The Law of Probability figures into everything we do, from taking an umbrella in the morning to picking a mate.
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June 07, 2012
Big day for taxpayers today. I suppose what the bail out means determines how high a plane we bail from.
Sometimes, you have to remind yourself where you came from to understand where you are.
That's why I keep a copy of the original 1913 income-tax code on my bookshelf. Unfortunately I can’t use it today.
The history books will tell you that it was Wyoming's vote in the affirmative that gave the 16th Amendment the three-quarters majority needed to amend the Constitution and tap into our personal income.
My conservative friends would say,"Confiscate."
In truth, the confiscating began before that. The first income tax was an "emergency measure" passed during the Civil War, but was repealed in 1872. Even the Commissioner of Internal Revenue wrote the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, saying that the income tax was "most obnoxious, inquisitorial and expository."
Where are those commissioners today?
In 1894 the income tax returned as "an act to reduce taxation, to provide revenue for the government, and for other purposes." The Washington Post characterized it as "an abhorrent and calamitous monstrosity that punishes everyone who rises above the rank of mediocrity."
A year later the Supreme Court found the income tax unconstitutional because it was a "direct" tax not apportioned among the States based on population, as the Constitution required.
So a constitutional amendment was put forward, ratified by the states, and in 12 simple words -- The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes - our world was changed forever.
Of course, in 1913, the tax code was a bit simpler than it is today. The 1040 form was a mere four pages long. It levied a 1% tax on net personal incomes above $3,000. There was a 6% surtax on incomes of more than $500,000.
Although the income tax was brand new, it came with deductions. $3,000 for individuals; $4,000 for married couples. Taxpayers could also deduct business expenses, interest on personal debt, state and local taxes paid, and, my personal favorite, "Losses actually sustained during the year incurred in trade or arising from fires, storms, or shipwreck."
And if you survived and caught cheating on your taxes, the penalty was an additional 100% of the tax owed.
Farmers, who still made up a large swath of the population, even had their own provisions.
Despite these exceptions, the income tax was remarkably simple and short. The entire 1913 federal tax code was written on 400 pages.
Today, the complete tax code, with accompanying regulations, contains over 60,000 pages and is so complicated that even CPA’s don’t understand it. At least mine doesn’t.
The only plus is that the IRS might be a little hazy on it too. And that of life's two certainties, it's the one you can get an extension on.
We're all for paying our fair share. Maybe, we can make the process a bit...dare I say, less daunting.
Awaiting your thoughts here at the Eye. And try not to tax yourself. The Government will do that for you.
Taxes? I pays 'em.
This, i belive makes me a stakeholder, albiet a very diminutive one, of d...
Jun. 07, 2012 5:32 PM
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I LOVE paying taxes! I'm an AMERICAN,damnit, and this is MY COUNTRY, right or wrong!, and I will support it to my dying day! ANd I wish I made more money, so I could pay more taxes......(sigh)
(as I understand it, government[small 'g'] can't have anything left after the budget year,so has to spend it all; hire all the people it can,pay them,tax them,and perpetuate the system) Privatization takes a portion of that as profit,and it does not go back into circulation...(I was told)....so, my taxes fix bridges,hire shovel holding slackers,and build bombs...and, the shovel holding guys, leaning on those shovels,pay taxes,(and buy hamburgers and gym shoes,and pay their mortgage)and the bombs fall....and the jails are full....but so are the highways!!with trucks!! That means commerce!! And, as I wait in interminable traffic, the guys leaning on their shovels,fixing the roads I use,send their dumb kids to schools they pay taxes to support, and I wonder- - how did we get here?!?
Well I had a comment, but then I read RoadYacht's comment and I'm now at a total loss. That comment pretty much summing it all up... How did that saying go? The only two things you can count on are death and taxes?
