Tax Day

It is April 15 once more, Tax Day in America! This is a relatively new thing to our country because Federal Income Tax was not implemented until the last century.

"By 1913, 36 States had ratified the 16th Amendment to the Constitution. In October, Congress passed a new income tax law with rates beginning at 1 percent and rising to 7 percent for taxpayers with income in excess of $500,000. Less than 1 percent of the population paid income tax at the time. Form 1040 was introduced as the standard tax reporting form and, though changed in many ways over the years, remains in use today."

I filed my first 1040 when I was in college in 1969 to get back money that had been witheld from my paycheck from the Ohio State University farm business. I paid my first real income tax in 1972 when I made $5500 in my first year as a teacher.

With my farming and teaching, it was pretty easy to get most of my witheld taxes back. I always skated in the gray areas so I got audited for seven years in a row, always getting a little back after the audit because I had good records and never claimed all the gray areas.

I finally realized that only a "no change audit" was favorable with the IRS even though seven years in a row is considered harrassment. I got some big refunds with the high interest rates during the Carter years.

Today Tea Parties will be held all over the country with the biggest one expected in Atlanta. Cincinnati's is during lunch hour while Dayton's and Columbus's are after work this evening.

The conservatives are protesting for smaller government while everyone seems to have their own discontent and their own agenda. It will be interesting to see how it works out.

American's always pick on pork projects that seem wasteful. I saw one that isn't pork to be, the study of why honey bees are dying. This has become a huge problem in the last decade and threaten's our food system. Some people have a narrow view of "the birds and the bees."

I don't mind paying my share and I don't think anyone does. The problem comes with big government and money flying out the door like it blew off a money tree. Many thing this has been happening way too long.

What is your view? Are you going to a Tea Party?

Ed Winkle