By John Fedele

It’s that time again. Time when most Americans go to their computer or tax man and file to receive the money they have deposited the past year. Most call it filing income tax. I call it withdrawing savings from a non-interest bearing account.

I have never understood why we give the government money to use for a year without charging them interest. All year we complain about how much tax we pay. We do it so we can “get it back” at the end of the year. Why not put it into a bank for a year, and although the interest earned won’t make you rich, you at least will have the satisfaction of knowing you got something, instead of lending it to the government, interest free.

Maybe it is because so many of us do not have the discipline to put money into an account. I remember the old “Christmas Fund” thing the banks used to have. It was a savings account set up so we would have money for Christmas Present buying. That seems to have gone away and been replaced by “let the government use my money for a year and then give it back to me ….after Christmas.
I wonder how the government would act if all of us “overpayers”…not the rich obviously….just paid our “fair share” and kept the overpayment each month. We could get an extra pack of smokes or a six pack or even a half tank of gas each payday, and deny the government that extra money to spend on things the country does not need or want.

Well, something to think about this year. Ask your tax person just how little you have to pay and adjust that W2 form so the minimum tax is withheld. Heck you may end up having to pay at the end of next year but look at how much money you got from the government interest free.

 

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