It's the deadline for filing taxes for 2007. YUCK! I filed online this year, thanks to a suggestion from the Sibling, and that made the process relatively painless.
I'm tired and very busy, so I'll spare you my usual rant about high taxes, bloated government, and the utter foolishness of taking ever-more money from productive people to give it to unproductive ones -- which is basically taxing virtue to subsidize vice. Also, let it be known that I think it's stupid to tax grad student fellowship money, since grad students barely have enough to live on anyway! Why not just call struggling grad students members of the "working poor" and get it over with?
Instead, I give you the lyrics of the Beatles' song, "Taxman."
Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Should five per cent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah I'm the taxman
If you drive a car, I'll tax the street,
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat.
If you get too cold I'll tax the heat,
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet.
Don't ask me what I want it for
If you don't want to pay some more
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'Cause I'm the taxman, yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me!
Oh, this year, the Sibling and I discovered that we'll get a little bit of money from the recent Congressional "economic stimulus package." It's better than nothing, though I fail to see how giving us a few hundred dollars can "stimulate" anything really, really substantive. For me, it means I get to sweat a little less as I look for plane tickets home to visit my parents...though flying means I'm polluting with carbon emissions and destroying the world (again).
PS: You do know, don't you, that once upon a time in early American history, we didn't really HAVE an income tax?
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