I'm gathering receipts so I can use them for tax deductions.
I'm going to claim every deduction that I can possibly find.
I think I'm the one who makes the best use of my money. There are some charities that get a substantial chunk of the household income, but I like being able to choose which ones. Knowing that I have a choice helps keep them honest.
It irks the heck out of me that my employer has to act as tax collector, child-support gatherer, healthcare provider, and immigration status verifier. I wish they could hang out a sign that says "Will swap money in exchange for labor" and go on with their business of making fruitstands. Think of the administrative savings!!
If we all had to write a check to Uncle Sam every month or every quarter, instead of having the money withheld, support for Mr. Obama's Dirty Little Wars on Brown People, Drugs and Prosperity would plummet. Collecting taxes should be John Boehner's job, not the job of someone you swap your labor with.
Government is the worst possible way of getting most things done. Possible exceptions are roads and other infrastructure, providing a courts system to enforce contracts and take care of externalities, and defending the borders (ours, not Korea's). I think that delivering the mail, education, jobs, healthcare, energy, innovation, and spreading Democracy are jobs best left to the private sector. (See: Eastern Hills High School, VA Hospitals, Solyndra, LightSquared and Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)
A lot of my statist friends fight tooth and nail to avoid paying any more than required. I respect them for that more than they'll ever know. I wish that I had the courage to take Uncle Sam to court.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fund owes taxes going back to 2002. Buffett could simply do what he advocates: Write the government a check for 1.2 billion. I don't think he'll do that. IMHO, Warren Buffett believes that he and his shareholders will use the 1.2 billion more wisely than John Boehner and John Cornyn.
Anyway, back to my point. Those are my reasons for claiming every deduction that I can find.
If you disagree with me, what are your reasons for doing the exact...same...thing?
The income tax bumpersticker came from Richard Forsythe's truck. The pic of Buffett morphing back and forth between Capitalist Robber Baron and Capitalist Robber Baron Who Makes Pleasing Sounds For Obama came from here.
I'm going to claim every deduction that I can possibly find.
It irks the heck out of me that my employer has to act as tax collector, child-support gatherer, healthcare provider, and immigration status verifier. I wish they could hang out a sign that says "Will swap money in exchange for labor" and go on with their business of making fruitstands. Think of the administrative savings!!
If we all had to write a check to Uncle Sam every month or every quarter, instead of having the money withheld, support for Mr. Obama's Dirty Little Wars on Brown People, Drugs and Prosperity would plummet. Collecting taxes should be John Boehner's job, not the job of someone you swap your labor with.
Government is the worst possible way of getting most things done. Possible exceptions are roads and other infrastructure, providing a courts system to enforce contracts and take care of externalities, and defending the borders (ours, not Korea's). I think that delivering the mail, education, jobs, healthcare, energy, innovation, and spreading Democracy are jobs best left to the private sector. (See: Eastern Hills High School, VA Hospitals, Solyndra, LightSquared and Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)
A lot of my statist friends fight tooth and nail to avoid paying any more than required. I respect them for that more than they'll ever know. I wish that I had the courage to take Uncle Sam to court.
Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway fund owes taxes going back to 2002. Buffett could simply do what he advocates: Write the government a check for 1.2 billion. I don't think he'll do that. IMHO, Warren Buffett believes that he and his shareholders will use the 1.2 billion more wisely than John Boehner and John Cornyn.
Anyway, back to my point. Those are my reasons for claiming every deduction that I can find.
If you disagree with me, what are your reasons for doing the exact...same...thing?
The income tax bumpersticker came from Richard Forsythe's truck. The pic of Buffett morphing back and forth between Capitalist Robber Baron and Capitalist Robber Baron Who Makes Pleasing Sounds For Obama came from here.
10 comments:
I wrote a quarterly check to Uncle Sam for about 10 years. I was (believe it or not) a self-employed small businessperson. I'd be willing to bet I paid a lot more in taxes (on a percentage basis) than you ever have - recall self-employment tax means both halves of social security tax.
I'll freely admit I grumbled when I wrote that quarterly check but it comes nowhere close to the colossal amount of bitching I hear on this site.
Yes, the government spends plenty on incredibly stupid stuff, but if you ask 10 people what's stupid and what's well-spent you are going to get 10 different answers.
