Tax Day Tea Party Syndrome: Guest Column by Tax Mama Eva Rosenberg. Tax Mama declares, “Americans are revolting. And I’m proud of it.” Rights Radio endorses Eva Rosenberg’s point of view. Let the party begin.
Americans spend over 28% of their year just working to pay a variety of taxes. (Tax Freedom Day was April 13th in 2009.) The Internal Revenue Code in 2005 stood at 7 million words in 736 code sections, up from 718,000 words in 103 code sections in 1955.
Tax Day Tea Party Syndrome
By Eva Rosenberg, EA
Your TaxMama® www.TaxQuips.com
As I understand from my old civics classes, the original Boston Tea Party took place essentially due to two issues:
1. Taxation without representation
2. Taxes assessed upon taxes
Oh, there’s more to it than that. And part of it had to do with making it clear to King George that American colonists would not permit him to impose taxes that they’ve already rejected. http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/teaparty.htm
So what’s bugging us today?
You’ve got to be kidding!
Well, first of all, Americans spend over 28% of their year just working to pay a variety of taxes. (Tax Freedom Day was April 13th in 2009.)
Next, the proliferation of tax laws has gotten out of control. Nina E. Olson, IRS’s Taxpayers Advocate quantified the current complexity of our Internal Revenue Code in a Wall Street Journal article last week calling for a simpler tax system. She spells out that “Since the beginning of 2001, there have been more than 3,250 changes to the tax code — an average of more than one a day — including more than 500 changes last year alone.” http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123933106888707793.html
According to the TaxFoundation.org, The Internal Revenue Code in 2005 stood at 7 million words in 736 code sections, up from 718,000 words in 103 code sections in 1955. By contrast, the King James Bible has 788,280 words in 66 books, the Harry Potter series has just over 1 million words in 7 books, and the English translation of War and Peace has http://snurl.com/license-tax. Even so, why should we be subject to so many reporting demands?
And the inequities! This morning, a tax professional in Virginia just discovered that folks who buy new homes in Washington, DC may not use the new first time homebuyers credit of $8,000. They are limited to the special DC credit of only $5,000.
People who bought homes (outside DC) in 2008 got shortchanged. Not only did they only get $7,500. But they have to pay that money back. Buyers in 2008 get to keep the whole credit.
And then look at where the money is being spent!
Forty-two percent goes to military spending. Yet I doubt that 42% of Americans want to spend that much of our money to wage wars. Though, it’s perfectly obvious we would spend less than half of that if the stewards of our monies made sure we weren’t being ripped off by American and foreign contractors.
Twenty-two percent goes to health care. If the government had better control over the funds that are spent, don’t you think that we actually provide adequate health care and education for much less money?
Nearly 9% of our taxes pays for anti-poverty programs. While Americans want to help the less fortunate, they sorely resent having their generosity abused by folks who make a living working the system, instead of working. And intensely resent those who’ve become wealthy stealing from the social services systems by lying and filing multiple claims. It’s time to focus that money on helping people get training and jobs to bootstrap themselves.
Living in poverty is no excuse.
Major league star Dave Valle launched a successful program of micro-loans and minimal funding in the Dominican Republic. He gave people pride and purpose – and fun!
Why isn’t our government controlling costs better and encouraging and rewarding self-help style behavior?
Why are we giving billions of dollars to billionaires who not only reaped huge rewards while getting us into this global financial crisis, but have the nerve to get bonuses for making these very same bad investments?
Of course Americans are revolting!
And I’m proud of every one of us!