Native Land Pod is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with Reason Choice Media.
Welcome Home, Everybody. This is Angela Rai with Tiffany Cross and Andrew Gillham. Today we're doing a mini pod and we were talking about Terrence Howard on his Hustle and Flow.
The hustle.
The hustle was trying not to pay nine hundred dollars in taxes. I've said nine hundred dollars, nine hundred thousand dollars in taxes, dawn near million dollars, and the flow was I kind of liked this part. He said, you know what, I don't think as black people who are descended as slaves, we just have to pay this shit. I agree with this.
I'm not mad at it either.
I agree with this part, but I good luck with him staying out of jail. He was just talking about jail.
That's the thing. The irs really just wants their money. Like for people Matterwanda, right, people who end up going to jail, it is really like a double middle finger to them, where it's like I'm just not gonna pay you. But I think the larger question of when you consider the wealth that black people created for this country from the rice to the sugarcane to the cotton. We made this here country a superpower. In the south was its wealthiest region because that is where most of the enslaved
were working. And we have never been repaid. We'd never had any reparations, We've never seen the benefit of any of that work. As Angela coined the phrase, we built this joint for free. So you know, on the surface, this sounds like, oh, a kind of silly thing from Terrence Howard, But when you get into it, this brother is making a legitimate point. I don't know how we would make this happen, but I would be completely down for some sort of policy that says, yes, you are
exempt from paying taxes. We would have liked to hear Joe Biden say in the State of the Union address and he's gonna give black people an evergreen tax credit where we never had to pay taxes. I will say that he would not win we are election with that.
What about Donald Trump?
Did you see what we get?
You guys just did it, Rejo Whisper, We.
Just eliminated our imagination. Yes, we came down on the side of practical and political and politically.
Raab because but you know that we know the other side too.
Well, because we know the other side too well. But should knowing the other side and their objection be enough to stop the demand. And Terrence Howard says, no, you know, you may think that we're past this, but I'm still I'm still hanging on to the forty acres and a mule. And since y'all didn't come to pass, but that now the land seems to be taken up or it is bad land, or it's good land that you gave to the black folks when you thought it was bad land,
and now you're coming back to retake it. Hello Miami. But I will say, I just what happened to homeboy Wesley Sniders. Did he go to jail up just because I got I don't know.
I just don't he did in prison?
He did? He did. And here's the thing, that's what I was just about to ask. I was literally sitting here, like you know, I can only think of tax evasion cases where black people are criminally prosecuted. I can't think of no white folks, can you?
Honestly? It could because I don't pay that much attention. Like when something happens with Wesley snipes er Terrence Howard.
I see it.
Donald Trump didn't pay no damn taxes.
Buy that. I just put up this that says tax evasion by millionaires and billionaires tops one hundred and fifty billion dollars a year, says I, Rs Chief, And I am curious to know how many of them? How many of those tax evators get criminally prosecuted, get their wages garnished, and ever have to do time in prison. I can only think of black folks.
I might be wrong.
I'd like to be wrong.
I wonder why the top one percent could, by any
reasonable rational notion, be sitting in the Donald Trump camp today. Well, you got to conclude that Donald Trump and the Republicans inside countries, Donald Trump a slip of the tramp tongue, but he and the Republicans in Congress have stood up against the IRS, have threatened to zero fund it, have threatened to slow walk the money that was approved during COVID, where Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats said, where we're going to go after the cheats and those who don't pay
their taxes. They enumerated this, Yeah, and Donald Trump said, no, we need to get rid of the IRS, and He was not by himself. He had the majority of the Republican leadership in the House who said, no, I'm going to bring in this pulling back the layerr y'all because you asked the question, and it's the right question to be asked that when we make the statement that, in a principle wanted that that, Nah, you owe me. I
don't know you. Nobody is over here explaining from members of Congress or from Donald Trump why it is that they hold the position that they hold, and why did those folks have never ever held accountable. We shouldn't be surprised, it's not surprising.
But honestly, if we could just take it out of the minutia of politics for a second and the practicality of what it looks like for us. You and I have talked about this. Our money in our industry is sometimes very clunky, and so sometimes you will get a big lump sum check. And I know what we talked about in our podcast this week about the payroll we inherit. When you get money where mama needs, brother needs, nephew needs, sister needs, cousin need, Auntie needs, and you're paying out everybody.
So if I get a lump sum check. Let's just say to keep it for easy figures one hundred thousand dollars. And technically maybe I owe the government because once you get to states, and sometimes our work is in different states. So if I've spoken in Indianapolis, if I've spoken in Los Angeles, if I've spoken in Miami, I owe all those places taxes from when I spoke. I don't know. All I'm getting is this big lump lump sum and I'm looking at my bills and everything, and guess what
I'm saying, to hell with the IRS. I have these bills to pay right now, and that is what is in front of me right now. That's the most urgent thing. It doesn't I literally did not know, well, how do I just call up the IRS and say, hey, I got this check. I might owe y'all some money. I don't know how to do it, like there is no
guidelines to that. And so in the entertainment industry, particularly with Terrence Howard, I can see how you're getting these big lump sums of money and you don't know really how to manage it. That's why people some people have business managers, but sometimes business managers is an expense.
You cannot care nurse CPA for folks who don't earn any.
Yes, thank you, but you I mean, I can't technically afford a business manager right now. You know somebody that's telling me how to spend my money. But those are the people who can step in for you. So I actually feel really bad for entertainers who find themselves in that space. I feel bad for me who has found myself out.
I just think if we have to pay hours and they're on our neck about getting their money for us, then be that on the neck of the world. I mean, the folks who got who are underpaying their taxes, are not paying taxes at all, Donald Trump?
