Today we are tackling the issue of:
"I only want to pay taxes on the services I use."
While we agree that this argument sounds fair on the surface, it would never work in the real world. First off there are over 300 million people in this country, do you think that we could actually agree on a unified tax code? We can't even agree on who should win Dancing With The Stars! In addition, we live in a country where money talks and those without money don't have much of a voice. With this in mind, is it the wealthy minority or the poor and working class majority who should get their way? This is why our tax code is so complex.
This relates to arguments made by both high income and low income tax filers. For high income tax filers they usually gripe with tax loopholes that benefit the lower and middle classes. Lower income filers, in contrast, have issues with the business and upper class tax benefits. If we chose to let the majority decide then there would not be the same production based tax benefits that helped grow this country into the #1 economic superpower. On the other hand a lot of the consumption based benefits such as welfare, Medicaid and education assistance would be eliminated. Most who will never benefit from these programs directly are perfectly fine with eliminating what they consider wasted money and programs that are often abused. The reality is that these programs sprung up from all of the abuses of unregulated capitalism. First it was the monopolies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then it was the Great Depression which resulted from a major wealth inequality caused by greedy business owners and a greatly underpaid work force. Through the rest of the 20th century with the Civil Rights Movement, the Cold War and the Tech Revolution, there was always a need to give opportunities to those less fortunate.
The irony here is that while there is abuse in programs such as welfare and Medicaid, there's also abuse in business tax incentives. That said, there is a lot of good that can come out of both sides. One good result of assistance programs is a more competent and educated work force. On the other side, businesses that get tax benefits have shown great innovations lately and continue to push the technological envelope.
A few examples of elective tax programs are both "pay to play fire protection" and pre-paid college tuition. The first is a service that some feel they have no need for where as the second is only for taxpayers with children. With "pay to play" fire departments there have been horror stories of individuals who thought they did not need the service only to have their home burn down while the fire department watched, all because they wanted to save money on their taxes. For tuition benefits, this is an example where you benefit from "pre-paying" for your children's tuition which is essentially investing in a fund and then letting that fund grow tax-free while not paying tax on the money earned to make the investment.
There are several other programs, however, it is clear that even if you don't personally agree with where most of your tax dollars are going, chances are you still reap the benefits of these same tax dollars you are spending. If not, then chances are you just need a better tax preparation service.
Clint Masser
Licensed Tax Patriot & Director of Marketing
Jefferson Franklin Tax Services
Goodyear, AZ
Working on tax returns since 2006, Clint is currently a licensed tax professional in the process of studying for the Enrolled Agent exam. All of his work has been performed under the guidance of his father, a CPA/Enrolled Agent with over 30 years of experience who has provided tax preparation services and tax strategies for everyone from minimum wage employees to multi-millionaire business owners.
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