The Good Lord Giveth, and the Tax Man Taketh It Away
I thought I would take a break from the topic I’ve been blogging about here lately and post this poem a friend sent me today. At first we thought it was funny until we realized how true it was...
Tax his land,
Tax his wage,
Tax his bed in which he lays.
Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes is the rule.
Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.
Tax his ties,
Tax his shirts,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he tries to think.
Tax his booze,
Tax his beers,
If he cries,
Tax his tears.
Tax his bills,
Tax his gas,
Tax his notes,
Tax his cash.
Tax him good and let him know
That after taxes, he has no dough.
If he hollers,
Tax him more,
Tax him til he's good and sore.
Tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in which he lays.
Put these words upon his tomb,
"Taxes drove me to my doom!"
And when he's gone,
We won't relax,
We'll still be after the inheritance TAX!!
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL License Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel Permit Tax
Gasoline Tax
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Inventory Tax
IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax),
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax),
Liquor Tax,
Luxury Tax,
Marriage License Tax,
Medicare Tax,
Property Tax,
Real Estate Tax,
Service charge taxes,
Social Security Tax,
Road Usage Tax (Truckers),
Sales Taxes,
Recreational Vehicle Tax,
School Tax,
State Income Tax,
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA),
Telephone Federal Excise Tax,
Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax,
Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax,
Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax,
Telephone State and Local Tax,
Telephone Usage Charge Tax,
Utility Tax,
Vehicle License Registration Tax,
Vehicle Sales Tax,
Watercraft Registration Tax,
Well Permit Tax,
Workers Compensation Tax.
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and there was a surplus in the treasury and absolutely no national debt, plus Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
posted by Julie at 8/08/2006 04:39:00 PM
5 Comments:
Nothing funny about that. Sounds like we're giving to Caesar a whole lot more than is Caesar's.
THAT might help explain our GCF woes, as well.
I dunno, ALL my money has "The United States of America" written on it. They let us keep a lot of it.
I do like driving on the nice roads the tax dollars buy, but I wish they didn't use so many tax dollars to kill people, especially those who don't yet know Christ.
Cut the Department of "Defense" and "Homeland Security" and you get your surpluses back.
If only the church would do its job and take care of the poor, maybe the government wouldn't have to tax people so much in order take care of them.
Thanks for posting, everyone! Anonymous, you make an excellent point about the church’s responsibility to care for the poor. As a rule, churches and private charities have a much better track record in ensuring that money donated to the poor actually gets to the intended recipients or is used in ways that tangibly help them. I also like what you said about cutting the Department of Homeland Security. I would add all unconstitutional federal agencies to that list, including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education, and a host of others. However, we do need a strong national defense, so that is one area where I feel there is a legitimate need to invest our tax dollars. But if we confined our military actions to countries that actively wage war against us, it would drastically limit the amount of spending on our armed forces.
Beth, I loved what you said about our giving to Caesar far more than what belongs to him. When Jesus told us to render unto Caesar what is his, He didn’t mean that all our money belongs to Caesar, because then we wouldn’t be able to give to the Church or to those in need. We would have no money to send missionaries overseas or to do relief work among refugees and other needy people.
I found it fascinating that someone would mention that the government “lets” us keep a lot of our money. The implication is that is isn’t really our money, since the government gets to decide how much of it we are “allowed” to keep.
Thanks for such an interesting discussion!
And of course, it goes without saying that certain types of indirect (excise) taxes, such as the gasoline tax that funds our highways and roads, are necessary to support our infrastructure. Interestingly, there is no need for a direct tax on income to fund such things.
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