Taxes

[altivo]

Y'know, I don't object to paying taxes. Unlike the teabag idiots, I understand the necessity and the responsibility. What I don't get is why it has to be so damned complicated.

Forms completed, thank goodness. I'm getting money back from the feds, as I should. I got tired of having to pay them every year and bumped up my withholding. Now they take too much out. That was compounded by the fact that the recession has reduced the interest earned on my savings to a quarter of what it used to be. So I don't owe them a lot of tax on earned interest. The federal refund is a pretty hefty amount this year compared to the last few years. But I still end up owing Illinois. This seems to be a regular rule. No matter what, I always owe Illinois. And what does Illinois do with it? Good question. Nothing useful, I'm sure. They've been not paying money owed to schools, libraries, etc. I guess it all goes to pay legislators and their abundant staff or something.

The so-called health care reform is bound to make this even more complicated. Of course, it isn't a reform at all. It's just an expansion of the existing private insurance disaster. Couldn't actually do anything to compete or lower costs, that would make the insurance companies mad and they might not donate money to political campaigns any more. So we get nothing except a lot more paperwork and no improvement in health care at all.

Once again it turns out that we voted only for the lesser of two evils, and not much less at that. I wouldn't vote for McCain and Palin because I knew they'd commit ecological rape the minute they were able. Well, the Obama administration is doing the same thing anyway. They carried out programs initiated by the Bush administration without reviewing them. As a result protected wolf populations that were UNDER STUDY were slaughtered by idiot hunters. Oil drilling in sensitive coastal areas is going ahead. Private profiteering on federal lands is continuing at the same pace as before. This administration has delivered absolutely nothing of what it promised. Note that this does not entitle the Republicans to any credit either. They have contributed nothing useful at all, just stood around screaming "No, no, no" at everything anyone tried to propose. No counter offers, no constructive suggestions, just "No, no, no." They have become the "No, nothing" party, and I'll not be voting for any of them either.

Comments

Seen this before..

[avon-deer.livejournal.com]

When I attended FC in 2008, everyone I spoke to was really excited about the prospect of Obama's desire for change. So was I until someone (over a hearty breakfast) mentioned that Obama was really looking like America's Blair. Then I thought to myself: "Yes. He is, isn't he?" I looked over to that guy and said "don't expect too much."

It seems I was right, and history is repeating itself, this time across the pond. The Labour party was elected by a landslide in 97 with the promise of reform, and it looked reasonable at first. A national minimum wage was introduced, marriage alternatives for gay people etc. But then it all started to feel a bit samey. Inaction on rampant house price inflation; Inaction on stemming the widening gap between rich and poor; Refusal to remove all the Tory banking sector deregulation (well..they are at least regretting that one now.) Couple this with the fact they have been THE most authoritarian administration this nation has seen probably since Cromwell’s protectorate.

Double jeopardy: GONE!
Trials conducted without juries
Legalisation of bedroom activities on a scale barely seen since the Victorian age
So this is nothing new to me. The inconvenient truth is that it barely matters what the allegiance of the guy in the White House, or Number 10, or Sussex Drive.
They have one master and one master only. The power elite they all come to worship and idolise so. The corporations which pay their perks, and see them alright when their political race is run. Their unwillingness to punish the banks more for their irresponsible usury, while kicking the rest of us is proof enough of this.

I am going to the ballot boxes in a months time. My forth time voting in a general, and I have never been so under-enthused in my life. “Yeah, whatever…” is my chosen preference, and it seems half the country with me.

Re: Seen this before..

[hrrunka]

*sigh* I'd like to see a party campaigning on the basis of the bad laws^*1 they'd repeal rather than the new ones they're promising to bring in, for a change. We just seem to get more and more legislation, often poorly drafted, papering over cracks in previous poorly drafted laws, and sneaking in some nasty controls along the way...

*1 Like the Dangerous Dogs Act and the Regulation of Investigatory Powers for example...

Re: Seen this before..

