Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Death and taxes

Recently a report has surfaced that nearly half a million current and former U.S. federal employees have not filed tax returns and that they collectively owe almost $3 billion. Although I cannot confirm this, I have noticed that PEN (Postal Employee Network) has given the report credence at its website, quoting that “The federal agency with the highest number of delinquent taxpayers is the United States Postal Service, where 56,652 employees owe more than $320 million.” A reasonable extrapolation leads me to suspect that the number of individuals who no longer file must be in the millions. Whether they do so out of reluctance to pay taxes, disgust with the government, or abhorrence of the paperwork I cannot say.
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Some scholars claim that it was tax policies that finally brought an end to the Roman Empire.
Many good links and comments there.

Full report.