Icky Tricky Taxes
For decades I prepared my own tax returns—even as the proprietor of a small business. But that model went to hell in a hand basket after Hurricane Katrina. I hadn’t a clue how to go about claiming the total loss on my house in one state, while reporting my full-time income in another. So I hired a tax lady—and have never looked back.
I love my tax lady. She’s smart. Efficient. And I trust her implicitly. But she does require that I bring her some information. And therein lies the rub. The way to access this information changes over time. Last year some of the forms that used to just show up in the mail didn’t arrive. Turns out I have to find them online. (Or call people who know how to find them online.) So I’m bracing myself for the scavenger hunt which begins as soon as my supremely organized tax lady sends me the annual tax organizer that helps me figure out what I need.
Throughout my adult life, I have always voted in support of taxes. I’ve never second-guessed the IRS, nor scuffled with state departments of revenue in any states in which I’ve lived. My steadfast support of taxes comes from a desire for decent roads. And for the need to presume I can trust bridges as I cross them.
I know if we want warriors to protect us, we must provide our soldiers—and their families—support, both during and after their active duty. Further, I understand that civilized societies must provide safety nets for citizens who become seriously ill or disabled to the point that they can no longer work. And everybody needs public spaces they can visit: a town square, a park, or a library.
And high on my list of reasons for supporting taxes is my desire for the entire populace to have a decent education. To learn to read and write and reason. I went to public schools, worked in public schools, and sent my children to public schools. And all three of my offspring went on to college.
Public Schools work.
But alas, in Arkansas, my tax dollars are now funding equestrian lessons for homeschoolers while public schools in Little Rock are forced to close due to lack of funds. Because there are no income-eligibility requirements for homeschool or private school families seeking education vouchers, some well-off families who used to pay for horse lessons on their own, are now using my tax dollars instead. A tricky business.
But aside from horse lessons, I have qualms about the state using public dollars to support private education. It weakens the public school system, which is there for everyone—rich, poor, people of various faiths or of none. In the long run, the depletion of state funds for public schools will harm all of us. (And being forced to put my tax dollars into the private equestrian lesson fund makes me mad.)
Sometime during my teenage years, my parents refused to pay the portion of their taxes that supported our country’s participation in the Viet Nam conflict. Aside from finding war immoral, they had questions about the legality of America’s involvement, given that the US never made any official declaration of war. So my folks withheld their tax dollars in protest.
I don’t know if I could do that. Maybe I’m chicken—I don’t want to face the potential legal consequences (which my parents eventually did). Or maybe I just feel a steadfast duty as a citizen to commit my fair share. But for the first time in my life, tax time feels icky.