Today I know the meaning of ‘butthurt.’
UPDATED
If it were later than 12:16 p.m. and if I had eaten anything yet today, I would take a double shot of whiskey right now. I might do it anyway because any negative repercussions from that would have to be better than feeling every ounce of pain I’m enduring today.
I am doing my taxes.
And you know what, right this second, I’m NOT proud to be an American. I’m not even proud to be a human being today. I am certainly not enjoying the fact that I share air and a planet with whatever assholes invented and maintain the IRS.
It makes me want to blow shit up. Not people, that would be taking it too far, but definitely shit. Like watermelons and outhouses and maybe even a taco truck.
So far, after a basic run-through with Turbotax, it looks like I’m gonna have to write a check for over $11,000. THIS IS MORE THAN 30% OF MY TAXABLE INCOME. About 23% of my gross income. What is this, goddamn commie Russia?
So in honor of this day of misery and brimstone, I would like to offer some heartfelt sentiments to certain people.
Are you on welfare? FUCK YOU.
Do you have children you can’t provide everything for all by your widdle self? FUCK YOU.
Are you on unemployment because you just can’t find a job that’s good enough for ya? You don’t want to work at McDonald’s temporarily because you have a college degree? FUCK YOU.
Are you hoping for a bail-out because you’re too stupid to buy a house you can afford? FUCK YOU.
Are you a federal employee who has anything to do with making the government inefficient, bloated, and more costly than necessary? FUCK YOU.
Let’s cut the crap: Do you take any money from the federal government for any purpose due to your own poor decision-making? FUH-HUH-HUCK YOU STRAIGHT TO HELL.
Seriously. I hate those people and everything they represent. They’re the worst kind of parasites, sucking vortexes of need and stupidity, and I am genuinely enraged that I spend a huge chunk of my life working for those people. They take and take, never giving SHIT back, and you know what the actual worst part is? We put up with it!
We keep working harder and harder, trying to make something of ourselves and our lives, and we put up with having a huge portion of the fruits of that labor forcibly stolen from us so that lazy worthless assholes can live in luxury compared to real poor people. Knowing that I’m directly subsidizing lazy fucker’s rabbit-like reproductive practices makes me literally sick to my stomach, but I keep doing it.
What’s the alternative? Give up and become like them? No can do; I have pride. Refuse to pay the taxes? No can do; I don’t want to go to prison. Become an activist? Frankly, judging by the evidence, that’s just a waste of time. Nothing is going to change.
It might if paycheck deductions for taxes were eliminated and everyone had to write a check every year like I do. (Yes, you can pay quarterly but I refuse to let the government earn interest on my money when I can instead.)
Back to the tears and hair-pulling now. No joke, I really have been in tears for the last hour or so. For some idiotic reason, I anticipated my taxes being a few thousand lower than they’re turning out to be, and this is a MOST unpleasant surprise. My fault entirely, but it’s butthurtful nonetheless.
UPDATE: In case anyone wonders and doesn’t already know it, I’m self employed and thus have to pay that Extra Special Just For Those Who Don’t Work For Someone Else Tax. And yes there is a penalty for not paying quarterly but I don’t give a shit. I keep my tax money in interest-bearing accounts all year and no, the interest doesn’t always cover the penalty but have I mentioned not giving a shit. I believe I have. It’s my money; I get to use it all year, not them. Assholes.
And, yep, I’ve used accountants instead of Turbotax many times, and I always compared the outcome, and it was always the same. In fact TWO different accountants missed some deductions that Turbotax found. I don’t know what kind of magic the accountants some of you have mentioned work, but there are only so many deductions to take. It’s key that I have no inventory, no overhead, no employees, no expenses whatsoever other than my home office percentage of the household bills and any new computer crap I buy. Which ain’t much.
Also, I live in Texas so no state income tax.
Oh and I know a lot of my tax money goes to military, etc. I did mention that in my other post this week about taxes. I know it’s not ONLY lazy dipshits that get my money. That’s one reason I singled out the people who make the government so inefficient for a big ol’ fuck you.
Oh and I KNOW ABOUT CORPORATE WELFARE. Sheesh people. This will teach me never to write a rant on the fly while actually pissed off, and hit “publish” before revisiting it to make sure I didn’t leave anything out. Criminy, it’s the whole system we live under, the whole fat bloated Jabba the Hut of a federal government.
P.S. I re-worked my return again and got it down to an ass-breaking $10,900. Still want to drink whiskey and blow shit up.
Oh, Rachel, I feel you pain.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:01 pmSelf-employment ONLY blows on tax day. My hubby was in the hospital when I had to write the fatty-mcfat friggin check this year (he farms and our taxes are due on my birthday, of all days) and it was $11,000 MORE than he brought home for the entire frigging year! (in order to keep producing food for the world we must reinvest most of the profits in the business, and all that). Thank gawd we have an investment portfolio that offsets this gawddam monster check — otherwise we wouldn’t be able to afford the state-university tuition for our oldest child, who, by the way, DOES have a job and good enough grades to earn scholarships.
And just think, the procreation rate just continues to rise …
Does working for a state-funded university count? Cuz’ I love my job, and would hate to quit working with students if it actually counts as being subsidized by the gubmint …
I feel your pain.
Not, granted, $11,000 worth of pain, but when I paid mine earlier, I thought of all the great stuff I could do with MY OWN MONEY, if I wasn’t forced to give it to the blood-sucking IRS.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:12 pmI am severly PISSED.
It sucks working for the poor, doesn’t it?
I agree…it is absolutely insane that we put up with it. One person speaks out and he’s a “kook” or nutjob. A few do and it’s “just some damn protesters”. If everyone did it we could send our society’s blood sucking parasites packing. But noooo that would require we get off our asses.
Like I said, it sucks. Sorry, Rachel; seriously. I’d send you over some pizza and beer or something if I lived closer.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:12 pmDon’t forget an infintesimal part of the taxes you’re paying go to smack down the jihadist fucks in the Middle East, or fund some of the cool shit that NASA does. Yeah, very little relief from the butthurt of writing the check -did it myself Thurs.- but maybe it can give a little perspective too. There are still some good things the gvt. does with your tax money. Just not enough for your or my taste. Believe me, I’d rather more my tax dollars go to NASA so I can one day get a rock of my own instead of having to play “share the mudball” with the socialists. Unfortunately, I’m not the one who writes those checks; mores the pity.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:17 pmThanks for making my day, Rachael. I am howling over this. I may go bark at the moon tonight.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:18 pmTake a look at this site. If everybody would read and understand it, and then scream at their congresscritters, maybe we could end this madness! http://www.fairtax.org/site/PageServer
April 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pmMy brother who runs a landscaping business, and refuses to pay quarterly as well, just wrote a check for $128,000. I think he had visions of bell towers and library depository windows when he mailed it.
If everyone had to actually pay their taxes instead of installments, federal funding would be cut in half, and or there would be alot of people in jail for not paying.
Flat tax is the answer, as long as it is not a national sales tax. Just a simple, you make 30k a year give us 10% or whatever it works out to be. No matter who you are. No more deductions of any kind. We would all get to keep alot more of our money, and the tax lawyers and IRS agent would be looking for work.
In addition to getting rid of all corporate taxes (and incentives) we would gain alot more jobs, and prices on everything we buy would come down. Small businesses would have a much better shot of making it in this slowing economy, and they would have the wherewithal to expand…..
