It’s the Pitts: Dateline: April 15
Well, the worst is over.
Our income tax is in the mail, now all I have to do is find the money to cover the check. You sure gotta hand it to the IRS, literally. Somehow they always manage to get another raise, even when we make less money.
Every time we send in our state and federal income taxes, along with our estimated taxes, I feel like an emaciated Holstein who just got her crankcase squeezed until she was bone dry.
My wife does all of the heavy lifting on our taxes, spending two months getting everything ready for the accountant. I tell her I’d be glad to help, but she says people with high blood pressure should NEVER do their own taxes.
She’s afraid I’d have another stroke or become “intoxicated” if I even got near a 9. Plus, my wife knows I’d make all kinds of mistakes because I’d try to write off last year’s taxes as a bad investment or claim two dependents – the feds and the state.
I feel I’ve already contributed enough just so politicians can live the lifestyle to which they’ve become accustomed, but my work is still not done because Tax Freedom Day – the day of the year when the average taxpayer has theoretically earned enough income to pay for local, state and federal taxes – is estimated to be June 12 this year. Let that sink in.
If you still don’t get my point, consider the average worker pays more in income tax than food, shelter and clothing costs combined.
My wife and I sat down and made a list of all of the taxes Americans are forced to pay, and they include federal income tax, state income tax, capital gains tax, gift taxes, payroll taxes, value-added taxes, sin taxes on cigarettes and booze, sales tax, bond issues, gas tax, estate tax and on and on.
I’m sure you can probably think of a lot more to add to our list.
Rubbing it in, right about the time we have to pay our state and federal taxes and estimates, we get hit with the worst tax of all – property tax. Paying it is like having to buy something we already own.
The bureaucrats in Sacramento, Calif. say I shouldn’t object because my state taxes go towards paying for things we use constantly like road repair, fire suppression and schools. But we don’t have kids and our roads have potholes that make the Grand Canyon look like a dimple.
And if losing their homes wasn’t bad enough, the burned-out residents of Los Angeles learned after the fact the salary of the fired LA fire chief was $439,772 per year, counting overtime and benefits. And the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion officer in charge of the LA Fire Department’s Equity Bureau made more than that.
What the heck is an Equity Bureau?
If this doesn’t give you a pain in the wallet, how do you feel about paying for…
• The $59 million the Federal Emergency Management Agency handed over to house illegal immigrants in luxury New York City hotels.
• A Congressional inquiry found the U.S. Air Force was spending $1,300 for every reheatable coffee cup aboard one of its aircraft, and a two-year audit by the U.S. Department of Defense’s inspector general last year found Boeing overcharged the Air Force by $149,072, or 8,000 percent over the previous price for soap dispensers.
• During the height of the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spent millions of dollars to persuade Afghan farmers to grow fruits and other vegetables instead of opium, and the results? Opium poppy cultivation across the country doubled as the farmers used the new canals, financed by us, to grow more poppies.
• Over four years, USAID gave Morocco $27 million in funding to train Moroccans how to create and design pottery. Morocco has, for thousands of years, created pottery dating back to 6,000 B.C.
• And one of my favorite Department of Government Efficiency findings – $1.6 million of your dollars, thank you very much, was given to the University of Florida to study the “social and institutional detriments of vulnerability and resilience to climate hazards in African Sahel.”
I fear I may have caused you some distress or given you a headache. In this case, take two “Senditall” tablets, which also describes the new short form for filing your taxes next year.
