Week of 03/25/2019

Say “No” To The “No Refund” Script
– by David Matthews 2

There’s a minor comedy scene in the animated feature “The LEGO Batman Movie” where our animated heroes are crammed into a Bat-jet built for one (because the last time LEGO Batman looked, he only had one butt) and they’re being fired upon by the bad guys.  And despite LEGO Batman’s superior piloting skills, the plane’s engines get hit and catch fire one at a time.  And each time, LEGO Batman excuses the loss as something they don’t really need.

Batgirl: Engine one down.

Batman: Not a big deal. Don't worry about it. It's fine.

Batgirl: Engine two down.

Batman: It does that sometimes.

Batgirl: We've lost engine three.

Batman: Oh, could live without it.

Until they run out of engines.

Batgirl: Engine four!

Batman: That I do need to fix.

There is a similar script being generated when it comes to taxes among the masses.

In December of 2017, Narcissist President Donald Trump and his GOP enablers and lackeys passed and signed into law a change in the tax code.  This change would supposedly help out all of us, but obviously it would benefit the millionaires and billionaires and Big Corporate first and foremost.  No big surprise, right? 

Well, the first lie was that we were all supposed to get a larger paycheck.  Somewhere to the tune of $1000-4000 a year.  Unless you were one of those millionaires or billionaires or lived entirely off stocks and bonds, you didn’t get that.  If you did get anything more in your paycheck, it was so small you really didn’t notice it.

But now many Americans are discovering that this tax screwjob had a second level to it.  Rather than get a tax refund, many hard-working Americans are getting tax bills.  Or, if they are getting a refund, it’s a lot smaller than before.

Turns out that “extra money” had nothing to do with lowering your taxes, but instead it was messing with how your employer withholds taxes from your paycheck.  That and several of the common deductions hard-working Americans used to rely on were eliminated so the GOP could give those millionaires and billionaires and Big Corporate those tax breaks.  So instead of getting a tax break, a lot of you are paying for all those taxes that your employer didn’t withhold properly.

Winning!  Tired of it yet?

So now here comes the new script on behalf of those millionaires and billionaires and Big Corporate.  You know, the real recipients of those tax breaks.  They’ve got their so-called “financial experts” hitting the airwaves and news sites telling you that you really shouldn’t be upset about the screwjob.  In fact, you should be rejoicing that you’re not getting a refund according to them!

The script goes as follows: If you’re getting a refund from your income taxes, then that means that you’re giving the government more than you’re supposed to pay.  That means that you’re supposedly giving the government an “interest-free loan” that they pay back when you file your returns.  And that is supposed to be a “bad” thing.  (Never mind what it says in the Bible in the books of Deuteronomy, Exodus, Luke, and Leviticus on charging interest.)

Except there’s one problem... what happens when you don’t “pay enough”?  You know, all those people who – through no fault of their own – had less money withheld for taxes from their employer and now have to make up the difference.  If you can’t pay that off when you report your taxes, then you are liable for the penalties and fees and, yes, interest that incur when you don’t pay that full amount.

Tax withholding is not always an exact science.  The rules change.  Deductions change.  My parents found that out the hard way several times when they ended up short on the tax withholdings.  And this was years before Trump and the GOP tax screwjobs.

Having said all that, would you like to pay too much or not enough?  I would certainly prefer the former, because then at least I get my money back if I paid too much.  If I owe, and I can’t pay the lump sum, then I’d have to pay those penalties and fees and interest.  In other words, I’d be paying a lot more than just what I still owed.  There are people right now who are finding that out the hard way.

And therein lies another little “accident”.  The interests and penalties and fees.

It was just a decade or so ago that it was revealed that the big banks... you know the ones; “too big to fail”... made some considerable money through penalties and fees and the interest on those penalties and fees.  Billions off their own clients through some overdraft charge or because they used one of those “free checks” they loved to send or because their interest rates suddenly went up.  They pretty much wanted their clients to fail because then they could hit them up with those fees and penalties and then charge interest on them. 

Funny how their friends who serve as “financial experts” seem to be setting the rest of the country up for a similar situation when it comes to taxes.  Maybe that is how Narcissist Trump and the GOP really intended those tax cuts to “pay for themselves”... through penalties the rest of the hard-working Americans would be forced to pay when they find out they haven’t paid enough through withholdings.

Let’s get brutally honest here... we need to reject the script of the so-called “financial experts” that say that we should strive for no tax refunds.  We are not banks.  We sure as hell don’t get treated like banks.  We don’t get to buy our way out of accountability if we fail like the banks do.  Because we are not financial institutions.  We are the wretched and unclean masses.

When we overpay our taxes, even by a little, we are actually protecting ourselves from those penalties and fees and compounding interests.  It’s like going to the store and buying $10 worth of groceries and paying with a $20 bill.  We don’t expect the cashier to give us $10 plus seven-percent interest in change for the “privilege” of doing business with us.  We expect to get back what was owed.  No more and certainly no less.  When we go to the gas station and give them $20 for gas and we can only put in $15 worth, we don’t expect them to pay us interest for the “privilege” of holding on to that $5.  We expect to get that $5 back.  No more and certainly no less.

Taxes are the price that we pay for being in society.  Do we want roads and police and public education?  They don’t work for free.  Neither do our military, our courts, our various regulatory entities, or, for that matter, our elected officials.  We may not like how we are taxed or how that money is used, but it is still the price of being part of society.  And to hell with those who want us to think it is a good thing to flirt with failure to pay those taxes.