I too had a comment, but like mbailey felt that RY so completely covered it, couldn't say it any better, that I'll stick with his........................ What I'll add to my thought was that there shouldn't be a code that required a professional to read and understand and then even they can't. We have a new medical care code that's in the offing, that no one can read or understand; a tax code that no one can read or understand. These things affect us. Our daily lives. One should not need a degree in governmentese to know what the hell has been inflicted on us now........................ And there's a new tax in the offing where, if passed, all of our bank transactions will be taxed................what part of our money actually goes into our pocket to spend on buying gym shoes, hamburgers and pay our mortgage?
Tackses schmackses. It's hard to tell which makes less sense: that so few pay so many or that so many pay nothing at all.
I will not live to see our national debt brought under control and if we are, as is so often stated, "The greatest nation on earth," why are we unable to rely on our own resources and live within our means?
Bring all of our military forces back home now. Let Iraq, Afghanistan and whoever else return to tribal, sectarian and whatever other kind of violence that has been their hallmark for centuries. It is not our problem.
And, another thing: if our country had been attacked by four foot neon pink trolls with their anuses between their eyes, we would not spend a lot of time patting down 6'11" black basketball players.
Thousands of muslims have killed thousands of Americans while millions more muslims have danced in the streets in celebration and yet we are hamstrung by the inability to profile the exact persons who pose the biggest threat.
No problem. Simply let them all bypass airport security and fly happily together aboard Allah Ackbar Air knowing that if any plane ever strays from its stated flight path, poof!
Stoney....amen to that
Every government program has a huge controlling, expensive bureaucracy behind it eliminate so many of those, tax those that are imposing these taxes, get rid of the perks that you and I either never had or lost due to that monster economy.
And yes, if it walks like a duck and quacks.............
I did an extra job for work last week for $xxx.xx. When the individual paycheck arrived, $40.00 was taken. This is ridiculous in proportion to what the original pay was. Our gasoline is thirty two cents higher than it is across the boarder in the next state. TAXES. But my friend 3,000 miles away is paying sixty two more cents per gallon than I do. I feel like present administration is wasting my hard earned money that is being paid in taxes. But then I feel guilty when I cash the income tax refund check because I know that money is putting us deeper in debt. If Miss Hazel has the time, I would enjoy hearing from her or others from outside the US and how they pay taxes.
In our state, our bright light governor, thinks its a great idea to add five cents tax a gallon on to the already inflated gas cost. He says this is to fix the roads, yet everywhere we go there are people "working" on the roads. As per RY, leaning on shovels, sitting in trucks, setting up barriers and "slow men at work" signs. A truer comment couldn't be made.
What a set up for another petard tossing day. Where is
Miss Blue? Where is Willie Trask?
It’s summertime. School’s out.
Congratulations to all those fine folk in Wisconsin who
wanted to keep the governor that they elected and voted again to do so.
I think that those who asked for a recall should be
penalized and not allowed to vote in the next election…just like the loser
should pay in a frivolous lawsuit.
That’s what I think, but then I don’t live in
Wisconsin. In the South, if we don’t
like the Governor, we use the Peter Principle and let him rise to his next
level of incompetence…President. I could
name names.
Y’all have a great day, I have lit and hoisted my last petardo.
Well, since you ask, Spring Rain~ the British tax system is a wondrous thing. Joe Public has no option, tax is taken from the paycheck. Only the great, the famous and the self employed get the opportunity to employ an accountant to knit fog and do creative number games. It's not polite to call it tax avoidance.
Hazel.....and how do you feel about those taxes going to a royal family who doesn't do much? I would guess about how we feel about our do-nothing in office. Oh wait, they do vacation.
Hazel, my understanding is that in Britain corporations "pay" key employees in perks, so that the confiscatory tax rates don't kick in. I wish to announce right now that I will seriously consider any job offers, where a substantial chunk of what otherwise would be considered to be taxaable income was instead provided in the form of use of a company car....assuming of course that the car is a Jaguar convertible from Coventry, cradle of cool rides.
Andy - I'm with you on this. Martin is a disappointment - he is in such a rush for his run for the White House he can't see in front of him. Which actually almost got him run over last week by me while he was crossing the street from Government House to the State House. We had a nice chat after he realized who it was who didn't run him over.
