Overly Taxed and Defeated

When the word tax is used, most of us think of it as a mandatory contribution to federal, state and local government revenue, levied by the government on worker’s income and business profits, or added to the cost of goods, real estate owned, services and transactions. Tax can also be a strain or heavy demand. As a verb, tax means to make heavy demands on someone’s powers or resources. Our mental and emotional power can be taxed in many ways. Ever present inflation is a tax on our financial resources given most of our incomes do not increase at the same rate or higher than the costs of goods and services. Many of us seem to never be able to get ahead. All of it is mentally and emotionally taxing.

There are local, state and federal taxes that we are required to pay in order to receive benefits and services from our government entities. Sales taxes on most goods and services while providing an abundant source of income for government, leave us without knowledge of how much sales tax we pay each year. Real estate taxes are simpler to track and itemized statements are provided showing where the taxes are allocated. In Florida, a retirement haven due to the absence of a state income tax, real estate taxes are rising rapidly to fund the growth. We are told how much we owe in federal and state taxes, if applicable, based on our adjusted gross income. The adjustments to income that we are allowed to take in order to determine our taxes owed vary greatly, and change from year to year and from administration to administration. Step-up taxes, alternative minimum taxes, estate taxes, inheritance taxes, short-term and long-term gain taxes on investments and real estate, and there are many more taxes.

Determining the actual tax expenditures we pay and what we truly receive as services from the various levels of government is like trying to grasp air with your hand. The air exists because we are still breathing and paying taxes but we can’t measure the air in our hand because it’s always moving and changing. Taxes are nebulous like the cloud that stores our personal and business information. Most of us do not understand how the cloud works or if it is wise to rely on it. Tax season has been known to cause people anxiety. It is depressing when we are informed more taxes are owed. In banking and real estate, I witnessed self-employed customers who were taxed mentally when they couldn’t qualify for a loan because they took advantage of too many adjustments or deductions to their income in order to not be so financially burdened by taxes. It is a rather insane cycle that taxes our mental health and the cycle is re-occurring as a result of a convoluted and overly complicated tax system.

Out walking one day and contemplating the political and tax systems, I pictured a ping pong game. The players were two parents competing for control of the child with a win at all costs mentality. The child was the ball. In the game, the parents were battling to win and the child kept getting hammered with fierce forehands and backhands. A battered net divided the battle line and on either side of the net, the child was hit hard by the paddles the parents carried. The parents were so focused on winning that they did not seem to care or know what they were doing to the child. The child did not stand a chance. Taxpayers are the child and the parents are the two political parties using every maneuver they can to win. The game is the battle for control and it is mentally, emotionally and spiritually taxing on all. In the end, there are no real winners and we all end up feeling taxed and defeated in one way or another.

We desperately need a simplified tax system on all levels that is easily understood, easy to manage and enforce and that provides a reliable and sustainable source of income for government to operate efficiently and provide necessary goods and services. There’s an abundance of unnecessary spending going on and it is happening at the local, state and federal levels. It’s time to end the game and the heavy tax on our collective psyche.

“There is abundance in simplicity. Less is more and more is oftentimes less.”
- Diana Vazquez-Douglas