The "Feel Good About Taxes" Thread

[kola]

imo, self employment is a good approach as is having "hobbies" which are also tax deductable.

kola 

[PattyLee loves dogs]

They don't actually send dollars to the dictators... they send military hardware.

They send all the dollars they want, "unofficially", through the banks. Then when the dictator doesn't feel like making the payments, the Fed "monetizes" the debt (i.e. prints the money and gives it to the bank). When the Warsaw Pact fell apart it was $200 billion in debt to US banks. Of course today the US government is $500 billion in debt to Russia and what, is it $300 or $400 billion in debt to Mainland China... how things have changed.

There are also billions of dollars sent each year through the IMF, the World Bank, AID, and several other on-budget foreign aid programs. And it's not just to pure dictators, but oligarchs, "democratic" regimes (remember when Clinton "found" $35 billion to bail out the Mexican banks?), and kleptocrats of all other stripes.

Of course the US does send military hardware to all sides as well... the US sent the chemicals to make Iraq's nerve gas, and the TOW missiles to Iran (the "Iran Contra" scandal) at the same time. Those particular deals were actually paid for by the respective dictators, but lots of other weapons are given as "charity". Meanwhile, the US exerts huge diplomatic pressure to make sure that peaceful nations like Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, etc. don't get nuclear weapons to defend themselves... it's like gun control on a larger scale.

[KBCraig]

imo, self employment is a good approach as is having "hobbies" which are also tax deductable.

Our venture into self employment (well, Mary's return to self-employment) for six months of 2007 meant a net business loss of $7,500. Because of that loss, our tax bill changed from breaking even on my deductions, to a $1,900 refund.

Not quite sure how I feel about that math, but I'm pretty sure we got screwed. 

I guess I should be like the sheeple, and be grateful that the feral gummint is so benevolent as to give me back a third of what I paid in, despite having lost our butts.
....yeah. That's the ticket. 

[Zenman]

Time to be really depressing.

Social Security is the payroll tax; your filing the income tax. Social Security has a $200 billion surplus this year. So what your 'handing over' is money used mostly unwisely to go with the $200 billion and credit, they are currently wasting.

John, I think you're thinking of the "feel yet even exceedingly worse about taxes" thread.

[kola]

A loss in your first year in business is quite common.

Many folks starting out in business figure it into their business plan.

I made provisions to keep my business open if I ran 3 years in the red. I was lucky to make a profit in my second year.

kola

[Kat Kanning]

Please post here any and all encouraging ideas to help Zenman feel good about sending in this good-sized chunk of cash which it mostly seems will be used to pay for yet more things of which Zenman doesn't approve (or is for the most part totally against), or to a great degree, used to pay for ways to further intrude upon Zenman's life and business.

Thanks in advance.

If you don't pay, guys with guns are likely to do worse things to you.  Paying them off lets you be somewhat free.

(Somehow, I don't think I've helped here.)

[Zenman]

Please post here any and all encouraging ideas to help Zenman feel good about sending in this good-sized chunk of cash which it mostly seems will be used to pay for yet more things of which Zenman doesn't approve (or is for the most part totally against), or to a great degree, used to pay for ways to further intrude upon Zenman's life and business.

Thanks in advance.

If you don't pay, guys with guns are likely to do worse things to you.  Paying them off lets you be somewhat free.

(Somehow, I don't think I've helped here.)

Thanks, Kat. I suspect that's one of the major reasons a lot of folks "voluntarily" pay their taxes, lol.

[Porcupine Realtor]

Zenman, here's a note I received from my brother who, at age 42, has finally come around to "getting it" about the evil that is government, and who now considers himself a small-L libertarian.  One mind or heart at a time . . . .

Taxinator

Hey, Bro --
Last night Pat and I were railing against our tax system and how the consumer gets screwed coming and going in pretty much every transaction dealing with the government.  You would have liked it. 
Here are my quotes of the day for our lovely "tax day".

A lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math. That's why I like them. If we could find a way to tax people who are bad at English, science and history I'd be a happy camper.
     - Dana Blankenhorn

A fine is a tax for breaking the law; a tax is a fine for obeying the law.
     - J. H. Goldfuss

All the taxes paid over a lifetime by the average American are spent by the government in less than a second.
     - Jim Fiebig

Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure.
     - Mark Skousen

Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.
     - Oscar Wilde, 1854 - 1900

Our party has been accused of fooling the public by calling tax increases revenue enhancement. Not so. No one was fooled.
     - James Danforth Quayle

[John Edward Mercier]

Time to be really depressing.

Social Security is the payroll tax; your filing the income tax. Social Security has a $200 billion surplus this year. So what your 'handing over' is money used mostly unwisely to go with the $200 billion and credit, they are currently wasting.

John, I think you're thinking of the "feel yet even exceedingly worse about taxes" thread.

Look at it this way.
"If an enemy threatens to hang themselves, give them rope... and start looking for a tree."