What roads is he propossing to repair with this gasoline tax.
The U.S. federal debt has surpassed the total production of the entire country. Even if the economy could grow at an average annual rate of 3 percent over the decade, GDP would be just barely $20 trillion, leaving a debt-to-GDP ratio of 128 percent. If the "wealthy" are taxed @ 100% there is not enough money, not even close and then who would invest that holds a US Passport. A system that raises the rates but then gives deductions is the reason for the complicated structure. But people plan around those deductions so a sweeping change would be devastating as well. The reality check would be if we each get our individual bill now somewhere north of $50,000.00 with interest added each year and after any payments are submitted and made to realize that it is a legacy cost that you pass on if not paid off in your lifetime then your kids get it until it is paid in full or The Greatest Republic in the history of humankind will have a negative net worth. I'll take mine if everyone else takes theirs. We own that debt as much as we own anything else. We have no idea what the "real" cost of anything is and there is no way that an economy can grow by continuing to cut interest rates. You can't get any lower than ZERO % unless you pay people to buy things. Years ago I quit identifying myself by party affiliation. The blame game is a non starter. I am an American and a believer in individual liberty and you should never pay a penny more than you owe and use every deduction you can. Most everyone you listen to is overworked, underpaid, and pay too many taxes and think the world is going to hell in a handbasket. I am an eternal (use the term loosely) optimist but one that needs a couple of stiff drinks at the end of every news cycle.******* As Einstein said, "This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher"(when asked about completing his income tax form)" My post is looking like a tax law document so off to have strawberry birthday cake with Ms Typical's 94 year old Uncle Bill who has a 75 year old girl friend. When the RV is rockin' don't come knockin'.
Giraffe.....he does have the right look. He does have the right background. And he looks good in the St. Patrick's Day Parade but after that...................and you're right, he does have his eye on the white house.
I'm guessing the roads that lead to big democratic coffer.
Hazel, thank you. I want to move to the UK or Canada. :)
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/100-incredible-views-out-of-airplane-windows/ -100 incredible views and this is why the curious traveler loves to fly and why Mr. P inspries our true sense of adventure.
Great photos, TOMMY.
Next time I fly maybe I'll get the window seat.
Amazing photos, TOMMY....more than several "Oh Wow's"
The tax man cometh,
I didn’t pay.
The tax man cometh,
I chased him away.
The tax man cometh,
Will be in prison for many a day.
I don't object at all to paying taxes. Everyone needs to pay so services can be provided. I do think those who are the richest getting out of paying their fair share, though.
Right on Stony & Tommy Typical!
Warren Buffet famously accused of paying less in taxes than his secretary (she makes $250,000), pays millions but at a lower rate than she.
The top ten percent of earners pay 70% of all federal income taxes and therefore pay their 'fair share,' as well as for the 49.5% of incoming earning households that pay no net federal income tax at all while consuming a massive percentage of services.
If President Obama were sincere about: "Erbody payin' their fair share," it would entail a lot more households feeling the sting.
Note in this article that the top 1% of taxpayers by wealth, also pay over 60% of the total money collected by taxes....so i don't see how anyone can say the rich don't pay their fair share. I am a retired teacher and the first 3 months of the year all my income goes entirely back to the Feds. No, I don't approve of how they spend it, but obviously, they won't let us earmark our tax payments for only the causes we like.
http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/incometaxandtheirs/a/who-pays-most-income-tax.htm
Then, we pay all those other taxes on gas, shopping, car tags, etc....But in spite of all that, there is no place in the world I'd rather live. (And I say that, even though here I am smack int he middle of Atlanta, out fighting the traffic to get granddaughter to and from her camp each day, and wishing to be back home in the woods an hour north of the city....come on Friday afternoon when I am off granny duty for a month.)
