Tax Day Delay Blues

So some genius thought it would be a nifty-rooni idea to delay the end of tax season until April 18th. Something about the way Emancipation Day falls in the District of Columbia. So they get to celebrate emancipation while us tax preparers continue to be held hostage.

I have to tell you this post was much longer, and, of course, incredibly brilliant, when the computer/Internet malfunctioned, and did not save or post any but the first paragraph.

The first part was my surprise that I had heard that some fellow church members had a Lenten discussion about taxes, and many seemed to feel that the thing that upset them the most was the earned income tax credit. Really? That's the biggest problem with our tax code?

Is there fraud and abuse of the earned income credit? You betchum! But I would doubt if you added up the cost to the treasury of all the misuse of the credit, it would not equal the loss compared to GE's billions of profit going untaxed, and even winding up with a multi-billion refund!

I can also tell you that the number of forms and requested information that a tax preparer has to do is much higher for the earned income tax credit than any other credit or deduction we do. And that the enforcement by the IRS of this credit deploys more time and concentration than virtually any other part of the code.

Big corporations and wealthy individuals can deploy fleets of attorneys, accountants and paid off politicians to get the law to be their ass. The earned income credit users have nobody and no one in their corner.

Finally, my understanding is that about a third of the people who would legitimately use the credit don't, either through pride or lack of knowledge. So, I really feel like my church friends who believe that the earned income tax credit is the chief tax problem, need to get their heard out of the Ayn Rand and back into the gospels!