{"id":17085,"date":"2010-04-11T21:54:10","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T03:54:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=17085"},"modified":"2010-04-11T21:54:10","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T03:54:10","slug":"taxing-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/04\/11\/taxing-day.html","title":{"rendered":"Taxing Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"I<\/a>
I Want Your Money!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I did my taxes today, the last weekend day before 15 April. And, if you follow along my Twitter, you know it didn’t end terribly well.\u00a0 Short story, we owe a big chunk to Uncle Sam, mitigated by a small refund from the lovely state of Colorado.\u00a0 It was enough that we actually ended up with a small penalty for underpayment during the year.\u00a0 First time that’s ever happened.<\/p>\n

Most of the numbers involved are fairly close to where things were last year.\u00a0 The biggest difference, looking at the numbers, was that the mortgage interest payment this past year was a lot smaller this year than last.\u00a0 That would be part of the APR combined with the prime being held at zero.\u00a0 The down side to low interest rates — we ended up paying a lot more principle in the fixed amount we pay than interest.<\/p>\n

So we paid more taxes, and nobody likes paying taxes.\u00a0 And I don’t mind if my deductions reduce my overall tax rate, since those deductions are all for useful things (no hiding my income offshore).\u00a0 But I also don’t feel some terrible personal outrage that The Revenooers are taking all my money.\u00a0 I have as much dislike for government waste and stupid spending as the next guy, but I also know that a lot of money goes to a lot of worthy causes — causes I support, people who need supporting, government functions I think are important. And that spending is controlled by people that I elect (or who are picked in elections I vote in and agree, as a citizen,\u00a0 to abide by).<\/p>\n

So, no, of course I’m not happy about paying more in taxes this year.\u00a0 But any real irritation I feel is less toward Uncle Sam (as convenient a target as he may be) as with folks who have a lot but who manage to get out from under their fair share of the load.<\/p>\n

And I think that’s the fundamental problem with our tax system — not that people are paying too much in the way of taxes, but that people aren’t paying their fair share.\u00a0 And I’m not talking here about poorer folks who end up paying no taxes — they’re folks who can use every cent they have.\u00a0 I’m talking about the rich (individuals and corporations) who game the system, not even by taking deductions and seeking shelters that were put in place to serve some social purpose, but hiding their money overseas and coming up with obscure tax exemptions to just exempt money you want exempted.<\/p>\n

I am well off.\u00a0 Not rich, but in the upper percentiles.\u00a0 And I realize that to those whom much is given, much is expected.\u00a0 So if I’m paying more taxes than someone less well off — well, that’s part of the cost of living in a society that’s made it possible for me to have what I have, and part of my duty as a citizen, giving as I’m able to.<\/p>\n

I wouldn’t mind paying less.\u00a0 But I don’t mind paying more as long as all those who are able to pay more do the same.\u00a0 Nobody minds playing fair … as long as everyone else is playing fair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I did my taxes today, the last weekend day before 15 April. And, if you follow along my Twitter, you know it didn’t end terribly well.\u00a0 Short story, we owe a big chunk to Uncle Sam, mitigated by a small refund from the lovely state of Colorado.\u00a0 It was enough that we actually ended … Continue reading “Taxing Day”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17085","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/uncle_sam-greedy.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":128137,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/09\/22\/the-universal-new-yorker-cartoon-caption.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":0},"title":"The Universal "New Yorker" Cartoon Caption","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 22-Sep-15 7:26pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Which, for a variety of personal reasons, is a hell of a lot funnier now than it would have been six months ago. A New Caption That Works for Every 'New Yorker' Cartoon And it's not \"Christ, what an asshole.\" View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31131,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/11\/05\/are-we-there-yet.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":1},"title":"Are we there yet?","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Nov-12 6:24am","format":false,"excerpt":"From today's XKCD (http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1130\/), \"Poll Watching\". (Hover caption: \"The choices we make Tuesday could have MASSIVE and PERMANENT effects on Nate Silver's blog!\")Google+: Reshared 1 times Google+: View post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3452,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/11\/19\/less_with_moore.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":2},"title":"Less with Moore","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 19-Nov-02 6:44am","format":false,"excerpt":"Spinsanity has another fine skewering of Michael Moore and his film, Bowling for Columbine. Putting aside Moore's claim to be in it for the humor, the column points out the...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32847,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/03\/22\/elvis-has-left-the-building-cosmic-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":3},"title":"Elvis has left the building (cosmic edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 22-Mar-13 10:12am","format":false,"excerpt":"Worth clicking through to the cartoon just to read the ToolTip caption. \u00a0(h\/t +Amy Shira Teitel)Reshared post from +Jason MajorLOL @ this. ;-)(Via\u00a0http:\/\/xkcd.com\/1189\/) View this post on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2216,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/07\/24\/sure_guvner_he.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":4},"title":"“Sure, guvner, he has a flat right up behind the clock face!”","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 24-Jul-02 8:30am","format":false,"excerpt":"The content of the story aside, I find it amusing that the BBC, in describing the arrest of an al-Qa'eda suspect in Denver, uses a (mediocre) photo of downtown with...","rel":"","context":"In "Fourth Estate"","block_context":{"text":"Fourth Estate","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/fourth-estate"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129494,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/15\/and-one-last-alan-rickman-thought.html","url_meta":{"origin":17085,"position":5},"title":"And one last Alan Rickman thought","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 15-Jan-16 10:18pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The caption reads, \u201cHere\u2019s to the best damned antagonist a guy could ask for.\u201d(Original: http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/cartoons\/daily-cartoon\/bonus-daily-cartoon-remembering-alan-rickman) \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/01-14-16-rickman-10005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/01-14-16-rickman-10005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/01-14-16-rickman-10005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}