Tax Man is Ready April 15th,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, it's a Real Burden

[Big Al of Tennessee]

But it was not always that way.

1913, the Income Tax was instituted, it is not in the constitution, but here we go.

1913, the Federal Reserve was Instituted.

1913, This is the most important one, The Senate was no longer appointed, to stymy aggressive

power grabbing, but was put out for Popular Vote and the Idiots live there forever. With no real

checks and balances, other than when they die or go to jail.



They even tax your motorcycles, now that is over the line for sure.

[musclehead]

had to pay this year, just over $100.   I think I did ok....

however I did have the 'tax talk' with several folks at work, they were wondering why I hadn't filed yet. I said it's because I am going to owe so why hurry? one guy bragged about getting $1700 back I just shook my head and said why did you give the government YOUR money interest free for the whole year? so you can get a big check back?

he had no answer. if I were ever in charge of hiring I would have one trick question I'd ask; would you rather owe $100 dollars tax at the end of the year or get a $3,000 check back at tax time?

[Patrick]

Ya, well, the good old 16th amendment. Of course who proposed this ?  A democrat named Underwood and our worst ever president woodrow wilson signed it. Well, worst president until what we have now.
There was a previous income tax however. It was enacted to pay for the civil war, then rescinded.

[threevalks]

             Myself, I would prefer to get the $3,000 check at end of year. How much interest do you suppose your co worker would have received from the $1,700. With there $1,700 he can buy something fairly nice. wonder what he would have bought with the $32.69 a week. As I said this is just my thoughts,  if we were all alike everyone would ride a Blue & Silver Interstate.                             

[musclehead]

             Myself, I would prefer to get the $3,000 check at end of year. How much interest do you suppose your co worker would have received from the $1,700. With there $1,700 he can buy something fairly nice. wonder what he would have bought with the $32.69 a week. As I said this is just my thoughts,  if we were all alike everyone would ride a Blue & Silver Interstate.                             

a lot of people think like that and are poor. if you put 32.69 a week into a savings account or rolled into an IRA you'd be better off then buying something 'nice'

not a personal attack, just saying....

[bigguy]

Well boys, I just found out that taxes are voluntary. Yep, you heard me, voluntary. According to Harry Reid they are.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mRSI8yWwg#t=103

[Patrick]

What a guy ! harry, he's the man to listen to !

I wish we could get a refund, can't remember when we did. We mailed a check yesterday.

[cookiedough]

I'm with you, why give the govt. all that money upfront,  I'd rather break even all year vs. giving more in MY money to the govt. throughout the entire year.

I hear all around me who get 2-3 grand back in tax refunds.  Heck, I'd rather take that 2-3 grand all year long and pay the bills and splurdge a little at a time is my way of thinking.

The people who get 2-3 grand back or more go out and blow it on something they don't need usually and waste it foolishly sometimes.

[..]

Well boys, I just found out that taxes are voluntary. Yep, you heard me, voluntary. According to Harry Reid they are.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mRSI8yWwg#t=103

Until one can watch/listen to a video that is seamless and guarantedd not to have been doctored then a "discussion" like this is worthless.

[..]

             Myself, I would prefer to get the $3,000 check at end of year. How much interest do you suppose your co worker would have received from the $1,700. With there $1,700 he can buy something fairly nice. wonder what he would have bought with the $32.69 a week. As I said this is just my thoughts,  if we were all alike everyone would ride a Blue & Silver Interstate.                             

Good man. I hope you are going to adjust your deductible so you can "loan" the Fed Govt more of your money in the future.

[Big Al of Tennessee]

Income Tax was the beginning of the end for this Experiment called America.

Colonies at 1st.

United States was actually an Algonquin Idea.

Yes the Indians thought it up.

We got it from them.

Jefferson said once we take it from those that produce it, we are sunk.

Because then, The People will figure how to vote for those that will raid the treasury

to give it to them. Without any work imparted for the pleasure of spending your money.

Democrats, are the ones, and we are about to reach critical mass.

51 percent.

That could change soon, as of May 16th, a few of us are embarking on another great experiment.

