My most recent tax bill was ...

I know that dread of doing taxes is an American tradition, but at least for me (a single person who rents, has income from only one source, and doesn't own any complicated investments), doing my 1040 takes me two or three hours at most, and a few weeks later I get a deposit in my bank account. Easy money.

Given that this has happened three years in a row, I should probably get my employer to adjust my withholding, but frankly getting $2000 hard cash is a nice "bonus" every spring, and really, what else would I do with the money if I had it earlier? I'm already fully funding my retirement account. I suppose I could put it in a CD for .05% interest or whatever those are paying these days, but the lump sum is more appealing.

Or, you know, they're not humorless nerds and understand that the poll's about what you get back at filing time.

Yeah. It's not like any of us is gonna make much interest on our refund if we get to keep it like we ought to, but the IRS takes money from all those millions of people, and so the federal government does collectively make a fair slice on this yearly float.

On the one hand, it fries my gizzard emotionally, but when I consider it rationally, it's obvious tax rates would just be that little bit higher to make the same revenue, so it's really more a matter of honestly labelling how much you're shaking me down for than any actual harm.

FTFY.

OK, champ, so what's your brilliant alternative solution? Cut off all welfare funding? While that might make you feel all self-rightous and justified, you'll be singing a different tune once all those "lazy freeloaders" who were working 2 jobs and still couldn't make ends meet no longer have the financial safety net they used to, and are forced to resort to robbing self-centered assholes like yourself just to keep their families from starving.

Of course, as a Tea-bagger, you probably think paying $30,000/yr to imprison all the poor people (out of sight, out of mind, right comrade?) is more fiscally reasonable than the $15,000/yr that their welfare costs, right? Personally, I don't like the idea of paying for dopers to sit around on their asses watching Maury either, but I'm not so blinded by my hatred of the less-fortunate that I can't see the forest for the trees... Probably doesn't hurt that I was, at one time, a member of the working poor, so I know what it's like to bust ass for 16+ hours a day, 7 days a week, and still have jack-shit to show for it.

Bigoted dumbass.

Agreed.

And credit makes it worse. I get that life sometimes screws you.. your car breaks down, medical bills, etc.. there are sad but valid reasons why a person ends up in debt. Seeing people go into debt buying as you said, shit they don't need, bugs me as well.

Some people almost need someone regulating their spending. "I know you want that new laptop, but you can't afford it right now. Yes, Jenny bought one, but she makes more money than you do. Don't make that face at me!" Problem is.. the people who should do it if anyone (the government) are the worst example!

... to slightly over-withhold most people. Not because the Government needs the float. Consider the two possible outcomes when people fill out their tax return:

* You owe additional tax, so you go looking for additional deductions and expenses to reduce it

* You get a refund, breathe a sigh of relief, and stop looking

Exactly. Some of us truly understand that we are giving the government a free loan, and simply don't care. If the most I can owe the government without incurring penalties (being required to prepay quarterly the next year, and so on) is $1000, it's not beneficial to me. $1000 by 24 paychecks is $41.66. What am I going to do with $41 extra bucks per paycheck? I'm going to spend it on a few extra lunches out, or a couple Blu-Ray's, or whatever. Now, if I go the opposite way and claim far too few exemptions, I get a large tax return every spring. I can then take that rather large sum and do something useful with it. I can dump it into a Roth IRA to max out the previous year's Roth, or I can make substantial improvements to my home, get a downpayment on a car, whatever. Basically it's an interest free savings account that is completely out of sight out of mind for the entire year, and then I get a 'bonus' check every spring. My financial advisor stopped getting mad at me for it this year, because he lost me money last year due to the economy and at least I didn't lose any money on the free loan I gave to the government. I didn't gain what I cold have, but I didn't lose anything either.

If they had the capacity to do that, they wouldn't be poor. They'd be temporarily poor.

As one of the poor people blowing most of my income on surviving, I second GPP's original assertion of "stupid shit".

Despite making less than most of my working peers, I somehow seem to be the only one of my peers that is financially solvent, because I live within my means; when my means go down, my quality of life goes down (and it's been way down at times), but I still keep my head above water.

I am constantly amazed at how people who make significantly more money than me can be so deep in the hole. What the hell are they spending all that cash on? Partying and expensive toys, as best as I can tell.

History doesn't show that.
When a country is getting short on money, they tend to use what is left to pay the military to take what they need.

Sir you have completely missed the point of living in a place like the Caymans, Philippines or Thailand.

You don't live there because you have to work there, you live there because you can afford to do so without working. At worst you own a business but that is hit and miss. Most people live of investments in more secure countries or from pensions, a lot of retired American servicemen that live off of military pensions in the Philippines.

If I had A$50K p/a of income from sources outside of employment, I'd live there.

A TV is a good investment for poor people as it's the cheapest form of entertainment. People need luxuries, if they're to do nothing other than eat, shit and work, then there's no point even being alive.

At the end of the day, it's the rich who push all this shit via advertisements, and who created the economic system which revolves almost entirely around the consumption of pointless shit, who then turn round and complain about poor people buying the things they've been telling them to buy.