Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comAbout 16 percent of Americans surveyed believe some form of deception on tax returns is acceptable, a study says. While some can loosely interpret tax laws to benefit themselves, others feel they're just leveling an unfair playing field between the rich and poor.
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I'm inclined to think that most people who cheat simply think that they can get away with it.
Just look at the number of tax cheats in our very own government. Disgraceful. Meanwhile my family gets soaked, and we pay every penny due. A bit demoralizing. We should have a flat tax, same rate for all, no exceptions or deductions for anyone. You earn ten times more than someone else, you pay ten times more taxes.
If the rate was fair, say 15%, there would probably be much less cheating. Additionally, when half the population doesn't pay taxes, and a large number of our politicians don't pay taxes, it's not exactly sending much of a message!
Honesty is a meme. If you're infected with it, you act in the best interest of others, and sometimes that pays off. If you understand it, you use it to your advantage when you want. So you pay your taxes as honestly as you have to in order to keep as much for yourself and your genetic line as you can, hoping that you don't ultimately cause your government to collapse and cause a risk of death to you and your line during the anarchy period.
And a flat tax? That just doesn't work. Non-progressive taxation is grossly unfair to the poor, and they both know that and greatly outnumber the rich. The rich pay more to the government to make sure the poor are kept from looting their mansions. Read up on the french revolution if you want to understand what happens to the wealthy class in a non progressive taxation economy.
I dont cheat on my taxes because I'm not a deadbeat. Seems pretty simple to me.
*thumbs up* canudigit. Taxes really stink, but I don't justify stealing because someone else does it.
I personally like to keep low on the IRS radar. They don't care who I am and I like to keep it that way. Freedom is nice.
Income tax are illegal...the IRS is a private business backed up by the government...the states never ratified taxes to be collected, therefore they are not legal...you're not free...you're a slave to a corrupt government that runs roughshod over you and you allow it...go to any search engine and type in
"are income tax illegal"
Freedom in the sense that I'm not in jail, my house/car isn't seized, not stuck with penalties, and so on. You go ahead and buck the system...let me know what your jail cell looks like.
Illegal or not, not paying taxes or lying about them will bring your world a lot of misery. Yes it's a corrupt government...most are. Me paying taxes isn't me allowing it.
go to any search engine and type "income taxes are illegal debunked". It's a myth.
People cheat on taxes because the government is so flagrant in its visible waste of taxes collected. It is not merely a matter of greed. Many people reason, "Why should I pay all this money when I see municipal workers who are supposed to be mending the roads leaning against a truck reading the newspaper," or "Why should I report all my earnings when Congressmen disguise the perks they receive?" A good example of this is the recent announcement on the Social Security Administration's own website that a $24 million project to produce electronic medical records for members of Congress will be funded by eliminating cost of living allowances for Social Security recipients for 2011 and 2012. Of course, added to the salt in the wounds is the fact that Congress also voted themselves a 3% pay raise while the rest of the country is either accepting salary reductions or complete loss of work. What arrogance!!!
Quite simply, when government workers and leaders stop abusing their positions of authority and when they start putting in as much energy into their assigned tasks as the people they represent, then there will be a valid ethical basis for shunning those who do not pay their freight in the form of taxes. Until then, it is nothing more than monkey see, monkey do, and in many respects it would be altogether understandable if more people began to hide money from a government that doesn't seem to understand the value of a dollar.
Several years ago a survey was completed on how people paid their taxes, of course no one said they cheated on their taxes but most complained that they would cheat if they thought they could get away with it. The study revealed that the IRS collected more taxes when tax rates were the lowest. When people did not feel that the IRS was gouging them, they paid their taxes & left nothing out, thus the IRS collected more money.
I wish the IRS would feel compelled to bring the tax rates down again so they could collect enough money to pay the dept down.
I don't know if I believe this theory, but if it were true everyone would win.
Seems to me that taking advantage of all the tax breaks you can get is not cheating, unless you are actually lying about something. Everyone has access to use take advantage of the same tax breaks.
