It’s that time of year again. The belated Christmas cards have stopped coming and now we are receiving all the documents we need to prepare our tax returns for 2017. The next step is to start our return. I don’t know which I hate most…notice I said hate, not dislike, as hate is the operative word…preparing tax returns or paying the actual tax. They are both painful and to be avoided if possible. Hating taxes is entirely American. It is after all, why our founding fathers started the revolution that would separate us from the British. This country had its beginnings in protest against taxes on tea and the protests have continued until this day.We all have our opinion on taxes. Some feel it is our civic duty. Some feel that it is an imposition. Some feel that we are unfairly taxed. Some, who live off programs of the government, may feel that it is their right. Some of us dread figuring out how much we owe to the government each year while others look forward to how much they will be getting back in the form of over-payment of taxes or Earned Income Credit.
The EIC, in my opinion, is the government’s way of spreading out income between the middle class and the poor who work at jobs that don’t pay them adequately to support a family. If I really think about it too much, it would get me upset. Not because the people getting the credit don’t need help in order to survive, but that it is the middle class that is paying their way, not the wealthy or corporations. People should receive a wage that allows them to survive. Period. But rather than taking it from the middle class, most of whom are only one or two paychecks away from being in the same situation, employers should be held accountable for not paying a living wage.
McDonald’s, for instance, known for low paying positions, posted a net income in 2016 of 4.69 billion, after taxes. Walmart earned 133.6 billion. One could argue that the earnings went to the shareholders, but those shareholders, for the most part, are not the average guy. They are pension funds, banks, and mutual funds. What if companies profiting from an underpaid labor force made less money and paid their employees better? Then taxes from the average guy’s hard-earned income would not go to prop up those who work in the fast food industry, nurse’s aides in nursing homes, or sales clerks in chain stores.
Still, I am a capitalist at heart. I believe in the free market. I believe in supply and demand. I believe that when corporations are allowed to make money it helps the economy. It’s just to bad that it doesn’t help those in need. Corporations do put money back into the employees, but it is usually those employees who are more highly educated, not those that are doing all the grunt work to keep our economy alive.
That isn’t where I thought I was going when I started this article. I was going to complain about the actual task of filling out our income taxes: all the records that must be kept, all the waiting on documents to arrive so I can start filling out the actual forms. But when I think about it, I’m very blessed. Taxes are not a mystery to me. I have been doing them all my adult life in one form or other, both for myself and for others. In doing so, I realize that I am indeed fortunate. We may be middle class and may complain about the 35 or 40% taxes that we pay in total when we include income, sales, and property tax, but we are able to pay them without too much difficulty. As the saying goes, the only certain things are death and taxes. Being able to pay taxes is proof that we have avoided the other certainty for at least another year.