E Pluribus Taxes

My Fellow Americans (I am not a crook) - Beware the Ides of April! (Said no one, ever.) Which you would think would be a more common catch phrase in these parts, considering that it's Income Tax Day, confound it all. Not so fast! This year, due to a combination of factors, the tax filing deadline has been extended to April 18, so we can all hold on to at least the illusion of having our own money for a few more days. Our friends at wikipedia explain it this way: ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ Due to Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C. (observed on the weekday closest to April 16), when April 15 falls on a Friday, tax returns are due the following Monday. Tax Day occasionally falls on Patriots' Day, a civic holiday in Massachusetts and Maine. When that happens, the federal tax deadline is extended for the residents of Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia, because the IRS processing center for these areas is located in Andover, Massachusetts and the unionized IRS employees get the day off. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ So there are two reasons why Income Tax Filing Day is not on the Ides of April as usual, but instead on April 18, and I have no idea what the ancient Romans called this day (IDES + III possibly) but one thing I'm sure of is that it will be here before we know it - so for any tax laggards out there in the wide world, the time has long since come to step lively, and be pretty darned quick about it besides. Meanwhile, here's a little bit of tax humor (which is an oxymoron if I've ever heard one) for everyone. "Benjamin Franklin said nothing is certain but death and taxes: but at least death doesn't get worse every year." =============================================== The tax man cometh, and he is saying things you'll never figure out April 06, 2003|By Dave Barry | Dave Barry,Knight Ridder / Tribune IT'S TAX TIME. I know this because I'm staring at documents that make no sense to me, no matter how many beers I drink. Take, for example, my Keogh Plan. If you're wondering what a Keogh Plan is, the technical answer is: Beats me. All I know is, I have one, and the people who administer it are always sending me Important Tax Information. Here's the first sentence of their most recent letter, which I swear I am not making up: "Dear David: The IRS has extended the deadline for the restatement of your plan to comply with GUST and various other amendments until, in most instances, September 30, 2003." I understand everything in that sentence, up to "David." After that I am lost. Apparently I have until September 30 (in most instances) to get my plan -- no, sorry, the restatement of my plan -- to comply with something (but what?) called "GUST." And of course various other amendments. But how do I do this? And what if I don't? The letter doesn't make this clear. It does, however, say this: "You must adopt EGTRRA prior to the end of the plan year beginning in 2002." I am, frankly, reluctant to adopt anything called "EGTRRA," which sounds like the name of a giant radioactive chicken that destroys Tokyo. The thing is, this letter isn't from the Internal Revenue Service. ("We're Working to Put You in Jail!"). It's from people on my side, people who sincerely want to tell me something, probably important, about GUST and EGTRRA. But I won't even try to finish their letter. I'll put it, with all the other tax documents that I do not understand, in a folder marked "Taxes," and I'll mail it to a guy I know named Evan. A few weeks later he'll mail me back a tax return that I will sign and send along to the IRS without reading any part of it, except where it says "SIGN HERE." That's right: I have no idea what my tax return says, even though I'm legally responsible for it. I just have to hope that, when Evan prepares it, he's not in a prankish mood: IRS auditor: Mr. Barry, can you explain why, on Page 27 of your return, stapled to Form 4992, "Depreciation and Amortization," is the thymus gland of an otter? Me: That's not mine! IRS auditor: Also, on Page 23, you claim, as dependents, and I quote: "The Entire Cast of Buffy the Vampire Slayer." I'm not the only taxpayer who has no idea what he's sending to the IRS. This year, only 28 percent of all Americans will prepare their own tax returns, according to a voice in my head that invents accurate-sounding statistics. Why can't Americans do their own taxes? Because the federal tax code is out of control, that's why. It's gigantic and insanely complex, and it gets worse all the time. Nobody has ever read the whole thing. IRS workers are afraid to go into the same room with it. They keep it locked in the basement, and, once a day, they open the door, heave in a live taxpayer -- some poor slob who failed to adopt EGTRRA in time to comply with GUST (and various other amendments) -- then slam the door shut, before the screams start. As a result, we have reached the point where even the IRS doesn't know what the Tax Code says. Last year, the Treasury Department discovered -- I am still not making this up -- that the IRS paid out more than $30 million to people who filed for the slavery tax credit. Yes! Thirty million dollars! Only guess what? It turns out there is no slavery tax credit! Whoops! It would not surprise me if, any day now, they discover that there is no such person as "Keogh." The question is: What can we, as citizens, do to reform our tax system? As you know, under our three-branch system of government, the tax laws are created by Satan. But he works through Congress, so that's where we must focus our efforts. Here's my proposal, which is based on the TV show Survivor: We put the entire Congress on an island. All the food on this island is locked inside a vault, which can be opened only by an ordinary American taxpayer named Bob. Every day, the congresspersons are given a section of the Tax Code, which they must rewrite so that Bob can understand it. If he can, he lets them eat that day; if he can't, he doesn't. Or, he can give them food either way. It doesn't matter. The main thing is, we never let them off the island. ======================================== If Congress can pay farmers not to raise crops, why can't we pay Congress not to raise taxes?