Maybe we have too much freedom and too much choice. If I understand Hazel correctly, in Britian only the very wealty can "work" their tax bill, all others have it automatically withdrawn. I assume then that there is no tax day in Britian? Everyone has already paid what they owe? Initeresting, but of course, that doesn't solve the larger problem of not enough being collected to cover what is being spent...There is a lot of sentiment here in the Eye that much of the deficit is caused by the fact that there is a large part of the populace that are free-loaders: they don't pay any or enough taxes and they use up a lot of resources and services. My question/comment to that statement (which by the way, I believe is totally true) is that just becase we cut services to those people, are they going to go away? Are they finally going to wake up and say, golly, if I want a nice car, I have to get myelf an education and get a good job.to pay for it. HA! I don't see that happening. We will still pay the bill. Instead of liberal services like food stamps, drug treatment programs, youth camps, etc, we will build bigger prisons. And those prisoners make for cheap labor, and the tax payers pay their health insurance. I don't know if it saves us any money, however. I guess we'll see.
Death and taxes...inevitable....I do get a little irked by property taxes in my part of the country...My sister (lives in another state) pays about $1500. more a year in taxes than I do, and she paid nearly 5 times more for her house than I paid for mine. What are you gonna do? Me, thinkin' about retiring and MOVING! Alas, I have too many more years to go. All in all, taxes don't bother me too much....I just like to gripe about them.
Of coursethere's the approach espoused by many.....a straight 20%, no exceptions, no deductions.
paolos ~
Ah, you should have been here. It was like recess but the bell to end it was out of order.
Imagine, endless assertions of 'constitutional rights' that were nothing more than statutory provisions and easily undone.
Snarling, lying, bullying and strangely, coming as it did from the party that had boasted for years about how its presidential candidate had and could out raise anybody, a lot of whining about being outspent. It was marvelous and the most free fun in decades.
Skywalker ~
Thank you!
O yes, my dears, we have the sword of Damocles day when you have to get your tax return in OR ELSE! They'll even let you do it online now. Bert is right in saying that one of the tax avoidance measures is a company car - or a fuel card so the company pays for your gas, but then you keep the receipts and claim them as work travel on your tax. There have been several scandals about politicians fiddling their expenses - can't say I'm delighted to be paying for some balding bloke to be taking a babe with her boobs spilling out of the top of her frock out for a meal that costs more than I'd spend in a month on food.
Taxes? I pays 'em.
This, i belive makes me a stakeholder, albiet a very diminutive one, of diminimus import and conseqyences, in our nation.
I tend to contribute on the high-side of what i figure will be due come tax day which isn't optimal financial management for certain, but i do hate nasty surprises.
On the day that I file, i clear my mind of negative thoughts that i harbor about the worlds largest ball of twine that used to be a roadside attraction along Rt 66 during it's time as a symbol of Americana kitsch during its heyday........that has been moved to Washington DC and become the symbol and operational model of creating the largest, most redundent, inefficient, ineffective, non-value added system of government programs in the universe.
The twine ball of tax codes, laws, administration and enforcement are its crowning achievement. I do believe it to be the theoretical size of a medium size planet......thatbis of course, void of inteligence.
Now if i was THE majority stakeholder, i would call for the resignation of the CEO, CFO, Board of Directors and any othe person who could not, in measurable terms, define their value-addedness in twenty-five words or less. Non of these folks would be protected by a gold, silver or any other kind of parachute unless it was manufactured by ACME and weighted down by an anvil.
The second thing i might do is replace the word 'fair' with 'justifialy equitable'
Fortunately for everyone, i am but a butterfly sneeze in the scheme of things.....but just the thought of such actions has plastered a smile on my face that almost hurts.
Life is good
Ooh-ooh...... I would also replace the State of the Nation address by the President to Congress with an on-line towne meeting where the audience gave Congress and the Administration their annual performance appraisal.
I, of course, would be the guy standing behind the curtain stage right, or left....with a long pole with a hook on the end....... Ok, we can all take turns being the hook person...