[altivo]

I knew Obama would be a flop, just as Clinton was. The trouble is, the other choice not only was a crooked, lying right winger, but his running mate was an empty headed twat. As usual in American politics, you vote for the lesser of two evils. I have only seen two or three really good candidates since 1960, and only one of them got elected.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

That's what I don't get, The Australian tax system seems so much easier, income tax goes to the feds, States get their money through other means.
States get GST from the Feds. City council gets theirs through rates.

You seem to have to pay Feds, State, County and City all at the same time o.O

[altivo]

Well, actually no. Neither county nor city have income taxes usually. (A very few cities do, but not where I've lived.) Counties usually tax real estate, though. All of them may impose sales taxes (something like your GST.) Federal and state are the only annual income tax filings we have to make. The real estate taxes just come as a bill and you have to pay them. There's almost nothing you can do about that except pay or they will take your house and land away from you. State taxes are pretty simple here, just one sheet of paper for the reporting and math. It's the federal stuff that keeps getting more and more intrusive and complicated every year. It can take many hours to fill out all the paperwork.

[cabcat.livejournal.com]

Strange ours can be done through a free software program the government gives out which automatically loads any data that you have against your tax file number :) Then you can either lodge it electronically (and you get your refund 2 weeks earlier) or you can print it out and lodge it by mail or fax :)

[altivo]

Oh sure, you can file online here. It's really only suitable for simple returns, though. People who don't own property and don't run businesses or have investments, etc. I guess that really does account for many of US citizens and residents.

I don't do financial stuff online though, and wouldn't file taxes that way even if it were more practical than it is. I've seen too much fraud, chicanery, and theft using online sources. I know too much about how they (don't) really work and aren't really as secure as they want you to believe. And I've already had enough experience with fighting errors made in electronic financial transactions to know that I want to avoid it in the future (I always won, but it was never easy.)

[schnee]

Y'know, I don't object to paying taxes. Unlike the teabag idiots, I understand the necessity and the responsibility. What I don't get is why it has to be so damned complicated.

It's so that if the state wants you in prison but can't prove you actually committed any crimes, they can get you for tax fraud instead. :P

[altivo]

Actually tax fraud is a pretty rare conviction. Most often it gets used against politicians and organized crime types. Tax judgements are more frequent, but those just amount to being ordered to pay extra, with interest or fines included.

[schnee]

Ah, I was joking.

Well, half-joking (it does seem to have worked on Al Capone, at least).

[frith]

I don't mind paying taxes, I mind having to do the paperwork. When I go to a restaurant, I don't write my own bill! That said, it also irks me that 'income tax' was a _temporary_ tax created to pay for a war that ended 65 years ago!

[altivo]

Huh? The federal income tax in the US was authorized by a constitutional amendment passed by Congress in 1909 and ratified in 1913. That was even before the first World War.

Or are you talking about Canada?

The infamous "temporary tax" for the "war effort" in the US was the telephone excise tax, imposed to pay for the Vietnam War and left in place for decades after that.

[frith]

I did not know that. I thought for sure income tax was a WWII innovation. o_0

[moonhare]

No matter what, I always owe Illinois.

Oh, yeah. No matter what, I always owe Rhode Island... I've even had years where I'd gotten all my money back from the IRS and still owed Rhode Island. I suppose I could increase withholding, but I never get around to it. So on top of owing RI taxes, I owe interest penalties to boot.

But it's over until next January, so I can bask in procrastination for a while. I just have to cut open my Massachusetts envelope to make the copy I forgot to include with the Rhode Island return, and all will mail tomorrow.

I wouldn't vote for McCain and Palin because I knew they'd commit ecological rape the minute they were able.

I'll break my rules and make a political statement (though I did seem to start a spat within avon-deer's lj and it was only an innocent comment by me and I'm really sorry that it played out that way) Anyway, the One and Only Reason I didn't vote McCain was because one of Palin's campaign spots had an interview with her in her house, and the house was decorated with dead animals. I found it... upsetting.