The U.S. tax code is a complete and utter abomination and it needs to be thrown out entirely. Nobody in their right mind would ever read the whole thing – it is over 3 million words long. Each year, Americans spend billions of hours and hundreds of billions of dollars trying to comply with federal tax requirements. Sadly, it is the honest, hard working Americans in the middle class that always get hit the hardest. The tax code is absolutely riddled with loopholes that big corporations and the ultra-wealthy use to minimize their tax burdens as much as possible. Many poor people do not pay any income taxes at all. The dishonest are rewarded for cheating on their taxes (if they can get away with it) and the ultra-wealthy have moved trillions of dollars to offshore tax havens where they can avoid U.S. taxation altogether. Our system is incredibly unfair to the millions of hard working people in the middle class and upper middle class that drag themselves out of bed and go to work each day and try to do the right thing. In addition, the current U.S. tax system is incredibly inefficient, it diverts a tremendous amount of resources away from more valuable economic activities, and it has chased thousands of businesses and trillions of dollars out of the United States. The U.S. tax code is such a complete and utter mess at this point that it can never be “fixed”. The only rational thing to do is to abolish it completely, and any politician that tells you otherwise is lying to you.
The following are 24 outrageous facts about taxes in the United States that will blow your mind….
1 - The U.S. tax code is now 3.8 million words long. If you took all of William Shakespeare’s works and collected them together, the entire collection would only be about 900,000 words long.
2 - According to the National Taxpayers Union, U.S. taxpayers spend more than 7.6 billion hours complying with federal tax requirements. Imagine what our society would look like if all that time was spent on more economically profitable activities.
3 - 75 years ago, the instructions for Form 1040 were two pages long. Today, they are 189 pages long.
4 - There have been 4,428 changes to the tax code over the last decade. It is incredibly costly to change tax software, tax manuals and tax instruction booklets for all of those changes.
5 - According to the National Taxpayers Union, the IRS currently has 1,999different publications, forms, and instruction sheets that you can download from the IRS website.
6 - Our tax system has become so complicated that it is almost impossible to file your taxes correctly. For example, back in 1998 Money Magazine had 46 different tax professionals complete a tax return for a hypothetical household. All 46 of them came up with a different result.
24 - Most of the tax debate is focused on income taxes, but the truth is that Americans pay dozens of other taxes every single year. The following are just a few of the taxes that many Americans pay….
(So how many of these do I, the editor pay? Take the test and see how you do.)
#1 Building Permit Taxes
(Nope)
#2 Capital Gains Taxes
(Nope)
#3 Cigarette Taxes
(Nope)
#4 Court Fines (indirect taxes)
(Nope, In fact since I fight them and win it costs them…They do not get to use my property against others.)
#5 Dog License Taxes
(Nope)
#6 Federal Unemployment Taxes
(Nope)
#7 Fishing License Taxes
(Nope. But if I fished I would be happy to pay it.)
#8 Food License Taxes
(Nope)
#9 Gasoline Taxes
(YES! And if it was spent for the roads I use then I would be happy to pay it.
#10 Gift Taxes
(Nope)
#11 Hunting License Taxes
(Nope. But if I hunted I would be happy to pay it.)
#12 Inheritance Taxes
(Nope)
#13 Inventory Taxes
(Nope)
#14 IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
(Nope)
#15 IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
(Nope)
#16 Liquor Taxes
(Nope. I don’t drink liquor. I don’t voluntarily give these Socialists my property. Do you?)
#17 Luxury Taxes
(Nope)
#18 Marriage License Taxes
(Nope. Why would anyone ask the government for permission to marry? Is marriage not a religious act? How can government require a license to perform a religious ceremony?)
#19 Medicare Taxes
(Nope)
#20 Property Taxes
(Nope)
#21 Recreational Vehicle Taxes
(Nope)
#22 Toll Booth Taxes
(Nope)
#23 Sales Taxes
(Yes. I pay these but I do my best to avoid them by buying on line, buying used and fixing it up. I keep as much as I can from the tyrant socialists that seek to enslave, and have mostly succeeded in enslaving us all.)
#24 Self-Employment Taxes
(Nope)
#25 School Taxes
(Nope)<
strong>#26 Septic Permit Taxes
(Nope)
#27 Service Charge Taxes
(Nope)
#28 Social Security Taxes
(Nope. I don’t even have a Social Security Number.)
#29 State Unemployment Taxes (SUTA)
(Nope)
#30 Telephone Federal Excise Taxes
(Yes. I admit it. I pay this one. I will have to consider my options.)
#31 Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Taxes
(Yes. I admit it. I pay this one. I will have to consider my options.)#32 Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Taxes
#33 Telephone State And Local Taxes
(Yes. I admit it. I pay this one. I will have to consider my options.)
#34 Tire Taxes
(Very seldom but once in a while. I wonder if I can get them on line? I will have to check that out.)
#35 Toll Bridge Taxes
(Nope)
#36 Toll Tunnel Taxes
(Nope)
#37 Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
(Nope. I have beaten them every time in the last 10 years. And I make USRE it costs them a bundle (thousands in fact) to try to collect so they would benefits from their tyranny and false accusations.)
#38 Utility Taxes
(Yes. But I am working on going off the grid. Everyone should.)
#39 Vehicle License Registration Taxes
(Nope)
#40 Vehicle Sales Taxes
(Nope)
#41 Workers Compensation Taxes
(Nope)