Since it’s almost tax day (remember it’s different this year), here’s a timely reminder: don’t use any frivolous arguments to claim that you don’t have to pay income tax. And don’t forget that just because your frivolous argument hasn’t yet been called out as such by a court or the IRS, that doesn’t mean it’s not frivolous: This document, including the relevant legal authorities cited, is not intended to provide an exhaustive list of frivolous tax arguments. Merely because a frivolous argument is not included in this document does not mean that it is not frivolous. Taxpayers may not rely on frivolous arguments to avoid or evade federal taxes. The government and courts are not precluded from penalizing taxpayers who raise a frivolous argument not addressed in this document. That’s one of my all-time favorite disclaimers. It appears on the web page for the IRS’ “The Truth About Frivolous Tax Arguments,” which you should also read before you buy into any so-called tax consultant’s advice on how to legally avoid paying income tax, like Wesley Snipes did.
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Well, the suggestion isn’t to give the Fed control of making all the federal tax laws. The suggestion is to just let them set the tax rates. That way the rates can be set high enough to pay for everything Congress wants to spend money on, instead of having the federal government constantly running at a deficit.
What a brilliant idea! Why didn’t someone suggest this sooner? Congress can just order all the programs it wants, then leave it to the un-elected board of the Fed to jack up the tax rates to pay for it all. What could go wrong? Actually, now that I’m thinking about it, this might not be such a bad idea, although not for the reasons that the authors of it are suggesting. It’s possible that if the Fed were to set tax rates high enough to actually reduce the federal budget deficit, the resulting tax increases would cause a taxpayer uproar big enough to upend the whole system and finally bring federal spending under control. But nah, that would never happen, as the authors of this proposal implicitly concede when they say rates should be set high enough to “manage federal debt sustainably over time,” but should also be adjusted to “promote full employment and stable inflation… while rates could go down a bit when the economy needs an extra spark.” So the Fed wouldn’t have to actually raise tax rates enough to balance the budget, but they would get to try to manage the economy by tinkering with the rates in response to economic conditions. Again, what could go wrong? It’s only been a few days since I posted about someone promoting the idea of having the government prepare everyone’s tax returns. That would supposedly improve the functioning of our dysfunctional federal tax system. Now here’s another idea that’s supposed to fix a separate, but related way in which our federal tax system is broken. Notice that both ideas would make the current system even more self-perpetuating. That’s not the direction that things need to go, is it? Or even Todd Rundgren’s Utopia…
From an item by Sarah Jeong at theatlantic.com: “[W]herever information gathers and flows, two predators follow closely behind it: censorship and surveillance. The case of digital money is no exception. Where money becomes a series of signals, it can be censored; where money becomes information, it will inform on you.” Via Instapundit. For real! Here’s the IRS announcement: The Internal Revenue Service announced [on April 6] a new payment option for individual taxpayers who need to pay their taxes with cash. In partnership with ACI Worldwide’s OfficialPayments.com and the PayNearMe Company, individuals can now make a payment without the need of a bank account or credit card at over 7,000 7-Eleven stores nationwide. Uh huh. If I use that service, do I get a discount on a Slurpee?
Another installment in the “I have said this before” category: turning tax return preparation over to the government is not tax simplification.
Another equally unavailing argument now being advanced is that turning tax return preparation over to the government is a way to stick it to those greedheads at Intuit (the maker of Turbo Tax) and H&R Block. All turning tax return preparation over to the government will do is make the tax system even more opaque and less responsive to citizen influence. Much like tax withholding did. YOU CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS TO EXERT THEIR AUTHORITY OVER YOU IN TRIVIAL MATTERS4/4/2016 What the homeowner in this story was doing maybe isn’t so trivial, but does this municipal government really have nothing better for its employees to do than enforce a setback requirement for a vegetable garden?
Maybe the municipality just has too many employees? Nah, that’s impossible. Shades of the town in California that decided to outlaw artificial turf, but only in residential front yards. Via Instapundit. I wouldn’t ordinarily link to something (or even read something) from this publication, but it’s about self-driving cars, so I’ll make an exception. I found it via Drudge.
Anyway, the reason the article caught my eye is that it’s about a self-driving car that’s already in use, albeit not on regular public streets. It’s on a college campus. Nevertheless, it is in use. What’s more, the vehicle was built by a startup company for a fraction of the cost of the prototypes being developed by automakers, Google, and others. I keep saying, these things will be available for everyone in the foreseeable future. |
AuthorThe contents of this blog, this web site, and any writings by me that are linked here, are all my personal commentary. None of it is intended to be legal advice for your situation. Archives
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