IT'S THAT SEASON AGAIN!

No, I'm not talking about hunting season, or basketball season. or any season related to sports . . . unless you consider taxation a sport.  I've come to the conclusion that government may well think of it as sport.  Somewhere out there in some city hall, courthouse, state capitol, or Washington, there's a plan at work to hunt you down and attack you where it hurts the worse . . . in the pocket.  Got extra money?  Forget that, Uncle Sam and all his little brothers and cousins are coming for it.  Maybe they've already been taking it from you throughout the year, but this is the season for catching the ones they didn't get before, like me.  I'm a hunted man.

Government at all levels has figured out ways of getting in your pocket that span the spectrum of possibilities.  They take money from what you earn, take it from what you spend, and they take it from what you spent it on.  I earn money, they take a chunk.  I buy a car, they take a chunk again (lots of chunks, actually), and then because it's parked in my driveway and belongs to me, they take another chunk.  I buy a house, they take big chunks each year, and this is the tax that infuriates me the most.  All taxes are levies on life.  Government figured out what you need the most to live, and because staying alive, or survival, is almost instinctive with people, they go after what you must have in order to do that - your income, what you spend (sales tax, excise, etc.), and your property.  In other words, they tax the essentials, and a home is essential.  I view that as as a bad tax, one that should be done away with. 

So, the last day of this month I'll march down to the tax collection office and give them about $1,300.00, and that's just the first payment.  If you're a senior citizen here in Texas you get a break in that they'll let you spread payments over a six months period.  Otherwise, I'd have to come up with the entire amount, which my wife will have to do to pay property tax on her business.  Between the two of us, we'll give the county about four grand this month.  And while I'm paying off the remaining property tax on the house, income tax will come due in a couple of months, and we'll have to come up with several thousand more for that.  And you know what?  It ain't that bad a deal, not compared to what many other Americans are paying.  It puts us in a bit of a bind for a while, but it can be managed.  That's the good news.  The bad news is:  THE SEASON ON TAXPAYERS COMES AROUND EVERY YEAR.