What a mess. Watched “The Laundromat” starring Meryl Streep basically,
again, playing herself. She doesn’t have much range, does she? Upon the recommendation
of a friend. Turns out, it is another tale told by the uninformed to arouse the
passions of the “believers.”
In some ways, like “Food Inc” where the viewers who wanted
to believe came away with a weird, skewed story of how the beef we get in the
supermarket is the product of cruelty from beginning to end of their lives.
That they “never get to feel grass under their feet.” Tell that to the ranchers!
Back to “The Mess” as it should have been named. The attempt
to tell the story of money from the beginning of time was lame and then trying
to drag us to an understanding of modern era money-laundering through sophisticated
schemes involving off-shore shell corporations was a total failure. Really,
people, you need to understand your subject in order to tell a story, and it is
obvious these people don’t know much.
The conclusion, a script after the welcome conclusion of this
travesty showed the real conclusion. Good stories don’t need to tell you what
they told you, do they? Here is the gist of that post-script: “There are a lot
of corporations in the US that pay no income taxes.” Yeah. So what? You have to
explain those concepts because…well, the movie missed the mark on so many
levels, but for sure it didn’t come close to explaining all that.
Delaware and its favorable corporation laws came under
attack, as did Wyoming. I’ll leave Delaware alone, it can fend for itself, but
WYOMING?? Yes, Wyoming is the state that invented the concept of the Limited
Liability Company (LLC) that is used almost exclusively for small business
formations these days all over the US. Nearly all my clients have LLCs. Why? Because
they generally protect the individual owner from liability. The term “generally”
is used because fraud and other wrong-doing is not protected. They also pay no
tax. Why? Because the taxable income is then reported directly to the owner(s).
At the end of the day, taxes due are paid.
There is a theory that ALL corporate income tax should be
eliminated. That all the income generated by the corporation should be
channeled through to the owners, the stockholders, just like the LLC. Currently,
there is a double taxation—the corporation pays taxes on income and then the
owner pays taxes on the relatively smaller amount delivered to them as dividends.
This theory is opposed by the large accounting firms that siphon billions off
by devising complicated schemes to avoid the first tax. The complex IRS tax
code is a contract for eternal employment for accountants.
None of this is covered in the movie. Instead, it wanders
around to a story about Chinese bribery and a vignette about a dysfunctional
family of what appears to be an exiled African dictator who has billions of
dollars, probably diverted from the largesse of US corporations and the US
government trying to help his people. What? How does this further the story? Not
that the scenario isn’t true, but where did it come from and where is it going?
Try to avoid these kinds of Hollywood propaganda. They do
nothing to further your understanding, but waste a bunch of your time. Maybe destroy
a brain cell or two along the way.
