Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller for March 27, 2020

True.

Not very revelatory. Although I suppose some people never figure it out.

Of course, now I wonder how much of it got into tiny’s pockets.

I must have listened in class or at home with my parents. It seems like I always knew that.

I first realized this more than 40 years ago. And guess what: I have never managed to get them to pay me any interest in all that time. Because if you cannot win a fight with City Hall, you sure as BLEEP can’t win one w/ the IRS.

And thanks to the stinking shape of the economy you only get back 23 percent of what you gave….

And the loan is extorted by them rather than “given” by us, since they punish us if we don’t play it safe by overpaying in advance.

Who knew Steve Mnuchin could cross his legs like that?

Yeah, but given the interest rates on savings accounts, it’s still not a bad forced savings program.

Ain’t it the truth … !

…and your stimulus check of $ 1200 so eagerly awaited is a mere pittance, a sand in the hour glass of time being handed to Boeing. It will restart the auto industry with the trucks needed to haul it from Ft. Knox that never ending largesse given unto your bettors aka Boeing and its stock holders . MAGA.

…and your large salary and the low cost of goods and services is largely due to wage theft. Plus in the ideal world police, courts, roads, military, first responders, and the rest of government doesn’t need money to operate.

1st thing they taught in Economics 101.

Well, that’s just sad. I notice that when the govt gives me a check, they take the tax out of it. A $1,000.00 check will only put $600.00 dollars in my pocket and I still have to declare it.

I’ve managed it so that I always owe a slight amount. I put away a hundred or so dollars a month to pay taxes, and what I don’t use is my bonus.

You think their interest is high? Actually, they really don’t give a damn.

It’s money you didn’t spend. Other than that, you got no value out of it.

I’ll do you one better. day lights saving time. seriously they take and hour on your time in the spring and give i back n the fall, but you never get a moment’s interest on it. where’s all that going then? that’s what I want to know

Rather it’s a loan you give to the government…….along with interest THEY keep.

Currently most bank/checking accounts pay 0% interest and if things continue towards negative interest rates the IRS (your bank may also charge you interest on your deposits) may charge you interest on your refund and pay you interest on what you owe!!!!!

I adjust my withholding so I get more in my paycheck, been doing that for decades

And the money in your checking account is an interest-free loan you give to your bank. They’ll gladly loan it to somebody else at 15%, though.

It may be an interest-free loan but given the lousy interest I would get from a bank I’d only get a buck or less. That’s worth the thrill I get at receiving the refund. Plus, I use that for my Roth IRA each year. So it’s less of a refund and more of an alternative way to set aside money for retirement.

Too bad we are a nation of ‘individuals’ rather than ‘citizens’ of a country’s soceity who take the time to keep the laws and regulations to the benefit of the majority of citizens. The minority are not ‘suppressed’ but their extreme beliefs and actions that harm the majority or the environment are not allowed to happen.

People, the guy is to be admired, hiking all that way to meet with Captian Obvious. Far too many of us will never make that trip.

And that would be meaningful if the interest you could otherwise earn was more than 1 or 2 percent. From a behavioral economic aspect, this uses a form of mental accounting that makes it possible for many people to save that otherwise would not.

If your refund is small, it’s insurance against having to pay out. If your refund is larger, it’s a savings fund in a 0% account, unlike the bank account, which pays, what, a penny a month?

Reality is a large and shaggy she-dog.

All of those corporations the government wants to bail out -

they should get back what they paid in taxes.

Sadly, the refund check is the only way lots of people, particularly the poor budgeters, the poor, and spendthrifts, have extra money. Which they promptly spend on things they really could do without.

To me the most humbling revelation of Life is the fact that we are ALL really the short lived descendants of Pond Scum existing on an insignificant little ball of mud in this vast Universe.

But hey, we’re all still special in that our real structure is a mirror image of the Universe in which we live.

Interest rates are pretty low so it really doesn’t make much difference if you do have the discipline to save that money. Tax returns are the only way I know of to get paper savings bonds, so I use my return to buy some for us and some for my grandchildren.

The way interest rates are headed these days, you may well be better off letting the government hold your money for free than having the banks charging you negative interest to do it.

Doesn’t matter too much, interest from a savings account is pretty much coffee money.

Welp, we’ve got a lot of middle class folks in this thread. Most of many people’s refunds are from the Child Earned Income Tax Credit, which provides a lump sum payment to help the less advantaged with raising their kids. Many of my coworkers wound up with substantially more paid back to them than was withheld. But they made little money, and had lots of kids.

Hey – the concept that govt is “ripping you off” with taxes is absurd. We need to keep a sharp eye on pols but do you actually think a country of 330,000,000 people runs on hugs and candy kisses. Grow up, don’t pay more than you owe but bend over and kiss it and be thankful there is an election just around the corner.

Stop it already with saying that you pay the government, as if you were giving money for nothing to some good for nothing son or daughter. Your taxes are a contribution to a common expense fund. Just like in your own home or house, if you have two incomes, you have a common expense account to pay for the upkeep of the house, for the kids expenses, for your groceries, for the car(s) upkeep—the same goes for taxes. If people realized this—especially the very rich who’d rather hire people to help them with wiggling out of paying into the common expense fund, even if they use the services—the country would never be in a deficit situation.

Everyone expects so much from the country, state or city; but I’ve never even once encountered anyone from telling me how they imagined those services should be provided without them, as the users of those services, paying for them…as everyone says: there’s no free lunch.

Even worse is the rules that benefit the IRS. Owe them money? They have seven years to chase you down and can charge you interest and fees. They owe you money? You got three years to claim it, and you don’t get to collect interest or fees.

This is one where states are smarter. They know they can’t spend beyond their means. But if they calculate paycheck deductions just right, your state refund is so small it’s just not worthwhile NOT to donate it to one of those worthy state agencies they list for you on the tax form.

It’s not an interest-free loan, we never gave it to them. They took more than they should’ve and then finally gave back the excess.

Been telling people that for years.They don’t believe me.

Many, many years ago, one of the few things I learned in my high school civics class was when the teacher gave us an assignment to list all the things that the government provides—federal, state, and local. When our class finished compiling a master list (which would be a lot longer today, I believe) he then asked us how the government can pay for all that — and then we had to decide which of all those things we would cut out to save money (and lower our taxes). I think the whole class came away with a better understanding of what our ‘tax dollars’ actually buy and a better realization that just because we, personally, don’t think something is important, it is important to someone else and if part of our tax dollars go to pay for it, then a part of their taxes will go to pay for something we think is important so both come off better in the end. The ‘United’ part of United States.

That’s one deduction I made long ago!

Ain’t it the truth. Always applied for my refund as soon as possible an waited to April 15, or July 15 this, to pay what I hopefully owe donnie.

No one has mentioned the fact, the IRS would like you to adjust your withholding to minimize the refund. Refunding tax monies just screws up the books for the Govt. Examine your refund, divide by 50, and adjust your W-2 to reflect that change. if you have someone do your taxes (a professional) ask for their recommendation.

Now I wait for someone to mention the 50…

We didn’t give. The government took.

Not entirely true. I had a tax refund that the government took about 2.5 years to give to me, and when the check arrived in the mail, I got about $14 in interest on about $200 in refund. Maybe the is a time limit to it.

This is so true. And would you believe that some states, on their tax form, and an entry on the Earned Income side of the fence to note what you got back from the IRS last year and expect you to pay taxes on it again?