No Taxation without Preparation H

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As colonists, we went to war with an unelected, unaccountable tyrant for the right to be taxed by our unelected, unaccountable neighbors.

Apparently we lost.

Maybe taxes paid at the point of a sword would have been better than our personal lives laid bare by an invasive 1040 form. The IRS tax packet ought to include one of them backless hospital gowns.

Isn’t it enough that the tax code makes everyone feel like an idiot?  And it still fails to answer the most basic questions of life:

Do you live within 2½ miles of a decent pizza joint? 
❏ Yes ❏ No ❏ Extra Cheese

Of course, it really doesn’t matter how the forms are filled out, they’re always filled out wrong.  Prompting an IRS audit, edit, and edict.  So, if the IRS already knows all the answers, why are we filling out forms?  Why can’t they just furnish the answers, and let us submit the questions.

“I’ll take Dependents for $200, Alex.”

Answer: Mitzy, Mugsy, and Mittens 

Question: Who are the ex-wife, bookie, and neighborhood stray.  Actually, Jeopardy! would be a more appropriate name for the 1040.

Why should taxpayers with the “approved” kinds of dependents be favored over those with… uhhm… rather unconventional dependents while demanding a greater slice of the budget pie?

Unfortunately, the federal bakery has become a lot like the cable TV – ten thousand channels and nothing on.  If they’re gonna take our money, they ought to at least give us some choice in what we get.  How about 1040 à la carte?

How would you like your payment to be applied? 
❏ Military ❏ Education ❏ Free Stuff for Everybody

…and whatever doesn’t get funded, doesn’t get funded.

The problem is we’re all going out to eat knowing someone else is picking up the tab.  So, why pick at a salad when everyone else is feasting on top sirloin.  “Oh, Miss?  I’d like everything on the dessert menu to go.”

Of course, the entire purpose of the tax code is not to raise money for the general fund, but to create equality by taxing unequally.  And reams of tax forms later, we are unequal still.

“The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
Will Rogers

The Founders believed everyone should pay the same.  Not the same rate.  The same amount.  Article I Section IX of the Authorized Version actually prohibited unequal taxation.  But equality was outlawed by Marx and Engels’ 16th Amendment.

Rather than offering to keep our refund for another year or apply it to some sap’s re-election bid, they could at least be sporting about the whole thing and offer us double or nothing:

How would you like your refund? 
❏ 8 to 5 at Belmont ❏ 5 to 8 at Leavenworth

In reality, it’s not an income tax at all – it’s a “sin” tax.  And the sin is success.  The greater the success, the greater the penance.

Why tax income at all?  We should tax things we don’t want.  Like hemorrhoids.


Jeopardy!
That’s right. No beer pong tourneys. No wet T-shirt contests. And no naked runs on the quad. Well, that we know of.

Have It Your Way!
What kind of God would you like? We have God is Love, Our Mother Who Art in Heaven, and Somewhere Out There.

Robin and the EIC Hoods

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It may not be a crime, but it is organized. And it has style – Chicago style.

The purpose of a tax credit is to reduce taxes paid to the IRS because that money was spent elsewhere. Most credits reduce a tax burden until there’s nothing left: Nothing owed, nothing gained.

But the EIC is a refundable credit. Meaning, it is possible for the credit to produce a refund of tax money never paid, or a refund of someone else’s money.

In short… an Unearned Income Credit.

Not only that, but with Advance EIC Payments, a recipient can receive a refund of someone else’s money before ever filing a return of their own.

 

The EIC never provides enough to make a real difference in anyone’s life. And was never meant to. The EIC first must establish the claim that some are entitled to live off of others. And then when the amount proves to be insufficient, expand the claim.

Why rob Peter to pay Paul when bureaucratic hoods will do it for you? (and do it legally.)

“The problem with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.”  Maggie Thatcher

…and patience.

The goal of the EIC is equality: Unearned equality. But even if the EIC simply reduced taxes owed and did not generate an actual Treasury check, the EIC still takes money from those who made it and gives it to those who did not.

…as if life’s problems can be solved with money. Money doesn’t even solve money problems. So, why palm the Queen if it won’t fill a low straight?

Re-shuffling the income deck doesn’t create equal hands. A stolen dollar produces two things: Deeper resentment in the victim and greater laziness in the thief. “We’re all for one” …is a catchy tune for a hippie commune.

There is nothing wrong with not having it all. Greed and envy are destructive… self-destructive. What is gained by antagonizing those who have more?

“The rich and poor meet together: the Lord is the maker of them all.”  King Solomon

Someday soon, we must settle our own inequality before the law. Not of condition, but of our treatment by the law. By what right does the tax code claim more from one than another? If confiscation is theft, then the confiscation from one to be given to another is also theft. Whether by law or outlaw.

“…style.”  Yeah, you’ve either got or you haven’t got it. And Robin had style. With his merry band, he returned the rightful income, stolen by Prince John and his hoods, to the over-taxed poor of Nottingham.

Had he called the loot Advance EIC Refunds, he might not have been called an outlaw.


No Taxation without Preparation H
Why tax income at all?  We should tax things we don’t want.  Like hemorrhoids.

Jeopardy!
That’s right. No beer pong tourneys. No wet T-shirt contests. And no naked runs on the quad. Well, that we know of.

Among Thieves

Genesis 22:7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb? 8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb.

Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

John 1:22 Who art thou? 23 I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord. 29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

John 10:9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. John 10:1 He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. 11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.

Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Luke 24:7 The Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.

Matthew 27:11 And [Pilate] asked him: Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. 31 and led him away to crucify him.

Luke 23:33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. Mark 15:27 And with him they crucify two thieves; the one on his right hand, and the other on his left. 28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith… Isaiah 53:12 He was numbered with the transgressors.

Luke 23:34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.

Luke 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.

But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:8

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

John 20:1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away. 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary.

John 14:6 I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. 27 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.


The Cry of the Rocks
Truth can be ignored but cannot be made untrue. Truth just is, even if held by just one. One plus God.

Level Ground
There’s a baggage check at the altar. Come as you are. Don’t leave the way you came.