Tag: income tax

The Portly Politico Tax Reform

The Portly Politico2 Comments

It’s Tax Day in America, the day when the onslaught of Turbo Tax and H&R Block tax ads reach their fever pitch before the ad buys dwindle away in a desperate attempt to get late filers to pay their taxes.  For months, taxes and tax-related services have carpet-bombed our mental faculties, demanding we make our annual sacrifices to the Imperium.

I did our taxes four times before finally giving up on a potentially large discount (read my tedious, subscriber-only post if you want to know the lurid details).  No software could adequately handle our (admittedly unusual) tax situation, and the federal government rejected our filing three times before I finally [sur]rendered unto Caesar.  I estimate that I spent about twenty hours on our taxes this year, time that could have been spent composing, napping, unpacking, writing, laughing with my wife, researching history, weeding, mowing, showering, cooking—anything more enjoyable and/or productive than convincing Uncle Sam that I did, indeed, teach a bunch of music lessons last year and played several Sundays at a Methodist Church for profit (financial, not spiritual).

I’m not alone.  I’ve seen a number of notes on Substack and YouTube from writers and creators echoing a familiar refrain:  “sorry, no article/video/podcast/interpretative dance tutorial this week, guys:  I’m working on my taxes.”  Sure, the world will keep spinning, and we need some taxes to pay for all those Tomahawk missiles and gender reassignment surgeries for federal inmates—God Forbid we fail to slice up the inmates’ genitalia—but the whole thing is a massive waste of valuable resources.

There’s a reason an entire industry exists around tax preparation—nobody wants to take the time to sit down and go through all that paperwork (except for me and my younger brother, apparently; he ended up handling taxes for not only his family, but for our parents and our elderly, widowed grandmother—God Bless him!).  H&R Block will do your taxes for you!  Even then, you’re paying a few hundred bucks to hand someone else your W-2s and 1099s and what not.  You’re still answering all the same questions as just using the software yourself.  Regardless, you want to spend time not doing taxes, so you shell out the cash.  Some part-time rookie who needs extra cash from January through April looks over your stuff and slaps it together for you, and you get a “refund” (just pre-paid tax back) and feel good.

You shouldn’t!  You gave the federal government a coerced, mandatory, interest-free loan for up to twelve months, and they’re letting you have some of that money back because you maybe loaned them a little too much.  At least split the interest with us!

All of the above is, by now, familiar to every American, to the point that, like most evils (necessary or otherwise), we just grudgingly accept it and try to get through April without the IRS hassling us too much about digging up those shoebox receipts.

My friends, there is a better way.  Or at least a way that would be more convenient for everyone, even if it means Billy Gigeconomy can’t get a few extra bucks doing your taxes for you.  We must end the income tax—or alter it substantially.

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Lazy Sunday CCCLXXXIII: Taxes, Taxes, Taxes

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It’s tax-o-rama here in the States, and yours portly has done his fair share of grumbling.  Here are some recent posts on that most onerous of topics:

A sign that democracy does not reflect the will of the people is that few things are more popular than eliminating the income tax, but we still have it.  It seems like it would be a political slam-dunk to get rid of this ridiculous form of taxation, but I guess too many tax attorneys and H&R Block seasonal workers would be out of a job.  But, hey, we could enjoy Easter again!

Happy Sunday!

—TPP

TBT^4,294,967,296: End the Income Tax

The Portly Politico3 Comments

Once again it’s tax season in the United States.  I won’t bore you—again—with the details of our bizarre, nightmarish tax situation, but to suffice it to say that, at the time of writing, yours portly and his dear Dr. Wife are about $5500 poorer and Uncle Sam is probably paying for a federal inmates gender reassignment surgery.  Next year will be much easier, but it’s always a pain.

I think what I resent most is that the federal government is now party to every economic exchange I make outside of purchasing a brownie from a sidewalk bake sale.  Any money I earn gets reported.  Indeed, I probably report more than I really need to, because I do take seriously Jesus’ instruction to “render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.”  I just wish Caesar was spending my money in the national interest, not in the niche interests of some special interest group or immigrant group that got here fifteen seconds ago.

But it is—for another year, at least—done.  Now I’m free to enjoy Spring Break and to wait, watchful and eel-like, for next year.

With that, here is 10 April 2025’s “TBT^65,536: End the Income Tax“:

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SubscribeStar Saturday: Tax Season

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Today’s post is a SubscribeStar Saturday exclusive.  To read the full post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.  For a full rundown of everything your subscription gets, click here.

