Tax day felt different this year.
I considered, then rejected, asking for an extension for filing.
Not because I hadn’t filled out the 1040 yet. Not even because I owe a lot of tax this year. Which, by my middle-class standards, I do.
Because it galls me to pay money to the incompetent asshats who are currently in the process of running the country into the ground.
It feels like a bullet fee. (The fee that certain governments charge, to the family of an executed prisoner, ostensibly to pay for the ammunition used by the firing squad.)
Like I’m paying them, for killing my country.
But also because I’m confused about whom I am sending my Federal tax dollars to.
In the past, when the U.S. still operated under the basic framework of the Constitution, I was sending my money to the Congress. (Even though the Treasury Department collected it). That’s because the Congress determined how that money was spent.
But now, apparently, the President can pretty much do as he pleases, tax-and-spending wise. Though I guess if it’s an income tax, it still requires an act of the Congress. For now.
In any case, as I read it, with respect to your 1040 and April 15th, you can legally delay filing, but you can’t legally delay paying. Or, at least, not you, the little guy. The IRS form on which you request a delay in filing your return very specifically requires you to pay an estimate of the tax that is due.
So, if I want to stay within the law, being just a citizen, they get my money whether I file on time or not. A filing delay is just a delay in providing the supporting paperwork in the form of a tax return.
The only way I can see not to pay, is not to file, period. And after a lifetime of being a law-abiding taxpayer, I can’t see me doing that.
So I did my taxes on autopilot. And Turbo Tax.
Held my nose.
And gave the Federal government my money.
And so helped them continue to kill off what’s left of the U.S.A.
Once you have paid him the Danegeld, you’ll never get rid of the Dane.