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Uncle Sam doesn't mind taxpayers paying extra
Workers prepare tax forms at the Mission Economic Development Agency on Jan. 27, 2012 in San Francisco, Calif. Tomorrow is Tax Day. Some people write checks for more than they owe to help pay down the nation's public debt.
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Sarah Gardner: When Warren Buffett says he thinks wealthy people should pay more taxes, there's nothing stopping him. In fact, the Treasury Department runs a whole system for accepting gifts to Uncle Sam. And as John Dimsdale reports, people do give.
John Dimsdale: Amber Culver is an employment training counselor in Janesville, Wis. She first started paying taxes back in the 1980s.
Amber Culver: Then when the public debt got so bad, just after the Reagan presidency, that's when I was aware that people could contribute to help pay that down.
Ever since, Culver has given between $10 and $20 extra every year; she figures she's up to around $300 total.
Culver: I knew that little amounts of money added up to big amounts of money. And it's just been a way of life.
Last year, people like Culver voluntarily gave more than $3 million to help shrink the debt. The Bureau of Public Debt even accepts electronic transfers from checking accounts or credit card payments on the website pay.gov.
Pastor Teri Motley at the United Church of Jaffrey in New Hampshire thinks it's such a good idea, she's planning to make her first donation this year.
Teri Motley: I'm thinking maybe $200. Maybe more. I'll have to sit down with my church pledge, my public radio pledge and some of the other charities I support. But it's going to be in the basket with the rest of them.
Other taxpayers, or their estates, donate cash and property to help out the government every year. Last year, more than $310 million in tax deductible gifts went to everything from the Agency for International Development to the National Park Service.
Sheldon Cohen: They had a good year. They heard the United States was wanting. Y'know?
When Sheldon Cohen was IRS Commissioner, he would read the letters from citizen donors.
Cohen: It's not going to solve the budget problem.
Remember, the deficit is more than a trillion dollars a year. That's added up to $15.5 trillion in public debt.
Cohen: But every little bit helps. The deficit is $3 million less because there were $3 million in contributions last year.
Cohen says a little publicity from the IRS might bring in more money. Eric Toder, co-director of the Tax Policy Center, wonders about adding a line soliciting gifts on the standard tax form.
Eric Toder: My guess is if you had that and if it were in people's faces, they probably would contribute more. Just like if somebody puts a collection box in the supermarket. Some people tend to pay. Not enough to balance the budget, but sure there would be more contributions if that were the case.
Although Toder says contributors might find their gifts have been hijacked.
Toder: You have no idea how that dollar you give is going to be used. It's going into the government's coffers and Congress might say 'oh, we have more money coming in, we can spend more. Or we can cut somebody else's taxes.' It is all fungible.
Still, Amber Culver, who hopes her gifts to the government will spark a grassroots movement of like-minded citizens, sees merit in the publicity idea.
Culver: I could see the spokespeople for the "Hunger Games" going out and being part of the campaign.
Hey IRS, are you listening?
In Washington, I'm John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
How misguided these people are, on so many levels. If you're feeling generous, it's far better to seek out the nonprofit Friends organization affiliated with a National Wildlife Refuge, Historic Site, National Park, etc and donate the money to them. At least it will be put to good use and not just squandered through bureaucracy. It probably costs the federal government more money to process these small donations than they net.
This story has demonstrated the challenges face us in understanding the National Debt and also the willingness for at least some of us to do our part. I have been following the Debt since the late 80’s after being introduce to the National Debt clock in NYC.
I came up with a idea back in the 90’s to educate the public about the National Debt and to start a collection to pay it back. That idea – twenty years later – is now a 501c3 non-profit organization called Rock Across America (www.rockacrossamerica.org).
To represent the burden of the National Debt – we have acquired a rock about the size of a small car (about 18 tons). This rock will be pulled from city to town across the country to both educate the public about the National Debt and start a collection to pay it off.
We are still in the development mode and hope to start the journey in the spring of 2013 and we are in need of volunteer support for web development and logistical support. Take a look at this youtube video of the rock as it was pulled from the woods a few weeks ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dC9xxqGn64
Anyone who was interviewed for this story - please contact me – I continue to look for advice and insight.
Rocky Ackroyd - therock@rockacrossamerica.org
What timing. I posted this to Facebook just yesterday:
Even tho my (three years of unemployment is over and my) good income has been restored..., I'm still paying **jack sh*t** for taxes! I have no idea who these buffoons are who complain about income tax being too high! With a system like this, no wonder the Federal government is bankrupt. I do NOT feel good about that.
To put my money where my mouth is, I hereby publicly ... declare that I shall do the following:
- Because there's no (box on the tax form any more for contributions to the Public Debt)...
- Upon receipt of my federal tax refund...
...
- I will pay (it) to the U.S. Public Debt here: http://www.publicdebt.treas.gov/ (click the link "How to Make a Contribution to Reduce the Debt" about half-way down).
- And I will post the receipt to Facebook as proof that I followed through.
I'm convinced that the insanity in Washington won't be fixed unless we each tend to our own individual behavior. So no whiney responses about why you don't feel you should pay more. Either be part of the solution or get out of the way.
- - -
A friend responded: "I refuse to throw good money after bad"
To which I replied: However it got created, the existing Public Debt is a burden we all share, so you (or you children) will pay eventually, one way or another. Better to contribute now, voluntarily. It's what my grandparents would do, were they still here.
P. T. Barnum had a saying that fits people who voluntarily contibute to the debt, thinking they are helping.
Salsabob is correct in almost all points, but one leaves me scratching my head.
"anyone thinking we are faced with inflation caused by federal deficits rather than oil prices doesn't have a clue as to what is going on."
Oil prices may contribute, but with all due respect "fractional reserve banking" is what causes inflation. Everything else only contributes, but doesn't cause.
The folly of the contributors to the national debt and the fractional reserve banking system is detailed in the movie "Zeitgeist Addendum," free to view on YouTube.
These poor people. It just goes to show how strong the myth is that people send money to the federal govt and thereby take money out of the economy. Much better if they would spend that money and provide income to others. The govt does nothing with this money; its keystrokes that send it back to the ether from which it came. At best, by removing purchasing power from the economy, they infinitesimal lower the potential for inflation - but anyone thinking we are faced with inflation caused by federal deficits rather than oil prices doesn't have a clue as to what is going on.
Please, please NPR, do your country a service and get somebody on who is knowledgeable about Modern Monetary Theory (MMT). We need to break the false mythology of our monetary system if we want to move ahead in this country.