Stay Tuned.

[Serk]

I think we should move all elections to be held on April 16th... Might shake things up a bit...

[.]

Well, we do have to pay to support all the welfare moochers out there, right? Like these:

Verizon Communications: Profits: $19.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -3.8%
General Electric: Profits: $19.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Boeing: Profits: $14.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -5.5%
NextEra Energy (North America's largest solar and wind power operator, based in Florida): Profits: $8.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -2%
American Electric Power (Electric utility based in Columbus, Ohio): Profits: $8.2 billion    Effective tax rate: -6.4%
Pacific Gas & Electric (California electrical utility): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -8.4%
Apache: (Houston-based oil and gas company): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.3%
Consolidated Edison: (New York energy company): Profits: $5.9 billion    Effective tax rate: -1.3%
El Paso: (Houston-based energy company that operates the country's largest natural gas pipeline): Profits: $4.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.9%
CenterPoint Energy (Electric and gas utility company based in Houston): Profits: $3.1 billion    Effective tax rate: -11.3%

www.forwardprogressives.com/10-companies-paid-taxes-despite-earning-billion-revenue/#sthash.1vmspa1S.dpuf

[Serk]

Well, we do have to pay to support all the welfare moochers out there, right? Like these:

Verizon Communications: Profits: $19.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -3.8%
General Electric: Profits: $19.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Boeing: Profits: $14.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -5.5%
NextEra Energy (North America's largest solar and wind power operator, based in Florida): Profits: $8.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -2%
American Electric Power (Electric utility based in Columbus, Ohio): Profits: $8.2 billion    Effective tax rate: -6.4%
Pacific Gas & Electric (California electrical utility): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -8.4%
Apache: (Houston-based oil and gas company): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.3%
Consolidated Edison: (New York energy company): Profits: $5.9 billion    Effective tax rate: -1.3%
El Paso: (Houston-based energy company that operates the country's largest natural gas pipeline): Profits: $4.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.9%
CenterPoint Energy (Electric and gas utility company based in Houston): Profits: $3.1 billion    Effective tax rate: -11.3%

www.forwardprogressives.com/10-companies-paid-taxes-despite-earning-billion-revenue/#sthash.1vmspa1S.dpuf

Saying a negative "Effective tax rate" implies the companies are getting refunds above their actual taxes paid, which is not quite the case. Explanation here - http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/10/23/big-companies-pay-no-taxes/2480281/

But, a simple solution is still a flat rate, no exceptions, flat tax. Remove the favoritism, remove the power of the IRS to be politicized, simplify the tax code from the weapon it has become.

(Or Fair Tax, I'm not partial to either of the main competing alternatives, whatever shuts down the IRS and brings a simplified tax code I'm in favor of.)

[musclehead]

Well, we do have to pay to support all the welfare moochers out there, right? Like these:

Verizon Communications: Profits: $19.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -3.8%
General Electric: Profits: $19.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Boeing: Profits: $14.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -5.5%
NextEra Energy (North America's largest solar and wind power operator, based in Florida): Profits: $8.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -2%
American Electric Power (Electric utility based in Columbus, Ohio): Profits: $8.2 billion    Effective tax rate: -6.4%
Pacific Gas & Electric (California electrical utility): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -8.4%
Apache: (Houston-based oil and gas company): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.3%
Consolidated Edison: (New York energy company): Profits: $5.9 billion    Effective tax rate: -1.3%
El Paso: (Houston-based energy company that operates the country's largest natural gas pipeline): Profits: $4.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.9%
CenterPoint Energy (Electric and gas utility company based in Houston): Profits: $3.1 billion    Effective tax rate: -11.3%

www.forwardprogressives.com/10-companies-paid-taxes-despite-earning-billion-revenue/#sthash.1vmspa1S.dpuf

agreed, lets reform  to the fair tax.

even. for cryin' out loud, a split flat tax no deductions...

[Patrick]

I thought we were on the verge of a revolution a couple decades ago. But, now I feel we are closer than ever and the way news travels to everyone faster today, maybe it will happen. Things do have to change, hopefully no more 'fundamental' change, but, reasonable change.

