Yesterday was the tax filing deadline. Did you make it? Or
did you ask for an extension? As usual I
procrastinated buy 6 weeks before the deadline I worked up the details, filled
out some forms as a draft, then like a coward dropped the mess off at my
friendly CPA! She’s done marvels with
it, knew things I didn't and strategized when I just didn't have the energy
to.
Bottom line – the taxes are done and filed well before
deadline. So I’m free for now.
But I’ve been in the other position, too. Even very late.
Had to reconstruct some years of data to finally get the past cleaned up but
eventually the IRS and I were in agreement and I was allowed to pursue the
future.
As we ponder the serious purpose of taxes and the annual
contract we have with our national government, it might pay to think on some
other matters that may at first seem an ill fit.
George Bernard Shaw offered this bit of wisdom: “No
man ever believes that the Bible means what it says; He is always convinced it
says what he means.”
From an internet site named Sevenly.org comes this quote: “There’s
enough on this planet for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.”
This from Clarence Darrow: “A criminal is a person with
predatory instincts without sufficient capital to form a corporation.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. made this statement: “Capitalism
fails to realize that life is social. Communism fails to realize that life is
personal. The good and just society is…a socially conscious democracy which
reconciles the truths of individualism and collectivism.”
Jacques Fresco came up with this bon mot: “I
was asked once, ‘You’re a smart man. Why aren’t you rich?’ I replied, ‘Your’re a rich man. Why aren't you smart?’”
Another gem from George Bernard Shaw: “A life spent making mistakes is
not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.”
What do these quotes have to do with paying taxes? Simple.
We make our living and share some of its bounty with others; also we share our
resources to do things for all of us that alone we cannot.
We don’t have to be greedy to resent paying taxes, but we
need to remember that much of what we pay supports the things we benefit the
most from ourselves. Like buying a home with a loan invested by others, we are
riding on bridges and roadways built and paid for by all of us. Also hospitals,
schools and great institutions which are the result of our combined efforts,
work and shared wealth.
We are not islands unto ourselves but common citizens within
a land of free and brave souls yearning and working to do their best. Some may
not rise to the same level of effort; but all will benefit from the whole
nonetheless.
“Taxes are the price of
civilization. I’d like to think that the most prosperous nation in human
history can have both freedom and security. I think we have reached a point
where my personal success is not threatened by a program to help our parents
retire with dignity. Voters are smart enough to see that taxes are one of the
ways we get those things. They are the price we pay for civilization.”
We are blessed to be Americans. We do not always earn that
blessing. But then that’s what makes it a blessing in the first place.
The IRS is not a thankful organization; it is an
authoritative government agency. But we are a thankful society. And that’s what
counts.
April 16, 2013
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