The countdown is on. Many of you will recognize the one I'm talking about. It's the one where taxpayers turn into a punkin if they don't take care of their business by the 15th of this month. Sorry. Death and taxes. They do tend to consume quite a bit of our time. It's
Wednesday, April 8, 2015, and I've got visions of 1040 forms dancing in my head. This upcoming weekend will be my last opportunity to get mine finished. I've got it roughed out but there's still some dangling issues to resolve. I am very sure that I am not alone. I use one of those computer tax programs that inputs last year's numbers as a starting place. That makes it somewhat easier. I heard one fellow lamenting how messed up the Congress is when it comes to taxation. He said they put a high tax on liquor and then raise the taxes on everything else so much it drives people to drink. Another observed that the writing of great fiction is not a lost art. He based that on reading some of the tax deduction explanations turned in by taxpayers. Here's a good one for you: In 1913 the federal government collected a total of $13 million dollars in income taxes.
No wonder they call it the good old days! (Today approximately $2.3 trillion in federal taxes are collected on average each year, not including any state and local.)
Let's face it. We are privileged to live in this 'one nation under God' that He has given to us. Yet, each one has their own views about taxes. For instance, I never realized how many different ways they hit the elderly in the tax code until, now get this....., until I became one! I likely could have given you the way they hit me before when I was in a different category. A glaring example to me is how the tax code disincentivizes older people to continue working. Instead of encouraging older folks to provide for themselves they have made the effective tax rates on a percentage basis more onerous than before. Or, that's how this particular taxpayer reads the tealeaves as I work through my filing each year. Some have speculated that for political reasons the current administration desires to grow the number of people who are totally dependent upon the government for their daily existence. When the ship of state is constantly sailing in an ocean of red ink that makes no sense to me. But, here again, I have my viewpoint as I write that check each year. You no doubt see it through the lens of your own situation and experience. At the end of the day, we are still blessed to live in this great nation, and I am thankful that even though I might squawk about it now and then, we have been able to pay what we end up owing. That too is a provision from our Great God.
Amen.
I know a lot of folks who like to play games with the numbers. While I hate that less than 50% of our American working age population pay all the federal taxes, I am thankful to not be in the other category. Some talk like those who pay zero federal taxes are to be envied. They are not. Whether they are tax dodgers or folks who are in poverty, I believe it to be a blessing to be in that tax paying category. Would I like to see more folks able to participate? You betcha! That would be good for us all, as I see it. Again, there are some who no doubt see a permanent underclass as a political advantage for their own reasons. If they take actions to maintain this type of pitiful situation, then I have no idea how they can ever sleep at night. People, their dignity, and the ability to provide for themselves and their families is at stake. My way of seeing it says the more the merrier when it comes to us all participating in this great experiment called America. Okay. I will now put the flag down and pick up the checkbook. A joke. Tongue in cheek. But still a joke. May God bless us all and may He bless our great land is my prayer.
Amen. ....More later.
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