How many passwords do you have to remember?
To be honest, I don’t know if I could count all the passwords and PINs etc. that I need to remember but I would guess it at around 75.
Life is complex.
I won’t get into all of the details but being a citizen of two countries and yet living in a third is part of the complexity – especially if one of those countries – the USA – treats its exPat citizens as criminals. My US tax return recently filed ran to 122 pages! I killed a tree for the US Government folks. Oh, and I still had to file my FACTA as well and my Czech tax return – which despite the love of bureaucracy here – was just 3 pages long!
Then, I work for myself with a partner in Houston and its a US company. That means I have four sets of bank accounts. Each set comes in three currency denominations – USD/CZK/EUR. That is 12 bank accounts to manage and access online. 12 bank accounts to balance on a monthly basis. Actually, due to some book royalty payments originating in the UK, I just opened a 13th account in Britain in GBP.
Now, I ask you, do you think I am rolling in dosh? Nope. I make a good living but I am a long way from being rich. BY Obama’s standards I belong to that severely abused group of taxpayers known fondly as the middle class. This of course is code meaning – the only idiots paying taxes so let’s rape and pillage as best we can.
By the time I have had my 122 page US tax return, FACTA, Czech tax return and company tax and VAT returns filed, I probably spent $6000 on accountancy fees alone! Then, having dutifully paid all of my Czech taxes including social security, medical insurance, income tax and the laughable ‘solidarity’ tax, I end up paying Uncle Sam too. BTW, the solidarity tax shows that the Czech Government have learned from the US that the middle class are the only idiots paying taxes so lets rape and pillage. Its an extra 7% tax on everything over approximately $5000 per month.
So I pay around 28% in income tax (add in social security and medical insurance and its up there!). President Obama – who makes something like 10 times my income – he pays just 12% income tax. Of course, the top boys who make say 50 times my income, they pay less than 5% income tax. Awesome isn’t it. If you aren’t already wealthy or a minor miracle occurs like winning the lottery, the chances of becoming wealthy aren’t that good.
My solution would be this. 100% inheritance tax so we all start equal and then a simple progressive income tax on all sources of income with no exceptions. Maximum rate – 40%. I’m not in favor of robbing people of their incentive to get up and make money….
Oh – and 1 page tax returns….