Speaking of which, I'm still waiting for some choice words from you on the recent GSA flap.
Bitching about money, to my mind anyway, is one of the more useless things in life to get worked up over, unless you are eating dog food in a cardboard box somewhere. You want to spout off on something important, try saying something about how a kid in Florida came to be shot dead by a gun-toting vigilante who's now whining about how *his* life has been ruined.
Sheesh...
lol. I've never witnessed the Doc's trolling abilities before.
It's funny because I didn't read that post as "about money". I read it as "overcomplicated useless paperwork mandated by the government". But, that's probably because I'm lazy.
I don't watch the news. From what I've heard about the fiasco in Florida, I'd have to sit down and have a few shots of tequila with the accused and the accuser(s). I'm a pretty good judge of character, but I can't judge based on what the media gives me.
Of course, I'd have to make sure the accused went through a medical detector first.
Gar: whoops, I didn't set out to be trolling on this post.
My main point was: bitching about taxes - what a boring waste of time.
It's too late, you've already thrown the lit cigarette out the window during the dry season.
You didn't comment on how I swapped medical and metal. I'm not sure how that happened. Maybe cuz I've got an appointment in 2 hours and I was distracted?
Medical detectors might be a good thing though. This trolling stuff is hard. Right when you get to the climactic moment, you spontaneously type-o.
Well doc, I don't know how much you pay in taxes, but I pay more in taxes than I do for mortgage, clothes and food COMBINED and I am not even sure what exactly I get out of it, except the burdens of war and government induced misery for the masses.
I got one of those hilarious White House propaganda emails the other day (the result of trying to win dinner with BHO). The email encourages me to go this site to get my Federal Taxpayer Receipt that shows what my tax dollars are spent on. The rest of the email is a promo for the Buffet Rule, complete with a link to a page about it that uses the phrase 'fair share' about two dozen times.
I itemize and deduct every possible thing I can. Just finished bookmarking every new deduction I can take next year when I am in the 'paying for A&M' boat with you. I think every one of those items on the Federal Taxpayer Receipt should be an a la carte menu of what I do or do not care to support with my tax dollars and at what percentage.
"It irks the heck out of me that my employer has to act as tax collector"
Well, to take the other tack on your question, that is one of the reasons I have declined to be an employer.
Harper - I actually like your idea of putting an ala carte list of items (with percentage) that you can choose to support or not support. It would make budgeting an exercise in hell but could lead to some interesting policy.
Ask our host, the WS (whose wife is a youth minister) how much churches like designated giving.
If the spending was itemized, then what about those of us that disagree with all government spending, would we still be forced under threat of prison or worse to specify some program to designate our money to? I certainly could not designate my money to war, the drug war, homeland security, the FBI, the CIA, the DEA, IRS, ATF, the federal prison system, welfare, farm subsidies, ethanol subsidies, bankster bailouts, I don't want to spend millions so the president can fly in air force one on the campaign trail, I dislike congressmen and their ilk, I don't believe the federal government should be in education, I don't believe that I would designate any money anywhere. I am 40 years old and have never seen a federal government program I like. The closest thing to a program I like is the interstate highway system, but even then it is now the states that maintain it, and I think it destroyed the passenger railroad industry, has led to higher levels of pollutants in the air and has encouraged urban sprawl, so even the best program I can think of still sucks. Do you see this as itemizing idea of being able to direct all tax money to a local function? I might be willing to go for it then, if I could direct all of my federal money to some local function then maybe, roads, schools, local police, local firefighters, etc, but I have zero use for the federal government. You may think the bitching is useless but when you send more than $15,000 a year to a corrupt government who uses most of that money to spread misery worldwide, why shouldn't we be allowed to bitch about it? Do you really think the federal government is spreading happiness with all of their bombs, their prisons, their farm subsidies that harm small farmers around the world and most go to companies like ADM in the US?
Money is your time, your hard work, your blood, sweat, tears and great ideas. It's not "just money". It is the stuff that makes human life possible - insofar as peaceful trade with others contributes to life i.e. everything that doesn't involve hunting and gathering. So no Doc, bitching about the forceful plunder of life's medium is not useless or boring. At least not compared to bitching about what other people are bitching about and how it's not as important as what you would like them to bitch about.
Post a Comment