Turbo Taxed

Do you hear that? It’s the sound of fingers tap, tap, tapping to a stressful beat, while accountants account everywhere during tax season. Line after line of what can be deducted, who is a dependent and what is depended upon blurs together with the flying of fingers on a keyboard. Nothing is sure, but death and taxes, uh-huh. I believe that fully because I was taught by the best, my Dad.

Every year of my growing up, the tax race started as soon as January First came out of the gate. My father was never late with his taxes, and he expected that the IRS should be grateful enough at his prowess and speed, that he always sent his taxes with “Return Receipt Requested.” The three R’s were quite important to my Daddy. If they wanted his money, they could at least sign for it, not to mention it proved that no one could ever say that his taxes were lost in the mail if he had his “Return Receipt.”  It was my Daddy’s way of saying that if he had to work hard to send our government his money; they needed to work a little harder to get it. Our government working is something I see less and less of these days.

Boy, I bet the government would lose it if my husband and I didn’t work in a timely manner and send in our taxes. Ever wonder what would happen if you didn’t pay your taxes? Well, bank accounts are levied, audits abound, and life in general is no longer pleasant, if it was in the first place. But, what would happen if every single citizen who paid taxes said, nope, nada, ain’t gonna happen? I mean, it’s in our history, Taxation without Representation. I don’t feel remotely represented these days, by any party, candidate or governing official. Do you? Oh, I’m not proposing a revolution, so sit back IRS. You don’t have to audit me. I ain’t got nothing you’d want anyway. 

There is a part of me that would very much like to see what the dickens the House and Senate of our Nation would do if we all stopped paying taxes and said, nah, get busy or else. Oh, and by the way, no more raises, no more life terms. Do you think they’d get it? I wonder what my Dad would think of my hair brained ideas? He had a wonderful sense of humor and actually went to the great accounting office in the sky one sunny April 15th. It was a final act of irony, yet he still managed to pay out the taxes.

Now honestly, I wouldn't recommend not paying taxes, too many good people who protect and support our way of life would be unjustly caught in the middle; our military, our police, firefighters, and teachers, just to name a few. But what if we had a demerit system? I can see it now. You filibustered thus and such a bill instead of working together, that means line A-21 is now deducted from line B-27 and BINGO, you lose that money Washington! If the government shuts down yet again, we give away the Senators' and Representatives' full retirement and pensions to all who served in our armed forces. Quicken and Turbo Tax would have to be revamped quicker than a programmer can program.  As for infrastructure, if you can’t take care of it, then all trips during your "service" must be paid for out of your personal pockets, and not out of our hard earned wages. It's a delightful thought. 

As much as I'd love to see some of this come to pass, it will take a lot more than dreaming and scheming to bring something positive to pass in our tax codes. The people who are supposed to represent us are so caught up in tit-for-tat, that we the people lose. It just goes to show ya, if the government doesn't get you, death and taxes will.