Tax Time
Folks are probably gearing up for tax time. In years past, I did posts on Happy Fun Tax Facts but those got too depressing. But let’s talk taxes.
Me, quite sarcastically, circa February 2006:
Been doing my taxes. I hate it. Going on three hours now. Then it occurred to me. Since the .gov has such broad authority despite my right to
abortionerr privacy to poke around willy nilly in my financial dealings, my various financial institutions are obligated by law to report when I do something out of the ordinary, and all my wage info is sent automatically to the .gov via payroll providers, why don’t they just go ahead and do my taxes for me?Seriously. Hell, if my privacy can be violated like that, why not get some benefit from it?
Now, it seems as if lawmakers are considering it:
[the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010] dramatically streamlines the tax system, eliminates key deductions, and — crucially for taxpayers — invites the IRS to prepare easy-to-understand tax returns for payers to read and sign.
What could possibly go wrong? Could be done for the 52M (or 36% of folks) who don’t pay taxes at all.
Meanwhile, Carly Fiorina has a beautiful idea:
U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina today issued the following statement in support of HR 4735, legislation proposed by Congressman Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and co-sponsored by Congressman Darrell Issa (R-California) to allow for the termination of federal government employees for failure to pay their federal income taxes
Don’t pay your taxes, don’t get paid in tax dollars. Sounds good to me. But we’d probably lose half of the current administration. Which also sounds good to me.
March 12th, 2010 at 11:31 am
I’ve always wondered why federal employees pay taxes at all. Given that they’re being paid with tax money, why not just pay them their post-tax income and save the money spent on processing their returns.
Of course, that’s a simplistic view that assumes that anyone in the federal government wants to save money.
That and the fact that federal employees would bump up their salaries to parity levels while still not paying any taxes.
March 12th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
“Don’t pay your taxes, don’t get paid in tax dollars.”
And don’t get paid pension, if you are already retired from Federal office and the unpaid taxes date back to when you were in Federal employ.
But let’s not get carried away . . .
March 12th, 2010 at 4:43 pm
Heh – I like her! If only she could do to Teh Government what she did to HP!
March 12th, 2010 at 10:14 pm
Even better, if you do not pay enough taxes before April 15th, you get fined. Frakking withholding – another term for “a zero-interest lone the government forces you to give them at gunpoint”.