, as mentioned, peoples taxes.
Comments
the above reminded me of
As I tried to say above in connection with Donald Trump, it's usually because one wants to hide something: often, that one didn't pay enough in taxes. But it could also be that one wants to hide the fact that one made more money than people think, or that one made less money than people think. (But, indeed, this seems to be more an American phenomenon than a European phenomenon.)
"A single swap file or partition may be up to 128 MB in size. [...] [I]f you need 256 MB of swap, you can create two 128-MB swap partitions." (M. Welsh & L. Kaufman, Running Linux, 2e, 1996, p. 49)
I can't store MP3 collection on VPS because they could be suspected as "copyright infringement".
All my MP3 files are downloaded 15~20 years ago from ad-supported sites, so there's no proof of payment.
Only a small subset is copied from CD-ROM bought in bookstores.
I moved my tax return back to Dropbox, where 3-device limitation applies.
Accepting submissions for IPv6 less than /64 Hall of Incompetence.
I'm not sure how much information is available on Swedish tax forms but at least in my case it's more a concern about identity theft. I agree with you that I don't care who knows what.
( My opinion ) Most of the people truly trying to hide them is usually because they're paying less on their six and seven figure incomes than someone making $35k. They don't want the lower income folks getting restless and trying to fix things. Once you've successfully rigged the game the last thing you do is gloat about it.
Basically it lists your income from work, selling of stocks and things like that. Expenses like paying interest on loans and a few other things that is deductable is also listed. And, of course, how much tax you pay.
Not really anything that could facilitate identity theft that you cant get from somewhere else anyway.
I can kind of see the motives behind it, but I find it hard to understand why people accept it.
In Sweden we have something called "offentlighetsprincipen" (the public principle, freely translated) that carries quite a bit of weight everywhere. It means that nothing should be kept secret unless you have a damn good reason to do so. This means basically every government communication such as email and fax is public, every case in courts are public once settled, criminal records are public, company finances are public, and, as mentioned, peoples taxes.