[.]

I thought we were on the verge of a revolution a couple decades ago. But, now I feel we are closer than ever and the way news travels to everyone faster today, maybe it will happen. Things do have to change, hopefully no more 'fundamental' change, but, reasonable change.

I wouldn't hold my breath hoping for anything reasonable considering that so much of the "news" that travels so quickly is little more than incendiary punditry masquerading as news that cannot be debunked quickly enough to keep it from worming its way into people's consciousness.

One of the greatest social problems we face is the shortness of our collective attention span. It enables most of us to digest just enough to reinforce the myths we already believe to be true while rejecting out of hand virtually everything that fails to play into the narrative. And this is played out daily in just about every political corner. Critical thinking takes time that far too many people are unwilling to devote to any issue, no matter how critical, how divisive, or how important to our own personal well being that issue may be.

When lemmings go over a cliff I think we just assume all the lemmings were in agreement. But it may be possible that when the lemmings go over the cliff they are all in abject disagreement about the one most important issue; that being how NOT to go over the cliff. And thus, over the cliff they go in merry disagreement over who is right and who is wrong. 

Reasonable change is effected by reasonable people. You don't have to look much further than the newspaper, broadcast news, Facebook, Twitter, or the comments section of just about any website to discover that the voices of reason are usually drowned out by the voices of those convinced they have the answer to the exclusion of all else.

[Gryphon]

Well, we do have to pay to support all the welfare moochers out there, right? Like these:

Verizon Communications: Profits: $19.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -3.8%
General Electric: Profits: $19.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Boeing: Profits: $14.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -5.5%
NextEra Energy (North America's largest solar and wind power operator, based in Florida): Profits: $8.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -2%
American Electric Power (Electric utility based in Columbus, Ohio): Profits: $8.2 billion    Effective tax rate: -6.4%
Pacific Gas & Electric (California electrical utility): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -8.4%
Apache: (Houston-based oil and gas company): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.3%
Consolidated Edison: (New York energy company): Profits: $5.9 billion    Effective tax rate: -1.3%
El Paso: (Houston-based energy company that operates the country's largest natural gas pipeline): Profits: $4.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.9%
CenterPoint Energy (Electric and gas utility company based in Houston): Profits: $3.1 billion    Effective tax rate: -11.3%

I hate to point out the obvious flaw in your aurgument, but increasing Corporate taxes is not going to help.They'll make up the difference by raising the price of their products.  It's not a zero sum equation.  You need to reduce expenditures. Nothing else will ever be effective.  Corporate taxes are an illusion to pacify the uninformed.

[.]

Well, we do have to pay to support all the welfare moochers out there, right? Like these:

Verizon Communications: Profits: $19.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -3.8%
General Electric: Profits: $19.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -18.9%
Boeing: Profits: $14.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -5.5%
NextEra Energy (North America's largest solar and wind power operator, based in Florida): Profits: $8.8 billion    Effective tax rate: -2%
American Electric Power (Electric utility based in Columbus, Ohio): Profits: $8.2 billion    Effective tax rate: -6.4%
Pacific Gas & Electric (California electrical utility): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -8.4%
Apache: (Houston-based oil and gas company): Profits: $6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.3%
Consolidated Edison: (New York energy company): Profits: $5.9 billion    Effective tax rate: -1.3%
El Paso: (Houston-based energy company that operates the country's largest natural gas pipeline): Profits: $4.6 billion    Effective tax rate: -0.9%
CenterPoint Energy (Electric and gas utility company based in Houston): Profits: $3.1 billion    Effective tax rate: -11.3%

I hate to point out the obvious flaw in your aurgument, but increasing Corporate taxes is not going to help.They'll make up the difference by raising the price of their products.  It's not a zero sum equation.  You need to reduce expenditures. Nothing else will ever be effective.  Corporate taxes are an illusion to pacify the uninformed.

When you say, "I hate to point out the obvious flaw in your aurgument (sic)" I suspect you don't hate it at all, but if you give it some hard thought I think the flaw may become less obvious.

