Amendment XVI (Enacted 1913)

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

So what did we do before 1913? Tax stamps?

We had riots I think.

Whassamatter, Doc? If your income's as low as I'd expect it to be for a college student, you'll be getting the money back later anyway.

i think that was in response to a locked thread...

and before 1913 I'm pretty sure that only the state governments could enact taxes.

Yes. Government got money through tariffs mostly.

The issue before was whether a tax on income was constitutional, as opposed to a tax on, say, a good or service. It's not one of our more shining examples of congressional and state legislative intelligence, but at least the realized they needed to amend the pesky scrap of paper, rather than, say, get SCOTUS to pull something out of its ass.

Also, as a law student summering at a large NY firm, my income is high enough that I'm losing 1200 to fed income tax alone every two weeks =P Thankfully, I get most of that back after January since I stop earning money come mid August. However, that's months and months of lost interest on money that is, undisputably, mine. Fuckers.

The trick would be to adjust your withholdings to minimize the amount that would be owed back at the end of the fiscal year (or even so you owe a bit in income tax). Though getting it right in that area that minimizes both lost interest and scrutiny from auditors could be a bit tricky.

greengeek:

As per his own confession, he's a law student. He'd figure out a way past the auditors.

Welcome to the game, my good Doctor. I enjoy seeing what my all-knowing Federal government does with 35% of my annual earnings every year.

I agree. Fuckers.

Capitalist scumbags! Be thankful I'm not running the world, you'd all be paying 98% income tax!

if they were true capitalists then there would be no income tax, infact there would be no income tax, and no government. the economy is all that is needed to keep people in line.

Reference: See Progressive Era

Thank something we're not trying that whole "business can run itself" thing

Anarcho-Capitalism be what you refer to who? me?..Anarcho-Capitalists would be what they would be.

could you just say you have like 16 children on your exepmtion form so they don't withhold as much?

If you want you can say you have 100 children, the W-2's are not a tax filing form per say, and the exemptions are merely a guideline for your employer to withold an amount, that based on a tax table and compared to weekly earnings, will bring you out close to what you will owe when you file your 1040 at the end of the year.

The problem with them is that the tax tables project your weekly income out to a full year, regardless of the reality of the situation. As long as you file an accurate tax return at the end of the year including correct W-4's (the earning statment showing how much you MADE for the year) the IRS doesn't really have much say in what you have your employer withold.

I use a spreadsheet to estimate my total income by the end of the year, (I work as a roofing contractor so i earn most of my money from mid-april through around novemberish) and then figure out how many exemptions I need to get the deductions from my paycheck to total out to about the same as the tax will be on my estimated earnings.
if you go to a good tax preparer around mid-march you can usually get a copy of the tax tables and deduction/exemption amounts for the current EARNING year (the one you are accruing taxes towards towards not the prior year you are filing on) and they can tell you how many exemptions to mark on your w-2's.

Keep in mind that unexpected earnings such as a lot of overtime(if you dont know you will get it) or an unexpected raise(if you ever get one of those yeah right) can leave you seriously underpaid on your taxes, meaning you'll owe come tax-filing time.

arrrr! a robber-barron be i!