Tax Day...Ouch! Ouch??

 

April 15th … the day all US citizens are supposed to file their income tax returns … or tell the government why they're delaying. Even though we don't live in the US full time any more, we're still required to file tax returns. Just in case you think we Americans are alone dreading tax day, we're not. Paying taxes is painful everywhere we've visited in the world. Politics, government spending, tax rates ...no matter where we go, these subjects are always good for some lively, if not heated discussions.

Completing tax forms ( according to Wiki Answers, there are some 1120+ active tax forms for the feds alone) and paying additional taxes, if required, are akin to root canals and giving birth … although I'm not trying to give either root canals or childbirth a bad rap.

It's nothing new. The ancient Egyptians groused about paying taxes as did the Greeks and the Romans. Taxes seem to be the price we pay for “civilization”. Though it's hard to believe, Americans pay significantly less federal taxes than many other countries of the world. Sweden tops the list and Japan is at the bottom, followed by the US. Oh, there's more though … sales tax, gasoline tax, excise tax, national parks, property taxes, unemployment taxes, Medicare and Social Security, self-employment tax. The list is never-ending. What is it they say? “Nothing's certain but death and taxes.”

The $2.5 trillion collected in US federal tax revenues pay for health care, military and national defense, highways, border security, cancer research, disaster relief, food and drug safety, education. Surely everyone in the US (if they live in-country) benefit, have benefited or will benefit from some or all of these expenditures. Everything costs money. Some things are more important to some of us than to others. If you're a farmer, or a miner or a baker, or a small business owner or a big business owner or from Maine or Texas or Arkansas, your priorities will differ. You can't please all the people all the time.

One professor recommends that just making the tax-paying process easier and more “gratifying” would go a long way towards making the process a bit more palatable. I just read a newspaper article about a group of tax scholars who recommend that the government should be marketing to its citizens what benefits they derive from paying their taxes. Instead of being the big, bad IRS, the author advocates more effort (and $$) should be used to educate folks just how their taxes are spent ... perhaps, even revitalizing the thought that paying taxes was part of their patriotic duty. They rationalize that people are more apt to part with their money more graciously if they agree with how it is spent. Just look at how well volunteer and philanthropic organizations do in coaxing money out of people. But spending more tax money to market to citizens, so they feel better about paying taxes … maybe not.

Check out a little tax day trivia here.

What are your views on taxes? Love/hate relationship? Getting a refund this year or paying?

Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

IRS Tax Day (USA)

Make sure to file your taxes today or at least file an extension.

McDonald's Day

McDonald's Corporation was incorporated in Des Plaines, IL on April 15, 1955. Do you remember your first McDonald's burger?

A Penny for Your Thoughts

According to Straight Dope, the phrase “a penny for your thoughts” was included in the The Proverbs Of John Heywood in 1546. Probably a penny had some worth then. It certainly doesn't now. In many of the countries we've visited ... New Zealand, Australia and Canada come to mind immediately … they've phased out pennies altogether. They round off everything to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. No such thing as $9.99 … it's always $10, no matter what the sign says.

Yet returning to the USA, we find pennies, made of zinc now and not copper, still in use, though their value is nearly worthless. A penny's worth of penny candy will probably get you the cellophane wrapper and Ebay has penny whistles going for $5.65 plus shipping.

They've made several attempts to rid us of pennies, but evidently the zinc lobby (yes, I'm serious) is very opposed to it. The cost of production is more to make them than they're worth. I read that it costs ~2.2 cents to make a penny. I was never a math whiz, but even I can figure out that this is probably not a good business model. Do we really lose that much money making money? Considering the US mints billions of pennies each year, it would seem we could save a bit on materials, labor and overhead if we eliminated this product. Of course, that's just me, but I've noted we have a significant budget deficit and maybe this would help a little.

That said, when I see a penny laying on the ground, I still never hesitate to stop and pick it up … if it's heads up that is...

Find a penny, pick it up. All day long you'll have good luck.

Penny tails, flip again. Share your luck with a friend.

You just never know when you'll find a penny worth something … even my thoughts.

So...do you still pick up good luck pennies?

Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

Ex-Spouse Day

Nah...let's not go there!

National Pecan Day

Instead of ex-spouses, let's celebrate pecans. Bake a pecan pie...you can't do that with an ex-spouse!

Jump Trax

 

My 18-year-old nephew known as Nicholas or Nick to the rest of the world and Nicks to me, works part time at a place called Jump Trax. He's worked there for two years and though I've visited during that time, I never had a chance to see the inside of the place. In fact, I didn't really know what the place was. It's an inflatable jumping place. Hmm...

So I'm back in the Boston area unexpectedly and we were planning to drop Nicks off at work one day and I asked if we could have a tour. “Sure”, he said. Remember, he's 18 and I'm his aging aunt. Saying “Sure” was very large in my book and I was looking forward to seeing what a jumping place was. I mean I know what “jumping” is, but an inflatable jumping place, that's something different from a place that's jumpin' or getting jumped.

Son of a gun, if Jump Trax isn't a place where kids go to jump. It's a village of huge, soft, inflatable creatures and structures. You take off your shoes and dive in … and jump. You can have jumping parties or open jump time if nothing else is scheduled. You can enjoy it if you're 6, 16 or 60 although I was not invited to jump... not everything was totally inflated yet. Maybe next time.

I'm not sure I CAN jump, now that I think of it. I know I could jump once, but I don't do it often any more. I jump off the boat (actually a graceful step-down is more accurate) and I “jump to” when the captain gives a command (as if!). If I get a special invitation, I jump on it. And when we don't get to port on time or the weather's lousy, I get jumpy. I need to ask Nicks if I can jump at Jump Trax. It sounds as if it could be another adventure.

Days and Ways to Celebrate

A daily list of mostly obscure holidays and fun ways to celebrate them.

April Fool's Day

The reference to this day dates back to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in the 14th century. It's celebrated in many countries by sticking a paper fish to someone's back without them knowing it, a tradition known in France as poisson d'avril, literally April Fish. Go ahead, do it, fool someone!

Sliced Bread Day

First time sliced bread appeared commercially (Holsum Bread), followed by Wonder Bread (1930). It was advertised as "the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped" which led to the expression "the greatest thing since sliced bread". And now you know the rest of the story.