April 12th, 2008 at 1:40 pmRussian tax rates, I believe, are lower than those in the U.S.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:43 pmSorry for your butthurt Rachel, if it is any consolation you have made us all laugh today. This is the first time I have ever visited your site, I got your link off of Right Wing News. I will be back often.
April 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pmKeep in mind at all times; the poor, the unfortunate, and the truly stupid are NOT the reason for these taxes …. they are the excuse.
I remember from the -’80’s, reading that government entitlement programs, such as welfare, ran to 70+% overhead - in other words that of every dollar spent on them less than .30 went to the needy. If any government contractor ran its program with an overhead like that congress would hold hearings and crucify the CEO and CFO.
Tax money ostensibly to be pent of “The Poor” goes to supporting The State. It is a flat out transfer from the productive to the anti-productive. Anything that trickles down to the simply non-productive is doubtless an oversight.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:15 pm3 trillion dollar budget.
That’s why you have to pay nearly a quarter of your overall income. And not even a third of that is defense spending. Mike Huckabee may be a lunatic, but he’s kind of right on the Fair Tax; it would be in the open and in our face every time we had to buy anything.
Dems want to talk about the “vanishing middle class” — well taxes are probably part of that. I know a lot of people who are having a hard time making it but just barely don’t qualify for welfare — and wouldn’t take it if they did — but if they didn’t have to pay so much in taxes, they’d have no problems.
State, local, state sales tax, federal tax, social security tax… in addition to your list of “fuck you”s, fuck Michelle Obama, a lot of people are already giving up some of theirs. In fact, a lot of people are giving up a lot of theirs. To her, $11,000 wouldn’t be much, but to a vast majority of the country? That’s going to hurt.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:16 pmOops! I spelled Rachel’s name wrong. Rachel, can I make up for this by helping fill out your tax forms? Heh….running away.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:16 pmButthurt??? Hah…next year when the prego pops you can file a joint return with a dependent
April 12th, 2008 at 2:24 pmWant to know a real pisser? There are a lot of people who get welfare, pay no taxes, and then still somehow get money back from The Federales at tax time.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pmIf my calculations are correct, (and I freely admit math never was my strong suit) then I still feel about 8% of your pain. No fun at all, although mine is sharpened a bit by the further injustice of having to pay local tax twice.
I think I’ll spend that “economic incentive” check the government is sending out on live badgers…
April 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pmOK, can we just agree on something right now? Paying taxes to support bloated leeches is not “working for the poor.” I’d call it slavery. When the earnings of someone who works their ass off are confiscated and redistributed to those who don’t work, who are too stupid to make sound decisions in their lives, or are simply too ignorant to live, it’s called slavery. That’s what I call it when those who produce are forced to work for those who don’t. Slavery. Neo-feudalism.
April 12th, 2008 at 2:32 pmJust wanted to mention one thing, if you had a couple or three little crumb-pickers running around the house, you would owe a lot less, becasue they are great for tax deductions! LOL
April 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pmI checked my pay stub: I work one day out of five for Uncle Sam. I give him my Mondays.
Now, add fuel taxes, property taxes, sales tax, state fees and licenses, county fees and licenses, city fees and licenses.
I give the Fed fees and Florida fees most of my Tuesday and add the county and city fees on at the end of Tuesday, but damn if that doesn’t reach into half my Wednesday.
No wonder Thursday is the most productive day of the work week. We get to work for ourselves, finally.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:00 pm.
What is this ‘I refuse to pay quarterly’ of which some of you speak?
Ms IRS is of the opinion that such is misbehavior:
Ms. IRS suggests a ‘penalty’ might apply. By what means are you self-employed non-quarterly payers avoiding the extra assessment?
We did ours yesterday - straight salary, about $400 back from each of state and feds; it’s awfully hard to tune that any closer.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:30 pmAccording to World Tax.com (http://www.worldwide-tax.com/) the USA is at 35% along with Zambia, the 2 highest tax rates in their database. And that doesn’t include sales tax, inheritance tax, gas tax, AlGore’s internet tax, and all the other bullshit taxes we are nitpicked to death with.
April 12th, 2008 at 3:40 pmEven China is at only 25%
Tell’s ya something doesn’t it……
I feel your pain - because I too am doing my taxes with Turbo tax and endorse all you say - in triplicate. I’m paying 3x more. I don’t mind paying my fair share - it’s just there are many in the “fuck you” category which should be purged from the tribe.
Keep up the great work.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:37 pmUnfortunately there is no end in sight until the next revolution. America recently jumped the shark: over 50% of eligible voters now pay *zero* federal income tax. Politicians all want at least 50% of the vote, so they offer goodies to Them, to be paid for by Us. And the fewer people that pay taxes, the better this strategy works. For both parties.
In engineering we call this a positive feedback loop. It does not end well.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:49 pmRachel, dammit you are so right on the money as always. It’s so fucking unfair it really does make you want to blow shit up.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:50 pmWell, JohnS stole my thunder on my intended remarks on the estimated payments situation — so I’m left to disagree with you on one [and ONLY one] point, Dear Rachel: You shouldn’t be too pissed at the IRS since it’s the morons in the U.S. House and Senate who develop most of the tax code we deal with –with WAY too much help from WAY too many “special interest” groups. I’ve long been in favor of a flat tax code that can be administered each April with a post-card size “Mini 1040″. No deductions — as in z-e-r-o.
April 12th, 2008 at 4:51 pm“Special interests” are like “pork” — offensive, but a distraction from the real problem.
74% of your federal taxes go to just three things: social security, medicare/medicaid, and interest on the debt due to same. Your fellow citizens who pay zero taxes and suck the federal teat are the problem.
Totally agree with you about flat tax. Everyone should have skin in the game. Only way to keep spending sane.
That, and we should hold all elections on April 15.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:04 pmHurts too much/is too complicated to do my own taxes. I am doing Mom’s though. When Dad passed, a small trust was established. Also, Mom moved last year to another state. So on Tuesday, I will be sending in 6 filing extensions and 4 Q1 ‘08 estimated payments. She’ll be writing 9 separate checks. The ‘booklets’ of instruction for feds and two states - trust and personal - run well over 300 pages. Its been a fun day…..
April 12th, 2008 at 5:15 pmRachl Lukis,
The world would be a better place if you “bitter” gun-toting Midwesterners would simply allow your social and mental superiors to determine your place in America’s cultural construct. Your tax payment, while steep, should be viewed as an appropriate re-allocation for the betterment of your fellow Americans. Remember, failure to conform makes Baby Marx cry. Reverend Wright tells us so every week.
Sincerely,
B. Hussein and Michelle Obama (D - Umbasses)
April 12th, 2008 at 5:28 pmLOL
April 12th, 2008 at 5:34 pmMs. IRS suggests a ‘penalty’ might apply. By what means are you self-employed non-quarterly payers avoiding the extra assessment?
It does, but I would rather invest the money instead of paying it quarterly to the IRS. Sometimes I actually come out ahead.
Self employed people need to use ALL tax deductions and angles that they possibly can. My hubby and I are both self employed with no kids at home. The 1/2 self employment tax is what really gets us. Even so, with schedule C deductions, itemizing etc we ended up paying only 8% of our gross in Fed taxes and hardly any in State.
