IRS, taxes and such

In church Sunday, there was a plea for people to participate in a certain program because there’s money from the federal government just waiting for us. There was a sense of entitlement as we were encouraged to use the money that was ours for the asking.
What was not mentioned is that the money “from the federal government” actually is our money that was taken by the federal government from hard-working Americans to be redistributed to other hard-working taxpayers of their choosing.
In today’s society, Americans have too many entitlements. It should be essential when discussing such entitlements that the entire issue be disclosed. For instance, why is one person entitled to money earned by another person? Of course, no one thinks of it in this way, but isn’t that the bottom line?
Put another way: “From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs.” Unfortunately, a great number of people today probably would nod their heads in approval, not even realizing that this is straight from the teachings of Karl Marx.
Continuing with this entitlement philosophy was an e-mail I received that same day. This time the message was to the citizens of Texas: “The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDot) has launched a public education campaign to increase vehicle registration compliance in the State of Texas.” They are asking help in getting the message out to fellow Texans. The message is not that all vehicles should meet certain inspection requirements to ensure the safety of all citizens from unsafe vehicles on the roads.
Rather, the message is that our state “is deprived of approximately $42.3 million annually because residents don’t register their vehicles, or fail to register them on time. And “newcomers who don’t abide by the 30-day registration grace period …” cost us taxpayers an estimated additional $40 million!
I guess the problem I have with this is not so much that I think registration is a bad thing, but it’s this entitlement thing about “being deprived of” something that belongs to them. In fact, this is an additional tax that most hard-working Americans gladly pay in order to keep our transportation system going.
So, while I’m not opposed to vehicle registration, I question the logic that says the money is there and, thus the state is missing out on what they consider rightfully theirs.
As April 15 approaches, the subject of the IRS and taxes weighs heavily on the minds of all taxpayers. It’s a good time to be thinking about hard work and the money we earn.
A recent “World News Tonight” explored some of the problems with the income tax program as it exists today. Even many professional tax return preparers and well-known CPA firms simply cannot keep up with an average of more than 800 changes to the tax code each year.
Congress’ answer to all this? Not simplify the tax code, but require more training, meaning more bureaucracy on top of a burgeoning bureaucracy.
But, what if we used the common sense approach and adopt the FairTax law?
Indeed, the key here might be
“common sense.” Common sense is something sorely lacking from America’s politically hypersensitive society, but that will be the subject of next week’s column.