By Sherman Frederick/Properly Subversive

The unvarnished truth is I don’t completely understand everything I write about.

Sherman Frederick

For example, I freely admit that I don’t get the modern fancy with gender fluidity. The idea that a 12-year-old is capable of changing gender – and I don’t mean pretending to be another gender but actually, surgically, changing gender – seems like a crazy conceit to me.

Yet, it happens. I remain mystified.

I also don’t get how Joe Biden’s new, beefed-up IRS staffing and rules on revenue tracking hurt the rich. More and more, American commerce is handled in a cashless fashion via apps like Venmo, Zell, PayPal, etc.

My son and his wife were telling me last weekend that they pay my grandson money to take care of their dogs when they are away. They don’t pay with cash, or a check. They pay via Venmo. I don’t completely understand the cashless society any more than I get gender fluidity. But my grandson likes getting paid through Venmo, so who am I to say otherwise.

Just be aware that this trend toward paying for services via an app is the biggest gift to the IRS tax collectors in recent memory. It is now going to become very easy for IRS computers to track expenses and income paid through an app and, in the time it takes to press a button, conclude you owe more taxes than you say you do on your yearly filings.

Here’s the backstory. Before 2022, taxpayers only had to report payments via Venmo etc. on 1099-K forms if the recipient received more than $20,000 in a tax year. So, people who paid workers for services – like my son pays my grandson – didn’t have to fool around with 1099-K forms. They just don’t make enough. But now, in 2023, the iRS has lowered the threshold from $20,000 a year to $600 a year. That triggers a 1099-K for my son and millions of other taxpayers.

And who is to blame? No one else but Democrat politicians like Joe Biden who have been on a jihad to make people – rich and poor – pay more taxes. 

Biden said the staffed-up IRS will extract more money from Elon Musk and billionaires. That’s a fib. It’s going to extract money from my dog-sitting grandson before it gets another penny from Musk et al. And, that pisses me off.

Now before my Democrat friends start whining about me laying all the blame of this at the feet of Democrat politicians, may I underline the fact that this is the complete and utter fault of all Democrat politicians who, as a party, have been planning this for years. They said it was to soak the rich. But it is clear we’re all going to get wet under the new IRS rules on 1099-K forms.

Stand by, Nevadans, this is going to get ugly.

GOOD GUY

Veteran Nevada journalist Guy Clifton was inducted into the Reno Rodeo Hall of Fame. He said after the induction, which also included volunteer Dennis Freeman and legendary tie-down roper Dean Oliver, that “I loved covering the event for many reasons, partly because it allowed me to do everything I loved about newspapers, but especially because of the hundreds of volunteers who give their hearts to put on Reno’s longest running special event every year. From the presidents to the muckers in the stalls, your love of the event fueled mine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Nice body of work, Guy. Nevada is grateful.

ONE MORE THING

Thanks for reading. Until next soreheads, laugh a little and always question authority.

“Properly Subversive” is commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick, a Nevada Hall of Fame journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.