It does grind my ass to see people on welfare driving nicer cars than we can. PLUS they have gold plated medical coverage. We can’t even get ANY coverage for my husband because he has pre-existing conditions. Sucks. If we get sick we might as well hand over the keys to the house to the hospital.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:38 pmSorry, Rachel. I, too, am self-employed, at least for now. The last 2 years, I finished in the red, and I can’t keep doing that (savings are evaporating), so I’m throwing in the towel and looking for a position with an established firm. With respect to your taxes: the last time I tried Turbotax, a couple years ago, I double-checked its results by doing my taxes by hand, and discovered that Turbotax was WAY too conservative when calculating deductions. I saved myself an extra couple grand. I haven’t used an automated program since then. Maybe they’re better now, but I’m ok just doing it myself.
April 12th, 2008 at 5:59 pmYou’re not forgetting to calm deductions for children Sunny and Maggie are you?
April 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pmA good day is when I didn’t get a big ol fat fuck you from Rachl Lukis because I didn’t fall into any of the categories above.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:17 pmI’m so sorry Rachl. Should we send dog food for Sunny and Maggie?
I concur. I’m hoping to buy a house this summer, and it would be a hell of a lot easier if I weren’t overtaxed and if the government weren’t chomping at the bit to bail out all those people who, unlike me, did not make a responsible decision. (I started working full-time almost 2 years ago, so I only just now have the cash for a decent down payment.)
I don’t understand why the entire population is not furious about the prospect of a bailout. It is so monumentally unfair. I know life isn’t fair, of course, but there’s no need to make it even more unfair, imo.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:29 pmRachel,
I understand: my tax bill was high, too. Here’s the thing: the bulk of our money isn’t going to the welfare-for-people system.
Corporate welfare is way bigger: think Bear Stearns.
And every time a govt. contractor double-bills or defrauds us taxpayers for services (whether a hospital, insurer, or weapons supplier) our bills are far bigger than they need to be.
It’s been happening for decades. Here’s one blog post that’ll give you an idea of the prevalence of costly fraud:
http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/2007/12/privatizing-int.html
I’ve got 60+ more posts from last year alone on contractor fraud (NOT just defense).
http://bucknakedpolitics.typepad.com/buck_naked_politics/government_contractors_waste_fraud/index.html
April 12th, 2008 at 6:52 pmAs always, Rachel, trenchant and on point.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:56 pmCommenter Grego, where are you from?
Also in my neck of the woods, being single and working for the State, I pay *half* of what I make in a year.
Damn.
April 12th, 2008 at 6:58 pmI am a teacher, single, no children. My best friend at work was married with three children. We were hired at the same time. I had taxes withheld every month, he didn’t.
He never understood why I was so pissed when every April I was writing a check to the government, and he was receiving one.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pmRachel:
If your check had to be for $2000 less, would you feel demonstrably better? Not likely, right?
According to this, that’s about how much you’d save if you removed all funding for anything remotely connected to what has driven you to drink and carpet-f-bomb your blog. With only 18% going to “income security” and “education, training, employment, and social services” combined, gutting those programs completely would save some, but would hardly lift the burden enough to remove all reasons for complaint.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I, too, think the Nanny State is way too bloated, and the mortgage bailout has me steamed. But the poor are just too easy a scapegoat for history’s longest running gripe by those in civilized societies: high taxes. Nowadays, it just costs a lot to keep a civilization afloat, especially when you want good roads, safe food and medicines, and the strongest, point-iest spear of a military machine ever to patrol the face of the Earth. But in everything that’s necessary, there’s unnecessary bloat, meaning there’s no single or simple solution to the tax problem. People of principle need to be sent to Washington (if we can find them and preserve their character through the campaign process) to trim the fat from every aspect of the budget.
The lesson I take from this: Michelle Obama needs to shut her piehole. She’s spending the equivalent of your heavy tax burden on piano and dance lessons, then still having the gaul to try to guilt us all because we just don’t care enough about the poor, unlike her.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:07 pmThe main text of our Constitution set forth requirements for who was able to vote, making the main point that you had to have a personal stake/risk in the decisions made by elected officials (i.e. a landowner). While, I do not recommend a return to the racism and sexism that precluded non-whites and women form voting, some form of system that removes people from being able to vote whose only interest in voting is seeing people elected who will subsidize their lazy lifestyles would be a step toward returning our country to a true representative republic and away from our dangerous and foolish flirtation with direct democracy. Having legions of people able to have a role in the decision making progress just for having a pulse (in most cases) when they contribute nothing is what has lead our country to where we are today with our semi-socialist system of taxation and governance.
I also agree that having people pay a tax bill whether monthly, quarterly, or annually would cause a revolution in this nation.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:14 pmOECD’s International comparison of taxes as a percentage of GDP, 2004, puts US at 25.5 percent v. an OECD average of 35.9 percent. Military was about 3 percent of US GDP in 2000, up to about 3.9 now (Eritrea is about 27 pct of GDP, Saudis 12; Israel is 8.8, Russia about 6). As of 1999, In pure dollar terms US military expenditures were more than three times those of the second largest spender (China). SS and Medicare is a larger chunk, altho a good deal of that goes back to the same people who paid it. See generally Slemrod and Bakija, Taxing Ourselves (4th ed. 2008).
April 12th, 2008 at 7:27 pmI agree - as a middle-aged white man, I pay into the system and get nothing for it. No health care, nothing. But it seems to me you left out a culprit, and I think it may have to do with your ideological leanings.
In fact, 30-40% of federal money goes to the war machine. Military contracts, requisitions, and of course the endless wars. I would very much like to opt out of that system, as I’m against what’s going on in the Mideast and don’t even believe we need a standing army. I’m paying taxes for for military security for corporations in Iraq, Asia, and Europe. The amount we pay for these little adventures dwarfs the amount that goes to welfare and unemployment. And it certainly dwarfs the amount we get back - e.g., we pay 2.5 times (per year) what all the oil coming out of Iraq in a year is worth.
Like I say, if you want to be fair ….
April 12th, 2008 at 7:30 pmI nominate this song as the official song of tax season:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGUzxMYxkGc
April 12th, 2008 at 7:41 pmRachel,
I’m not self-employed, so I can’t speak from experience on this. But I know quite a few self-employed people. Every one of them refuses to use turbo tax or any other software on their taxes. All of them use an accountant (and not H&R Block, but a real live CPA who has his/her own business or firm). According to one of them, it costs him about $500 a year to have an accountant do his taxes, but he saves over ten times that on the little deductions he gets back that turbo tax and H&R Block couldn’t find for him. He does pretty well for himself, but I wouldn’t put his income above $70000, so it’s not like he runs a multi-million dollar corporation. Not sure if it will apply as well to you, but you might give it a shot.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:41 pm30%? I suppose you don’t have a State income tax… By my third year of employment circa 1969, Fed/State/FICA amounted to 37%. Every time I got a raise one or another tax changed enough to keep the percentage there through 1997, when circumstances removed me from [most] income-tax tax rolls.
Oh, and despite paying little attention (income circa $15000…) I have seen several other bloggers using different tax services - some free if income less than 90k - get widely varying amounts. General consensus seemed to be H&R Block’s on-line best at deductions, though their [old] history of brick-front service would give me pause.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:45 pmRachel,
How would your feel about someone who was working full time to support his wife and three kids, then became disabled to the point where he couldn’t work, divorced his wife because she was sleeping around on him and refused to work (in addition to being a psycho), got custody of his three kids and moved out.
Currently, he gets a small disability check from the government, child support when the ex feels like paying it and food and medical support from the state. If he had his way, things would be different, but this is what he has to work with.
Would you tell him “Fuck You!” too?
Just curious.
