I know there are a lot of smart people on NOSTR but I wanted to point out something I realized yesterday.

The US economy is in a tail spin. JPow is raising interest rates and screaming we have to reduce employment so that inflation can get under control. All the while, you have ads on ever media outlet promoting the Employee Retention Tax Credit where the Federal Government is giving back payroll taxes for keeping employees on payroll during the Pandemic.

While there are valid instances where a business should take advantage of this (Forced Shut Downs being the primary qualifier in my opinion) The problem is, the rules determining eligibility are so broadly written, I’d be willing to bet that 99% of all businesses could qualify if the right promoter was used to apply. The promoters are taking a 15-20% fee based on how much credit a business gets back. There is a clear incentive for promoters to convince businesses to apply for this credit.

I was contacted by a promoter yesterday who was astonished that I didn’t want “free money.” He said it three times..”you don’t want free money?” If we want to make society a better place, we have to be willing to stand up for right and call out what is wrong, be willing to make moral decisions that may not benefit us in a positive way financially, but benefit the society for the better. Nothing is free and the idea that “everyone else is doing it, so I will too” doesn’t make it right.

Not everyone on Nostr is a smarty pants. Personally I'm here to learn and your input to my learning is greatly appreciated so thank you for this post.

Also I have to say well done for not taking the free money. Although I think you should have taken that money and put it in bitcoin and burned it. I salute you for being a selfless human.

Nothing in this world is free

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Thanks, our firm has been morally opposed to this program from the beginning. We had a hand full of clients that met the revenue test and we assisted them in applying for the credit. But in all other instances, we were upfront and told clients and lawyers we wouldn’t file for the credit. Most of the big tax credit money is going to bigger businesses (have a lot of employees with higher wages to get the max credit) and the businesses had better years than ever. But the promoters find ways to say the business was “affected” because they there shipments were on time or some other reason. The definitions are way too broad and this program is full of fraud.