Beech Tree News Network

Tax season is almost over, and most of us have filed our taxes. Most of us pay taxes reluctantly.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is a part of the Department of the Treasury. It is responsible for collecting taxes and for the interpretation and enforcement of the Internal Revenue Code. The first income tax was assessed in 1862 to raise funds for the American Civil War, with a rate of 3%. Today the IRS collects over $2.4 trillion each tax year from around 234 million tax returns (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internal_Revenue_Service).

Many people have commented on taxes, and some are listed below:
•    The taxpayer - that's someone who works for the federal government but doesn't have to take the civil service examination. ~Ronald Reagan
•    America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. ~Laurence J. Peter
•    I'm proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money. ~Arthur Godfrey
•    The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing. ~Jean Baptist Colbert, attributed
•    What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue. ~Thomas Paine
•    Did you ever notice that when you put the words "The" and "IRS" together, it spells "THEIRS?" ~Author Unknown
•    Things as certain as death and taxes can be more firmly believed. ~Daniel Defoe, The Political History of the Devil, 1726
•    Our new Constitution is now established, everything seems to promise it will be durable; but, in this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes. ~Benjamin Franklin, letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, 13 November 1789, translated from French
•    Taxes:  Of life's two certainties, the only one for which you can get an automatic extension. ~Author Unknown
•    Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the income-tax form than it does to make the income. ~Alfred E. Neuman
•    A person doesn't know how much he has to be thankful for until he has to pay taxes on it. ~Author Unknown
•    The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases:  If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it. ~Ronald Reagan
•    You must pay taxes. But there's no law that says you gotta leave a tip. ~Morgan Stanley advertisement
•    I don't know if I can live on my income or not - the government won't let me try it. ~Bob Thaves, "Frank & Ernest"
•    Of all debts, men are least willing to pay their taxes; what a satire this is on government. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
•    Count the day won when, turning on its axis, this earth imposes no additional taxes. ~Franklin P. Adams
•    It's about ten times the size of the Bible - and unlike the Bible, contains no good news. ~Don Nickles, about the Internal Revenue Code
•    It's income tax time again, Americans:  time to gather up those receipts, get out those tax forms, sharpen up that pencil, and stab yourself in the aorta. ~Dave Barry

Our reluctance to pay our taxes has become a bit humorous. I think Charles M. Schulz (creator of Snoopy) summed up our attitude best: “Dear IRS, I am writing to you to cancel my subscription. Please remove my name from your mailing list.”