Tourmeister
03-22-2003, 07:19 PM
Howdy,
:tab So here it is, time for me to do my taxes again. I am normally a pretty easy going even tempered guy. Not much really makes me mad or angry. Enter the IRS... We supposedly live in a country where the majority of the people make the rules. Ironically enough, the extreme majority of the people I have ever met HATE paying income taxes. Wazzup with that!?
:tab As I said, I normally don't get riled up about much. But every year about this time when I sit down to do my taxes and I am forced to be reminded of how screwed up and unjust our system of taxation has become, It comes close to sending me over the edge :suicide: Our system is used in a coercive manner to encourage and/or discourage specific behavior. Get a break if you drive an eco car, get penalized if you are married, get a break if you cohabitate, get penalized if you are self employed... and on it goes...
:tab Like so much in our society, it seems that at nearly every point, the system defies rational explanation. Things that are on their face crazy are accepted as being fine. I am amazed that my taxes have become so complex that I can no longer afford to spend the time and effort trying to understand them and do them myself. I am forced to pay someone else to do it for me!! :angryfir: :angryfir:
:tab The amazing thing is that I am not a big company with tons of employees. It is just me. Crap, even trying to use Turbo Tax on the puter I could not get it all straight. It would ask me for information that I had no idea what in the world it was talking about! Imagine trying to be sure your company is in compliance with the tax code if you are someone like IBM, General Electric, Microslop, and so on. Think of the millions of dollars they have to spend each year to ensure they are in compliance. That comes right out of the pocket of the consumer.
:tab As a self employed person trying to get a new business off the ground, one of the largest things I have to constantly consider is how every decision will affect my end of the year taxes. This burden takes away a significant amount of my time and resources and directly affects the decision I make on how to conduct business, almost always in a negative manner.
:tab Everyone wants to see the economy take off, easy, do away with the income tax system. Our country seemed to do just fine without it for nearly 150 years. We grew at unprecedented rates. Think of all the resources it would free up to be better used elsewhere.
:tab Every year, bills come up in Congress and the Senate to abolish the IRS. Every year it gets shot down by the Tax Attorney Lobby and all the big accounting firms. I realize that these people's lives are dependent on this crap, but a theif's living is dependent on stealing and we have no problem outlawing his behavior and tossing him in the slammer :wink: I don't see much difference here.
:tab Well I could go on forever, lucky for you I won't :)
:tab So here it is, time for me to do my taxes again. I am normally a pretty easy going even tempered guy. Not much really makes me mad or angry. Enter the IRS... We supposedly live in a country where the majority of the people make the rules. Ironically enough, the extreme majority of the people I have ever met HATE paying income taxes. Wazzup with that!?
:tab As I said, I normally don't get riled up about much. But every year about this time when I sit down to do my taxes and I am forced to be reminded of how screwed up and unjust our system of taxation has become, It comes close to sending me over the edge :suicide: Our system is used in a coercive manner to encourage and/or discourage specific behavior. Get a break if you drive an eco car, get penalized if you are married, get a break if you cohabitate, get penalized if you are self employed... and on it goes...
:tab Like so much in our society, it seems that at nearly every point, the system defies rational explanation. Things that are on their face crazy are accepted as being fine. I am amazed that my taxes have become so complex that I can no longer afford to spend the time and effort trying to understand them and do them myself. I am forced to pay someone else to do it for me!! :angryfir: :angryfir:
:tab The amazing thing is that I am not a big company with tons of employees. It is just me. Crap, even trying to use Turbo Tax on the puter I could not get it all straight. It would ask me for information that I had no idea what in the world it was talking about! Imagine trying to be sure your company is in compliance with the tax code if you are someone like IBM, General Electric, Microslop, and so on. Think of the millions of dollars they have to spend each year to ensure they are in compliance. That comes right out of the pocket of the consumer.
:tab As a self employed person trying to get a new business off the ground, one of the largest things I have to constantly consider is how every decision will affect my end of the year taxes. This burden takes away a significant amount of my time and resources and directly affects the decision I make on how to conduct business, almost always in a negative manner.
:tab Everyone wants to see the economy take off, easy, do away with the income tax system. Our country seemed to do just fine without it for nearly 150 years. We grew at unprecedented rates. Think of all the resources it would free up to be better used elsewhere.
:tab Every year, bills come up in Congress and the Senate to abolish the IRS. Every year it gets shot down by the Tax Attorney Lobby and all the big accounting firms. I realize that these people's lives are dependent on this crap, but a theif's living is dependent on stealing and we have no problem outlawing his behavior and tossing him in the slammer :wink: I don't see much difference here.
:tab Well I could go on forever, lucky for you I won't :)