tax day

TAX DAY
thats the day
today
you are suppose to file and pay your taxes

im not sure why they added those extra two days

i did mine
wrote the check
mailed it in last week
done

this made me think a lot about taxes

my wife she rides on a toll road to get to her teachers job
she pays about $100 a month for the toll to ride on the road
supposedly the toll money pays for having built the toll road

if she didnt use the toll road
it would take her probably an extra 30 minutes a day one way
to get to work
an extra hour each day

in california they are adding a gas tax to raise money
for infrastructure
somewhere i read it was 30 cents a gallon

so
doing the math
she could have paid if she was in california with its tax
that $100 each month in gas taxes
which could be used to pay for that toll road
which would make it not a toll road
which would make it where everyone could ride on the road
toll free

i figured she could be paying the equivalent of 333 gallons of gas taxes
each month with that toll fee
however
she only burns up 30 gallons a month of gas
which would be a tax paid if the taxes were increased on a gallon of gas
of $10

it just seems that it would be cheaper to pay higher gasoline taxes
to pay for these toll roads
instead of paying tolls that i think go to private companies
i read once they arent even us companies

so
i advocate for a gasoline tax to pay for all this infrastructure

i pulled out my tax forms just now
now our income is from three sources
my social security
my wife shes teachers paycheck
our iras and other investments

so
now usually we dont even itemize
just do standard deductions
but we are always stuck with all these other forms
since they are adjustments here
adjustments there on our income

now
this year since we had higher than expected medical
and dental expenses
we itemized

so i kept careful records of all i could deduct
like
mileage for charity mileage for medical or dental care
i scrounged through all the suggested deductions i could
and
kept good records of all of it

i sent in this big ole pile of stuff to the accountant

what he sent back was this  21  page tax return

thank goodness it was all sent in to the irs by electronic method

as i reviewed all these forms and documents
i wondered
was it all worth the time and effort it took to document it all

i am not so sure it was
yes i saved several thousands of dollars in taxes
but
im not so sure i shouldnt just have forgot about all that
and
just paid the man

i was thinking
just tell me what my percentage is that i owe on my income
whether its 10% or 15% or 20% or 25%
then
next year when i do my taxes
i will just pay the man
take no deductions
keep no records
just write a check for that amount

it should take me about 5 minutes to do my taxes
kabam
its done
well next year it will be that way

i saw a show on pbs the other night
in new zealand
you go to a government website
answer a few questions
if you agree on what they say you owe
you click yes
you pay that amount
it just takes a few minutes to do
simple

i guess they dont have lobbyists in new zealand
im sure turbotax and hr block wouldnt like that much

as we head into a tax reform storm
yes
those with money will win
those without money will not win
thats
just the way things are

you know the saying
the rich get richer the poor get poorer

i doubt it will ever change

but for me and my wife she
ours
well its gonna be simple
next year

so
they can just muck with the tax code
i dont care

we are just going to just
pay the man

the organic green doctor