I fought the [s]law[/s] IRS and...Follow

It probably takes less than one second to type out the words that we all know. It takes minutes - like a FULL minute and precious bytes to have to make another post to explain yourself

I was surprised to google it and find out it was really a thing. Rate downs for making me seem old and out of touch or something.

It's not like I stopped paying taxes or anything. In fact, the IRS ultimately got a much larger chunk of my hard earned money as a result of me not filing on time than if I had. It's not like I concealed a source of income or anything.


I was already planning on putting in wood floors in my place and buying all new furniture in the living room and dining room. This will make things a lot less tight (obviously). Paying off the car is also obvious. Why pay interest on that if I don't have to? I'm torn on investing the remainder or paying down the mortgage. I'm at a pretty good rate and easily made payments, so the need for that isn't so great.

No grand political statement. I'm just a working American who pays his taxes on the basis of what he owes and when it's due. You're a guy who blows them off for years when it's inconvenient for you until you get caught. However you need to defend that is up to you.

You have a very generous definition of the word "grand". I'll happily admit that I'm as interested in listening to tax cheats ***** about their taxes as I am interested in listening to people with unpaid tickets ***** about how ticket revenue is spent though since you made that comparison.


No, I pay because it's the proper thing to do. A positive side effect to this is that I don't need to write lengthy paragraphs defending why I don't bother to pay my taxes but I should still ***** about how the money is spent


You mean you don't accept consequences for your negligence or people's criticisms of what you did? GASP! I'll inform the media straight away!

Hey Flea... paying those quarterly taxes and all that paperwork is hard. Let's just not bother any more.

No. You pay because you are required to do so. If there was no law requiring you to pay taxes, and you were allowed to just voluntarily donate money to the federal government, how much would you pay? It's not because it's the right thing to do, or because you care. It's because it's required by law for you to do so. Hell. They even make it easy on you by simply taking the money out of your paycheck for you!



Yeah. Still stuck on the whole "not filing==not paying" thing. You get that the year I didn't file and on which I ended out about $4k short I still paid more in taxes than most people. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but it was something like paying about $40k in taxes, but I should have paid $44k. I think that the other $40k that year and all the amounts I've paid before and since, which are well above the amount the bulk of US citizens pay in income taxes still grants me the full right to ***** about how my tax dollars are spent.

You get that I'm not self employed, right? Taxes were taken out of my paychecks that year. Taxes were taken out of the stock sales I did that year. They were just off by a relatively small amount. And on that small amount, I have now paid far more in penalties and interest than the amount originally owed. So I'm not sure how you get some idea that I've somehow cheated the system.



I do accept the consequences. I paid a significant penalty as a result of my actions. In exactly the same way that if I was late paying for a library book, I'd pay the late fee. Once that is done, my "debt" is paid.


What's funny is that in this case, my debt was more than paid 15 months ago when I wrote a really large check to the government to cover an amount I knew was close to $100k larger than the amount I owed. Uncle Sam then got to hold on to that money for over a year interest free (and absent any gains I might have made with the money as well). Now I've finally got that money back. Hence my statement at the beginning of not really "winning", but at least not losing worse than I thought I should. The government got more than their fair share from me for this Joph.

But you wouldn't pay them unless you were legally required to do so, right?



Of course it did. The law sets rules and consequences for breaking those rules. Guess what Joph? I often exceed the posted speed limit on the freeway. I understand that I'm running the risk of getting a speeding ticket by doing so and am fully willing to pay said fine if I get caught. Shocking isn't it?



Yeah. You never speed. Never cross without the walk sign on. Never park in a loading zone "just for a few minutes". Never play your music a bit too loud. You never do any of a hundred things that might result in some fine or fee, right?



Um... You missed the whole paying for peace of mind bit, didn't you?



And? It's not like I went out of my way to hide or anything (you know, which might *actually* be considered fraud). There is a bit of a difference.



OMG! Alert the media! You're trying a bit too hard there Joph. Don't get me wrong, I'm amused by your little diatribe and whatnot, but it's coming off a bit silly now. Does this really bother you? Someone not paying the full amount for something, then having to later pay penalties to square that debt? Do you run around screaming at people who carry a credit card balance too? Cause that's basically what you're doing here.

Give it up Joph. Everyone knows not paying your taxes is the same as playing your music just a bit too loud.

I'd be seriously pissed at myself if I'd given the government a $97K interest-free loan for all that time, personally. I don't file my taxes until April 15, because why give them a few dollars before I absolutely have to?

And I'm a freakin' liberal <insert pejorative here>.