And of course it's not a zero sum equation. Not much is, especially when dealing with something as complex as the tax code. But does that mean corporate taxes should be eliminated from the tax code altogether? Or the tax code itself repealed? It's a nice thought, granted, but in the meantime we do need to consider that roads and bridges don't build and maintain themselves, armies don't provide defense as a hobby, police and fire services aren't there because they can't find better ways to occupy their time, etc. We live in a society and that comes with a cost. That the cost structure is out of control and unfairly applied hardly means there is something better just on the other side of abolition.

Individuals enjoy the benefits of living in a society that is structured to spread out both the benefits and the costs to individuals, groups, business enterprises, and large corporations in a fair and equitable manner. To say that corporations will simply raise prices in response to being required to pay taxes turns that logic completely on its head but that is exactly the fallacy we live in, with the result being that big business buys tax breaks that small business and individuals have to pay for. Because you are one hundred percent correct: It isn't a zero sum game. At the end of the day someone has to pay the tab. So we get everyday low prices at Wal Mart while Wal Mart employees get educated on how to apply for government assistance that we pay for (in addition to those "everyday low prices") because Wal Mart gets off cheaper paying substandard wages and tax lawyers than it would paying taxes. As an added bonus, we have no earthly idea how much we should add onto our next receipt from Wal Mart to know just how much we paid for those "everyday low prices" but that doesn't mean we don't subsidize them.

We piss and moan about the onerous regulations that business must comply with and completely miss the realization that those regulations affect mostly small to medium sized businesses but don't mean much to multi-national corporations. Huge corporations employ huge law firms and accounting firms whose sole interest is in helping their employers avoid as much taxation as possible under the law while continuing to purchase more tax loopholes and passing the cost on to the suckers who can't figure out how to avoid paying their tax bill.

The irony there is that, under the law, small businesses and even individuals are perfectly free to employ those same huge law firms and accounting firms to find loopholes in the regulations that would allow the rest of us to legally minimize our own tax bills. The caveat there, however, is that we can't afford to pay those firms the kind of money that is required to find the kind of loopholes that don't exist for us because we can't afford to buy the kind of influence that gets its own individual exemptions placed in the tax code in the first place.

We can bitch about government corruption because that's easy. It's somewhat less easy to stop using the services of the very corporations that use the law to bend the law and have always known that, at that level, paying for influence is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying taxes.

I'm not saying my argument isn't flawed. I'm also not saying your argument isn't flawed as well. There are flaws in virtually every argument and someone can always find them. Of course expenditures need to be reduced but cutting benefits to unemployed people without addressing the lack of jobs won't make less people unemployed so much as it will throw even more people into utter destitution. And cutting benefits to poor people without addressing any of the causes of poverty won't make less poor people so much as it will bring more homelessness and desperation. But, those are easy and politically popular things to do because no one is handing out cash to protect the defenseless and far too many of us are willing to believe people of limited or zero means got that way because they "deserve" it (mainly because that's what we've been told). And we generally get so busy pointing our fingers at the "easy" targets that we completely miss seeing that the cuts we support are much like taking a teacup to the sea to empty the ocean. Besides, stomping on those who cannot defend themselves may not make us a better society, but it's a lot easier than taking on those with the means and the temperament to stomp on us if we try (remember Occupy Wall Street? - I mean, beyond the bobble-headed bleach blonde talking heads' snide generalizations on TV while heads were being cracked and people were being tossed in jail for daring to question Bank of America's foreclosure policies or the financial windfalls being handed out to the financial institutions that wrecked the economy to start with?)

You can call me uninformed but you must do it with the full knowledge that I reach far beyond the morning newspaper (owned by a corporation) and a handful of broadcast news outlets (owned by corporations) to try and understand a little of the direction we are allowing ourselves to be pushed in. For whatever good it does me....

[BF]

Well boys, I just found out that taxes are voluntary. Yep, you heard me, voluntary. According to Harry Reid they are.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7mRSI8yWwg#t=103

Why is it that everytime I hear Harry Reid speak I get the feeling that he's stoned on something?