Well, today is Tax Day in the USA, at least the day I had posted this article.
And we are so fortunate to live in such a great country with relatively low tax rates, income tax overall.
Yes, I'd rather live here than any of those socialist EU countries, this is the best deal on the planet.
Still, we are wasting ungodly amounts of productivity every year during tax time.
It's just insane, and it is totally unacceptable.
But how did it get so bad in the first place, so complicated? WTH is going on? I was talking to a gentleman at Starbucks today about this, he'd just finished his taxes a few days ago, and mailed them off today, he didn't want the government to have his money any sooner than possible, so he waited until the last day, post marked late in the afternoon to beat the Mid-Night USPS rush.
I told him I was miffed at the class-warfare and political rhetoric about equality and the claim that we need to put more taxes on the rich.
You see, the government made rules, deductions, incentives, tax credits and the like to get us to spend money in ways which help the government do what they want to do.
Then the governments says it needs more money because people are not paying enough in taxes due to all the loop-holes.
Yes, well who created those loop-holes in the first place and why? Well, politicians with special projects, lobbyists and campaign donators with interests got the officials to pass laws to divert those tax revenues.
Now many of these same politicians are saying it isn't fair, no I don't think they believe that, they just want to make a statement which mimics their constituency calling for the heads of wealthy people because they supposedly don't pay enough in taxes.
Well then, do you know who really doesn't pay enough in taxes, all those people who've finally figured out that it is easier to vote one day a year than work all year - that's who! Today, because of all these rules, exemptions and loop-holes our people and businesses are wasting 100s of billions of hours in lost productivity, and yet, the politicians are complaining about slow GDP growth.
Seriously? WTH is that all about, we all know the tax code is archaic, that it sucks, and that it's a complete mess, but I don't see anyone doing anything about it.
Please consider all this and think on it.