Death and Taxes

Due to excessive quantities of caffeine coupled with sleep deprivation, i am going to give my stance on the inefficiencies of government. One of the biggest problems with the system is that there is too much "red tape" to cut through. Therefore, it takes an excessively long time to pass any form of litigation. Documents must be duplicated and mailed out to different parties, and an audit trail must be kept throughout the process. Senators and congressmen (and women) never actually read the bills being passed, relying instead on the advice of their assistants who analyze and dissect the hard-to-digest bills with language that came straight out of the 17th century. The California Constitution consists of 39 articles with thousands of amendments and legislative reports. The federal laws are even more complex, requiring roughly 3 PhDs and 92 cups of coffee to comprehend the basics.

It is nearly impossible to do a tax return, sales tax return, use tax, payroll tax, or any other form that ends in “x” without the help of a team of CPAs. It’s ridiculous. It’s wrong. No president has ever cared because they aren’t the ones who deal with it. They certainly don’t do their own tax returns. While I’m on the subject, the complicated tax returns also make it very hard for the government to effectively audit. As Herman Wouk said, “Income taxes are the most imaginative fiction written today.”

Privacy advocates: start sharpening your pitchforks and prepare for what I’m about to say. I think bank account information should be made available to the government. Any deposit will be considered income unless valid proof is attached stating otherwise (loan, etc…). We should also be able to deduct some expenses in much the same way businesses do. Why can a company deduct car payments while an individual must pay the same income tax regardless of how many car payments they are making? They’re paying sales tax already, so what is with the fanatic double, sometimes triple, tax levy? Damn them all to Canada!