This quote from WRH is interesting to me. If we voted with our tax dollars, we would have a real democracy, not a representative democracy. The problem is, people are too uninformed to make good decisions (supposedly) and that is why we have a representative democracy. I'd like to see what happens in a real democracy for 10 years or so. How bad could it get?
Let us repeal all taxes across the board and offer a shopping list. The list has everything the government might want to do a place to check a box and the cost to the individual tax payer for that program. Items would include schools, hospitals, roads, space exploration, new jobs development, bombs, pay raises for Congress, money for Israel, bailouts for Wall Street, etc.
A taxpayer would simply check off those things he agrees we should all have and is taxed accordingly. I would agree to pay for schools, hospitals, good roads and job development.
The taxpayers would pay for those things we think we need, and NOT pay for nonsense and frills that have no place in our society.
Is that not Democracy in action?
Meanwhile, the revolt has not happened and we still have to file.
This year, anyone, regardless of income, can e-file their extensions at no cost from a home computer using IRS traditional FreeFile or FreeFile Fillable Forms. E-filing a request for an extension using either form of FreeFile is convenient, safe and secure, and taxpayers receive confirmation to keep with their records.
Here are some statistics. Are you getting above or below the average refund?
2009 FILING SEASON STATISTICS
Cumulative through the weeks ending 3/28/08 and 3/27/09
Individual Income Tax Returns 2008
2009
% Change
Total Receipts 86,817,000
84,586,000
-2.6%
Total Processed 81,644,000
81,970,000
0.4%
E-filing Receipts: TOTAL 62,237,000
65,932,000
5.9%
Tax Professionals 43,366,000
43,329,000
-0.1%
Self-prepared 18,870,000
22,603,000
19.8%
Web Usage: Visits to IRS.gov 120,604,000
147,478,000
22.3%
Total Refunds: Number 69,823,000
72,290,000
3.5%
Amount $172.017
Billion $196.563
Billion 14.3%
Average refund $2,464
$2,719
10.4%
Direct Deposit Refunds: Number 50,788,000
55,202,000
8.7%
Amount $140.216
Billion $164.657
Billion 17.4%
Average refund $2,761
$2,983
8.0%
1 comment:
A true democracy sounds awesome. I am a bit of an anarchist (well perhaps a LOT of an anarchist) and would love to see some new systems being tried or tested even at the cost of craziness for a while.
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