The Tax Man Cometh… and is Carrying a Big Gulp

The Tax Man Cometh… and is Carrying a Big Gulp

Tax Day this year is April 18th; ironically, it has been postponed this year because of a conflict with Emancipation Day.

After collecting a record amount from taxpayers last year, the Internal Revenue Service is going to make it even easier for Americans to pay. A new IRS program that allows citizens to pay income taxes at 7-Eleven convenience stores.

The Internal Revenue Service announced Wednesday that taxpayers who don’t have a bank account or credit card can now take care of their tax bill at one of 7,000 participating 7-Eleven convenience stores in 34 states, many of which are open seven days a week, 24 hours per day. Previously they would have had to trek to an IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center.

…Though the new option allows taxpayers to avoid long lines at the post office, the IRS still warns cash payers to not wait until the last minute. There are several steps involved in the process, including clicking onto the IRS payment page to submit personal information and receiving an emailed link to a payment code.

I wonder about the residency status of individuals who don’t have identification enough for either a credit card or bank account. Of course, one can’t completely generalize. For example, some could take the “off the grid” approach of Ron Swanson from Parks and Recreation:

Those lucky people who are getting refunds may have to wait a bit longer for their check to arrive.

The IRS doesn’t say exactly how much longer folks are having to wait for their tax money. However, some of the financial services clients of Portland, Oregon-based iovation, a provider of device intelligence for authentication and fraud prevention, have been keeping track.

The companies report that it is taking up to 3 times longer for their customers’ tax refunds to show up than it did last year. Essentially, the IRS is taking full advantage of the 21-day window in which it says it will issue refunds.

But no matter how much money is owed, it soon will not be enough. An auditor for the Government Accountability Office says that in the next few years the federal government will owe more than our entire economy produces.

“We’re very heavily leveraged in debt,” [GAO Comptroller General Gene] Dodaro said. “The historical average post-World War II of how much debt we held as a percent of gross domestic product was 43 percent on average; right now we’re at 74 percent.”

…Another economic projection which assumes that cost controls for Medicare don’t hold and that healthcare costs continue to increase, shows debt rising even further.

“These projections go to 200, 300 percent, and even higher of debt held by the public as a percent of gross domestic product,” said Dodaro. “We’re going to owe more than our entire economy is producing and by definition this is not sustainable.”

Collectively, Americans will spend more on taxes in 2016 than they will on food, clothing, and housing combined. Additionally, under Obamacare, millions of Americans are also facing hefty penalties for not purchasing health insurance.

Currently, Tax Freedom Day is April 24th. Given Dodaro’s analysis, the emancipation of Americans from their tax burden may eventually be much closer to Election Day.

Ron Swanson may have to adjust his lecture on how taxes work:

I may have to fill the Big Gulp vodka to cope!

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