Let's Vote in April, or Pay Taxes in November

If you vote next Tuesday, November 7, 2006, it will have been 206 days since you paid taxes on April 15, 2006. From November 17, 2006 until you pay taxes next year on April 15, it will be 159 days. If two dates occur once a year, the farthest away those two dates can be is 182.5 days (365 / 2) or about 6 months. Therefore, the day we vote in November is about as far away from the day we pay taxes in April as possible. It's been more than 6 months since the last tax day (4/15/06), and almost six months before the next tax day (4/15/07), and November is probably the time of the year that we are least likely to be thinking about April 15 and taxes.

Solution:

1. Abolish withholding taxes, and require all taxpayers to write a check once a year for their entire tax liability - for someone making $100,000 that would mean a check to the IRS of about $25,000.

2. Move Voting Day to April 16 right after we pay taxes, or move Tax Day to early November right before we vote.

Here is an exercise: What is your monthly car payment, and what is your monthly mortgage or rent payment? Most people know immediately what those payment amounts are, because most of us write out a check for those expenses. Now, what is your monthly tax liability for federal income taxes, and what is the amount of state income taxes you owe monthly? Most of us have no idea what our tax liabilities are, because we don't write monthly checks for federal and state taxes, employers withhold those taxes and make payments on our behalf. In fact, most employees have TOO much taken out of their checks, resulting in a refund in April!