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Then_Campaign7264 t1_j13erlx wrote

On a lighter note, I love when reporters include little tidbits like this:

“This autumn's list saw a 'typo' inaccurately declare a man to be Finland's biggest earner. The man is the founder of a firm called Goofy Unicorn, who said that a "brain fart" made him file fictitious cryptocurrency earnings into a tax form.”

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KeepTangoAndFoxtrot t1_j13fr8d wrote

Sounds like attempted(?) tax fraud to me.

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tetoffens t1_j13ie45 wrote

The guy put in that he made 133.7 Euros and says he founded a company called 1337 Software, which is stated to have 133,700 shares. I think the guy is just genuinely a moron trying to make an out of date leet joke. Whether it was an inside joke or one he wanted people to catch for self promotion reasons, unsure.

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Ameisen t1_j15732q wrote

> out of date leet joke

What do you mean "out of date"?

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KnightDuty t1_j158kth wrote

Roflcopters. Facepalm, amirite? epic fail!

If you ask me, he's won the internet. Yes, sir, you CAN haz baconburger.

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womens_motocross t1_j157t22 wrote

1337 aka leet speak is a form of replacing letter with numbers common on online games in the 2000's

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Latexi95 t1_j141pd7 wrote

In this case he would have had to pay huge extra taxes if that "typo" wasn't corrected, so clearly not attempt to gain tax benefit.

Usually point of tax fraud is to reduce taxable income, not increase it. ;)

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Then_Campaign7264 t1_j13hipe wrote

Brain fart is now a euphemism for tax fraud.

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KeepTangoAndFoxtrot t1_j13hs1t wrote

"Oops! I accidentally wrote in fake earnings on my tax documents! Talk about a real whoopsy doodle!"

I'm not even sure why you would do that. Wouldn't this mean that you end up getting taxed more than what you should?

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Then_Campaign7264 t1_j13iiga wrote

Perhaps the “fictitious earnings” were an under representation of taxable income.

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AdventureBum t1_j151plj wrote

I'm not sure I get the logic of claiming you make more than you do, as that would incur a higher tax burden.

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lowertownn t1_j14t69z wrote

How does the media get to access tax data? Do they just write a letter asking for the data or something? This doesn't sound correct, or anyone could just ask for anyone's tax data?

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FINCoffeeDaddy OP t1_j14tm14 wrote

In Finland, you can just ask anyone's tax data, it is open information. But those who make money a lot. They are trying to hide their incomes from public.

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kiklion t1_j1517pn wrote

> https://www.vero.fi/en/About-us/finnish-tax-administration/data-security-and-information-access/public-information-on-taxes/public-information-on-individual-income-taxes/

I only read the above link, but it seems like there are a lot of hoops to go through to get the data. If the data should be public, it should be easier to access than having to go into a place in person and write down the data. But maybe I’m wrong, because I saw articles indicating that the government publicly releases a list of all the incomes anyway. Not the media.

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DecentChanceOfLousy t1_j15vosp wrote

Friction in bureaucratic processes is sometimes a useful property. If there's a figure of public interest, requiring a human in the loop, requiring some forms to be filled out, requiring a justification, etc. may take a while, but it eventually gets through. Those same steps prevent Bob the Nosey Asshole from requesting the income of everyone on his block just because he wants to know, and it also (hopefully) prevents someone's stalker from requesting their income info.

To some extent, it's like Proof-Of-Work (for emails or similar systems, not necessarily cryptocurrency). Requiring the sender/requester to do some work lets legitimate users through with a minor inconvenience, but absolutely buries bad actors and spammers with the work required.

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Wrote_it2 t1_j1744i5 wrote

Why are you ok with Bob the Nosey asshole journalist getting the tax data of the wealthy neighbor but not Bob the Nosey Asshole who lives next door getting your tax data?

Seems like it would kind of suck to be wealthy enough that every one in the Nosey Asshole family now gets to be an annoyance to you…

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Throwaway_7451 t1_j1781yk wrote

Because this is a civilized Nordic country we're talking about that puts the welfare of the many above that of the few and if the rich don't like it they can cry into their handkerchiefs made of money.

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DecentChanceOfLousy t1_j1784sq wrote

Oh no, the poor public figures so wealthy that their personal finances are relevant to the general public! It must be so hard.

