OPINION:
Here is a real, down-to-brass-tacks, no-frills question about taxes: Just because I earn a dime, why is the government entitled to a nickel of it?
I don’t want to hear about the need for infrastructure building, military maintenance, etc. Yes, we need taxes to cover legitimate costs of running a government and maintaining our way of life. But that is the purpose of income tax. After I pay my income tax, the rest of my money should be mine. Why should I pay any more tax if I use my own my money to make more money? Why should I be taxed again on the car I purchased with after-income-tax money, for which I will then be charged sales tax and annual personal property tax and then taxed again in tolls when I drive on various roads? I also will pay gasoline taxes at the pump. This is quadruple taxation, and I have not even mentioned taxes on oil changes and tire-disposal fees.
Our government seems to spend far too much time examining the details of daily life to see where it can attach another fee, revenue enhancer, toll or other synonym for tax. Government should spend more time trolling through the records of its own useless and duplicated programs that are wasting billions of dollars a year and recoup that money instead of taking the easy way out and mugging citizens every day of the week.
DEBRA STEVENSON
Fairfax
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