To
write calmly about Tax Return time - it’s a tough assignment. To
start with, why is it so loudly called and written in big letters
"tax return" even if you have to pay additional taxes?
Or, if this really is a tax return to you, why there are overpaid
taxes in the first place? Those questions aside, let’s go for
the main one, why Tax Return event is so humiliating?
You
may say, with some resignation likely, that Tax Return is compli-
cated. Very complicated. You may say, along those lines,
that Tax Return is intentionally complicated as a job security for
an army of "tax advisers". I would say that the tax
advisers are just a side effect. And I would say that Tax Return
is intentionally complicated to inflict the notion of state
invulnerability and power over an individual, a citizen. More
precisely, it is to show how small and insignificant you are. Now,
don’t get me wrong, with so many of us I recognize that state is
an inescapable social structure and that citizen’s obedience is
a neces- sity. What I’m complaining, however, are some of the
government means of the obedience "education". And let
me tell you, some state governments (I’ve changed five of them
so far) are less civil then the federal government.
My
tax returns are arguably the simplest: I’m retired, I don’t
trade commodities, my pension and annuity distributions are well
defined, I report standard deductions only. My 2013 federal tax
return was on 3 pages of 2 letter size sheets, but my MI state tax
return was on 11 pages of 6 sheets. On those pages, some ID type
data are repeated over and over:
|
NUMBER OF ENTRIES |
federal |
MI state |
FILER's
NAME |
2 |
6 |
SPOUSE's
NAME |
2 |
4 |
FILER's
SS# |
2 |
11 |
SPOUSE's
SS# |
1 |
4 |
ADDRESS |
1 |
2 |
Here
is an example, from MI tax form, which might lead you to a
conclusion that you’ve been treated like an idiot:
line
35. Subtract line 34 from line 13
line
36. Enter amount from line 35
line
37. Percentage from Table A that applies to the amount on line 33
line
38. Multiply line 36 by line 37
Suggestion:
replace the three lines 36-38 with a single line:
replacement
line: Multiply line 35 by the percentage from Table A that
applies
to the amount on line 33