Every year I get more organized, but my taxes seem to take longer to do in spite of it. This year was no exception. I have learned to put all things tax related into a single pocket in my document organizer, but when it comes around to collecting data to support my deductions (loop holes) I suffer. It took me three days of pain to get it all together.
Since this is an election year, I am seriously considering voting for a candidate that promotes a tax plan that will make things simple. A flat tax sounds good to me, but I’m not sure that will pay the bills racked up by our spend happy Congressmen. When a bill is passed and it involves spending money it should carry a rider that says after four years that same bill will be reviewed for fiscal soundness. Most of these things take on a life of their own and never die.
I have heard many promises to reform the tax code in my lifetime. The first time I voted I was twenty-one, and I have voted fourteen times for president since then. None of them has ever even made a feeble attempt to change the tax code to simplify it. Instead they chose to make it more complicated.
Recently, a friend made me aware of the Tax Foundation. It is a think tank dedicated to analyzing the effects of various tax schemes. Their data made me open my eyes to the where the money comes from to pay our Federal bills. I always thought that business paid the bulk of the bill. It does not. The bulk of money collected comes from working folks like you and me. That is the reason we should be very interested in any scheme used to calculate taxes. Add to this mix that half of working people don’t even pay taxes, it becomes even more important to know just what each candidate has up his slippery sleeve.
I don’t work anymore, and one would think I wouldn’t have to pay taxes. The problem is that my 401K accounts which I funded aggressively while young remain untaxed. I reached an age where I must sell a percentage of my 401K every year just to pay the deferred taxes.
I happen to believe that every citizen of this great country should be willing to support it. I am one of those people. What I abhor are those who own the loop-hole that allows them to avoid paying any tax but instead pays them a credit. That is one of the biggest forms of income redistribution there is, and it has been going on long before Obama made the term popular. As a teenager Uncle withdrew tax money from my soda jerk paychecks. It was my responsibility to file a tax form and pay. That was during a time when everyone who made money was required to pay tax. Tax avoidance has since become a huge business.
Live free, pay taxes, die, the only time I will accept an equal outcome for all.
Filed under: Cartoons, Conservative, family, Government, Obama | Tagged: flat tax, Income Tax, Tax Foundation, Tax man | Leave a comment »
