The Internal Revenue Service

John Oliver talks about U.S. Income taxes. Not so much the taxpayer, but the way the Internal Revenue service is being operated. Offices are understaffed, everyone hates the agency, and the people who work there are just trying to do their job.

This year was not good for me as far as taxes go. The tax code has no provisions for a real estate crash or the new economy of contract workers. In 2014, I finally sold my old house after six years on the market. The profit over the price I paid twenty years ago was modest, and disappeared instantly as we paid off some debts. We didn’t put away anything for capital gains tax, because we thought we’d take the home sale exemption. But since we didn’t occupy it for so long and rented it out for a short time (which was also a loss), we couldn’t do that. And since I am “self-employed,” the profit was added to my modest “business income.” That was enough to jump me into the next bracket, and I had to write a check three times as large as in a normal year. My quarterly withholding for 2015 also tripled. I should get that back a year from now, but until then I’ll be paying the interest on what I have to borrow to make the payments. My kid lost her Pell grant for the first year of college, and any need-based school grant she might have otherwise received. I lost my Obamacare subsidy for the year. Meanwhile, my actual income for 2015 is the same as it ever was. All in all, selling that house cost me several times over what “profit” I made on it.

Still, I would never take my frustration out on an IRS worker. They are working folks just like the rest of us.