Forget Iraq, Iran, and North Korea. The real enemy is the IRS. Seriously, the way people behave when it comes to paying taxes is that the IRS and the US government are Enemy #1. I don’t really know if John Kerry intended to pay taxes on his yacht or not. To me, that’s irrelevant. The problem is that our whole society is geared around tax avoidance, and what he’s done is no different from what every else does. I can save on sales taxes if I buy out of state or on the internet. I can avoid income taxes if I defer my income. I can avoid estate taxes if I set up a trust and give my assets away before I die. These are all very legal and legitimate ways of avoiding taxes. Most financial planners will advocate numerous ways to avoid paying taxes. Any financial magazine gives the same kind of advice. Plus, corporations and wealthy individuals go to great lengths setting up tax shelters, like shell corporations in the Cayman Islands.
What I would like to ask is, “What’s wrong with paying your fair share of taxes?” The same people who finagle ways to cheat the IRS don’t mind paying the fees for accountants to do so, nor do they mind giving large donations to charities (for the tax deduction?). They don’t have a problem giving money away; they just don’t want to give it to the US government to build roads, support the military, educate our children, secure our airports, keep our elderly solvent and healthy, deliver our mail, and so on. Yes, I admit, I have a problem with paying Michelle Bachman’s salary, but you gotta take the bad with the good.
I think this fixation on tax avoidance must have its roots in the Revolutionary War. “No taxation without representation!” was the cry of the original tea party revolutionaries. The new tea partiers seem to want, “No taxation!” Yet, no taxation is the one sure way to bring down a democracy. It is anti-democratic!
Let’s face it. We need a government. You can’t have a country without one. Collecting taxes ensures that the government can be run fairly and according to popular opinion – a democracy. Otherwise, either the government would own the industries to support itself ala socialism, or the wealthy would be running the country – an oligarchy, not a democracy. Or we can have even more corruption and let bribery and pay-offs determine our laws. So paying your taxes is probably the most democratic and patriotic thing an American can do to ensure we continue to have a government that represents the interests of all Americans and not just a few.
The Taxes of Equal!