The cheating part comes when you make a $100,000 political donation in exchange for a $200,000 tax break.
Got to watch those sneaky republicans if they get hold of your hard earned dollar they always give it to some really rich person that doesn't need the money! So it better to cheat on your taxes and have a few bucks of beer money!
You clearly have had too much beer. It isn't the Republicans that have been in control of the house and senate the last few years --it's the DUMBocrats that are spending all of our tax dollars, spreading the wealth and making it impossible for people to save. Some of us have been around long enough to remember the stories of the Great Depression from our parents and the prospects are getting bigger and bigger that that's where we will all end up. Tax cheats will be the least of our worries. When 50% of the citizens pay nothing and the rest of us are getting soaked so Obama can give them more--- EVERYONE should pay! Not just those of us that got off our butts and work for a living.
My birthday is APR. 15th so I'm exempt lol ( i wish)
Do you mind if everyone changes their birthday to April 15, "your birthday" so we would be exempt also. LOL
It would be a nice present if the IRS were able to give everyone a free pass on their taxes every 10 yrs or so. (FAT CHANCE)
Why not! think of the size of the party lol
"I'm inclined to think that most people who cheat simply think that they can get away with it."
Most of them do.
There are enough crooks without me being counted as one of them. I hate paying my taxes, but I do it. Has anyone else read that 50% of Americans pay for the taxes of the country!?!
RJ,
The top 50% pay 100% of the all the income taxes in this country. The top 10% pay 72% of all income taxes in this country. Many would call this top 10% 'rich', but many are just people that have worked hard all their lives. Sucks to have their taxes though.
Yeah, life is rough when you're in the top 10%. Shut up and pay your taxes, the government is what keeps the poor from looting your mansion. Seriously, feel free to complain about waste, but don't try to argue about the fairness of the tax distribution. If anything, the rich should pay an even larger share.
If life were fair, the top 5%, who control 90% of the money in this country, would pay 90% of the taxes. Oh yeah, and there would be NO deductions or loopholes, not for business or personal income.
The biggest incentive to why people cheat on their taxes today is that they are sick and tired of giving money over to a bunch of irresponsible people in government who waste it, terribly. We pour it onto the heads of illegal aliens having free babies by the gross, irresponsible welfare give away, and sending money by the billions to wanna be broke dick countries who will never amount to a tinkers Da__!
WTF! why does an investment manager only have to pay 15% tax when I have to pay 35%!! The money he makes is income just like my hard working income. This should have been fixed long ago. The investment manager needs to pay 35% on all income just like me. WTF!
There's a reason they call it a "progressive tax". You can't cheat a thief and taxes are nothing more than government sanctioned theft. The average Joe pays because if he doesn't men will come to his house with guns and set he and his family out in the street..... if he's lucky. The rich guy can afford to pay an army of people to cheat for him so he doesn't have to worry about the government coming after him. It would be nice if we could ALL cheat on our taxes and starve the bastards off our backs but of course that's no longer possible. If things continue the way they are we'll be signing over our checks to the government and getting back a stipend. Of course that won't effect those on welfare because as long as they have the government to steal from the rest of us they have nothing to worry about, at least not for now.
For the last 60 years the government has been lying to us... so why shouldn't we lie to them? The Federal Reserve Note HAS NO REAL VALUE. It's value is not based on Gold or Silver or Petrochemicals... but on Consumer Confidence ... and Media Spin.
Remember the fall of the USSR? It was for the same reason. The Russian People simply grew tired of listening to the lies and started lying back.
'When you do not cheat the taxman you are only cheating yourself, because it is all factured into their calculations', a not so gentle man once said to me about 40 years ago.
He cheated other people, too. When the bailiff came (in Frankfurt/M, Germany) he never had anything. But he did have the money to live half in Frankfurt and half in Florida, even aquired US citizenship at the age of 60 (?!).
He is no longer with us, and I hope, he has not infected too many people with his crook mentality.