Are you being served?
As I dutifully write my quarterly Federal income tax this morning, I find myself wondering...
Why is the tax-collecting outfit called the Internal Revenue Service? What service am I being provided? I'm doing all the work. (Okay, my accountant did most of the work. But he's already provided the service, for which I have remunerated him appropriately.)
Is the fact that the government calls it the Internal Revenue Service instead of the Internal Revenue Agency or the Internal Revenue Bureau supposed to make me feel better about writing this check? If so, their plan is failing miserably.
I suppose it's related in some way to the impulse we have to say "thank you" to the toll officer when we ante up at a toll bridge. What are we thanking her for? All she did was take three bucks we wouldn't fork over if we didn't have to do so to get where we're going. She didn't provide any service other than to accept the toll, which, in my view, is a service to the state and not to me. If anyone should say "thank you" in that transaction, it should be the toll officer thanking me on behalf of my Uncle Arnold. Maybe she could bid me "Hasta la vista, baby," as I go my way.
The State of California, I notice, is not trying to fool anyone into thinking that their publicans are providing any service to the tax-paying citizenry. The state calls its tax enforcement folks the Franchise Tax Board, which seems more honest. They don't call it a service, and they put the word "tax" right in the name, naked and unashamed. But I mostly like them because, unlike the IRS, I don't have to write them a check today.
Why is the tax-collecting outfit called the Internal Revenue Service? What service am I being provided? I'm doing all the work. (Okay, my accountant did most of the work. But he's already provided the service, for which I have remunerated him appropriately.)
Is the fact that the government calls it the Internal Revenue Service instead of the Internal Revenue Agency or the Internal Revenue Bureau supposed to make me feel better about writing this check? If so, their plan is failing miserably.
I suppose it's related in some way to the impulse we have to say "thank you" to the toll officer when we ante up at a toll bridge. What are we thanking her for? All she did was take three bucks we wouldn't fork over if we didn't have to do so to get where we're going. She didn't provide any service other than to accept the toll, which, in my view, is a service to the state and not to me. If anyone should say "thank you" in that transaction, it should be the toll officer thanking me on behalf of my Uncle Arnold. Maybe she could bid me "Hasta la vista, baby," as I go my way.
The State of California, I notice, is not trying to fool anyone into thinking that their publicans are providing any service to the tax-paying citizenry. The state calls its tax enforcement folks the Franchise Tax Board, which seems more honest. They don't call it a service, and they put the word "tax" right in the name, naked and unashamed. But I mostly like them because, unlike the IRS, I don't have to write them a check today.
SwanShadow was randomly pounding the keyboard at 8:15 AM
1 insisted on sticking two cents in:
Re: IRS.
I say it's aliens. ;-)
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