Denys writes:
> The tax cut W got passed was at the 10% bracket, the lowest one, which means
> everyone who pays taxes got a cut. You should remember, we discussed this
> last year when you got confused and tried to tell everyone they would have
> to pay the money back. You were wrong.
I am truly looking forward to your forthcoming book, "The History of the
World." It is certain to be a unique and fascinating take on the state of
world.
Unfortunately, in most things in this world, out-of-the-mainstream,
iconolclastic, Beauchemanic misrepresentations are easily accomplished
because there are no hard and fast records. Rather there are only the
recollections of the various participants. But in our specific case, in this
specific example, every word of the conversation was recorded and is not
readily misinterpretable. What I wrote last year in my first posting on this
subject was this, in part:
=======================================
As everyone in the US knows, the US government has begun the process of
mailing out tax "refund" checks to every tax payer in the US. If you are
single, your maximum refund amount will be $300; if you are head of
household, but single, your maximum will be $500; and if you are married and
filing jointly, it will be $600.
Whether this "refund" was merely very poorly explained or whether it is a
purposefully deceptive sleight-of-hand on the part of the current
administration, it is our understanding, as well as that of Ernst & Young's,
that almost everyone has come to misunderstand what this check really is.
Surprisingly, we run a tax service as a sideline business. It arose as an
outgrowth of our writing business application software for the HP3000 for
local businesses and was further strengthened in anticipation of us writing
new applications for the HP3000 using QCTerm under the new "time-sharing"
model that the internet presents us. While we confine this business to only
Las Cruces at the moment, because all of the H&R Block-like organizations
have long ago closed up shop for the season, our phone has been ringing off
of the hook lately with people asking us how much money they're going to get
back.
Please allow me to explain the situation as clearly as we understand it: The
$600 check you receive is not a refund or a rebate on your last year's taxes,
as has been strongly implied by the White House press conferences. Rather it
is better characterized as an "advance anticipation loan" of the refund that
you will receive in 2002 from the taxes you will pay on this year's earnings.
The way that money is calculated is that if you filed your taxes on your 2000
earnings and received a $1000 refund earlier this year, in 2001, the
government is anticipating that you will file essentially the same tax papers
again next year, on April, 2002, and again you will receive approx. a $1000
tax refund. Of that refund, they're giving you $600 of that money now ("It's
the people's money, and they deserve to have it" has been the mantra). Next
year, if everything you file is essentially the same, you *will* get your
approx. $1000 refund, but it will be *minus* the $600 they're giving you now.
=======================================
As it occurred, our interpretation, based more on hunch than hard information
at the time of that posting, proved to be correct. The most important
paragraphs of that posting are the last two in the snippet above. The point
of the posting was that the planned "advanced refund" check (as it was later
described by the IRS) was never a "tax rebate", as it was constantly (and
misleadingly) being described by the White House at the time. It was
certainly not free money, as most people, including some of the news
organizations, were interpreting it, a gift from a grateful government.
Wirt Atmar
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