Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. If one dumb person makes a misguided observation, it might go unnoticed. But when many stupid people notice the same thing, it becomes a national news story.
Take tax refunds, for example. While many working class Americans may have received thousands of dollars back from the Internal Revenue Service in previous years, this year we enjoyed the benefits of tax reform.Since we paid less money in taxes over the past year, the government will give us a smaller refund. That doesn't mean we got robbed - it means we got to keep more of our money in the first place. This is all a consequence of the tax reform laws that were passed in 2017.
90% of Americans saw their take-home pay increase after the recent changes to our federal tax system. Unless you're extremely rich, extremely poor, or you earn your income in a highly unique & uncommon manner, you probably benefited from the 2017 tax reform package.
This isn't a bad thing. It's called a "refund" for a reason - the government is giving you money that you initially gave them. But wouldn't it be better if you didn't have to give them so much money in the first place? Of course! And that's exactly what happened this year.
Even still, some (very stupid) people are complaining on social media that their refunds are smaller this year.
Over the weekend the Daily Mail US ran an article titled " Taxpayers Lash Out at Trump as Data Shows Lower IRS Refunds ".
And they’re not alone – a quick search of social media sites reveals thousands of people complaining that Trump “stole” their tax return.
They may not realize it, but these people literally complaining that they got to keep their money.
If you're one of these people, pay close attention to the following explanation before you speak out loud and risk embarrassing yourself:
Imagine you have $10 in your wallet. Now imagine the government takes away $5 in taxes.You have $5 remaining after taxes. But as the tax year comes to an end, the government decides they taxed you too much money, so they give you back $2. Now you have $7 at the end of the fiscal year. Then, the following year, the government decides to change the tax system. This time they only take away $2 from you and at the end of the year they only give you back $1. Sure, your refund is lower than the previous year, but now you have $9 after everything is said and done. Isn't that better than the old system? You'd think so, but some people are still complaining about lower tax returns.
If you're still confused, please do yourself a favor and find someone who understands basic math to explain this to you.
Or don’t. If you’re really this stupid there’s probably no chance of helping you anyway.
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