Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Gummint/IRS "Transparency"

The thing that really drive me nuts about the fuel tax (and those like it) in particular and corporate taxes in general is that these taxes are really opaque sales taxes on the ultimate consumers. If fuel prices were being marketed at say an average of $.50 less and then the receipts (does anyone even get gas receipts any longer unless getting reimbursed?) showed a sales tax of $.50 per gallon or $8.75 per tank (in my case), I think much of this demagoguery against corporations would have to stop.

This opacity is what gives rise to so much of that that the left (me, too) decries: lobbyists tweaking the tax code for the benefit of their clients. Very few have the time or inclination to sift through all the flotsam and jetsam of the code.

It's like the whole withholding thing. It's opaque. If we had to set aside every month one-twelfth of the amount of anticipated taxes for the year and then writing a big check every April instead of "escrowing" those taxes every month, people would be much more upset every April. Every one of us knows someone who is excited every January and file his return immediately because of the "refund" not realizing that he could have been earning interest on that refund (instead of having it devalued because of inflation).

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