Who said the following?
A - “When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust man less on the same amount of income.”
B - “If you get up early, work late, and pay your taxes you will get ahead – if you strike oil.”
C – “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
Sort of unfair to start a blog entry about taxes with a pop quiz, isn’t it? After all you already have enough work to do.
So this year we all have until April 18 to file our federal taxes. Many states fell in line with that though you should really check whether that is the case for your state. I wrote about taxes in my Goodness Gracious column this month (The Tax Man Cometh) because I have been doing tax returns in some form since I was a little girl. Seriously. My Daddy worked for the Department of Revenue and he did tax returns for several friends from our home. My brothers and I love to discuss how we would have to line up the return just so in the typewriter with carbon paper (that dates us, doesn’t it?) and type up the returns so he could present them to his client. He would be at the other end of the table furiously working the adding machine while Momma complained over the use of her beautiful dining room table. When I hit college I took over a few of his clients for the extra money (any way to earn a buck, well, except for stripping). So in our household, hubby just asks me when they are done and what the outcome is (I should point out the man has an MBA in Finance so he could do them…if he wanted to…which he does not.) I’ve included a few more favorite quotes about taxes and I think the authors will surprise you and maybe some will make you laugh. So share any stories about taxes and the frustration about the system. Who does them in your household? Are they done early or late? Do you use a tax software program? Any helpful hints?
Oh, and the answers are:
A – Plato (No kidding! The Parthenon must have been built with tax money.)
B – J. Paul Getty (of Standard Oil fame)
C – Albert Einstein (Doesn’t this quote and the one in my column make you feel better about the whole thing? I mean really – Einstein had issues!)
I use TaxACT online & have found it to be easy to use & accurate. Federal filing is FREE & state edition is about $18.
ReplyDeleteOn another note, I have always thought that Income Tax could be replaced with a higher National & State sales tax on any & every purchase. But that's too simple, would save BILLIONS of dollars & put ALL the tax people out of work!
We've used TurboTax for years and been happy though on occasion I've had to hunt for a particular loophole. At this point we're just so used to how it works that I'm reluctant to change.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to say, the tax code is begging for improvement. The partisanship and lobbying has become ridiculous.