Riding Shotgun, Uncle Sam

travisrmartin — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 04:46:58 +0000

That backseat driver in your car? It’s Uncle Sam. And he’s there to watch your odometer.

At least that’s a possibility by the year 2020, according to a bipartisan Congressional commission researching potential ways to fund the upkeep of America’s roads. Among their ideas – installing an Orwellian tracking device in every vehicle and then assessing motorists a 2.3 cent tax for every mile driven.

The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission’s (or NSTIFC for short) report, “Paying the Way,” can be found here.

Flying Cars...Conspicuously Absent from the Commission's Plan

For those who do not have the time to drudge through 250 pages of chart-filled Government minutia, the Wall Street Journal has a more succinct summary.

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Introducing…IRS Form 1040 (Schedule $)

travisrmartin — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 04:18:11 +0000

Although it hasn’t yet been released in its entirety, President Obama’s 2010 proposed budget – which checks in at the tidy sum of $3,000,000,000,000 (zeros included for dramatic effect) – has already come under fire.

Among the most vocal detractors are Republicans and other pesky “rich” people who now face the unpleasant prospect of parting with a larger percentage of their hard-earned income (or ill-gotten gains, depending on your political leanings) through higher taxes.

It’s not that these fine Americans don’t want to pay their “fair share” as so many liberals claim. It’s just that they do not like to pay for something without knowing exactly what they are getting in return. In that regard, they’re a lot like us regular folks.

You wouldn’t go into a restaurant and tell the waiter “just bring me what ever you got leftover in the kitchen.” You wouldn’t go into a department store and tell a clerk to “just grab me a handful of clothes off the rack.” Yet, every year we allow our government to take our tax dollars and spend them however they want. What fun is that? If we are going to be paying, we should be doing the shopping.

That’s why I am introducing IRS Form 1040 Schedule $. As far as IRS Forms go, Schedule $ is pretty straightforward. After figuring up your total tax liability (line 61 on IRS Form 1040), you prepare Schedule $ by allocating each dollar of your tax bill to a federal budget category. You essentially tell the Feds how you want your tax money to be spent. Government spending would then be limited to the amount that the taxpaying public allocated to any given category. If no one allocates money for bailing out the automobile industry…then the carmakers get nada.

Finally. A tax form I look forward to completing.

Recovery.gov, the federal site designed to keep citizens informed of how their money is being spent under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, reminds taxpayers “This is your money. You have a right to know where it’s going and how it’s being spent.” I say, adopt Schedule $ and give us the right to decide how our money is spent.

Get your copy of 1040 Schedule $. (Disclaimer: Not an actual tax form).

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Travis R. Martin, CPA, MBA » Politics

Riding Shotgun, Uncle Sam

Introducing…IRS Form 1040 (Schedule $)