Tax day, again

Delay doesn’t make it any better

“COBRA premium assistance credit: Effective for tax periods beginning after 2013, the credit for COBRA premium assistance payments can’t be claimed on Form 944. Instead, after filing your Form 944, file Form 944-X, Adjusted Employer’s ANNUAL Federal Tax Return or Claim for Refund, to claim the COBRA premium assistance credit. Filing a Form 944-X before filing a Form 944 for the year may result in errors or delays in processing your Form 944-X. For more information, see the Instructions for Form 944-X.

“If you’re entitled to claim the COBRA premium assistance credit, but aren’t otherwise required to file Form 944, file a Form 944 with -0- entered on line 11 before filing a Form 944-X to claim the credit. Employers can request to file Forms 941, 941-SS, or 941-PR instead of Form 944. Employers required to file Form 944, who want to file Forms 941, 941-SS, or 941-PR instead, must contact the IRS to request to file quarterly Forms 941, 941-SS, or 941-PR and opt out of filing Form 944.”

—Taken from the IRS website this year.

THIS YEAR has been like no other. Church isn’t the same. Football isn’t the same. Visiting Mama isn’t the same. (Did we get those in the right order?) Even tax day—tax day!— has been thrown for a loop. Instead of the deadline being April 15 to file federal and state taxes, the covid-19 pandemic has pushed the deadline farther to the right on the calendar. So today is actually tax day.

Huzzah.

Americans don’t mind paying their taxes. This country isn’t just a blessing but a bargain. But why do the feds make it so difficult?

The paragraphs above aren’t make-believe. We got that stuff from the IRS website. Call it the Helpful Hints section. And there are other parts, supplemental guides, circulars for farmers, data books, notices, and more.

Even when the federal government cuts taxes, as it does during Republican administrations, the Infernal Tax Code gets even more cluttered. This country, its people, even its politicians have proven to be the most creative types on the planet.

Why can’t Americans come up with a better idea when it comes to funding the government? How about MAGA? And start with helping the citizenry understand how it’s taxed.

April is the saddest month, the poet said. But he wasn’t living through a pandemic. In 2020, the saddest month is much warmer on the outside, and much more complex on the inside where people are hunched over numbers, receipts and a calculator. If not a computer program.

Because maybe only a computer program could figure out what th’ heck the IRS is talking about. Let HAL figure it out, because a mere mortal probably cannot.

But we wouldn’t bet even a computer will get things 100 percent right. For the stories keep coming about people calling the IRS, asking the same question of the people who work there, and getting different answers from different people.

And then We the Taxpaying People are supposed to swear—on penalty of perjury—that when we turn in the paperwork, it’s all correct. How many years does perjury carry in Arkansas?

And would we trust the computer program with our freedom? Or perhaps trust it to correct the mistake we made entering a number on line 22(a)?

FOR MORE than 200 years, our representatives have gone to Washington “to work for the people,” and instead have come up with this behemoth of a tax code. What we object to, or should, is how hard it is to pay for all the battleships, food inspectors and park services.

This whole involved system collects trillions of dollars, but at the cost of billions. A vast industry of tax collectors, tax accountants, tax planners, tax lawyers and tax lobbyists has grown to deal with all the loopholes, rules, trap doors and hidden alleys in the Internal Revenue Code. And the maze keeps changing with every “tax break.”

There ought to be something better to do every April—or this year, July— than fling our return at Uncle Sam and complain about it.

We’ve written this editorial before— it seems like every year—and nothing changes except the date on the check. It’s time to stop complaining and do something.

Don’t mend it, end it. Abolish the tax code and start over. After all, would anybody starting from scratch come up with a system as counter-productive as the one we’ve got? So why not opt for a clean break with the past? This country started with a tax revolt. It’s tradition! So let’s do it again.

Take the tax code out behind the (depreciating) barn and kill it with an ax. Then tell Congress to come up with a better plan by, oh, Dec. 31. Nothing might concentrate congressional minds like a tax code coming to an end.

“We can’t accept single check or money order amounts of $100 million or more. You can submit multiple payments or make a same-day wire payment.” — IRS.gov

We had no real point in mind when we decided to include the above paragraph, also taken from the government’s official tax website. We reprint it here in case it comes in handy for Gentle Reader as he gets his business in order. Good luck, all.