1. Real estate tax
2. Personal property tax (vehicles)
3. Machinery & tools tax (equipment)
4. Mobile home tax
5. Prepared food tax (restaurants)
6. Transient occupancy tax (motels)
7. Cellphone use tax
8. Utilities tax
9. State individual income tax
10. Federal individual income tax
11. Fuel tax
12. Inheritance tax
13. State sales tax
Aside from the inheritance tax, because most of us will not inherit fortunes high enough to qualify for that tax, these are taxes many people pay in Virginia.
Next week, maybe - 13 different ways to die, because nothing is sure but death and taxes.
Also, I don't mind paying taxes. I consider it a privilege to live here and I should pay for that opportunity. Without taxes we would be even more of a third-world militaristic oddity than we are now. We'd have no roads, no emergency services, no police officers. I do think, though, that if I'm going to pay all these taxes I wish I had a better say in where the money is used. I would do the complete opposite of what we're doing - I'd spend more on the "entitlement programs" and less on the military. We already have a military big enough to defeat the rest of the world. It doesn't need to be any larger.
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Thursday Thirteen is played by lots of people; there is a list here if you want to read other Thursday Thirteens and/or play along. I've been playing for a while and this is my 555th time to do a list of 13 on a Thursday. Or so sayth the Blogger counter, anyway.
I'm singing the Beatles Taxman in my head. That's a good point about wishing you had more say in how they are used. Me too.
ReplyDeleteWould be nice, wouldn't it.
DeleteMost of it I don't notice because it's embedded in what I pay for something. It does make me stop and think, though.
ReplyDeleteOh, if you think about it, your head will hurt!
DeleteReminds me of a post I saw on Facebook from the group Anonymous this morning: "125 years ago you didn't have to ask permission from the government to: collect rain water; go fishing; own a property; start a business; renovate your home; build a home; use a transportation vehicle; get married; hunt; own a weapon; cut hair; sell a product; protest; grow food on your property; set up a lemonade stand; or sell food. You can do virtually nothing without being extorted by government and obtaining their permission first. If you still think you're free, you're deluding yourself! You live in a tax farm as free range humans."
ReplyDeleteNot sure I think it's quite THAT bad, but I do tend to think we are over regulated and over taxed.
Some things need to be regulated and some taxes need to be paid. But I think it should also make sense, and some of it does not make sense.
Delete