Wednesday, April 10, 2013
I don't get it.
Local radio news is talking about a survey that shows huge dissatisfaction with the IRS. Least surprising news of the year. More surprisingly, the poll shows 85% of Americans favor tax evasion, "within the law" of course.
Truly and honestly, I don't get it. I've never had trouble with IRS. Been filing returns for 45 years now. Always filled out the forms myself. In the last 10 years of self-employed semi-retirement the forms have been more complicated, and I've made a few errors or missed new provisions. My errors have worked both ways; IRS has found the errors and either billed me or paid me. They've never done anything unfair or arbitrary.
Based on no data at all, I'm inclined to think: People who get trouble from the IRS are people who try to make trouble for the IRS. If you're trying something slippery, you shouldn't be surprised that it doesn't work.
The idea of "starving the beast" seemed to make sense when it was first proposed, but turned out to be rather dumb propaganda. You're not going to put the brakes on government evildoing by getting audited. You're not going to slow Satan by cutting tax rates. You're just giving the government a new excuse to borrow from China or print more counterfeit Bernanke Bucks. And those revenue sources feed the Wall Street beast, which is vastly more destructive and evil than the daily workings of the government.
¶ 6:12 AM 
