This following is all true and offered in the spirit of Mark Twain who said, "The only difference between a taxman and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."-An Iowa man claimed a $240,000 tax refund for all his previous payments to the IRS claiming that the US was a fictional entity and could not hold jurisdiction over him because he was a citizen of heaven.
-The number of times around the earth all the pages of tax forms and instructions filed each year by American tax payers if laid end to end-- 60.
-The owner of a Pittsburgh furniture store attempted to deduct $10,000 from his taxes as a "consulting fee" after paying an arsonist to burn down his building so he could collect the insurance money.
-1817-1861: The years in which the federal government collected no income taxes. I say bring back the good ole' days!
-1916 was the year that the IRS deleted the word "lawful" before the word "income" thus making it possible to tax money earned illegally.
-In 1970 the poverty level income for a family of four was $3,932 on which they paid $146 in taxes. In 2006, the poverty level income for a family of four was $20,444 on which they paid $5,142.
-There are 9,097,000 words (give or take a few) in the current tax code, an increase of 652% since 1955.
-The average American tax payer works 120 days to pay his or her income tax.
-In 2008 there were 351,191,000 visits to the IRS website. That was an increase of 61% from 2007.
-April 16 is unofficially called "Divorce Day" as there is a sharp increase in filings for separation after spouses considering leaving have access to the new financial information.
I believe it is appropriate to end this post with the words of Will Rogers: "The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets."
3 comments:
Hee hee. Thanks for the laughs!
"In 2006, the poverty level income for a family of four was $20,444 on which they paid $5,142."
Does that include Social Security, Medicare and sales taxes? I know that with the standard deductions and exemptions - and even EIC - they wouldn't pay "income tax" of that amount on that level of income.
Richard:
Just running the math in my head (definitely not an accurate way to go here) it appears to be inclusive of all taxes paid, which is a more realistic way to approach this issue. Even though those living at the poverty level pay no income tax, they still pay plenty of taxes and they have not gotten relief over the years.
Thanks for asking the question.
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