For many of you young people who have yet to actually make your own bread and butter, this ranting will mean nothing. Oh - but it will, in due time.
So, due to the fact I was unemployed for 4 months last year, I made less than $30,000. That's pretty poor - I don't think I qualify for middle-middle class. I'm a poor slob.

So, I do my taxes for last year and discover I owe $1,000! Now, hold on, my dependent status hasn't changed from year-to-year when I actually got a refund. So why am I having to pay? Because the REPUBLICANS decided to cut all the taxes for the $#%& richer classes and me and my poverty-stricken fellow slobs have to foot the bill for Dubya's illegal war!

So, yeah, that sux.

While I nurse that wound, suddenly I get another notice from the IRS telling me that since I cashed out on some stock options from 2006, I still owe another $1300 fromthe previous year! This is due to some significant "increase" the IRS has instated. Hey! I paid taxes on those capital gains you $#%& bast***s! But, now, since it was convenient to have an increase, the poor slob has to foot the bill.

Now, you know why I hate Republicans. Tax cuts, bah! For the wealthy! Not us poor slobs of the lower and middle classes. Think on that this election year. If you are not making over $100,000/year, you are not WEALTHY enough to have REPUBLICANS in office.

Well I'm not American, but I do sympathize. The sad thing is that the rest of the world it seems is in a desperate rush to adopt US fiscal policy.

I think that is more blind luck the whole not getting attacked thing think about when was the last time we were attacked before 9/11.

Dubya's just a GAWD, ain't he? I wouldn't assume I've done nothing but whine, my good friend.

Anyway - will have to cool my jets politically, because all I would do right now is list obscenities that would take up too much bandwidth and be useless in trying to make certain people understand that they have been caught in political-grinders and propaganda claptrap.

Suffice to say, that I was indeed venting. Peace out.

And we pay lots up north. =(

Darn you Stephen Harper.


*cunningly evades tax laws*


Of course those squirrels are my dependants.

Do the Republican Party even have any direct control over the IRS? My understanding of the matter (of course, I’m writing as an ignorant foreigner here ) was that the President appoints a Commissioner to serve a fixed term every five years and that from that point the IRS pretty much goes on to do its own thing, deciding most of its rulings internally. Most of the demands for serious overhaul I’ve heard have come from some of the more hard-core conservative and libertarian groups… most of which fall more towards the Republican side of the political spectrum anyway.

Also, I don’t really understand the problem with tax cuts benefiting the rich. Overall, the top quarter of American tax payers contribute a higher percentage of total tax revenues than they did when Bush took office, while the tax contribution of the bottom 40% has actually fallen. If you were to, say, cut taxes by 10% across the board then of course the people who paid the most in the first place will receive the most in actual dollars- but as long as the overall percentages remain the same I can’t see that the system’s really discriminating in their favour overall. For the record, I’m currently paying my way through university, so you can guess how much I’m making at the moment.

Everyone has one. Some care more about these issues than others. Needless to say, I doubt anyone wants this to blow up into a political debate - so I'll stay as objective as possible.

But to answer your question Vor, the IRS is pretty much it's own juggernaught. The Dems and Reps go back and forth every few years tweaking the code to "fix" the other sides problems, until eventually it gets so big and is extremely hard to manage.

But nonetheless, all the candidates this year in both parties (excepting Ron Paul) have big plans for how to "improve" the tax code, and every one involves significant taxing and spending.

Of course Fair Tax people often get labelled radicals by the pundits and locksteppers of both major parties, because they both want the power to control the IRS.

Control the economy, control the country.

Anyway, the easy answer is just to make more money. I'm in the process of doing that now, so I'll let you know tomorrow night after the Lottery drawing how I'm doing

I suppose our dear Addy is right. However, Mr. Bush and his party support tax cuts for the wealthy, and not the lower classes. They cut government programs that are necessary for lower income individuals and families, so that the wealthy elite are less obligated to "foot the bill."

Yet, the IRS - the major account and balance firm for the country - has to balance the books somehow when it comes to the excesses a political party in charge have done. The Republicans have put us in a quagmire of a war (on two fronts) that cost big time. Therefore the tax tables change, and therefore, these "tax cuts" the Republicans dish out favor only one side. The rest get slammed.

No, I don't believe that Dubya and his fellow cronies have done well after 9/11. That's hogwash. Osama bin Laden is free to do what he will; the Taliban is resurging in Afganistan; the overthrow of Saddam Hussein has caused widespread violence and instability in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11; the American dollar is now at its lowest ebb in decades; we are on the borders of recession ... need I go on?

In the end this is America, for most of the members of the Inn our home, a home I fought for, in whose military I proudly served, and whose young men and womening are dying RIGHT NOW to try to help other people stay free. Wrong or right, black or white, it makes no differance in the end. This is America and its not perfect by far but I would rather be living here then in China or North Korea or Serbia or some other other country. Politicians are crooked, Religion is a choice, and who you vote for on election day is no ones business but your own.
Taxes suck I agree, hell I don't even get a return anymore, but this nation is my home and I would die to keep it free.

Doesn't matter who you vote for as President. We don't elect the president, electors do. We are 'allowed' to cast a 'vote' to make us feel as if we have some kind of control over our government when we have willfully and gladly handed that right back to the politicians because we are too lazy to take care of ourselves and our own problems. Government was meant to run the business end of our country not to be our nanny.

And while we are talking about politics, the idea of political parties is simply a way to "divide and conquer". "We the people" don't run the country anymore, politicians do.

Just my humble opinion.

As an outsider, I figure I don't have the right to comment. On the matter of taxes, I just received my T4 slip, which is what your Canadian employer sends you so you can file a return. My income tax is 27% of my income, plus I have mandatory contributions to Employment Insurance and the Canada Pension Plan. Oh, and let's not forget 13% sales tax on anything I buy, property tax on the house, and gas prices that are more tax than anything else. Oh, and if I were to work in the US too much (some of you know how much I travel), I'd end up paying US income tax, too!

I guess I am grateful that I get to keep any of it

Income Tax Rates through history. Includes both Democrat and Republican administrations.

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

Well, the deal is, I gathered all my W-2s, my Schedule Ds, my 1099s, and took everything down to H&R Block. After about an hour, they told me there was nothing to fear after all, and that instead of having to pay $1000 in 2007 taxes, I was actually gaining an $800 refund due to the fact I used the 1040EZ form when I am a homeowner and have several major deductions.

Then they looked at my 2006 capital gains and told me that the only problem was that my last year tax accountant didn't inform the IRS of my scehdule D for cashing out my stock options and that taxes were paid. That came to $0.

Damn. I'm actually getting money this year! Viva America!

I guess those Bush tax cuts are good for something afterall