After probably twenty hours and redoing our FY2025 taxes four times across four different software systems, each with their own distinct, labyrinthian logic, I finally filed our federal and State income taxes.

In the process, our balance due to the federal government swung wildly as I tried (in vain) to get Form 8962 to work correctly, which resulted in our federal return being denied—like Christ Being Denied by Peter—three times.

Finally, however, the cock crowed, and we coughed up our pound of flesh (and then some) to Uncle Sam and the States of North and South Carolina.

To read the rest of this post, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for $1 a month or more.

TBT^65,536: End the Income Tax

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I hate the income tax.  It’s an intrusive and demoralizing experience filing them every year.  Why does the federal government get to know about every transaction I’ve made over the course of a fiscal year?

It’s also expensive.  I work exceptionally hard so that I can attempt to enjoy a decent quality of life.  That’s only gotten harder with inflation.  As I prepared my income taxes this year, I found that, even though I earned less from lessons during FY2024 than FY2023, I somehow owed more money—by a factor of three.

When I first wrote this post, I argued for a national sales tax as the lesser of two evils.  Now, I’m tariffs all the way, baby.  They act, in a sense, as a national sales tax, but they have the social benefit of bringing jobs and industries back to the United States.  I’d rather pay an extra fifty bucks for my American-made washing machine and give a fellow citizen a good job than have to shell out my meager savings and reveal all of my financial underwear to the IRS every April.

At least with Trump in office, there is a faint hope—very faint, but a hope nonetheless—that the income tax might be reaching the end of its abusive, wicked life.  What a terrible system!

With that, here is 11 April 2024’s “TBT^256: End the Income Tax“:

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TBT^256: End the Income Tax

The Portly Politico10 Comments

It’s that time of year again, when yours portly yells impotently at the clouds and demands the end of the income tax.  Unlike prior years, yours portly actually got his taxes done relatively early (if you count early March as “relatively early”), and while I owed both Uncle Sam and the Great State of South Carolina a pound of flesh, I ended up getting away with only paying $54 total—woooooot!

Still, the annual ritual of telling the federal government how many miles I drove to music lessons and what I paid for WordPress is an odious and obnoxious reminder that the federal government dominates our lives and our personal information.  I recognize that taxes are a necessary evil, but let’s focus on the “evil” part of that equation.

I don’t know what the solution is, and I think the Republican Party has spent far too much time quibbling over the placement of commas in the tax code instead of fighting the necessary cultural battles in our nation, but tax reform should be a no-brainer.  Here’s the Portly Proposal:

  • Tax all income at 10%
  • Don’t tax interest earnings in savings accounts

That’s it!  Easy.  Cheap.  Everyone pays the same percentage.  Maybe—maybe!—have a carveout for people who earn, say, less than $20,000 a year—they pay, say, 5%, or even just 1%.  If people want to withhold from their paycheck, fine.  But there are no surprises—if you earn $2000 in March, you withhold $200.  At filing time, all that would be done is confirming you’ve paid your amount; if you overpaid on that first $20,000, then you’d get a refund.

Even that is more involved than I’d like, but it gives a bit of relief to the working poor.  Otherwise, no deductions, no carveouts, nothing.  There’s still an incentive to save, since no one pays for interest earned on savings accounts.

Yeah, yeah—you want to write off your $300,000 mortgage.  No.  Sorry—let’s not incentivize people to borrow huge amounts of money so they can save forty bucks on their taxes.

With that, here is 13 April 2023’s “TBT^16: End the Income Tax“:

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TBT^16: End the Income Tax

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By the time you’re reading this post, I should have filed my taxes, and endured the annual reaming from Uncle Sam.  Now that my private music lessons have taken off (thank you, Lord!), I’m one of those productive members of society who has to pay through every orifice come tax season.

Hopefully those orifice contributions can pay for some poor child’s gender reassignment surgery, or to buy Volodymyr
Zelenskyy another ivory backscratcher.  One can only hope!  I’m confident my hard-earned dollars are in capable, unelected hands.

I doubt we’ll ever replace the income tax, but we should.  At the very least, we should make it less invasive.

