Wednesday, January 08, 2020

A Proposal for Strategic Tax Filing

Now and again, I hear proposals for "strategic voting." In the usual example a Libertarian in a "close" state is supposed to vote for the Republican candidate for president (to keep the Democrat from winning that state), while a Republican in a "safe" Republican or Democratic state -- where his or her vote won't make a difference -- is supposed to vote for the Libertarian (to increase the Libertarian Party's nationwide vote count).

Now I see this headline ...

Underfunded IRS struggles to send refunds, answer calls


... and it inspires me to suggest a "Strategic Tax Filing" plan. Here's how it would work:

1) A taxpayer whose return says he or she is owed a refund from the IRS files that return ASAP; while

2) A fellow taxpayer whose return says he or she owes money to the IRS agrees to hold onto that return until the first taxpayer receives said refund.

Yeah, I know it doesn't address the "problem" of the IRS being "under-funded," but it just generally sounds like a good and fun idea to me.

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