Seed tomorrow with wise tax thinking today!
Perhaps I’m not alone in my relief that tax day come and gone. Every year I watch my saintly husband invest an enormous amount of time and energy gathering all the correct paper work, organizing it in a way that would satisfy an auditor (we’ve learned from experience) and finally, filing the taxes on time. And, with great awe I watch him send the last check electronically with no signs of angst or misery. I’m in complete agreement with the physicist, Albert Einstein, who said about filing tax returns:
This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.
There are over 7 million words in the tax law and regulations. That beats the Gettysburg address, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bible combined! When I have to do the last review before hitting the “send” button, my head is numb.
The IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year to help us through the process. If the documents were laid end to end, they would stretch around the Earth 28 times! And, still, 60% of us need a tax professional to help us through the process, spending $27.7 billion dollars a year to have those taxes prepared!
And, according to the Tax Policy Center, 46% of households either paid no federal income tax in 2011 or will receive more from the IRS than they paid in. Hummm – I don’t think I can put my head around that today without it exploding.
For the rest of us, according to the Tax Foundation’s estimate, April 30th is the day that Americans can stop working to pay taxes (dubbed “Tax freedom day”).
Breaking our first 4 months of tax paying down, the Tax Foundation estimates it will take:
• 43 days of work to pay off federal, state and local income taxes
• 30 days to pay off payroll taxes (for Social Security and Medicare)
• 16 days to pay off sales and excise taxes
• 14 days to pay off corporate income taxes (This assumes that a tax on a business is passed on to its customers, employees and shareholders in terms of higher prices,
lower paychecks and less shareholder value.)
• 12 days to pay off property taxes
• 4 days to pay off other taxes (e.g., customs duties)
• 1 day to pay off estate and gift taxes
So, congratulations to all who made the deadline, one more year! (and enjoy the next two weeks or so that we’ll be working to pay 2012 taxes!)
Life is calling . . . Today’s the day . . . Make this moment matter!!
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Marilynn Semonick, CEO (Chief Exploration Officer)
The Success Studio