[Yuri, I believe I made it pretty clear that the big fat "FUCK YOU'S" were for those who make bad decisions. So, if this hypothetical individual became disabled through no fault of his own, no, I wouldn't tell him to get bent. In case you didn't see my other post about taxes earlier this week, I specifically said I was all for helping out people who really need it. Your guy sounds like one of those and I have no problem helping him out if the universe has basically kicked his ass. It happens and it could happen to me. I don't know how much more obvious I have to be to make it clear that I'm talking about people who have kids they can't afford WHEN THEY KNOW THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT, people who won't work BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT TO, and so on. Love, Rachel.]
April 12th, 2008 at 7:48 pmYuri,
I am truly sorry for this hypothetical individual. I hope that person keeps on keepin’ on. Seriously.
He needs all the support he can get.
Please note what Rachel said in an earlier post — I am cuttin’ and pastin’ cuz’ I can’t say it any better –
I’m cool with it being used to build roads and to help the truly needy and all the other worthy (but rare) things the government spends it on. What I am totally un-fucking-cool with is that money being used in any fashion whatsoever that enables YOU to have another baby.
Oops, while I was typing Rachel responded.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:04 pmSorry.
I still stand by the comments.
I’ve always been pretty happy with taxact.com (happy being relative, doing taxes is never a happy experience… either you need to give the government more money, or you fought out you gave the assholes an interest free loan.)
Anyway, I’ve been saying for awhile that we need to eliminate withholdings from peoples paychecks… maybe make them pay taxes quarterly instead of annually just so they don’t blow all their money over the course of the year… but get rid of the withholding on every pay stub (including the employee part of SS) and instead make people have all of their money deposited into a bank account, THEN have to write out that check to the local and federal governments. I swear to god we would have more advocates of tax cuts overnight then we would know what to do with.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:25 pmRachel, given what I’m paying this year I’ll need about six double shots, and it had better be barrel strength. What frosts me more than anything is that because I pay so much in taxes, I am, in a way, responsible for enabling the douchenozzles who have their sloth, addiction or venality subsidized by the execrable government.
I’ll apply for citizenship in your new country, pronto. And the first person in our new country who breathes the phrase “welfare state” will be accidentally shoved into the municipal woodchipper. Blame my elbow.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:44 pmThis year’s taxes were interesting.
I’m employed, make a pretty good living as an electrical engineer, and haven’t broken the six-figure-salary mark. I paid my withholdings like a good little boy. (Besides, my employer won’t let me have it all up front.)
My wife is a pediatrician, and because of a significant Charlie Foxtrot involving a partnership that went south*, she actually lost money two years in a row! Hard to believe, I know…
So… we’re getting a refund this year, though it ain’t much.
But that’s not what I came here to say…
Instead, I wanted to comment on your F-everybody speech above. Aside from the, “Hear! Hear!” that you would hear coming from me if I were a couple thousand miles closer, you’d hear me saying, “Hey, she sounds like a Democrat contemplating our involvement in Iraq!”
You see, as I mention here, the Democrats want it both ways. Don’t support the Iraqis (because they’ll learn to support themselves), but do support Americans (because they, I suppose, aren’t trainable).
If it makes you feel any better, our return is 50+ pages of Forms, Schedules, and attachments and will cost us well over $1,000 to generate, which our refund doesn’t come anywhere close to, by the way. Such is life being married to a small business… er, Lovely and Talented Wife (H/T to FlagrantDisregard.com).
/Bill
* I grew up in South Carolina and I wonder where all of the things that “go south” end up.
April 12th, 2008 at 8:52 pmRachel, I’m SO SORRY. I feel your pain. Last year we had to write a check to the IRS for 6+K, in spite of us both being employed with taxes taken out (um, obviously not enough). Apparently, my house was way too cheap and we didn’t even have enough interest to itemize so we had to take the STANDARD DEDUCTION. Too bad we don’t live beyond our means, the taxes would be so much better. And that being married thing? OH MY GOD WHY IS THE GOVERNMENT DISCOURAGING IT???? Don’t all those churchy people who run the universe want everyone to be married? I would SO still be living in sin if I had seriously investigated the tax implications. The accountant should be calling early next week with this years screw-you-up-the-ass. I can hardly wait!
April 12th, 2008 at 9:00 pmWhy can’t you bitch out the CORPORATE WELFARE RECIPIENTS??? I don’t mind subsidizing some AFDC if it means that some woman is forced to buy milk and cheese with her WIC coupons instead of koolaid and sodee pop (yea Brittney, I’m talking to you!). What about the tax loopholes that mean the wealthiest people in the country pay NO TAXES AT ALL? FUUUUUHHHH UHH UHHCK THEM!!! FUCK ENRON FUCK KENNY BOY LAY and JEFF SKILLING who will never pay a PENNY for all the lives they ruined. Fuck the tax laws that have me paying and them playing. Fuck the laws that say I can have a kibbutz in my home but I can’t “legally deduct” the 2 other single moms and their kids if I decide I just can’t stand watching other people go without. Maybe I’m a fool for “taxing myself” maybe I’m a human being with a.. what do they call them?? a.. SOUL, that’s it!! At least I recognize that I’m fortunate enough to be able to pay taxes and I don’t mind doing so because it means I won’t live in a culture that puts their elders and sick children out on the iceflows to die.
Don’t bitch at me about paying taxes so some mom can get $189 a MONTH in FOOD STAMPS, tell me why ENRON CEOs made HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars stealing from their own employees retirement funds, people who WORKED THEIR ENTIRE LIVES FOR THAT MONEY and will get out of JAIL FREE!!
FUCK THEM. I’ll pay my taxes and buy ammo with my refund. Change is coming, people without are likely to draw attention to the fact and folks will be wishing they’d paid closer attention in church on Sundays to the loving thy neighbor and giving generously lessons.
Now that it’s too late to sell your souls, what now?
April 12th, 2008 at 9:25 pmKyle, I agree, a flat tax, no deductions, period.
Rachel, didn’t realize you were from Texas (fairly new reader)……..no wonder I enjoy your blog!
April 12th, 2008 at 9:38 pmAs usual, I did not read the comments, but as long as you and I are already hurting, just remember, us self-employed also pay the 15.3% for Social Security and Medicare. Pile-on!
April 12th, 2008 at 9:46 pmMaybe this will make you smile, in spite of the butt-hurt.
/Bill
April 12th, 2008 at 9:51 pmTax day sucks - sorry Rachel.
You do realize that you actually own your property when you buy it? In the UK & other parts you are leasing your property for a period of 99 years, or whatever, you don’t own it ever.
Not saying that makes it easier, but am saying this is still the best country to live in. I’m pissed that my taxes go to half assed educators, politicans & freeloaders, I wish there was someone I could vote for that would change that.
Still, I’m glad to live in the land of the free.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:52 pmbaba lala, you have no fucking clue what you are talking about. The wealthiest people do not pay income taxes because most do not have a verifiable income, Teddy Kennedy. Just so you know, after the “Bush Tax Cuts,” that top 1% of earners pay 35% of all taxes, the top ten percent pay 66%, the bottom 50% of earners pay a whopping 3.5% of income tax.
Don’t believe me? Ask Congress. HERE.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:54 pmThis only works if you have access to extra cash, but a SEP-IRA opened and loaded before the April 15th deadline (real soon now) can reduce the taxes quite a bit.
