” if you implicitly trusted the government to begin with, this just sounds like a recipe for losing money.”
If you implicitly trust the government you probably don’t have the sense to spend your own money well to begin with.
I used to wonder why the govt taxed us when they can just print the money they need.
Maybe no one else remembers this, but when Obama got into office, the first thing he did was use Affordable Care Act to increase the number of IRS agents by the thousands and he also tried to make it so that the only people who could prepare tax returns for money were people who were sanctioned by the govt.: IRS Enrolled Agents, tax lawyers, CPA’s and tax preparers who would have passed a special IRS test for tax preparers.
The courts struck that testing requirement down, but I’m sure that they are still looking for ways to deputize all people who prepare and submit tax returns and to require all tax payers to use these professional tax preparers (deputized agents) to legally file.
Later, they will make sure these deputized agents are trained to go through all of your private business to make sure you are adhering to every PC thought and practice demanded by the Marxist administration.
Elvis Presley did this. His father, who handled Elvis’ finances, was afraid of using private accountants because he thought one wrong slip and Elvis would be broke and/or go to jail. So they had the IRS do their taxes for them directly. As a result, they never gave Elvis many deductions he was entitled to. And when he died, the IRS came after his estate, claiming that the IRS was owed 2.5 million. And soon increased that claim to 25 million.
The author is likely too young to know that back in the 1970s and 1980s the Consumers Union (think “Consumer Reports”) filed identical tax returns with each regional IRS office.
They filled in income from W2 forms, provided all required reciepts and so on, and then let the IRS offices process the returns. When they got the results back NO TWO RETURNS WERE THE SAME.
The IRS can’t even calculate taxes owed consistently. Keep in mind, the tax code has grown a LOT since then.
[Insert Ayn Rand quote about govt WANTS the laws broken.]