Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

Subject: Re: Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

What?  My government lies?  How could that be?  Besides, "My country, right or wrong, my country"!  Now excuse me, I must stick my head back in the sand where I'll be safe in the arms of Jesus. 

 

Carl Jarvis

----- Original Message -----

From: S. Kashdan

To: Blind Democracy List

Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2012 4:48 AM

Subject: Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You

Your 1040 Tax Form Lies to You



By David Swanson



ZNet, April 2011



http://www.zcommunications.org/your-1040-tax-form-lies-to-you-by-david-swanson



If you pick up a copy of a 1040 EZ U.S. income tax form with all the
instructions, particularly pages 36-37 you'll discover that the U.S.
government only spends 22 percent of its money on "National defense,
veterans, and

foreign affairs." The form admits that you could leave out the "foreign
affairs" part and still be at 21 percent.



However, if you take a look at the pie chart created by the

War Resisters League you'll see 54 percent of the budget going to the
military. What gives?



Well, the income tax form plays a number of dirty tricks on you. The first
is that it lumps Social Security and Medicare into the budget, even though
they

are not funded with income taxes. Take that out and the 1040EZ now tells us
that the military makes up 32 percent of national public spending. But that's

still a long way from 54 percent.



However, the tax form lumps all interest payments on debt together without
explaining that much of that debt is for past military expenses. The tax
form

also appears to categorize at least some of the military spending that goes
through departments other than "Defense" as something else. And in all
likelihood

the tax form is based on a budget established early in the year and does not
include any estimate of the additional funding that will be appropriated
outside

the budget in "war supplemental" bills. The 1040EZ is also misleading in
claiming to fund defense and veterans, with no mention of the military and
with

only the fine print to explain that only 3 percent is actually spent on
veterans.



Both the 1040 EZ and the War Resisters League use numbers for FY2009. One of
them uses those numbers in a way that better explains where the government
is

choosing to spend our money.



David Swanson is the author of War Is A Lie (warisalie.org ).



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