Of course, you end up having to cough up even more money in total (ouch!), but it’s some small comfort that of that total, you get to keep a bunch in your retirement account and the IRS keeps a lot less. Find the SEP-IRA field in Turbo-Tax, and ask it to do the “maximum.” See how the numbers come out.
April 12th, 2008 at 9:58 pmbaba lala:
After reading all of the other comments before yours, reading yours felt so good.
I’m not usually this forward, but all I can say is, I love you.
Kathy
April 12th, 2008 at 10:10 pmWhat a bunch of whiny ninnies. I paid $13,670 in taxes last year to the federal government. I don’t like that some of that money goes to the lazy and willfully uneducated, but what really pisses me off is that far, far more money goes just to pay interest on the national debt thanks to elected officials who are too busy pandering to people too stupid or short-sighted to realize that when you’re running a budget deficit, it’s probably not the best time to be calling for tax cuts. Of course, it’s easy and convenient to blame the poor (the traditional people to kick; the sentiment goes way back, just ask Jesus), but before screaming about the 10 or 15 cents a dollar going to subsidize them (some of which goes to the *working* poor, and the *disabled* poor, by the way), maybe you should ask why 20% of your federal taxes are going JUST TO PAY INTEREST ON THE NATIONAL DEBT! Frankly, I’d happily pay MORE every year if the money was set aside to pay off ye ol’ national credit card bill. But wait! That would be fiscally responsible. This blog entry was supposed to be about not wanting to pay your bills and blaming the mythical, ever-present welfare queen. My bad. Carry on.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:30 pmDon’t forget to gripe about the people who *don’t* pay their taxes. That is, just about everyone with cash income. Got any friends who are building contractors? Think they’d tell you the truth about how much of their income they report? Got any friends who wait tables and report *all* their tips? My guess is that all these people will insist that they have some righteous reason not to pay, but you should understand that the fact that they don’t pay, means you have to pay even more.
April 12th, 2008 at 10:32 pmI don’t have as big a problem with the waitresses or small time contractors as I do with the people who move their operations out of country so they can pay less and raise their profit level. The whole key, as has been stated before, is accountability. It’s not just the legislators. Its the whole cabinet, from secretaries who appoint staff that loose money because they have no idea what they are doing. To supervisors that know they can take advantage of the dumb cluck. They don’t give a rip, cause the idiot tax payer, will continue to write checks. You don’t think someone that knew anything about traffic control had anything to do with the mess on I 90 in madison do you. Or the mess at King veterans home was caused because the administrator knows anything about nursing homes. All this comes back to more tax money. And our illusterious Government hasn’t the balls to unload these people. It dosen’t just cost us more in taxes, it takes money away from other areas and programs that could use the money.
April 12th, 2008 at 11:26 pmRachel:
You’ve probably already done this. If you haven’t, it might help.
If you’re self employed and you work from home, you can designate a work space (spare bedroom or office). This means that you can claim deductions on electricity, heating, rent (or mortgage), equivalent to the percentage area of your entire living space. You can also claim for certain square footage for space you use to go to and from the office and bathroom and kitchen.
A couple of years ago, the wife and I tried Turbo Tax, and it did not come up with this stuff. We learned of this when a money manager friend told us of this.
As I said, you’ve probably already done this.
Chet
April 12th, 2008 at 11:48 pmAnd THIS is the reason why I think we need to keep an income tax (instead of all those “Fair Tax” proposals, VAT, etc) - one day a year everyone sits down and gets to see exactly how much they pay to the government.
I think our federal income taxes should be due on November 1st every four years.
April 13th, 2008 at 12:28 amBeing unemployed has it’s upsides, I suppose. (and no, I ain’t getting unemployment.)
April 13th, 2008 at 2:26 amPersonally, I resent the endless fiddlin’ paperwork that goes into the income tax—not to mention that any time it’s proposed that taxes be lowered/eliminated, the Usual Suspects start howling that we’ll be starving the poornunfortunate.
And I also hate Social(ist) Security—I’ve had to pay in when I had a regular job, and I’ll never, ever see a penny of that money again, while some worthless old bugger gets to spend it taking his goddamn RV to Florida in the winter and the North Shore in the summer.
My solution to the chronic fuckups—the ones who breed brats they can’t support or raise properly—would be to revive the workhouse. Let them find out what life was like in a WWII Japanese military stockade; the kind they used to put naughty Japanese soldiers into.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:29 amNicki you are on the right track about liking the income tax to slavery.
Watch this documentary to see a former IRS employee exonerated by the courts tell the truth about Income Taxes:
http://tinyurl.com/2zcewv
America is a FREE country to live in. It is profits from commerce that are to be taxed, not labor.
Did you know the US Constitution has been amended to outlaw slavery and involuntary servitude.
Did you know the 16th Amendment (Income Tax) was never truly ratified?
Did you know there is no federal law requiring the average wage earning citizen to pay income taxes?
Did you know your labor is your own personal property and the government has no right it it?
Demonstrate these truths with me at the Burlington, WI post office from 6:30am to 5:30 pm then at the downtown Milwaukee post office after that till midnight.
http://www.truthattack.org
April 13th, 2008 at 5:32 amhttp://www.recallall.org
The US actually has it pretty good, relatively speaking. I am an American living and working in Germany. The German payroll tax rate usually exceeeds 60%, broken down as : 40% for “social welfare” and 10-20% for income tax. Employers must match the 40% “social welfare”. It’s their FICA tax. To top that off, Germans must pay 19.4% VAT tax on everything purchased (there are exemptions), yet the worst is the gas pump: they pay the equivalent of more than $8 a gallon for gas and diesel, of which more than 50% is taxes (since the tax rate for transport fuel has risen 50% in the last 8 years). The bottom line: Socialism sucks.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:50 amIt probably makes you feel no better to know that Washington County considers you to be “needy” at nearly 200% of the poverty guidelines.
No, I didn’t think it would…
-jjg
April 13th, 2008 at 9:04 amDailyScoff.com
> So far, after a basic run-through with Turbotax, it looks like I’m gonna have to write a check for over $11,000. THIS IS MORE THAN 30% OF MY TAXABLE INCOME. About 23% of my gross income. What is this, goddamn commie Russia?
In commie Russia, taxes do YOU!
April 13th, 2008 at 10:01 amSpeaking from the nearly 40% tax bracket…tax time blows, big time. We’ve reached that lovely point where, even though we claim “married but withhold at the higher single rate”, our deductions are no longer enough to offset our taxes. We got a teensy refund this year; by next year I expect we’ll start to pay.
Like the 40% they take now just isn’t enough.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:20 amToo many no-load nookscheppers are drawing too much dough in this country. Read today’s issue of PARADE “magazine” if you can. Salaries are upside down when a teacher makes so little and a car salesman makes so much. Never mind celebrities. Two suggestions: 1) Invade, pacify, and reform Saudi Arabia and take their oil. We would have done this already in another time. 2) If that’s too radical for you, push to restore the GI bill; there are thousands of grown-ups coming back from Iraq and Afcrapghanistan who have been Conservatized and will be great contributors with a workable education, like those of my generation who served in and after Korea.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:20 amMuch as I hate taxes….
The Sixteenth was properly and sufficiently ratified on February 3, 1913, and following that line of reasoning can buy you reserved accomodations in a federal facility.
You can find the relevant statutes so requiring in U.S. Code, Title 26. The relevant sections are 26 U.S.C. § 1, 26 U.S.C. § 61, 26 U.S.C. § 63, 26 U.S.C. § 6012(a), 26 U.S.C. § 6072, and 26 U.S.C. § 6151. Once again, believing such claims can win you a vacation in sunny Leavenworth.
