Tax day — the day you hate and the IRS loves — is right around the corner.
And as April 15th approaches, it’s a good time to think about how much the government takes from you every year. The income tax may be the single biggest chunk of taxes you pay, but you pay dozens of additional taxes you may not ever think about.
For example, you pay sales tax every time you buy something. You pay a gas tax every time you fill up your car with gas. You pay property tax every time you write a check to pay your monthly mortgage.
You pay car registration fees… you pay taxes on your telephone and cable… you pay taxes when you book airline tickets.
Some areas have taxes to pay for public transportation — no matter how expensive or little-used the public transportation may be. And sometimes taxes are passed to pay for new football stadiums! (The public pays for them, but the public does not own them.)
Add to all this the new Obamacare tax that penalizes you if you can’t afford (or don’t want) health insurance.
Then there are indirect forms of taxation. For example, speeding tickets, parking tickets, and red light camera tickets. These are yet more taxes on top of what you already pay.
And on and on it goes.
As of 2013, it took 73,954 regular 8-1/2″ x 11″ sheets of paper to explain the complexity of the U.S. federal tax code.
Keep in mind, this page count does not include any state or local tax regulations.
We have so many taxes now that some Americans are unwittingly losing more than HALF of their incomes to taxes, licenses, fees, and tickets.
Is it any wonder hard-working Americans are struggling to make ends meet? Unless the government backs off and reduces the heavy tax burden on Americans, things will only get worse.
