I read an article in today's Washington Post on page B3, titled "No Taxation Without (Visual) Representation." In the article was a link to a calculator at http://www.thirdway.org/taxreceipt. You can put in the annual taxes you pay in a year and see how they are broken down from an expense perspective. The article mentions that most people think most of their money is going in one direction when most is going in the other. The article notes that several congressmen would like the IRS to provide this information, preferably by email or online, to taxpayers so they can see where their money goes. When people understand where the money is spent, then they understand what they are paying for. Its like getting an $800 auto repair bill. Your first response is "that's ridiculous" but after looking at the bill you can either ask for changes or agree the the amount requested. It seems like that as much as many people (and almost half of Americans pay little or no federal income tax) pay in income taxes, it sure would be nice to know how much is in each of the government's spending buckets.Here is a link to the article:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/03/11/AR2011031103492.html
Comments(4)