Joy, joy, it's tax time again. Don't you just love doing your taxes? I can't think of a farmer who does. The law is so complicated and there are so many potential deductions. I know many farmers buy equipment just because their business needs the tool more than we think Washington needs our money.
I wish this field of wheat would be enough to pay my taxes but it won't be.
I heard on TV and you know that is worth, that only 1/3 of Americans file the long form. I am in a long line of those Americans waiting to give my data to my tax advisor and hoping WE don't owe a lot of money, I had to include LuAnn since we file jointly. They said something about 2010 tax laws are not yet set and it will take longer to get a refund if you file with deductions.
Gee, I think I filed with deductions the first time I filed as a teacher in 1971. I always spent more for my classroom that was deductble in the law over and above what the schoolboard could justify giving us to spend which wasn't much.
I got real good at it too until I got a random audit and then they audited me seven years in a row! I got to know the Afro American ladies at the Cincinnati IRS office better than I ever wanted to! I never paid an extra dollar in taxes and received some hefty refunds after audits in the Carter years of high interest rates.
So I guess we will play the waitng game this year. I know we owe money this year with record gross and net income though we played the game all year long. Almost all of 2011 crop is prepayed. I never wanted to be there but I guess it is good to a point. Sometimes it is easier being poor!
Dad remembered when he paid his first Federal Income tax so it's a relatively new business in America. Now it is big business and the game none of us like playing but it's the lsw of the land. I always thought a flat tax would be simpler and fairer but I doubt I would want to pay that amount in taxes today.
Look at all the people we employ with taxes! How many are on the Federal dole? Millions of people are and what percentage of the jobs are government jobs today? I don't know the figure but it is a bunch.
Roads and bridges and infrastructure I can see but all these Federal jobs from you and me? It's enough to make your head spin.
So it's tax time again. Real estate tax, federal income tax and state income tax and tax, tax, tax.
Is tax day still around May 1 for most of us when we have earned enough to pay all our taxes and the rest of the year is left for our own discretionary spending?
Ed
As you've probably read, federal income taxes are technically illegal, but that's never stopped Uncle Sam from collecting them anyway. I've said this before, but when I left self-employment, there were 17 taxes, fees, licenses, etc. that I had to pay, file, collect or find some legal way to avoid. Those were just the ones I KNEW about; we ALL pay a lot of hidden taxes, too. And I was just a one-man operation!
ReplyDeleteTax freedom day, as it is called in Canada, arrives June 6 or thereabouts. Good grief, that means we spend half the year working to pay taxes! Of course for some folks it likely arrives a little sooner.
ReplyDeleteWell, as long as they are putting our tax dollars to good use I guess I won't complain.
It's sad isn't fellow supporting all this government we don't want or need? The working man was always too darn busy to say something about it or he was labeled a radical. I don't know, I just don't know. I think I can pay them and I think I can have a decent burial while my dear family gets the rest of the pittance?
ReplyDeleteWhat can we say, we elected the thieves (and thieves they are)
ReplyDelete