

Iron-Man: But wait until you get our list of tax reductions for this job. It should be noted that the deal was that by getting the tax dodgers, the Avengers could file theirs without giving up their secret identities to the government (Tony Stark offered to pay the sum.) At the end of the story, the team gets back at the tax man the only way one can.Īgent Harvey: And with that, gentlemen, your job is finished.One issue has The Avengers make a bargain with the tax man to waive their back taxes (mostly Wolverine's, who has never paid taxes in his life) in return for rounding up tax dodgers and making them pay their taxes.Hijacker even says the only thing scarier than The Punisher is the IRS. In an issue of The Astonishing Ant-Man, a group of veteran villains tell the new Magician that he's going to need a good accountant if he's gonna be a supervillain.He solves the problem with violence as usual. Yes, DC had the Man of Steel face the IRS twice. This story was a Recycled Script of an earlier 1957 Superman story, "Superman's Billion Dollar Debt".


In addition, his dependents deduction would be limited on a billion dollar adjusted gross income. Presumably he only claims the ones who don't pay US taxes (as otherwise no-one could claim the standard deduction that requires one not be someone's dependent). The story ends with the taxman's superior saying that since Superman has dedicated his life to helping the population of Earth, he can literally claim billions of dependents and thus any tax obligations are then effectively canceled. He donates everything to charity, though. Before you ask, Superman's income comes from the rewards on the criminals he catches and the diamonds he makes when he crushes coal in his hands. Or something (it's hard to tell, he is Superman, for crying out loud). There was the 1961 Superman story "Superman Owes a Billion Dollars" where the IRS notices that Superman hasn't paid taxes ever, so, long story short, the Man of Steel has to raise a billion dollars fast, or else he will be arrested.Taxman Takes the Winnings is when you win a big sum of money only for the IRS to take its very large chunk - no intimidation is necessary there. Audit Threat is when the characters threaten to call the Intimidating Revenue Service or their friend who works there. See also Forensic Accounting, a common tool used by the Intimidating Revenue Service. They count as well.įor the lighter, comedic version, see Department of Major Vexation. Most every country has its own version of this, often depicted the same way.
#Turnip boy commits tax evasion tvtropes full
Based on His Majesty's Inland Revenue department (now His Majesty's Revenue and Customs), it was founded shortly after the beginning of the USA's Civil War as part of the process of full economic mobilisation required to build up and sustain an army big enough to suppress the rebellion. The trope is named after the USA's Internal Revenue Service, a department of the USA's central/federal government which collects all the country's taxes except for those on goods imported from other countries (tariffs) and ships entering US ports (tolls). In this kind of story, it turns out the bureaucrat is a nice enough person who just wanted to clear up a minor problem and, seeing that the character is frightened, has to give some reassurances that nothing is wrong beyond that. Sometimes, the intimidating part comes from a person who gets a summons to the tax office and the person fears that they are in trouble and might be arrested for a tax violation. (In fact, that actually happened to Al Capone.) Even gangsters who get away daily with murder and robbery may fall into the clutches of the law, dead or alive, if they don't pay their income tax.
#Turnip boy commits tax evasion tvtropes plus
On the plus side, they help the reader relate to the character (because taxes are Serious Business in Real Life) and can even make the villain more sympathetic, pitting them against the unfathomable might of.

Apparently, going to jail for tax evasion is a Fate Worse than Death. This is especially odd when said characters handle Eldritch Abominations on a regular basis and are able to kill an army like it was nothing. Even daredevil superheroes and hardened villains fear the taxman from the IRS.
