RE: Taxation Thought Experiment
Blanc wrote: Just before the elections I heard on NPR and read in an article in a local newspaper, some people's stories of how they converted from Democrat to Republican.
Most of them said that athough they were originally idealistic about all the good things which government can do, when they started their own businesses they were suddenly confronted with all the excruciating regulation and rigmarole which any business must deal with on a daily basis while just trying to get some work accomplished. Very quickly they realized the consequences of a lot of the government proposals which they had heretofore supported.
A case in point: A small company which manufactures premium, hand-rolled, cigars received a bill from the ATF for an unpaid tax and penalties. The notice indicated that the particular tax was over 5 years delinquint. When asked where in the over 500 pages of ATF regulations this tax was documented the investigator said he didn't know and indeed didn't find it after weeks of trying. Finally and expert in D.C. found the obscure reference. The company wanted to know why they were being billed for this tax after almost a decade of operation. They were told that althought the tax has been on the books the ATF had only recently programmed its computers to access the tax. Nevertheless, the tax and penalties were owed, billed or not.
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