Life

It's time for my annual rant and rave against the federal government and our tax system. But first, a few quick tax facts:

• The top five percent of wage earners pay 60 percent of all money the government collects for income taxes.
• The bottom 50 percent of wage earners pay less than 3 percent of the money that the government rakes in.
• Almost half of Americans pay no income tax at all.

I always marvel at this information. The people who complain that only the rich benefit from tax cuts miss an important fact: when you cut taxes, the people who pay those taxes are going to see a greater reduction than the people who already don't pay taxes or pay very little i.e. if I pay $40,000 in taxes and get a 1 percent reduction that's $400 in my pocket. If I pay $100 in taxes and get a 1 percent refund I have a buck.

We just had to cut a fairly large size check to the federal and state government. That doesn't necessarily say that we earned a lot in 2007 but certainly says we didn't have enough money taken out of our paycheck for taxes. But Sarah and I do earn a lot of money; I just don't consider ourselves wealthy. I'm not sure where it goes, we have one car (2002 Durango, we just sold Sarah's car) and I have a company car. We take a couple vacations a year. We have large childcare expenses and save a fair amount for retirement and the kid's education. We live in a fairly modest house. We don't buy fancy clothes and Jack wears a lot of Henry's hand-me-downs. But I guess the federal government considers us wealthy because they feel the need to place the Alternative Minimum Tax on the Briggs family.

It's hard to believe the AMT was passed in 1969 to make sure that 155 Americans paid Uncle Sam his money. Because it isn't indexed to inflation, more and more families like ours find themselves ineligible for basic tax deductions. I'm not happy about paying the AMT, I feel we pay our fair share and would much rather donate this money to our church or charities of our choice.

Fortunately or unfortunately, we'll probably earn more in 2008 and pay more taxes than I consider fair. And then, I'll get to write this all over again next April 14.