[Guest post] Tax, Baby, Tax!

OK, I know what you all are thinking: "If you love taxes so much, Nadz, send the government all your money. Just leave my money out of it." Yeah, whatever. Anyway, I do love taxes. The higher the tax rate, the happier I am. Let me explain.

First of all, I'm no fan of "kicking the can down the road". Divide the deficit by the number of people in the USA (illegals included), and send everybody a bill. Pay up, or get out. I'd vote for that. Or raise taxes on everybody, not just "the rich". Deficits are merely taxes put on credit. Conservatives are stonewalling against tax hikes, but I don't want my kids paying for two wars, Medicare part D, the Bush Tax Cuts, and Cadillac health plans for GM retirees. Do you? Crank up the rates. Let's pay our credit card bill today before the interest piles up any higher.

With all that bravado about my willingness to be taxed now, and taxed hard, I have a confession. In the interest of full disclosure I need to mention that I'm self employed. Yes. I'm a small business owner -- one of those people that are supposedly hurt by tax hikes. That's what the politicians warn, anyway, but it doesn't seem to me that I'd be hurt. Quite the contrary. Raise taxes to the moon. I don't care. A large chunk of my day to day costs -- maintenance and gas for my car, many of my meals, my Internet connection, and part of my home -- are all business expenses. When wage slaves drive to their W-2 jobs, they buy gas with what few pennies they get to keep after taxes. Me, I'm a 1099 man. Nothing is withheld from my fat checks, and when I drive to work, I get paid 51 cents per mile.

Yes, I deduct utilities, meals, "entertainment", health insurance, you name it. OK, I admit I do pay a little extra on Social Security tax, but in the final tally, taxes leave me pretty unscathed. In fact, the higher the tax rate, the more incentive I have to start yet another tax deductible business, and the less incentive I have to work like a fool for somebody else. My new businesses don't even have to do all that well in their bottom line. If they allow me to write off a larger fraction of my outlays, they are worth it.

I'm only kidding about the last part. I do care about the bottom line. That is to say, I care about the bottom line I keep in my mental version of the books, not the official books submitted to the IRS. The official books plow almost every penny the business earns right back into the business. If I can't think of things to "invest in" for the business, I invest some in the local mega-church. They have their own tax-free boondoggle going, but who am I to complain? The church has racquetball courts, a health club, and a bistro. All these are top-shelf and free to "parishioners" like me.

To lower my audit risk, my official books have to show a meager profit, which is almost completely taxed away. But in my personal version of the books, I count all the goodies and perks as tax-free gravy. Who knows, if one of my ventures grows big enough, I might be able to buy a corporate jet -- paid for pre-tax, of course. Yes, higher taxes make growing my businesses my number 1 priority.

So I say, if we really want to stimulate the growth of small businesses and pay down the debt, not to mention supporting the growth of bigger and better churches, let's pile on the taxes.

Posted at 16:50 by Nadz   [/guest/nadz]   Comments | Perm Link |
Technorati Tags: WyBlog blogging   |   Tweet