"I owed $34,000 and only paid $3,500."
"We owed over $100,000 and paid less than $10,000."
By now everyone in the country that owns a television must have seen one of these infuriating commercials advertising some law firm or CPA outfit that claims to be able to help you reduce the debt you owe to the IRS. I said infuriating and I'm not sure that is anywhere near a strong enough descriptor for how mad I get watching these commercials and the claims made by the people in them.
No one likes to pay taxes, but the vast majority of us do our part. We pay our taxes when they are due. We may grouse and complain about paying them, but we do pay them on time.
Admittedly, we pay on time every time because failure to pay results in the IRS taking your stuff. As my wife is fond of saying, "they just take your s#&t and they almost never give it back."
What chaps me the most about these ads is the bragging about getting out of paying what you really owe. We all know that in many cases, being just a little late or making an honest mistake on your taxes can result in the IRS determining that you owe additional money and since you're "late" paying the additional money, you also owe penalties and interest.
In cases of honest mistakes, there should be some leeway for reducing or eliminating penalties. But for someone who just didn't pay on time, I have absolutely no sympathy. In fact, as I often say about my wife's client's, they should be put under the jail.
And then to turn on the television and see some joker smile and tell me how much money the didn't pay just turns me every which way but loose.
Do I believe that as a whole we all pay too much in taxes? Yes. Do I wish I could pay less in taxes? Absolutely. Should deadbeats who choose not to pay on time or attept to cheat their taxes and get caught be allowed to get off paying only a fraction of what they owe? Not no but HELL NO.
I'm mad as hell ...
