“I talked to one accountant, a very nice fellow who I would have been glad to have his family marry into mine. He said, "What these other accounting firms have done is very unethical. The [tax avoidance scheme] works best if it's not found out [by the IRS], so we only give it to our best clients, not the rest, so it's unlikely to be discovered. So my firm is better than the others." [Laughter] I'm not kidding. And he was a perfectly nice man. People just follow the crowd...Their mind just drifts off in a ghastly way.” PeopleIfsMenWayGivingMindHas BeensSaidDoneFoundNiceMinesTaxesLaughterFellowsCrowdsGladFirmSchemesClientsUnlikelyAvoidanceVery NiceAccountingAccountantsIrsGhastlyUnethicalNice Man Author:Charlie Munger
“You'll better understand the evil when top audit firms started selling fraudulent tax shelters when I tell you that one told me that they're better [than the others] because they only sold [the schemes] to their top-20 clients, so no-one would notice.” EvilTaxesSellingFirmShelterSchemesClients Author:Charlie Munger
“The lawyers have escaped most criticism [and undeservedly so]. The tax shelters [were approved by lawyers, who got paid huge commissions to do so] and every miscreant had a high-falutin' lawyer at his side. Why don't more law firms vote with their feet and not take clients who have signs on them that say, "I'm a skunk and will be hard to handle?" I've noticed that firms that avoid trouble over long periods of time have an institutional process that tunes bad clients out. Boy, if I were running a law firm, I'd want a system like that because a lot of firms have a lot of bad clients.” IfsWantLongHardRunningLawProcessSidesBoysTroubleFeetHugePeriodsTaxesCriticismVotePaidLawyerHandleFirmTunesShelterClientsApprovedLong Periods Of TimeLaw FirmsHard To Handle Author:Charlie Munger
“f the government is going to put money into the automobile sector, it should break up GM and Chrysler as a condition of financial aid, and it should be even-handed in its treatment of start-up firms like Tesla, Miles, Fisker, and others. It would be terrible to kill the entrepreneurs who have taken great risks to bring new automotive technologies to market by pumping tax dollars into the behemoths that have done everything wrong for the last years.” ShouldYearsDoneGovernmentWould BeLastsBreakTechnologyTakenRiskConditionsTerribleTaxesDollarsEntrepreneurFinancialAidsMilesFirmTreatmentLast YearAutomobileGreat RiskTeslaTax DollarsChryslerBehemothFinancial Aid Author:Denis Hayes
“More American companies are getting bought by foreign firms or they`re becoming foreign firms or they`re outsourcing. Right now the tax code says if you want to make something in another country and re-import it back into America, go ahead and do that. We don`t want to incentivize that.” IfsWantCountryAmericaCompanyBecomingRight NowTaxesCodeFirmImportsOutsourcing Author:Paul Ryan
“I can make a firm pledge, under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes.” YearsI CanFormFamilyPlansTaxesGainsIncreaseIncomeFirmPledgeIncome TaxPayrollTax IncreasesCapital GainsPayroll TaxCapital Gains Tax Author:Barack Obama