I wrote/mailed tax checks today...

Look for the tax enforcement to get even more harsh...but for who?

After having a "use tax" levied on my purchase of a used amp I bought from a private individual from Canada, I see things getting far worse for the typical citizen. I remember years ago that the citizen worked from Jan 1 til around May 1-15 just to pay the total tax burden. This includes all taxes of course. But it is still exorbitant IMO. Taxing income may be the most immoral of things since it taxes a human for their very existence because work is a natural part of the life cycle itself, unless you live on someone else’s $$$. But then you are obligated to that entity and subject to their control.

87,000 New IRS Agents

"Taxes are taxes wherever one lives, that said cheques still must be 

an American thing, living in Canada it must be at least 25 years since 

I last had a cheque book every thing being electronic."

totem395,

technically, our bill in the States, isn't due until this Monday, 18th. While the checkbook has been a thing of past for awhile now, it's useful for making certain payments. 

It also is a good refresher for actual handwriting. It's a challenge to complete a sentence in proper cursive(a dead skill now)

"Fix every problem"?? I must have missed that on the evening news.

@tablejockey 

The IRS is one of the few reasons I keep a checkbook. 

Taxes are taxes wherever one lives, that said cheques still must be 

an American thing, living in Canada it must be at least 25 years since 

I last had a cheque book every thing being electronic.

@carlsbad 

The problem is that politicians, no matter what side of the aisle, fix every problem by spending more money. (I know there are a few exceptions, but very few).  

It is those "very few" I seek out and support. 

Charles 

The problem is that politicians, no matter what side of the aisle, fix every problem by spending more money. (I know there are a few exceptions, but very few).  

"My wife and I paid every year and always a few thousand extra.  Since being retired, we now get a refund of a couple of thousand."

stereo5- that's great. I am looking forward to joining that seemingly elusive club. I've got 7 years to go until F.R.A., and I'm not waiting a day later! If things go better than planned, I'm out in 5.

I can then FINALLY, dedicate more time for proper audio neurosis.

I would be in such great shape for taxes if only audio gear was deductible!

The Creature from Jekyll Island is a must read for every tax payer

In November 1910, six men – Nelson Aldrich, A. Piatt Andrew, Henry Davison, Arthur Shelton, Frank Vanderlip and Paul Warburg – met at the Jekyll Island Club, off the coast of Georgia, to write a plan to reform the nation’s banking system. The meeting and its purpose were closely guarded secrets, and participants did not admit that the meeting occurred until the 1930s. But the plan written on Jekyll Island laid a foundation for what would eventually be the Federal Reserve System.

It is a PRIVATE entity

My wife and I paid every year and always a few thousand extra.  Since being retired, we now get a refund of a couple of thousand.  Who would have thought?

Since I’ve been self-employed I always pay. Actually prefer to pay after taking every deduction offered, than overpay our bloated Federal Government and think I’m getting a deal with a ‘refund’.

Most everyone owes this year because last year had big upside do to "poor me" stimulus inflation. Give I back this year AND pay taxes on vanishing gains.

And like it.

I hate to further any potentially political discussion, but the IRS really isn’t the problem. It’s Congress that writes the tax code which the IRS has to enforce.
Over many years Congress has starved the IRS so they have less resources to enforce the laws and bring in revenue.

Years ago I read the IRS often goes after companies with 15 employees or less because small businesses don’t have the resources to hire teams of tax attorneys (at one point GE had 1000 tax lawyers on staff - how can the IRS compete with that?)

I also believe that major companies tax shelter/money movement schemes are so convoluted that the IRS doesn’t have the manpower to even figure out much of what was constructed to evade paying into the system.

If were in Congress, I’d give the IRS more resources to have large teams dedicated to each multinational to determine what they owe, not what they claim.

I believe the IRS has in the past audited restaurants and charged tax based on the amount of food/supplies they order and charge tax based on what money they think was made. They have done this to waiters as well, billing them for what the IRS believes they made in tips, which the waiters claim they did not make that much.

If this principle were applied to taxing huge corporations, I think many of us would be in a better place.

Many years ago I was audited because the IRS calculations differed from my brokerage firm by $500. The agent spent days, even coming to home based video post production studio (I deduct a lot of gear). In the end I settled with them for $250. I found they agent to be nice, professional and reasonable, though I felt it was a huge waste of resources for $250.

Years ago there was an uproar because someone leaked an internal motivational video produced by the IRS that was a fun spoof on Star Treck. While people seem outraged at their tax dollars being spent on that, myself having done many films for companies, including an elaborate Star Wars spoof, and knowing how the employees love seeing their coworkers in the films, felt it was a useful and inexpensive way of making employees feel better about their IRS job. I can only imagine an IRS employee at a bar or party and someone asks what they do for a living, then politely excuse themself. Who wants to talk to an IRS employee?

"Save some more for the heavy floor bracing"

Slaw-Im on 100 year old floors. 800 lbs of Tech Das indeed requires proper staging.

I could put it in the garage and stare at it.

The whole process of check writing, addressing envelope and affixing stamp is painful.

Letting go of the envelope in the mailbox is a traumatic experience.

TGIF. Happy Weekend.

@tablejockey ,

Save some more for the heavy floor bracing.

LOL all of the administrations suck.

IRS sucks.

Need a federal sales tax and be done. 

I've been stuck with a huge bill. The previous administration apparently lowered withholding and increased rates. Taxation without representation and benefits.