I say this every year and I mean it sincerely every year: I hate the IRS.
Our tax system is backwards as far as I can tell, and the IRS seems more concerned with ensuring that we on the bottom of the pigpile are coloring inside the lines rather than making sure the big pigs on the top aren't laundering money.
This year in particular, what has inspired my disdain is the taxation of unemployment benefits.
Am I the only one who thought that a portion of all the taxes that I have paid in previous years was paying into a pool of money from which, by paying in, I am entitled to draw should my job be lost due to, say, outsourcing to a satellite company in Colombia being incorporated as a separate entity to take advantage of corporate tax loopholes?
Am I the only one who thought that a portion of all the taxes that I have paid in previous years was paying into a pool of money from which, by paying in, I am entitled to draw should my job be lost due to, say, outsourcing to a satellite company in Colombia being incorporated as a separate entity to take advantage of corporate tax loopholes?
But I digress.
So can we see please, with a show of hands, how many of us believed that the way this works is: over your years of slaving away for the man (maybe you are lucky enough to not be a corporate slave) you paid your taxes like good boys and girls, a portion of which was your contribution to the big happy pool of money known as the Social Security system, and that during that time your employer, or various employers, were also throwing in a portion of money to that big happy pool in your name. Then, should you get handed a pink slip you are entitled to draw from that system in the form of Unemployment Assistance (or benefits), which will be payments amounting to about 60% of what your paychecks had been under your salary.
How many of you are just barely getting by on your current salary and would need to do some careful budgeting in order to make all ends meet and pay all bills on only 60% of that? Come on now, am I the only one among you with the monkey of credit card debt on my back?
Ok, now - think about how much harder it would be if taxes were taken out of your unemployment benefits, meaning that roughly 1/3 of that 60% were then taken back by the Fed as taxation on your benefits payments - money which they are disbursing to you which you had previously deposited through payment of your taxes taken from your paychecks when you did have a job.
OK, now how many of you knew that Unemployment Assistance benefits are not only considered fully taxable income but are also expected to be *repaid* - not unlike a loan with a really shitty interest rate?
Is anyone else bothered by this? Does anyone else think that this really screws the little guy (ie me)??
I expect that while many of you may be unsurprised by this info, you may not have really known this unless you yourself have been through it, or been privy to the outraged rants of someone who has... =D
Come on now, doesn't this seem just a little bit backwards? It was bad enough when I just felt like the tax code was unfairly weighted on the lower classes, and that my tax dollars were being used to fund wars I don't support and the arrogant, destructive missions of a malicious president. But I dutifully continued to pay my taxes because I thought that when I was down and out, the system into which I had paid would otherwise not be there for me.
I'm beginning to really understand why people drop off the radar and stop paying their taxes.
So can we see please, with a show of hands, how many of us believed that the way this works is: over your years of slaving away for the man (maybe you are lucky enough to not be a corporate slave) you paid your taxes like good boys and girls, a portion of which was your contribution to the big happy pool of money known as the Social Security system, and that during that time your employer, or various employers, were also throwing in a portion of money to that big happy pool in your name. Then, should you get handed a pink slip you are entitled to draw from that system in the form of Unemployment Assistance (or benefits), which will be payments amounting to about 60% of what your paychecks had been under your salary.
How many of you are just barely getting by on your current salary and would need to do some careful budgeting in order to make all ends meet and pay all bills on only 60% of that? Come on now, am I the only one among you with the monkey of credit card debt on my back?
Ok, now - think about how much harder it would be if taxes were taken out of your unemployment benefits, meaning that roughly 1/3 of that 60% were then taken back by the Fed as taxation on your benefits payments - money which they are disbursing to you which you had previously deposited through payment of your taxes taken from your paychecks when you did have a job.
OK, now how many of you knew that Unemployment Assistance benefits are not only considered fully taxable income but are also expected to be *repaid* - not unlike a loan with a really shitty interest rate?
Is anyone else bothered by this? Does anyone else think that this really screws the little guy (ie me)??
I expect that while many of you may be unsurprised by this info, you may not have really known this unless you yourself have been through it, or been privy to the outraged rants of someone who has... =D
Come on now, doesn't this seem just a little bit backwards? It was bad enough when I just felt like the tax code was unfairly weighted on the lower classes, and that my tax dollars were being used to fund wars I don't support and the arrogant, destructive missions of a malicious president. But I dutifully continued to pay my taxes because I thought that when I was down and out, the system into which I had paid would otherwise not be there for me.
I'm beginning to really understand why people drop off the radar and stop paying their taxes.
Since I'm already "playing dead" here, maybe it's worth it to just "get lost" in France... Is France's taxation system any better? Beuler? Beuler? Anyone?
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