This year in the US, in an effort to keep us confused, taxes will be due April 18th because Washington DC celebrates Emancipation Day. If you live in Maine or Massachusetts your filing deadline is April 19 because they’re celebrating Patriots Day.
Whatever. Just tell me when you need me to have my headache.
I found out all sorts of interesting facts about taxes. Check out this page with some tax facts from all over the world. It seems many of the world’s best known events were the results of taxation.
For instance:
• The American Revolution began because of high taxation from the British Empire.
• William Tell was forced to shoot an apple off his son’s head as punishment for tax resistance.
• In Texas, cowboy boots are exempt from taxes.
There were a lot of facts on this list I never knew before and some I will never understand. For example, why do we pay death taxes? It’s like one final grab from the government. They ought to call it an exit tax.
I was shocked to see the countries that paid the highest taxes. Aruba (a Dutch territory) had the highest, followed by Sweden, Denmark, and the Netherlands. All of them were above 50%! The US was not in the top ten. Thank goodness. I think we pay enough for bureaucracy.
I leave you with a quote from one of the most astute observers of the 20th century, Will Rogers.
The difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get any worse every time Congress meets.
How was tax day for you this year? Every time we finish our taxes we have to take aspirin then spend the rest of the day on the couch watching a nice movie where people don’t talk about taxes.
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All original content copyrighted by Maria Zannini 2016.
I had a friend who was panicking thinking she was running out of time for her taxes this year; she was glad to hear she had until Monday to get them done. I appreciate why we pay taxes, it just seems like so many different things taxed; almost nickel and dime you. Here in Arizona they’ll tax services that I never got taxed for in California; like there is a tax on your rent for your house/apartment. Or when you sign up for utilities, there is a tax on the start up fee. Not used to that.
We did very well with taxes this year but only because both of us did married with no dependents so we had mucho money taken out, so mucho refund (which helped with the move).
betty
Did you hear Illinois wants to tax drivers for each mile they drive? No wonder half of us want to leave!