I am by no means a whiner. I have taken my lumps in life & soldiered on with Scots Irish resolve. But today, April 14, 2010, has brought me to the point of wondering what it’s all about. What is wrong with the United States of America? I will try to keep this as short as possible without losing the main point.
Three years ago I lived in, and was making payments on, a rehabbed farm house in rural Maryland with my wife and daughter. I was a full-time State employee who also had a part-time job with a consultant in the same field in which I work. My wife was also a State employee. Life was good.
In early 2008, the State changed its ethics rules and the consultant I worked for had to let all of its part-time employees who had State jobs go in order to continue bidding on State projects. Mind you, I never worked on State funded projects…but that was that…. $20,000 a year part-time out the window. This made paying the mortgage (which we willingly assumed in the height of the bubble) very tough. Later in the year foreclosure proceedings were started against us even though we had always made at least partial payments. The large national lender that we had would not work with us, stopped accepting partial payments and Obama had yet to become the savior of the mortgage-oppressed. By the end of the year, my wife, daughter and I were living with my mother. Also in late 2008, the funding for my wife’s State job was cut and she was laid-off. I fortunately retain my job, but we are now living on my income alone…which was reduced in 2009 and again this year from budget shortfall induced furlough days.
So what does this have to do with April 14, 2010? I am sure some of you can guess. Tomorrow is Tax Day. Because I was foreclosed upon, I cannot get a new mortgage. Because I have no mortgage, I pay no deductible interest. However, I get up and go to work every day, pay my taxes and SSI and Medicare witholdings, pay for my portion of my family’s health coverage, pay astronomical gas taxes and sit in traffic jams both ways to and from work…all for the extreme personal pleasure of being told that I now owe the Federal Government over $4,000 in upaid income tax for 2009!
And the best part of all is this little nugget that one can find on the IRS website when reading about how to apply for, and the fees and interest associated with, a payment plan for income tax debt owed….
“Before requesting an installment agreement, you should consider less costly alternatives such as a bank loan.”
That’s rich!
Three years ago I lived in, and was making payments on, a rehabbed farm house in rural Maryland with my wife and daughter. I was a full-time State employee who also had a part-time job with a consultant in the same field in which I work. My wife was also a State employee. Life was good.
In early 2008, the State changed its ethics rules and the consultant I worked for had to let all of its part-time employees who had State jobs go in order to continue bidding on State projects. Mind you, I never worked on State funded projects…but that was that…. $20,000 a year part-time out the window. This made paying the mortgage (which we willingly assumed in the height of the bubble) very tough. Later in the year foreclosure proceedings were started against us even though we had always made at least partial payments. The large national lender that we had would not work with us, stopped accepting partial payments and Obama had yet to become the savior of the mortgage-oppressed. By the end of the year, my wife, daughter and I were living with my mother. Also in late 2008, the funding for my wife’s State job was cut and she was laid-off. I fortunately retain my job, but we are now living on my income alone…which was reduced in 2009 and again this year from budget shortfall induced furlough days.
So what does this have to do with April 14, 2010? I am sure some of you can guess. Tomorrow is Tax Day. Because I was foreclosed upon, I cannot get a new mortgage. Because I have no mortgage, I pay no deductible interest. However, I get up and go to work every day, pay my taxes and SSI and Medicare witholdings, pay for my portion of my family’s health coverage, pay astronomical gas taxes and sit in traffic jams both ways to and from work…all for the extreme personal pleasure of being told that I now owe the Federal Government over $4,000 in upaid income tax for 2009!
And the best part of all is this little nugget that one can find on the IRS website when reading about how to apply for, and the fees and interest associated with, a payment plan for income tax debt owed….
“Before requesting an installment agreement, you should consider less costly alternatives such as a bank loan.”
That’s rich!
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This stuff is hard. I wish I could help you my friend, but i will keep you in my prayers and keep thinking positive.
)
Okay, rant over.
