I went to the office and did our taxes yesterday. This has to be latest I’ve ever done them. For some reason I just couldn’t get fired up about taxes this year. Maybe, when you get older, you have lower levels of taxtosterone, so you just don’t get cranked up like you used to. At any rate, I wasn’t looking forward to it and I got a real surprise. Most would say surprised in a good way. As for me, I don’t like surprises, so I’m in a slight funk.

Without bragging or complaining, I’ve woked hard through the years, made more money than average, and paid a lot more taxes than average too. I knew that there had been some changes on how capital gains and dividends are taxed, and did expect some benefit. What I got astounded me. Again, without going into a lot of detail, much of my income is from capital gains. None of it was taxed at the federal level. My state taxes are higher than my federal taxes this year.

So how could I possibly be “surprised in a bad way”? I’ll tell you why (you knew I would). I believe we live in a great country. I grew up learning that if you work hard, you will make a good living. And if you make a good living, you have to pay taxes to help pay for all the benefits of being a United States citizen. We all grumble that we don’t get paid quite as much as we’re worth. And we grumble that we pay too much in taxes. But, deep down, we’re thankful we’re speaking English (or something that resembles English) and not Chinese, or Russian, or German or ________ (if I haven’t offended you yet with the ethnic slams, fill in the blank with your country of origin). It gives us the pride of living in a country where the fortunate will help the unfortunate, the wealthy will help the poor, and those who have bounty will feed the hungry who have nothing (I sound like a TV evangelist…send money, send money).

So if I believe all that I’ve just said, and I do, I should be concerned that I and others in my same circumstance aren’t shouldering our share of the load. I do understand that the decision to lower taxes on capital gains was done to stimulate investment in our capital markets, and I won’t second guess the economists as to motive. But in fairness, why should I pay less in taxes than a young couple with two children who make the same amount as we do? And not just a little less…a lot less. It’s just not right!

After having said all that, don’t expect me to send a few thousand in “voluntary taxes” to make things right so I can sleep at night. But I am sure I’ll send more money to charities this year. Probably not to political action committees and probably not to the “build the casino now” campaign.

I’ve had new carpet put in the hallways, master bedroom and stairs at the cottage. I’ve been trying to come up with some wallpaper for the end wall in the master bedroom that used to be red. But I can’t come up with anything that doesn’t look cheesy (even cheesier than red). So I think I’ll have Jean and Stacy Anderson help me pick out a color and I’ll paint it, again. I’m thinking about giving them my credit card and sending them to Grand Rapids to buy things to help decorate. The thing that holds me back is that it has an $18,000 credit line. Knowing the two of them, they may max it out and there goes the tax savings. The hungry and homeless are out…the shoppers are in.

Just (Earning Pluses To Offset Past And Future Minuses) Jack