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jschubart t1_j15ocwk wrote

Many countries have their tax data available to the public.

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Redrumofthesheep t1_j177ffj wrote

Anyone can just literally look up your income data from the tax authority's website. Just punch in the name in the search function.

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maethoriell t1_j15jgf8 wrote

So how rich are all the metal bands? Way less or way .ore than expected?

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Psyman2 t1_j15slr1 wrote

Depends. How much do you expect?

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SalSimNS2 t1_j176616 wrote

> high earners

I prefer the terms "made" or "salaried" or "received" a lot of money. I'm not really certain it was "earned" in most cases.

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Motobugs t1_j13eue1 wrote

So, no privacy for you.

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codearoni t1_j14fnfc wrote

The rich get the same privacy as everyone else

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goodboybane t1_j14q1c2 wrote

For wealthy/powerful people, equality is oppression.

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Raaka-Kake t1_j181kbc wrote

You lose some privacy in tax info, you win some in GDPR where some petulant millionaire can’t build a private ID database to stop you from attending events with bullshit excuses.

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Ringlovo t1_j14sply wrote

This news is from Finland, but as an American, I absolutely agree.

No one - rich, poor, or otherwise - should have thier tax returns be made publicly accessible.

−27

Tweetydabirdie t1_j14ybwd wrote

Why exactly is that? In Sweden the same a thing applies as in Finland. Its public records. For everyone.

I’m fairly certain it curbs the most excessive cheating by default that way.

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Ringlovo t1_j158z1m wrote

In America we have the right to privacy. What you make, donate to charity, pay in taxes, how many deductions you apply for, is - frankly - no one's business but you and the government.

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PenguinSunday t1_j15ksk2 wrote

We're the land of Facebook and Twitter, the country that is using social media to track down women getting abortions. The fact that you think we have a right to privacy here is hilarious.

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Ringlovo t1_j15q6yw wrote

Facebook and Twitter are private companies. If you think you are being tracked by them, you can stop using them.

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PenguinSunday t1_j15siss wrote

Someone wasn't paying attention during the "Cambridge Analytica" debacle. It's not a question of "if" anymore. Period-tracking apps have been outed selling womens' cycle information. Google also tracks you, as does every other provider and appmaker. I haven't had anything but a reddit account for almost a decade now. They also track, but I don't want to quit the internet entirely.

Weird how it's suddenly about their rights to push their product into my face now instead of my right to privacy you were claiming I had earlier.

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jschubart t1_j15op67 wrote

The government...which is a public institution. How you spend your money can be private but it is a little ridiculous to say that what you give to the government should remain private.

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Ringlovo t1_j15qbpv wrote

Except some information is directly tied to very private information, such as housing, disability, etc.

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Potatisk t1_j15z56z wrote

...in this very specific instance. And yet comparing others, it's abusmal. Like my favourite pet peeve of employer having rights to your communications/working with very little notice. We don't remove that privacy in Finland.

And based on experience there's comments on "well, they should have it" or whatever... is that so dissimilar?

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jschubart t1_j15og3k wrote

Why the fuck not?

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Ringlovo t1_j15qkbi wrote

If you'd like to make your tax returns public, you're free to do so. Open yourself up to public scrutiny if you'd like. For the rest of us, no thanks.

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MustLoveAllCats t1_j16btqw wrote

America is set up that way to facilitate oppression of the working class, nothing more. It's not about privacy, it's about making sure you don't know how hard you're getting the shaft compared to the guy you're working with, the guy you're working for, etc., including the fact that many of them are exploiting the system, leeching off your taxes and not paying their fair share.

The brainwashing is real though, that you believe it's about privacy.

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Dive30 t1_j17ck0d wrote

It’s all fun and games until they point the cannon at you.

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MustLoveAllCats t1_j1amlri wrote

You don't have to worry about that in America, they prefer you alive so you can exist as a wageslave for the corporate elite.

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Dive30 t1_j1apf0g wrote

Yeah, as long as you aren’t too squeaky. They have no problem making an example out of the squeaky ones.

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jschubart t1_j16k66l wrote

I doubt many would be scrutinizing my standard deduction...

That scrutiny did not seem to be an issue at all in other countries. Why the fuck would it be an issue here?

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