Saturday, August 23, 2014

You’re paying for the Bank of America settlement


It’s not right.

The Justice Department recently announced that Bank of America will pay $16,650,000,000 in penalties to settle charges of mortgage fraud that led up to the 2008 national financial meltdown.


I’m in favor of it, except the part I don’t like is that the settlement doesn’t penalize even one of the people who did the wrongdoing. It just penalizes the bank and its shareholders.

Here’s another part I don’t like: BofA is going to be able to write off some of the huge fines as a tax deduction.

The New York Times reported that the bank might be able to shave as much as $1.6 billion off its tax bill. In other words, that $1.6 billion—in rightful taxes that the bank should pay—won’t be paid by the bank, so guess who has to make up that shortfall in tax revenue. Try looking in a mirror.


A consumer advocacy group said this:
“The American public is expecting the Justice Department to hold the banks accountable for its misdeeds in the mortgage meltdown. But these tax write-offs shift the burden back onto taxpayers and send the wrong message by treating parts of the settlement as an ordinary business expense.”

It’s not right.





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