Oliver Wendall Holmes said that he did not mind taxes, for "with them, you buy civilization." That may be true, but it still feels like a sting when I figure out how hard my husband and I work and pay to the federal government, the state government and the local government. I am a big believer in progressive income taxes which just means that the more you make, the greater the percentage the government will take from the higher earnings. That policy helps the lower earning segment of society who cannot afford to pay as great a percentage of their income to support the entire community and its needs. The wealthy have a greater amount left over as disposable income even though they pay a greater share of their incomes to taxes. But even though I feel firmly that such a system is the most fair, I also hate how much of my income is deducted from my paycheck for my portion of the tax burden. I honestly cannot say that our current system, with the AMT eating into more and more taxpayers who make less and less money is actually fair -- all I know is that my family's burden seems very high because we are in a high tax state.
Thus, it is important to understand the legitimate ways to decrease our tax burden. I have no hesitation paying my fair share; however, I like to take advantage of the tax laws that exist for the benefit of certain kinds of deductions, expenses, investments, and savings. Thus, in my first effort to do so, I plan to scrutinize what we are doing with our taxes now that we are better at record-keeping than before. Thus, I am attempting to learn much about the federal tax laws that help people like my family to reduce our tax burden. These articles are all related to that.