With being close to the middle of April, that means the deadline to file our non-constitutional tax forms are to filed. I got mine (ours) submitted about a month ago. It's a task I despise with all my being. The Government (both state AND federal) take money from me (us) at some rate determined by knuckleheaded politicians to be "fair". Then, after a calendar year passes, we are required by a non-constitutional "law," under penalty of fine and/or imprisonment for not complying, to confirm our incomes and the amount of taxes they have taken from us, on forms these same dolts have written and approved. While doing so, we are to follow the unintelligible instructions again these same ignorami have written and approved, we are to determine whether certain deductions, exclusions, exceptions, etc. are to be applied to our being allowed to claim as valid.
Well, after a couple of hours of this paper juggling and chart surfing, I give up. Don't misunderstand, I complete the forms, I merely submit them to the best of my ability. I found last year that I made an error on one form and it was corrected for me, free of charge. So, this year, with great confidence, I submitted my forms assuming errors were made as I had no confidence in my ability to interpret the instructions. I noticed, too, that if I asked the IRS to complete my forms, they would gladly comply - for a fee of $1,000.00! A loophole I discovered all on my own. I saved myself about $75.00 or so in fees to TurboTax, H & R Block, etc.
This gets me to where I began. Having already received our state tax refund, corrected to $510.00 in our favor, we decided to check on the progress of our federal return. The IRS web site is very easy to use and very exact. It turns out, as expected, that I made an error on those as well, not in our favor, but, still a refund nonetheless. This was the surprise. Not that I made the error, but that we actually receive the refund.
This, again gets me to where I began. After all this riggamaroll, taking money from us, making us fill out forms, worrying if we owe MORE money, etc., they (the governments) took too much from us. They got to use this extra money, for free. I am just to be satisfied with the fact that I am receiving the overage as a refund. Fine, but next year I have to claim this as INCOME! The ultimate insult. I long for the flat tax.
Monday, April 8, 2013
Thursday, April 4, 2013
ANOTHER WISCONSIN ELECTION, ANOTHER WIERD OUTCOME
This last Tuesday, April 2, Wisconsin held its usual spring election. There were only two state-wide elections held, a position on the State Supreme Court and the State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Almost all communities also had local offices and county judgeships on the ballot. This column is focusing on the state-wide races.
The State Supreme Court race had an incumbent running who is a string constitutionalists who, according to her own words, believes that the legislature makes the laws and the SCOW is to base its opinions on those laws. The opponent was a Milwaukee attorney who has been in academia for a long time and has very little, if any, experience in an actual courtroom. A no-brainer, right? Not in Wisconsin. Fully 40% of this state hates our Republican Governor and the Republicans in the legislature so much, they vote against anyone associated with them. All a non-conservative candidate needs to do is convince about 10-1/2% of the voters to vote against the conservative because of those views. This usually occurs when the liberal money backs its candidate with union dues and Hollywood money. Luckily, this wasn't the case in the SCOW race and the real judge won re-election.
The School head was another story. The hand-picked union-backed, union hack incumbent was opposed by a former conservative legislator with no financial backing and out-of-the-box philosophy. So, my question is, how can the same voters who elected a conservative Supreme Court Justice turn around and elect a weak, union toady to run the most backward organization in the state? I guess the same ones who elected a conservative Governor a second time in two years and then placed the most liberal member of Congress into the U.S. senate and re-elected a Marxist for President.
Go figure.
The State Supreme Court race had an incumbent running who is a string constitutionalists who, according to her own words, believes that the legislature makes the laws and the SCOW is to base its opinions on those laws. The opponent was a Milwaukee attorney who has been in academia for a long time and has very little, if any, experience in an actual courtroom. A no-brainer, right? Not in Wisconsin. Fully 40% of this state hates our Republican Governor and the Republicans in the legislature so much, they vote against anyone associated with them. All a non-conservative candidate needs to do is convince about 10-1/2% of the voters to vote against the conservative because of those views. This usually occurs when the liberal money backs its candidate with union dues and Hollywood money. Luckily, this wasn't the case in the SCOW race and the real judge won re-election.
The School head was another story. The hand-picked union-backed, union hack incumbent was opposed by a former conservative legislator with no financial backing and out-of-the-box philosophy. So, my question is, how can the same voters who elected a conservative Supreme Court Justice turn around and elect a weak, union toady to run the most backward organization in the state? I guess the same ones who elected a conservative Governor a second time in two years and then placed the most liberal member of Congress into the U.S. senate and re-elected a Marxist for President.
Go figure.
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