Amy is on the phone right now with our accountant. What a mess. Since I’m military and a California resident living in Mass our taxes are a mess. Amy is a Mass resident but is married to a California resident. The forms were never designed to deal with such a situation, and our accountant is unfamiliar with all of the rules that come with military personnel.
This has been nothing short of an absolute painful experience. Throw into that fact that I own a condo in Virgina and Amy owns a condo in Wash DC further complicates it. It makes me want to skip paying taxes altogether. I have a new appreciation of tax dodgers. I have to wonder how many of them would pay taxes if they could figure out their taxes. The thought of just saying “Screw it” is a powerful one when the alternative is to live in nervous fear of making a mistake.
I will pay more in taxes if I can fill out my taxes on a post card. I want a flat tax, and I want it bad. Why must the Gov’t punish honest people that just want to do the right thing? Is H&R Block’s lobbyists that powerful? Are those loopholes such a good thing that all of us that don’t qualify for them must jump through the mess of laws that enable such loopholes? Is there some nation out there that does a flat tax that we can move to? Would I still have to fill out US taxes if we do move?
Please Congress, just once, do you own taxes. I want to see each and every Congressperson and Senator do their own taxes. No accounting firms, no help, just the forms and a copy of the tax laws. Most of them are lawyers anyway, so they should be able to get it. Then, let’s have the IRS take a close look at each of their returns… hell, might as well audit them all. I’d bet that we wouldn’t get through half a tax season before we hear them begging to reform the tax code to something humanly understandable.
I love this country. I’ve worked for this country for over twenty years of honorable service. For all of the honest taxpayers, please, show us some respect and clean up the tax code.
BTW: If we had a flat tax, I could have figured out our taxes in the time it took to write this post… think about it.