chris@umcp-cs.UUCP (Chris Torek) (02/19/86)
In article <513@mmm.UUCP> mrgofor@mmm.UUCP writes: >I know a guy who, for a seven year period, decided that he didn't >have to file a return. He figured that the IRS was withholding >money from his paycheck, and since they already had his damned >money, they had no business making him file a return - so he didn't. >So the IRS finally decides that this is not a situation of which >they are fond, so they audited him. The funny part is - the audit >showed that over those seven years he had *overpaid* $11,000. > >The kicker is - because of statutes of limitations, he could only >collect about $3,000 of that 11,000. I hope he learned something >from all of this, but I doubt it. (Apologies for so much included text; it all seemed relevant.) I have one point to make in response: Part of what you pay with income tax is `potential money': your time. How much is your time worth? Ignoring the question of whether it is mandatory to file---is it perhaps cheaper not to file, though if you did you might get as much as a few hundred dollars back? (Of course, the answer depends on how you value your time. And perhaps your health as well [eyestrain, nervous tension, and all that bad stuff while filling out 1040 forms]. ---And it is also important not to ignore that primary question after all.) -- In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 1415) UUCP: seismo!umcp-cs!chris CSNet: chris@umcp-cs ARPA: chris@mimsy.umd.edu
mrgofor@mmm.UUCP (MKR) (02/23/86)
In article <3272@umcp-cs.UUCP> chris@umcp-cs.UUCP writes: >In article <513@mmm.UUCP> mrgofor@mmm.UUCP writes: > >>I know a guy who, for a seven year period, decided that he didn't >>have to file a return. He figured that the IRS was withholding > >I have one point to make in response: Part of what you pay with >income tax is `potential money': your time. How much is your time >worth? > >Ignoring the question of whether it is mandatory to file---is it >perhaps cheaper not to file, though if you did you might get as >much as a few hundred dollars back? > >(Of course, the answer depends on how you value your time. And >perhaps your health as well [eyestrain, nervous tension, and all >that bad stuff while filling out 1040 forms]. ---And it is also >important not to ignore that primary question after all.) That's true - but everybody's "time" is not as valuable as ours (we being high-paid professional types of guys :-)) In this guy's case, if time is money, he'd have to PAY to sit on a park bench. :-) -- --MKR When you ain't got nothin' you got nothin' to lose. - Dylan