April 13th, 2008 at 11:51 amThanks Tully, first smart comment in this thread about facts.
April 13th, 2008 at 12:20 pmActually Tully it’s not very sunny here today but they can hang with Michael Vic.
April 13th, 2008 at 12:27 pmbeware the “fair” tax, for just this reason
April 13th, 2008 at 12:31 pmJeez, that is soooooo true! Well, if it makes you feel a little better, Rachel, I hit your tip jar. You may now go to the movies. . .
April 13th, 2008 at 2:47 pmRach honey, (I hope I can call you that), I feel your pain and sympathize with you. Our family is in the process of writing a $500,000 plus check to the IRS.
Why? Well, someone passed away.
That’s all. Did we own a bunch of stock that went up? Nope. Did we sell a house and make a ton of profit? Nope. Did we win the lottery? Nope. Did we… Nope, nope, nope! Nothing happened.
So, now, because we had someone taken from us, the government will step in and take a bunch more.
I’m sick with grief and pain and anger. I would consider blowing something up (a large mound of dirt?) but I don’t want to hurt anyone or mess up something someone spent a lot of time on.
I hope you post at Ace of Spades. I would love to read more. See ya.
April 13th, 2008 at 2:58 pmI recite an almost identical list of F.U.s every week when I look at my payroll deductions. I am a paramedic in NYC. Just think of how I feel when I go into the Projects and have to carry a young and healthy 200lb. man down the stairs because he has a cold and feels weak, so he can receive his free medical treatment.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:06 pm…and yes, people in the projects do call 911 when they have a cold. by the way, thanks for the very hot picture Rachel.
April 13th, 2008 at 3:07 pmTo funky chicken
When you put “fair” tax in quotes, unless I misunderstand (in which case, sorry), you were being critical of the FairTax.
The National Sales Tax in Fair Tax is not a Value “added” Tax. There’s nothing added.
Under the Fair Tax, consumers would expect to pay about the same as they do now because the 23% is not added to corporate taxes that gas companies already pay and transfer to the consumers.
And under the Fair Tax, you have more money to do with it as you please. That’s because you keep all your earnings.
Having said that, I don’t think the Fair Tax will ever be instituted. There are too many vested interests in alternatives, to make it workable.
Chest
April 13th, 2008 at 3:17 pmThe Hedge Tax will work…and it could be legislated…read about it…www.hedgehogparty.com
April 13th, 2008 at 4:40 pmThe self employment tax is actually paid by everybody. They just don’t realize that it’s cut from their salary amount, if they work for somebody else.
And you actually get an additional adjustment to make sure you’re not taxed an extra time on the extra amount, to make it come out even.
April 13th, 2008 at 4:42 pmSomebody should start with folks like Murtha - $10 worth of ammo and you have the start of a revolution.
April 13th, 2008 at 4:44 pmWawaseepunk, it’s not the mythical “welfare queen” who costs so much of the federal tax dollar. That kind of welfare mainly appears in state taxes. The recipients of Federal money are mainly those on social security, medicare, and medicaid.
Those three programs alone cost over half the total federal budget. While one hesitates to say “@#$% the old people”, still…
@#$% the old people who are spending your and my money.
April 13th, 2008 at 4:57 pmYeah you made me laugh too..blow stuff up. I am with you - great idea. I paid them $125,000 just the other day - that is cause I also refuse to pay qrtly!
April 13th, 2008 at 4:58 pmRachel, you are handling this much better than I would. I want to praise you for your restraint. I’ve been unemployed for a year, but I’m not one of those people you’re working to support because my former state denied me unemployment because I left to take work in another state and my current state denied me because I was only there a month. So despite paying like you did for years, there was no help for me when I needed it, so when I filled out my return and went past the box insisting I claim unemployment benefits, I had the same reaction as you, because those people I was taxed to help save from their stupidity, are being helped by people who were nowhere to be found in my temporary time of need.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:06 pmChesty -
Yes, a “fair” tax might be at a lower rate - initially. See the comment abvove about Germany. A “fair” tax or any other kind that shows up in bits and pieces, for example when you buy something, is a “hidden” tax, not a “fair” one. That’s why I like our income tax (I would like it a lot better at a much lower rate) - it is less hidden.
Sure it takes savings instead of consumption, but the kind of anger about tax rates and spending I see here is good for our politics.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:18 pmIt’s not just the confiscatory rates, it’s the god-awful complexity. Whatever you do, don’t ever invest in anything that generates a K-1. It’ll tie you in knots, add umpteen pages to your return, and you’ll never actually know if you got it right or not.
Three simple little changes would put a stop to all this:
1. Make it illegal for any Member of Congress or Senator to hire an accountant to do his taxes. Make them fill out the damned forms themselves. Do you think the forms and the law would be so incomprehensible if the politicians who do this to us had to actually deal with their own mess? We’d have a flat tax the April 16th after this law took effect.
2. Get rid of payroll withholding. Do you think we’d elect the same people if we all got to touch our income, like Rachel, before we had to turn it over to the politicians and the bureaucrats?
3. Make election day the first Tuesday after April 15th, so all this is fresh in our minds when we go to the polls.
Every year, I update a graph that shows my cumulative income taxes paid, federal and state (multiple states, lucky me). My wife always asks why, “since it pisses you off so much.” Yeah, that’s why I do it. If everybody did it, we’d have different outcomes to elections too.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:20 pmRachel Lucas made one big mistake early in life :
She decided to be white. If she were black, or even 30% black like Reverend Jeremiah Wright, she would be in good shape.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:22 pmI am surprised nobody has mentioned that AMT. That is the tax to make the rich pay SOME taxes.
I am hit with that tax because I have too many deductions, that is, I pay a state income tax, and a modest home deduction. The AMT is simply govt robbery.
I work until the end of May to pay my payroll taxes and property taxes. About 40% goes to those taxes.
I have been working 60 hours per week, 6-7 days per week for the last three years to earn my money. I gave up 10 weeks of vacation time, which is 2 1/2 years accumulation, (back to my non-profit) to reduce my taxes. Anyway, I just couldn’t take the time off.
Yes, I am boiling mad over taxes. And, the Democrats just can’t wait to raise them some more.
My Democrat friends, BTW, just don’t see the problem with higher taxes, as long as someone else pays them.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:28 pmYou say “Fuck you” to everyone you regret encouraging with your tax payments, but by incurring those hefty late-payment penalties, your behavior is actually saying “I Love You” to all of them! You might consider the possibility that your words would carry more weight if they were matched by your actions.
April 13th, 2008 at 5:55 pmI peel your fain.. April 15 is definitely my crankiest day, with only September 11 and Valentine’s day approaching it.
Last year my folks got stuck with an $18k tab to the feds, on a fixed income, and the IRS is the only thing that can get my dad to cuss…
April 13th, 2008 at 5:59 pm“I’d happily pay MORE every year if the money was set aside to pay off ye ol’ national credit card bill. But wait! That would be fiscally responsible.”
Well, got good news for you Wawaseepunk, the federal government accepts over payments. Write back and let us know how much extra you plan on sending in.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:13 pmWhat really hurts is that our (self-employment) income is from royalties, and they usually come in May and October, just too late to get the Estimated Tax in on time. Then the gubmint leeches get all sanctimony on our ass over not paying estimated taxes on time and schedule.
