Tax Guru – Ker$tetter Letter

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It’s Tax Day, let’s party

Tax politics – Using tax stats to promote various, often diametrically opposed, agendas.

Bushes Pay Over $225,000 in Federal Taxes

John Kerry Releases His 2003 Income Tax Returns

You Are What You Tax

Beyond April 15: How Washington Spends Your Taxes

The School-Spending Racket – This kind of abuse of taxpayer dollars by the New York public school system is repeated around the country. The public has been brainwashed to believe that more money always equals higher quality education and that anyone opposed to additional spending on schools is anti-child and inherently evil. Just as with any program with growing amounts of money, the opportunities for corruption and fraud increase in synch.

Best & Worst Tax-and-Spenders in 2003

The Growing Class of Americans Who Pay No Federal Income Taxes – People dropping off the income tax radar on the bottom end of the scale; not the top end, as many stories want to focus on.

Why most people have no clue as to how much they pay in taxes. If everyone had to write a check on April 15 for the full amount of the prior year’s taxes, there would be massive support for controls over government spending.

Few Fear An IRS Audit Anymore – This just isn’t true. Most people are so scared of getting into trouble with IRS that they intentionally overpay their taxes. I see it all the time.

Good letter to the editor in today’s Wall Street Journal

Why Must Tax System Be a Burdensome Fear?

It should be alarming to every beleaguered, taxpaying American that the IRS recently reported its accuracy rate in answering telephoned taxpayer inquiries fell to 76% so far this year from 84% two years ago (Tax Report, April 1). I suspect the reason is the increasing complexity and breadth of the Tax Code. This is the unintentional consequence of tinkering with tax law, while maintaining the empire and dominion of the IRS and the influence it wields in our lives.

Would we tolerate a 24% error rate by a surgeon? Would McDonald’s be in business today if errors were made in 24% of its orders? Of course not. Why is there not a plan to do away with a system of taxation that makes miserable the lives of honest Americans, fearing an audit and April 15 each year? How can Americans be expected to suffer a system in which we cannot be assured of securing correct information as we navigate our way through the tax maze?

Will we ever elect a president who not only talks a good game about being a friend to the taxpayer, but who places his or her words into deeds, exerting political capital to end a system of tax law that even its administrators can’t comprehend and interpret?

Oren M. Spiegler

Upper Saint Clair, Pa.

The Blue-State Tax – A new name for the insipidly ridiculous AMT.

Nearly 1 million signatures for new phone tax in the PRC

The Deadly Third Rail of Politics – Social Security

The FICA slush fund

Proving personal accounts work

Why Housing Is About to Go “Pop!” – It is true that the historically low mortgage interest rates have helped pump up demand and prices of real estate. As has happened before, this will reverse when interest rates rise and fewer people can afford to make their payments. It’s a natural cycle and doesn’t mean that real estate is a bad investment; just that you need to take it into account and not overpay for properties that are too sensitive to interest rate fluctuations.