Taxes and Myth of FAIRNESS

One the phrases I hate to hear from clients is; “I don’t mind paying my fair share.”  The reason I hate that phrase is that in a tax code drenched in special interest tax breaks the idea of a “fair share” is meaningless.  About 47% of Americans pay no income taxes; about half of them get refunds greater than that which was withheld (IRS welfare payments).  General Electric, the sixth-largest corporation in the United States, earned $14.2 billion in 2010, but disclosed in federal filings that it had no federal tax liability.  Other companies that (reportedly) paid no taxes; Verizon Communications, Boeing, NextEra Energy, American Electric Power, Pacific Gas & Electric, Apache, Consolidated Edison, El Paso, and CenterPoint Energy were, along with GE, the top 10 companies for 2011-2012 that apparently paid no taxes.

Even as the morons we elect to congress took until New Years to pass a tax bill that had been, essentially, in the works for over 10 years there was still time to add on a load of stinking special interest tax breaks engineered by Senator Max Baucus (as reported Tim Carney http://washingtonexaminer.com/tim-carney-max-baucus-rewards-ex-staffers-with-tax-breaks-for-their-clients/article/2517635):

Tax breaks for Hollywood, NASCAR, windmills, algae and multinational corporations ended up in the "fiscal cliff" bill thanks to President Obama, according to Senate Republican sources. But they were spawned by a web of lobbyists, donors and staffers surrounding Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana.

Baucus' Finance Committee passed a bill in August extending 50 expiring deductions and credits for favored industries. At Obama's insistence, the Baucus bill was cut and pasted word for word into the cliff legislation. Set aside for a moment how this contradicts Obama's talk about "fair shares" and the need to diminish the influence of lobbyists, and look at what this raft of tax favors shows us about the Baucus Machine.

All this crap was like a barnacle waiting for a ship to float by to attach it to, that became the “Fiscal Cliff” tax bill.   The Senate can plan for this crony capitalist crap in advance but the aspects of taxation that actually affect average citizens, many of whom will have to wait until the end of February to file taxes and get their refunds, is ignored. 
In light of this I ask my reader, what is your fair share?  I will tell you, that it is the lowest amount you can legally get away with paying.  Unfortunately you and I do not have the millions of dollars to spend for expensive tax attorney lobbyist like the major corporations who employee Senator Max Baucus.  As becomes increasingly clear in America today nobody works for us.