Taxes

I may be an odd person, but I really don’t mind having to pay taxes. I understand the need to pool our money to pay for infrastructure and safety, etc. But there are two things that do bother me a lot about taxes: 1 – rich people and corporations that don’t pay their fair share, and 2 – taxes are hard to understand and do.

Some rich people and corporations who don’t pay their fair share often really believe that they are totally self-made, and that they don’t need anything from the rest of us. Of course, they forget (or ignore) the fact that they made their wealth driving on roads and bridges that the rest of us paid for – hardly totally self-made. I don’t believe that no one should have more than I do – that is not the case here. What I believe is that we should all participate in our society, including by paying taxes, so that we can make and maintain roads and bridges (and other infrastructure), and help people who need help. If we all paid a little, no one would ave to pay a lot.

How hard it is to do my taxes is what is driving me nuts right now. Does it really have to be this hard? Tax simplification has never simplified anything, as far as I am concerned! It really feels like that problem here is caused by writing the tax code to benefit some people over others and making cut-outs for some so that they will not have to pay what the rest of us pay. It doesn’t seem to me that you should have to pay someone to do your taxes in order to get the best deal and find the most deductions. You should not have to be rich in order to do your taxes!

Enough ranting…back to my taxes.