Not so
crazy about tax time
By
DW Hamilton
Straight up, I hate taxes. Sure, I
appreciate all the good things
government can provide while
spending our hard earned tax
revenue, when they provide an
infrastructure, social safety net,
schools and fire-trucks, for
instance. And I think everybody
should pay their fair share, but…
I still hate paying taxes. Ask a
typical worker about tax time, and
may run into somebody who has been
withholding a certain percentage
of her or his paycheck all year,
and who expects a refund. This is
good psychology, making the act of
paying money into sort of a treat
when you get some back. Ask
somebody who runs their own
business, and you’ll hear an
entirely different story about
writing out huge checks quarterly,
and how it is eating up a huge
chunk of profits, if there are
any.
For businesses, of
course, all the expenses are
deductible. People hear about
enormously successful businesses
people who can deduct everything
they can conceivably write off,
down to the monogram on their
shorts. It does seem unfair when
laws are written which obviously
favor people with extreme wealth.
But of course, the wealthy resent
taxes even more than poor people,
so they hire lobbyists to come up
with ways to help them get out of
them.
Small businesses
owners aren’t that lucky all of
the time, when for instance, the
profit they owe taxes on isn’t
actually enough to live on. People
who remained unemployed long after
they dropped off the dole, and
started some little at-home
business walking dogs or
manicuring lawns could fall into
this category. This is where
pockets of both opportunity and
poverty are forming, because
shockingly, a person making $400
per year as self-employed, owes a
self-employed tax in the US of
15.3 percent. The cost of living
does not figure into the
calculation anywhere. Ironically,
this money is Social Security,
money supposedly set aside to keep
these same people from being
indigent in their old age. The net
effect can be for the poorest ist
to make them even more indegent in
at working age. Complain to the
IRS about this, and they will
suggest getting a higher paying
job. Which would be a good idea if
you could only manage to get one.
Another form of tax is
the sales tax. This one is
relatively painless because you
only pay it in little driblets
daily, when you buy gum for
instance. Personally, I would be
in favor of scrapping Income,
Social Security, and Medicare
taxes and going only with a Value
Added Tax.. This tax does hit the
poor also, but at least it is in a
relative ratio to the cost of
living. People can always
economize on the spot with their
purchases, and a value added tax
can not allow people to go into
hole, owing their government.
Europe is known for
its notoriously high taxes, but
also for a sort of cradle-to-grave
social welfare state. Now,
Europeans too, are starting to
balk at the highest cost of
government. Most likely, they will
continue to scale back benefits
available to Western Europeans,
and their tax rate will stay about
the same.
All told the average
working American pays 25 percent
to 33 percent of their annual
income in State, Federal and local
taxes. Given that we have such
huge efficiencies in the modern
workplace now due to computer
innovations such as the internet,
one wonders how long it will take
for government to apply them
effectively and pass the savings
on the taxpayer. That will not
likely ever happen soon, yet
another reason I hate paying
taxes.
©
2006 All content property of European Weekly unless where otherwise
accredited