Yeah, and don’t forget the self-employment tax.
In the feudal system, everything was stacked against “masterless men”, people without a lord in charge of them. They HAD to be up to no good. In the twentieth and twentyfirst centuries, being self-employed is the equivalent.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:22 pmRachel, if you could locate a tax preparer with sympathies similar to yours, and who knew where to get aggressive on taking deductions, it might just pay you to have that person do your taxes.
I’m in the same boat you are, even the same occupation. Maybe it makes me a lily-livered chicken, but I just won’t do my own taxes. My preparer knows way more than I do about the subject, and her knees don’t turn to water at the mere mention of the IRS.
She’s not cheap, but she’s worth it. Oh, and she even makes housecalls. Just sayin’.
Oh, yeah, and I want to privatize charity–every last frigging penny of it. I’m not against helping people; I just want to make it all voluntary. I say, bring back the shame associated with being unable or unwilling to take care of one’s self and one’s spawn.
I resent like hell being forced to help people who won’t lift a finger to help themselves… such as second-, third-, and fourth-generation welfare queens, kings, and their spawn.
The middle class is being worse than squeezed. Even after my super-duper preparer gets my taxes done, there is practically nothing left over for any kind of medical care at all–whether for me or for the cats.
All the while, the welfare queens, kings, and their spawn get everything possible at no cost to them.
Oh, and does that sound mean-spirited to some people out there? Well, think of it this way: All those people who bleat that we ought to be taxed to death to “help” people (a lot of whom don’t deserve it), the one thing they forget is those of us who are being forced to pay for stuff we can’t afford for ourselves–and they pretend that it’s not involuntary. We’re basically the forgotten people.
There is an essay by Frederic Bastiat entitled “What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen.” You can probably Google it, because I spelled it correctly, and find it online. It explains better than I can what is going on here.
The tax system, as we know it, is stacked against people who have to work for a living. It’s my understanding that those who actually make a good salary are taxed at an obscene rate, while those people who have trust funds pay very little if at all.
Not that I’m against trust funds (I sure as hell wish I had one)… but the system was obviously set up by people who already had theirs, and stacked against anybody who has to work for theirs.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:29 pmCutting taxes requires you first gain control of spending. This is not hard to do. Economic growth throws more money in the coffers every year than was available the year prior. If we stop all new spending, no more built in cost of living adjustments, no inflation adjusted spending, no emergency supplemental bills we should see income and outlays match in three to five years.
During the spending freeze we can deregulate the economy to allow additional growth (and tax revenue from that growth) We can also restructure the current spending to keep critical programs running at full capacity. As noted, federal social programs have overhead ranging from fifty to seventy percent of funding. Cut the bloat. Transfer the money from the bureaucrats to the people. On the military side of the house procurement remains a nightmare and a disgrace.
Once the yearly budget is balanced inflation would subside, interest rates would drop, the economy would boom, and other good things would happen. Sustained, non inflationary growth makes a lot of the unsolvable fiscal problems, Like, high taxes, funding the war and social security fixable. But none of this can happen until the current political class is replaced by one that will stop the tax and spend mentality.
April 13th, 2008 at 6:50 pmHi Rachel: First timer to your blog and I loved your rant. My friend has a suggestion similar to yours.
1) Do away with payroll withoholding, you have to write a check or request your refund by mail.
2) No more April 15. Tax day is the last Tuesday in October!
Want to see a real balanced budget and an efficient government? You’d see it pretty damn quick.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:17 pmHey, somebody has to measure the flow rate of ketchup. If not a federal employee, then who?
April 13th, 2008 at 7:37 pmSend this website to Obama. He says folks are angry because their jobs are gone. Here’re some folks who’re angry because their jobs are paying somebody else’s freight. If you’re pissed about how much you pay, remember that more than half the population…Democrats mostly….don’t pay ANYTHING in “income tax.” Being a citizen of the USA is worth NOTHING to them….they ought to be demanding to pay something for anything worth something to them….but they pay nothing, and it’s worth nothing. So it goes.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:46 pmEvery bit as frustrating as the amount you have to pay is the godawful amount of time just figuring it out. I’ll bet there’s not a single federal politician who knows how to do his or her own income tax return. How in the holy heck can any government justify putting such a paperwork burden on top of a confiscatory tax system? Forcing people to pay someone or a software company just to comply with the tax laws doesn’t make any sense at all.
But I disagree with you on corporate welfare. Every tax on a producer of products or services is passed right on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Corporations don’t pay taxes, they just collect them–which says more about our government pulling the wool over the eyes of its citizens in the form of hidden taxes.
April 13th, 2008 at 7:50 pmBest way to fix is not supporting Republicans who want lower taxes and spend more. That makes Dems justify raising them even more. We need a new class of fiscal conservatives. I do not care what party. Start with Ron Paul.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:18 pmI wrote two checks today, one for $18,436, and another for 2,879 (because I don’t live in Texas) and I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiments.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:29 pmStop whining. Up here in Canukistan, we have to pay:
Federal Taxes
Provincial Taxes
Municipal Taxes
Sales Tax (Federal)
Sales Tax (Provincial)
Plus a bunch of miscellaneous fees like the Bienvenue Tax (translates as “Welcome Tax” — a 1% tax when you buy a house, payable right when you move in thank you very much)
All in all, we stupid middle-class Canucks give about half our gross income to the government. Consider yourself lucky to escape with 30%.
UPDATE: forgot about our friends stuck in socialist Europe. They have it even worse!
April 13th, 2008 at 8:46 pmThe problem with a “flat” income tax is that our present system started out as precisely that (after a very large Zero Bracket amount was reached). The temptation to give special tax benefits to those interests who contribute heavily to election campaigns is too great; any flat tax would be converted into a “progressive” bracket system in no time.
When I stand at the checkout at Wal-Mart, and money is deducted from my bank account, a certain amount less than that ends up in the pockets of Lurleen the cashier, Earl the greeter, Ramon back in Automotive that just installed my new tires, the stockholders, and suppliers of all those products.
It is my contention that from an economic standpoint, it is irrelevant whether that difference between what I pay and they get is clearly labeled on the receipt as a “sales” tax (as the FairTax would be), it is deducted from the paychecks of employees, the corporate entities involved, or the dividends received by stockholders or profits to sole proprietors. The fact of the tax is taken into account by the players, and used to “discount” the nominal price paid, so each player’s piece of the pie ends up the same.
For instance, if you believe that your employer “matches” your SS and Medicare taxes, you are sadly mistaken; your “top line” is simply reduced by that amount, as well as by Unemployment Insurance, Workmen’s Compensation, and any other “perks” that are allegedly paid by The Boss. Whether it is paid to you, or to someone else, it’s still part of the cost of your labor. Not just self-employed people like Rachel, but all of us really pay “both halves” of SS/Medicare.
The principal advantages of a Sales Tax are that it’s difficult to declare that only “rich” people will pay it, equally difficult to pretend that “someone else” is paying it, and for the overwhelming majority of Americans, there would be no tax forms to file, ever.
April 13th, 2008 at 8:57 pmLike Bob D, I’m a first timer to your blog and enjoyed it and all the great comments.
To Matt: Hey, my beef isn’t with the old people. Most of these guys and gals paid into Social Security for years and years. As expected, the SS coffers filled up nicely from interest and worker contributions. The way it was set up, “the system” should still be working fine far into the foreseeable future.
