Defund all capitals!

with the advent of 'withholding'...

sP

of IRS penalties is real. But the option to not pay in advance exists, too. I know this sounds freepy or teabaggery but I can see that it's only in the Declaration that pledging one's lives, fortune and sacred honor seems to exist. I'm
just saying that to stop feeding a kleptocracy is the only national action that will get it to listen to earners.

I stopped withholding ten years before I retired in opposition to how my tax money has been used without my representation. At the time there was still interest earned by putting it in a savings account.

I don't let the government have my money in advance, period. I decided that I'd pay the penalty later on the bet that I could make more during the year in investing my own money than on letting the government earn interest on it. Or, at the very least, use that money through the year to better my own life situation and take the hit at tax time as the cost of keeping my earnings to myself. I just saw it as another tax surcharge.

Letting this government have my earnings in advance of any congressional decisions on how to spend it is telling Congress, "Here's your blank check; make it out as you wish," thereby giving up the public's only leverage in being represented.

I'm still open to other forms of public leverage, but I think that if millions joined me in this, we couldn't be jailed or have our property stolen from us. That could only happen if we didn't act in concert. It's a tough call, but it seems to me the only leverage the public has anymore.

I've thought this for some time. If the Fed didn't have our money in advance, it might put some brakes on spending, esp 'defense' spending. Lets do it.
A friend of mine is of the opinion that advocating for something like this might be (mis)construed as seditious behavior. IDK.

What are you protesting. This is the same agenda as Norquist. Withholding money has been shown to affect food stamps and other social welfare programs. There does not seem to be any evidence that the fire hose spraying money toward corporate America are slowed even a little. Can the Government be a force for good? This requires the government to tax and spend. Our priorities may be a little screwed up currently but your approach is directly out of the right wing destroy government playbook.

long as you pay it, the government can't micromanage how you pay. I pay on the 15th of April, each year. That's it. No quarterly or salary withholding.

so that your 'take home' is higher?
Of course I'd pay what I owed, but I can earn (a little) interest on that money I'm saving for my tax bill until it's time to pay the man. If the Feds weren't awash in front money, maybe the middle class would have some leverage over funding wars?

withholding is not voluntary... if you work for yourself it CAN be voluntary but you end up paying more in the end with penalties and interest... i see you're comfortable with that, though, and you're probably right that you can do much better with it than giving it 'free' to Uncle Sam.

sP

Now, with no savings interest, I just take the $200 hit and I'm done. It's not that painful, when I consider that this government adding thousands of my earnings to its balance sheet doesn't

1. help college students get cheap or no-interest loans, it doesn't
2. fend off corporate encroachment of federal lands, it doesn't
3. increase vet benefits or
4. get spent on high speed rail projects....
5.... an unending list, really...

BUT I get to use those thousands as I see fit. Their loss, not mine.

Forced withholding is just strong arming. Any employee is within their legal rights to not allow any withholding. They just pay a flat penalty at tax time, that's all.

in fact, the MAXIMUM. And yes, you can claim MORE allowances, but that doesn't mean zero $ get withheld from your check... but maybe it will work out that way.

sP

work, I pay at the end of each year. I could send it in quarterly, but don't.

Anyway, you're right, but still missing my point about withholding. Maximizing it is the start of shrinking the tax input from unrepresented taxpayers.

while some people are good at planning for such things, you can really get burned.

look, i don't like withholding either... but it serves a purpose. your best bet (in my opinion) is to shoot to get your withholding right down the middle. not too much... not too little. that way, we fund the gov't for what it needs (which is, by all means, debatable) and yet don't give them so much that they effectively have a interest free loan.

sP

networking and eventually postponing the payment of taxes altogether.

You keep sounding as if you're in a tax discussion. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about billions upon billions -- trillions, even -- not being made available to this government IN ADVANCE of tax day. No, I'm not a big government hater. I want to force the spenders back to pass legislation in support of all the public polls and public policy positions and spending priorities.

Of course I always did what you suggest -- I trusted that I'd get taxation with representation -- but there came a time about ten years ago when I knew I didn't want one more dime going to everything I'd fought against. Let these corporatists get their money from the people whose interests they represent.

i am just not sure that is the way to go about it but i don't really have a better idea i can fall back on. it would be nice if the gov't actually listened. unfortunately, the only way to do THAT is change some fundamentals about how gov't works... and without Constitutional amendments those changes cannot happen.

sP

withholding. Just sayin'.

Amendments take years. But tax throttling takes less than one year.

but i am afraid it might backfire somehow. you never know what the jackals in the Capital might do.

sP

There's a civil penalty of $500 for fraudulently claiming excess allowances, and there's also a criminal penalty - $1000 fine and a year in prison.

Capital as in capitalism or Capitol as in the the building in the picture?

Sorry, it's hard to grasp the concept as it could be a double-entendre.

Why should we fund the office building of lobbyists?

U.S. Capitol.

http://www.aoc.gov/

Working too much lately. Tired.

Fixed my OP.

Edit: I like the idea. Totally send them to the offices of their owners. Let The People have their damned monument to democracy back.

Last edited Tue Dec 30, 2014, 11:54 AM - Edit history (1)

How about starting in the states. Enact laws that every Rep. and Sen. must remain in their local offices from 9-5 Mon-Fri and be accessible to the people.

This is 2015, not 1880 as we have video-conferencing, skpe, etc. Aides can bring in lap-tops to vote, attend committees and conference meetings. This also means that lobbyists are forced to fly all over the country for access.

Then when the buildings are mainly empty, defund them.