City Could Save $1.4 Billion by "Only" Offering Benefits Similar to Top Law Firms

"Auditors are trained to look for tax fraud -- a willful act done with the intent to defraud the IRS -- that dark area beyond honest mistakes. Using a false Social Security number, keeping two sets of financial books, or claiming a blind spouse as a dependent when you are single are all examples of tax fraud. Although auditors are trained to look for fraud, they do not routinely suspect it. They know the tax law is complex and expect to find a few errors in every tax return. They will give you the benefit of the doubt most of the time and not go after you for tax fraud if you make an honest mistake"

Totally agree with LICC and Stevehjx.

Majority of my friends are NYC or LI public schools teachers.

They hardly work, get paid $75k a year plus great benefits and all they do is complain. They make more than most people who work the entire year and the entire day.

they start at like 8am leave at 3pm have 10 weeks in the summer off plus several other vacation weeks during the year and every holiday known to man during the schools year, plus the high school teachers dont even teach the full day since they have some periods off.

On LI in most school districts the taxes on the house are for the schools. On a $1M house, with $30k in taxes about $22-23k of that is school taxes.

I dont understand where the money goes- in Canada which is supposed to be a more socialist country, income taxes are lower in every province vs. NYS/NYC, and taxes on houses are minimal yet I know several blue collar type govt workers (ie, cops, bus drivers) who still make like $70-80k a year.

Toronto School Board & the school boards of the other GTA municipalities (Peel, Dufferin, etc.) have vastly different demographics & issues. I can tell you where the Toronto School Board does NOT spend its $:

1) None of this G&T/citywide stuff that costs millions to run & administer (there are gifted programs, but run differently and more economically)
2) In general, no variances for elementary school - you go where you are zoned
3) Much less urban poverty -> fewer issues to spend $ on
4) None of this apply to middle school & high school - cost millions to run
5) Aging population and thus far, shrinking school pop. so not the same overcrowding issues (btw, oversubscribed schools have pretty draconian measures to limit student pop. for example, new construction
not necessarily zoned for schools)

TDSB was much better funded when it got its share of local taxes (sadly, Mike Harris took that away).

NYC schools are screwed in the same way that healthcare is... 80% of spending is on the worst off 5 or 10%. Special ed kids get 5x+ spent on them, for instance. And its not very hard to qualify for that.

Its not the regular kids in the regular classes who are driving the spend increases.

Yeah, I tried re-reading that, somewhereelse. I just don't understand how that excerpt says that willfully leaving out something doesn't count. You do know Kozlowski was indicted for tax fraud for sending a painting out-of-state and bringing it back to NY? You think if he had merely purchased in New Hampshire and had it sent to NY they wouldn't have gone after him?

Why don't we try this. Make a big out-of-state purchase that doesn't charge you sales tax and have it shipped to NY. Email me back-and-forth about whether or not you owe taxes on it, and I'll explain that you do indeed owe taxes. However, in this year's tax return, state $0. Then, we turn in the emails to the tax man and see how they deal with it.

inonada

LOL. Ya I learned the definition of "use tax" a long time ago on a return trip from Asia.

I bought the Cartier Roadster in Hong Kong before they had it here in the states.
I learned from dad's earlier lesson to always declare everything you buy overseas, it is not worth the hastle and the red flag on you if you don't and get caught.
But I never really bought much when I was traveling for biz but this time I did and declared it.
I payed my 10% after declaring it and didn't think anything of it.
18 months later, I get a love letter from NYS saying I owed "use tax" (sales tax but didn't know at the time) plus penalties plus interest.
I thought WTF! I declared it when I came through, if I owed more, the agent couldn't tell me!?
No I was supposed to know I owed it.

150 kids means lots of classes, not a gym. Can't believe I had to explain this.....

Anyone can be forgiven for criticizing those who make more money than they do. That's normal envy. Something tells me, though, that in order to be in the real estate market that some people here are in, they make more than these high comp packages they're criticizing others for having. So those who make less than thee shalt be paid less in order to make the world fair?

Just be happy you didn't have to pay a Social Security tax as well, truthskr10. You're right -- it would be nice if customs informed you of your use tax obligations at that point as well, especially if they make a point of turning the information over to NYS.