So I started doing our taxes this past week, and it turns out that the federal government claims we owe them some money. A lot of money. A lot of money in addition to the monthly wage-garnishments we have already had to suffer from our friendly IRS.
Which leads me back to the idea I may have expressed here before, but will articulate again just for good measure: I would wholly and vocally support a law, up to and including a Constitutional Amendment, dictating that all income taxes can only be paid once a year, in a lump sum. As it is right now, our money disappears into the black hole of the IRS just a little every month, and while we may see the numbers on our 1040s or whatever when we file them, people generally have a difficult time connecting abstract numbers to concrete loss.
However, when people have to consciously and directly deal with the money coming straight out of their bank accounts, in one large lump sum, along with the associated budgeting and preparations necessary for such a transaction, the numbers become a little more real.
Which is why this little pipe dream will never happen. The government has every reason to diminish the impact of taxes on the average payer as much as possible, to the point where the IRS returning your money after you file your taxes is referred to as “getting money back from the government”. Yes, getting your money back from the government – your money that you were forced to give to the government as a zero-interest loan for the past year.
Yes, I said “forced” – if you actually try to do a single-lump-sum payment with the IRS on April 15th, or at least try to hold on to as much as you can for as long as you can, you will be penalized, and every penalty, fine, and, yes, tax from the Federal Government is backed up by the barrel of a gun.
If I sound a little annoyed at this situation, that is probably because I am. Last year, over one-third of Americans payed no taxes at all – they got every penny they had withheld from their paychecks back, and possibly even a little more – and there is every reason to believe that number will be increasing again this year. Even worse, people are proposing laws that would require firing federal employees who are delinquent on their taxes… which sounds like a great idea, except the bill is so couched in weasel-worded language, nothing will come of it, not to mention the fact that it might help if you simply did not hire lying tax cheats to begin with. But, hey, now they can say they are CRACKING DOWN on tax cheats, and that means something, right!?
I understand taxes (after all, my college education and first four years of gainful employment were paid for with them), but I do not understand a taxation system like America’s wherein success is penalized, and lack of it (for whatever reason) is rewarded.
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