Somebody then haven't filed since twenty seventeen New Bureau.
Or you've done some bs like you have value at one level to get financing from a bank, but when it comes to them paying on that great big wealth we're built all of a sudden. So all I'm saying is was good for the goose, how to be good for the ganner until Terrence Howard is able to help us move this country forward around reparations. UH, in association
with taxation, pay your taxes. But we understand we understand the heat, we understand it, But to the government go after the folks who ain't spend some time, energy effort going after thes like.
I also just think from a practical standpoint, like if we were talking about efficiency, like, is it really worth it just to have the example of someone who has a big name to collect this small check when you sorry, when you have people who are not paying millions and billions of dollars in taxes like this doesn't even seem like a smart strategy. If the government is old money, go where you can get the biggest hit.
Nine Buffett said it. He said, my secretary should not be paying a greater percentage of her earnings and taxes than I pay. In mind, Yeah, this is Warren Buffett, right, and thanksfully, thankfully he's made the giving pledge. But if y'all just charged them more, right, that's I think that's fair.
I think some of them have in filed since twenty seventeen, but some.
Of them have defrauded the system. That's true too. They ain't gonna pay and nobody is going to go after them. Terrence Howard is an exception here. I'm not calling him a millionaire, but if he is a millionaire. He's an exception within the millionaire class that the taxing authority is going after him trying to collect because they didn't do that to Donald Trump. And I'll rest my case on him.
And those wealthy people have been dealing with these kind of things for decades. Like some of us, this is very new to us, you know, like we're just in the past five ten years just figuring this out, just now negating this. Donald Trump's father was a millionaire. You know, a lot of these people come from family money. They have family attorneys, they have a crew of people around them.
And they have a whole bunch of tax law that has been developed in their favor so that when they pass it on or they pass it on via stock, yeah, not in cash. Yeah, that the rules of different, I mean, come on.
Every part of that system, every part of the system, Yeah, is designed how.
They're hide and playing sight and so with this like this and a send to the presidency, that's it. So the Inflation Reduction Act, which was of course passed under the Biden administration, is how the IRS has taken on this new approach to you know, coming after the millionaires and billionaires who have not paid their taxes or have not filed since twenty seventeen. It says that eighty billion dollars.
The IRA increased the IRS budget by eighty billion dollars over ten years, and most of that is designed to support with enforcement of folks who haven't paid their taxes. So it's not just the folks who can can cut the corners. This is like for folks who actively haven't filed, like the Terrence Howards of the world. I'm interested to see and I hope that it doesn't happen this way, but I'm interested to see if more of the people who are targeted look like us.
Yeah, Angela, I don't have any hope that that bro one will get the resources. I think that the Republicans, so long as they stay in a negotiating or power position, are going to continue to slow walk. That's why they said zero fund the IRS, and that's why they said to slow walk. This money in their direction.
Bill passed in twenty twenty two. They have this money.
Guess what Zelenski was supposed to get that money from Trump, wasn't he?
Well, the released is saying that this is exactly what they're going to do.
And I'm telling you don't hold your breath because I ain't holding mine.
I got a question as we close out because this is our mini pod so it's a quick topic. But I have a question for our viewers. I would like to hear you all weigh in should black people have to pay tax?
Like this question?
I want to hear what y'all have to say the way and drop a comment. We know your answer. We all got the same answer, but we want to hear from you.
Might Andrew wants to.
I think people are to pay their fair share, but I think if I have to pay my fair share the wealthiest one percent, let me ask you?
Can we ask this a follow up to the listeners and Andrew Kate answer, First, what's the fair share? What percentage is a fair shared to pay?
Really sucks?
Okay, what's the fair share? But how much do you think you should pay?
Well? First of all, the fair share is what does it cost us to run the government of our choosing?
But should our fair share look like everyone else? Should there be like? Should it be adjusted? Is that some form of reparations?
Like?
Okay, if you're in this tax bracket, if you are a descendant of the enslaved, then we will decrease your your tax racket.
If we were the wealthy one percent, they would have come up with that rule for us.
Ady, We're in a debate, and I'm the question. I'm asking you the question, sir, what is your percentage that you want to pay?
I mean, what happened was no. I'm just saying, look at this here. If I feel in some ways overburdened by the current tax structure, largely because it squeezes those of us who are at the working middle to pay to pay the lion's share of what it costs to operate the government, what.
Do you think is fair to pay?
Well, it's arbitrary for me to say that, because I don't know what would this system look like if everybody paid thirty percent.
Do you want to know what I want to pay?
I can guess, but sure you can say it. I'm just saying it didn't. I was a local elective official, Guys. I can't be like against likeation. Sexation goes to mention my kids are in public school, paid for by my taxes that I pay on my house.
This part because you get to hear like what all gets covered ambulances?
But what I can't tell you is what all gets covered federally because of what a messy mess deliberately. So that system is how many people don't have to pay taxes because they inherited their money or it was passed down through stock or stock. What do they do? What
do they do? Now? They shred half the stock the value of the stock, double it, and then you pass it on to your children, and your children don't pay on that, and then your children's I mean, you've got generations, five six generations of wealth, and nobody in those five or six generations had to do a thing.
For It's a good point. You got to get home to your Yes, but our viewers the simple easy questions should black people? Because these are internet comments, so we don't need your dissertation on a simple easy question, should black people have to pay taxes? We want to hear from you.
As a form of reparations.
Yes, Andrew, you better get home to those babies and can we go eat?
Yes?
Okay, all right, welcome home.
We don't know how many days Mini pods.
Native Land Pod is a production of iHeart Radio and partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit iHeartRadio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.