With that, here is 14 April 2022’s “TBT^4: End the Income Tax“:

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TBT^4: End the Income Tax

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Here it is:  my annual call to end the income tax.  My disdain for the income tax is two-fold:  it’s incredibly annoying and invasive to file it every year; and it’s become a complicated, bureaucratic morass that attempts to social engineer our society by tweaking bits of the tax code.

I think there are downsides to a consumption tax—a national sales tax—but it makes way more sense than a tax on income.  Any tax is a disincentive to engage in the activity taxed, and no tax is perfect.  Being a necessity—perhaps an evil one—we should at least try to get the least bad tax possible.

Taxing income, then, is a disincentive to earning more income.  I faithfully track every dollar I earn in private lessons—even those paid in cash!—even though the tax burden is insane.  I suspect many Americans do not do the same, so there is already de facto tax evasion baked into an income tax.

A national sales tax would be virtually unavoidable.  That might be an argument against it.  Here’s an argument for it:  it would be a major disincentive against spending.  At a time when inflation is rocketing prices skyward, I don’t expect that such a proposal—which would make everything more expensive—will be very popular, but it would almost certainly encourage saving money.

Of course, you’d soon have all the other problems.  Industries would lobby for exemptions to the sales tax.  Should food be taxed?  If so, should it be taxed at the same rate as, say, computers?

Ah, well, forget it.  Let’s repeal the Sixteenth Amendment and let the chips fall where they may.  Tariffs aren’t so bad, eh?

With that, here is “TBT^2: End the Income Tax“:

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TBT^2: End the Income Tax

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Well, here we are—another Tax Day in America.  Actually, Tax Day has been extended to 17 May 2021, so all of you irresponsible loafers have time to procrastinate further.

I have no room to talk:  I waited until 11 April 2021 to file my taxes, and apparently filed my 2019 taxes on 11 April 2020.  Unlike last year, though, I actually earned back a healthy refund, due in part to reduced lessons and gig income (though I still managed to rake in a respectable figure there, just under $5000, but substantially lower than 2019’s $9000ish).  The self-employment taxes kill me, but deducting mileage really helps.

Also, thanks to my younger brother review my tax filing information, I earned back a substantial portion of taxes by including the $6000 I invested in 2020 into a traditional IRA.  Unlike last year, where I paid a substantial tax bill, I’m getting back around $1500 from the State of South Carolina and the feds, all of which is going back to the emergency fund, which is need of replenishment after The Age of The Virus.

Still, even though I have reason to celebrate this Tax Day, I dislike handing over all this personal financial information to the federal government.  As I noted last year, “I keep a very detailed budget,” which helps when it comes time to calculate those self-employment deductions, but does Uncle Sam really need to know how much I spent on Spooktacular t-shirts?  I suppose if I want a few bucks of my money back, he does.

So I repeat my call of the last two years:  end the income tax!

With that, here is April 2020’s “TBT: End the Income Tax” (italicized) and April 2019’s “End the Income Tax“:

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#MAGAWeek2020: Calvin Coolidge

The Portly Politico1 Comment

This week is #MAGAWeek2020, my celebration of the men, women, and ideas that MADE AMERICA GREAT!  Running through this Friday, 10 July 2020, this year’s #MAGAWeek2020 posts will be SubscribeStar exclusives.  If you want to read the full posts, subscribe to my SubscribeStar page for as little as $1 a month.  You’ll also get access to exclusive content every Saturday.

Americans have come to expect action-packed, robust presidents, those like Theodore Roosevelt, who enjoyed two parts in #MAGAWeek2020 (here and here).  We want our presidents to be like Harrison Ford in Air Force One:  ready to take down the terrorists, saving his family and his country, single-handedly.

Part of that is a symptom of the aggrandizement of federal and executive power at the expense of States’ rights and legislative authority.  Indeed, Theodore Roosevelt is to blame, in part, for that centralization, though certainly not alone (his cousin Franklin did far more damage in that regard).  He’s also responsible—again, in part—for our vision of the president as a man of action.

So today’s #MAGAWeek2020 feature provides a counterpoint to the charismatic, blustering force of TR.  He is a president who, to paraphrase historian Amity Shlaes, resisted the calls to “do something,” and instead did “nothing.”  He is largely forgotten today, although his connection to tax cuts brought him back to popular attention in 2017.

Today, #MAGAWeek2020 celebrates the life and presidency of a man of few words, but of great significance:  Calvin Coolidge.

To read the rest of today’s #MAGAWeek2020 post, head to my SubscribeStar page and subscribe for $1 a month or more!