Happy Tax Day, Suckers
First, the good news: It is also Buy a Gun day. So, go buy a gun or two.
Some bad news: Phelps writes:
. . . a communist long-term goal has been achieved. (Second Plank of the Communist Manifesto.) Half of the population effectively pays no income tax, making this a tax progressive enough that a majority has absolutely no personal financial impact in reducing this tax. (They have a giant indirect impact, but that is hard to explain to people with government educations.)
Of course, that half of the population gets shafted by other taxes (sales, payroll, use, etc.). But it’s tax day, we’re all getting shafted.
Here’s a presentation that tells us we don’t have to actually pay taxes on most income. You better get over there quick before some judge shuts them down.
And your Happy Fun Tax Fact for today:
Bribes and kickbacks to governmental officials are deductible unless the individual has been convicted of making the bribe or has entered a plea of not guilty or nolo contendre.
-IRS official taxpayers’ guide
Here’s some Happy Fun Tax Facts from the past:
In 1999, taxpayers contacted the IRS for assistance approximately 117 million times.
The Internal Revenue Code consists of approximately 1,395,000 words.
There are 693 sections of the Internal Revenue Code that are applicable to individual taxpayers, 1,501 sections applicable to businesses, and 445 sections applicable to tax-exempt organizations, employee plans, and governments.
As of June 2000, the Treasury Department had issued almost 20,000 pages of regulations containing over 8 million words.
In 2000, there were 129,373,500 returns filed. Of which, 96,817,603 were taxable and 32,555,897 were not.
In 2002 individuals, businesses and non-profits will spend an estimated 5.8 billion hours complying with the federal income tax code (henceforth called “compliance costs”), with an estimated compliance cost of over $194 billion
As of 1998, 32% of individual federal income taxes are needed in order to pay the interest on the national debt.
It is estimated that total income tax receipts in 2003 will be $1,211,843,000,000.
The instructions for filing the Easy Tax Form are 32 pages
It is now four days after tax freedom day and I’m not feeling so free.
Update: Gets better and better. Blake points to this article on how taxes violate civil liberties.
April 15th, 2004 at 1:09 pm
I’m highly skeptical of the claim that half the population pays no income tax. Even if you count children.
Uh, oh, gotta hide, there are some commies over there that might get me!
April 15th, 2004 at 1:12 pm
I’m a bit skeptical too since the claim comes from the senate.
April 15th, 2004 at 2:29 pm
Drake is now the proud new owner of a Remington 7mm Magnum Rifle…should any of you live in north Knox County that will be the loud “BOOM” you hear tonight.
April 15th, 2004 at 5:53 pm
It’s time for the Thibodeaux Tax Plan:
One Dollar, One Vote!
April 15th, 2004 at 11:21 pm
For what it’s worth, I owed the feds nearly $2,500 this year. Although, to be fair, this is attributable far more to piss-poor tax planning advice from my soon-to-be-fired accountant, than to me being “over-taxed” somehow.
April 16th, 2004 at 10:40 am
I am skeptical too. Half the population including kids and retirees and such not? Cause thats stacking the deck. The interesting question is how many of those people work, and how many of them work at jobs fulltime that pay them less than a living wage? How many work at jobs that pay them less than a poverty wage? How many are multi-millionaires hiding income form the government?
I hate stuff that just talks about income tax anyway, becasue as you noted, it doesn’t take into account the real tax burden of working people. And, for that matter, talking about taxes as if they were all cost is disinegnous. Technically, your tax burden is really what you pay out minus the dollar value of what you get back. Bill Gates tax burden, considering that his business only exists becasue of the infrastructure provided by the United States government, is almost certianly less than zero. Without the roads, schools, internet, security, fire protection, court system, etc, Bill gates has bubkus.
And where did you get thos numbers for time? Cause some anti tax group was cliaming that the 1040EZ took ten hours to complete. Which can only be true of your a moron. Actually, somoene who takes 3 hours to do the 1040EZ is probably dead — I cnanot believe anoyone that stupid would have enough brain cells to handle reflexive behavior, like breathing. Making exceptions, of course, for people who don’t speak English or are illiterate.
April 16th, 2004 at 10:48 am
Which numbers? A lot of them were c&p from old posts. I got a lot of them from justfacts.com, this nifty calendar i have of 365 dumbest things ever said, and other sources.
April 16th, 2004 at 11:04 am
Yeah, I don’t buy the flat-taxer argument that tax forms are endlessly complicated. When I had one W2 it was no problem.
My taxes this year were fairly complicated, but that’s because I have a mortgage, rental property, itemized deductions with the mortgage interest and business expenses, depreciated business equipment, sold a business, 1099 Misc Income, and took education credits for Melissa’s college. Total tax preparation bill was $158 for both of us.
April 16th, 2004 at 11:38 am
My new commitment to polite, informed debate prevents me from responding to kevin’s post.
I feel like Dr. Strangelove grabbing his right arm.
April 17th, 2004 at 9:23 am
I actually looked into this a while back as part of some political discussions with some friends of mine.
The bottom 50% of income earners (the figures don’t count kids and retired people) pay only 4% or so of the revenue brought in by income taxes.
The top 1% earn around 15% of the total income generated in this country, but account for around 30% of income tax revenue.
February 28th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
[…] Wal-Mart is falling victim to a war of attrition. But that’s how everything is treated by the .gov that they don’t like. There will never be a repeal of the fourth amendment. The war against it is to nitpick under the guise of reasonable and to keep at it until it is merely a quaint novelty item written by some old dudes over 200 years ago. Same with taxes and gun regulations. At last count, the tax code was 653 sections and near 1,400,000 words. […]