Whatever you decide, enjoy

 

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I am also puzzled by this.

I made a noob mistake and directed a "spin" song to the wrong person in the wrong thread in the wrong forum!

 

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I don't think anyone else was making this argument, just me. Maybe Yuki, but I'm not sure he even agrees with my point. I'm not sure I even agree with my point, I was just asking (and then trying to make sure everyone was on the same page).

Your post actually tells me that I didn't explain my question very well. I specifically said I'm not trying to make a point about the tax code in general or whether normal people should pay more in taxes.

My question was specifically targeting every politician who seeks to run this country. Let's say, for example, someone makes $400,000 and has a tax rate of 15%. They owe $60,000. They also belong to a church, and that church says you should pay us 10% of what you make in a tithe (many churches do this, not just Mormons). So that person pays the church $40,000, and because you can only get out of paying half your taxes, pays the government $30,000. So our politician, who is more than likely going to raise taxes on one group of people throughout his tenure, has decided that instead of supporting the system that he intends to run, supports his church, and actually pays the church more money than he pays the government.

I'm asking more as a question of why we let our leaders get away with this. In my book, you lead by example. These guys are imposing mandatory increases on us and are choosing to exempt themselves, in part, from that very system. If every single person in America who paid taxes only paid half of what they owed to the government, how much higher would our tax rate be?

I know it's dumb, but I think it's worth thinking about.

 

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We had income. Just not quite enough to have to file a return. Neither of us have ever really done taxes. I'm sure it would have taken 2-3 hours to get all the income information together and fill out the forms and all that.


Incidentally it ended up backfiring because the stupid IRS sent us something asking us to prove our income was below the filing requirement so we had to do all that work anyhow. And it definitely took 2-3 hours.


So in hindsight I shoulda just got the 50 bucks back since I ended up having to do the same crap anyhow for nothing.


And you're missing the point about your clients. The sort of people who are willing to pay you a large hourly rate to do their taxes are by definition the sort of people who want to save every penny on their taxes. If they weren't they wouldn't come to you. That's why I said it's selection bias.


It's like being a prison warden and saying everyone is a criminal because everyone you see is a criminal.


There are millions and millions of people like me who would rather pay less than more on their taxes but who arn't going to go way out of their way to do so. You can choose not to believe that but it's just a fact.

If you say so chief.

 

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Don't you call me chief, buddy.

I don't think that is ever going to get old.

 

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I think there are three strike laws in effect round these parts son...

 

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Haha. Yuki is a fool.

 

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No, but I am a llama.