So what happened? (1) Congress wouldn’t keep its hands off all that lovely money that was buidling up, (2) Congress wouldn’t keep its promises to repay what it raided from the fund, and (3) Congress passed and continues to pass give-aways that encourage the kinds of free-loading everyone posted about here.
The answer may be term limits or cranky taxpayers like us paying more attention to who we send to Congress–just watching who gets into the White House isn’t enough.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:11 pmEvery year I have to file 21 tax returns. It gives you some perspective on the Boston Tea Party.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:20 pmI’d like to add a “fuck you” to everyone who receives farm subsidies with an extra “fuck you” to everyone who creamed their pants over gov’t subsidies for ethanol.
Here’s what chaps MY hide: The column for “married” has lower numbers than the column for “single.” Don’t give me that crap about “two people have more expenses”–my rent would not be greater if I were two people, houses do not cost more if they’re purchased by a married couple, and the fact that married couples drink more coffee should be adequately covered with the extra personal deduction.
So a big FUCK YOU to everyone in government who thinks I need to be taxed extra because I’m ugly and unlovable, and to all you weasels who vote for them.
April 13th, 2008 at 9:44 pmSoooooo…am I to understand that you are telling these people to perform a physiologically impossible act of self-impregnation?
I have to quit thinking about it or I get spun into a dimension of pissed off I’ve never been in before in my life! (quote from Ron White–he says it so eloquently)
April 13th, 2008 at 9:46 pmI don’t know about the FairTax or the flat tax, but I think the government could get by with a flat 10% of income from everyone. No deductions, no subtractions. Everyone has a stake and the government would have plenty of money.
Everyone pays!
April 13th, 2008 at 10:11 pmWe need to have more of these around the country.
http://www.ktlkfm.com/pages/jlewispersonality.html
check out the taxcut rally items.
I was out there in the global warming cold of 32 and snow.
April 13th, 2008 at 10:25 pm“Those three programs alone cost over half the total federal budget. While one hesitates to say “@#$% the old people”, still…
@#$% the old people who are spending your and my money.”
You just MIGHT want to consider I paid S.S. from age 15. And, my employer paid half. From my “wages”.
And, I worked a very good engineering job for a big company for 31 years. I paid half/they paid half.
I collect $1366 per month from S.S.
Oh yeah, that is after my Medicare is deducted.
That is NOT your money.
That is my money. I will NEVER collect all that I and my employer(their half came out of my paycheck) contributed. Not even if I live to be 120.
I’m sorry your government spent my contributions as soon as they collected my money.
Your money is just covering my money your government used instead of “investing and vesting” my contributions.
Or, based on your attitude, why don’t you just cut off all us old “fxxkers”. After all, we’re worthless compared to you, eh ?
I could live with THAT little bit of stupid unfairness and “rather careless analysis of the real situation” if it would make your cheesy ass happy.
Come near my IRA,
April 13th, 2008 at 11:04 pmand I’ll be on you like a Michael Vick “best in show pitbull”.
HeatherRadish says,
April 14th, 2008 at 12:18 amI’d like to add a “fuck you” to everyone who receives farm subsidies
Explain, please, why you say this?
Just curious.
Farm subsidies are the Republican version of welfare.
They’re used for precisely the same purpose as the Democrat version: To buy votes.
April 14th, 2008 at 12:25 amAMEN!
I only wish that you would have been more specific!
April 14th, 2008 at 1:07 amOnly 30% of taxable income? I wish I could come to Texas (a state I thoroughly enjoyed visiting).
I live in England, and was self-employed until a year ago. Overall taxes for me were 32% of taxable income, but now I am employed in a more senior position I pay 50% of the pay rise in tax, plus my employer pays a few percent for having the temerity to employ me - in social security tax (called National Insurance here), despite the fact I have a private pension and have taken two weeks unemployment benefit in my life, and see no need for cover unless I become seriously ill (for which I am also insured, as my job is reliant on my health). Then because my employer saves the state money by buying me health insurance, I have to pay 40% tax on the premiums. I reckon well over 35% all told on taxable income, over 30% of gross.
Oh, and our sales tax is 17.5%. Fuel duty is equivalent to $4.50 per US gallon, on which we pay sales tax (yes, we are taxed for being taxed). And local government tax running at around $1800-$2000 per household.
I am in the top 5% of earners in the country, yet I would not even say I was comfortably off, due to taxes; I have to live cheaply so I can have the luxury of beer and meals out. Of course I am not one of the favoured of government largesse.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:44 amWhat would make a difference is if enough people had enough sense to get this angry.
And while we’re at it, how about the fact that the damn code is so complicated? The little “if/then” formulas you have to go through to calculate all those little subtotals — you can hear a politician’s static-y little brain muttering the soundtrack on those, can’t you? Who should “get a break,” who shouldn’t, careful not to create a loophole, careful to close one created by the last tweak to the code. It’s a farce.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:26 amMy Wife is a self-employed Milliner who makes Her living on the art-fair circuit.
I’ve watched her at tax-time, and it isn’t pretty. The first thing she asks me for, as she hits the desk to do the forms is Ibuprofen. The second is always Maker’s Mark.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:47 amFrom Politico:
“The Clintons have made a $100-million fortune since leaving the White House, but a Politico analysis found that hasn’t kept Bill Clinton from taking full advantage of the publicly funded perks offered to ex-presidents.
In fact, his presidential retirement benefits cost taxpayers almost as much as those of the other two living ex-presidents combined.
The price tag for Clinton’s federal retirement allowance from 2001 through the end of this year will run $8 million, compared to $5.5 million for George H. W. Bush’s and $4 million for Jimmy Carter’s during the same period.
Since 2001, Clinton has received more of almost every benefit available to former presidents — from his pension to his staff’s salaries and benefits to supplies. His $420,000 phone bill and $3.2 million office rent tab both nearly surpassed the totals rung up for those purposes by Bush, Carter and the late former presidents Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan combined. As a group, they spent $484,000 on telephone service and $3.8 million on rent in the same span.”
Your money’s well spent, oh, yeah.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:59 amI wish my pain was only 30%.
And I have state taxes to contend with.
And I’ve been socked with the AMT personally and corporately for the past 3 years.
Yep - I’m at the point of rebellion.
And I don’t let the IRS off the hook and just blame Congress. The IRS has a lot of discretion in whose life they ruin. All but one of the people I’ve dealt with there have either been wrong, assholes or both.
If only the 1% that pay would just say “to hell with this”. We need our Martin Luther King.
April 14th, 2008 at 7:57 amOh, yeah, I forgot to say that I hate corporate welfare as much as I hate the other kinds.
A flat tax (”Fair Tax”) sounds somewhat better than the system we have now–at least in theory–inasmuch as it proposes getting rid of the IRS.
However, what I’m afraid of is that we might eventually end up with both the “Fair Tax” and every other tax we have right now.
Every “flat tax” proposal I have heard or read about is “revenue neutral”–that is, it doesn’t begin to rein in government spending.
April 14th, 2008 at 8:13 amI used Turbo Tax once again this year. I find the software to be pretty robust at not finding exemptions. In that regard, it’s no better or worse than the human accountant I used to use, a guy so smart that he routinely would correct the IRS for mistakes that they made. Anyway, here’s my beef with Turbo Tax: the day after I opened and used the software, I started seeing and hearing TV and radio ads for the free fucking federal version. Since my state-VA- has it’s own free of charge online tax preparation software, I don’t need Turbo Tax state. All I needed was the federal version, which they apparently now give out free. It