"This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher."
--Albert Einstein, on his 1944 income tax form
I finished our taxes a couple of weeks ago.
It took me 22 hours, spread over four days, to do them with the help of a commercial software package. Our federal return ran 55 pages. I'm not complaining. (Not much.) An accountant could save me a little money and a lot of time, but I take a certain pride in doing our taxes. I figure it's something any grownup ought to be able to do, like changing a flat tire or your own oil.
Not your business, but we haven't had a refund in at least a dozen years, probably longer. I prefer to pay them a modest amount rather than let the government hold it and enjoy the interest. They'll get their money via a bank transfer on Friday. (I know we have until April 18 this year to get them the funds, but I don't mind floating them for a couple of days.)
Our tax returns may be more complicated than those of most people of similar means--aside from our day jobs, Karen and I have several small revenue streams. We both do a little bit of freelance work; every year a few checks trickle in. The University of Arkansas Press kindly holds my royalty checks if they don't exceed $20--that saves me the embarrassment of depositing a check for 13 cents. (Which I would do; which I have done.)
If we didn't itemize deductions, we'd probably write about twice as big a check to the government. Were I more aggressive with deductions (there are expenses I don't claim that I honestly believe I could) we could get a small check back. But I like it when the software tells me our risk of being audited is "very low." So I err on the side of caution; I don't mind giving the government a bit of a tip. While there are plenty of anecdotal examples of overreach and inefficiency, for the most part the U.S. government--which is comprised of our friends and neighbors--provides pretty good service.
I know some Ayn Rand acolytes' heads are exploding about now. We're supposed to loathe our government, especially its tax collection arm. While I have a healthy fear of the IRS, I respect that they serve an important function. The federal government needs money and we need an agency empowered to collect the taxes owed under law. It's not the IRS that levies these taxes; they're not even responsible for the complexity of a tax code that requires people like me to file a 55-page return. They just work there.
I understand my attitude about taxes might seem weird to some, but the startling rise of Bernie Sanders has made it clear that it's possible to talk about government as though it is something other than a cancer in the body politic. Sanders' platform embraces an activist government with increased spending for health care, infrastructure, social services and education. And while most of the increases would be funded by raising taxes on the wealthiest Americans and big corporations, he's also in favor of raising my taxes. Maybe yours too.
But what Sanders is proposing isn't really new--in fact, it's a positively Hamiltonian view of government. (Remember Alexander Hamilton, the founding father who inspired the rap musical? Basically he was the big-government guy, while James Madison was the limited-government guy. The tension between "tax and spendy" progressives and anti-tax absolutists has been present in our politics since before the Whiskey Rebellion.)
In their new book American Amnesia (Simon & Schuster, $28), political scientists Jacob Hacker of Yale University and Paul Pierson of the University of California, Berkeley, argue that Americans have forgotten that sometimes the federal government is the best tool for fixing some problems. They suggest that "the strong thumb" of government, working in coordination with "the nimble fingers of the market," was responsible for broad prosperity after World War II. But conservative ideologues and corporate leaders looking out for their own narrow interests began propagating the Randian notion that government was evil and the free market was infallible.
The reason so many of us believe government is the enemy is because we've been told that time and time again, usually by people who have a fiduciary interest in seeing government enfeebled. That's the whole thing about the Taxed Enough Already party and those panderers who want to abolish the IRS and who, in recent years, have seriously curtailed the agency's ability to do its job.
"Americans understand that taxes are a civic obligation," Hacker and Pierson write. "Their biggest complaint is not that federal taxes are illegitimate or excessive, but that wealthy Americans don't pay their fair share. Yet Republicans generated enormous support for a crusade that offered increased benefits to affluent tax evaders and increased hassles for ordinary taxpayers, especially the most disadvantaged."
Like Pierce Butler, South Carolina's delegate to the constitutional convention, I feel like taxes are "distinguished marks of sovereignty." The rush of satisfaction and relief I feel after I finish them lasts for a week. It's worth it.
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Philip Martin is a columnist and critic for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email him at pmartin@arkansasonline.com and read his blog at blooddirtandangels.com.
Editorial on 04/12/2016