Peace out..... I have to go and pinch myself out of this feeling of euphoria.
more on the honor rollYou may have heard that a lotta million$ were spent on Weeeesconsin's election debacle...who got 'em?!?!? I think that is a relevant question,especially considering how many more million$ are being raised for the upcoming debacle....Imagine if that money went to food pantrys instead....or for Veterans health care....or even early child develpoement....
Forget the taxes - Its a Big Day for Rings - sitting here waiting for my class to start at the local Tech Scool. It even gives me 3 Whole College Credits... if I pass it. Of course 3 hrs ago the State College Trustees voted in a 5 % price increase for the Students. Just my luck...
Rings.....you'll be the best of the best of your class. Good on you for taking it!
Story time~ back in the days when I was on my own and had nothing but a big garden, I grew and sold fruit, flowers and vegetables. On a Thursday night, my bath would be full of flowers ready to bunch up on Friday and hawk around the restaurants, hotels, guest houses - and as they looked pretty in my willow basket, to passers by. Then there were the vegetables - how do you persuade customers they want even more courgettes (zuchinni) how do you keep track of how many runner beans you sold or how many gooseberries and blackberries you picked - not to mention how many potatos there are to a pound in tax money. So I wrote a nice letter to the Tax Man inviting him to visit and advise me, and he did! We had an agreeable couple of hours drinking tea and inspecting my garden. The man went away with a big box of fresh vegetables, for which he paid. Two days later, I got his advice letter - that I must pay one penny as a token tax payment. Tax Men are not always horrible.
rings90----what class are you taking?? good luck!!!
rings90~ all the best!
Haze- Tremendous story dear woman. Jesus had dinner with the taxman and found in him a soul worthy of writing his story. We are all just looking for a little milk of kindness to go in our tea. Kaballah teaches that kindness to each other is kindness to G-D. Maybe the new tax increase should be that we increase how much we love each other. In the words of the famous Chinese philosopher Lao-tzu, "Manifest plainness; embrace simplicity; reduce selfishness; have few desires" (The Way of Lao-tzu). Everything works out when the heart is pure.
PaoloS, Speak my name and I appear- sometimes... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFGZufk4HFs be sure to stick with it 'till 1:49 or so... Hey everybody. I hope y'all are fine. I am.. Bye Willie
I am in my Proust by the grill mode and so I shall proclaim "Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.” The Owl in the tree agrees though he feels that some things are as plain as the nose on your face. The fireflies applaud with their own accord. All as free as the breeze blowing on my freckled face. 100 maybe not. 50? Why not?
Duvet time in Wales, Nos Da, dear people. x
TT -Are you sure that Lao[Tzu was not Ralph Waldo Emerson or Henry David Thoreau? "Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity...money is not required to buy one necessary of the Soul!" to paraphrase the Walden back-to-Nature boys!
As for taxes, we will recall that our boy HD Thoreau went to jail rather than pay his taxes, and he was protesting the cause for which they were being used!!
Not many of us now have that kind of courage....(although it has been suggested that old folks would be better off to commit a crime and get cared for in jail, as instead of being cast to the heap, they'd at least have a dry roof, 3 squares a day, and safety.) Where is the justice? Is life all about the irony? Tell me there's hope!
I have a little math game going with Uncle Sam. The goal is for me to pay nothing to Uncle Sam; and for Uncle Sam to pay nothing to me in any given year. About 275 days through 365, I make a mad adjustment in my Exemptions/Allowances. So far I've come within a Ben Franklin. The elusive line drawn at zero is getting closer... 2012 just might be my year...Uncle Sam: don't spend my Washington's unwisely.
PS-pay nothing more or collect nothing more on April 15, but you got that I'm sure.
Penn, please report back in about 10 months. I'm rooting for ya kid! You can do it!
PL, thank you...if I get a couple Washinton's back from Uncle Sam... the hot dogs are on me.
Penn~ I've got a stain remover for hot dogs,as long as they dont go thru the dryer.......
RY--I had the same thought about election $$. Nearly $140MM raised in May between Obama and Romney, just to fund the campaign. It's insane!