Discount For Cash

Luke Pease has been a responsible taxpayer his many years, but the new tax law may change all that.

Discount for cash? I asked as I purchased a pair of shoes. “We can let you off the tax,” she said.

Nice!

Discount for cash - my new mantra. Auto mechanics, shoe shops and restaurants I have found, are perfectly happy to waive the tax, and sometimes more, if you pay cash.

No-one likes paying tax, and I'm no exception, but as a responsible, functioning member of society, I've accepted that pain, along with the rationale that by acting together, and with each paying our fair share, we create a better world, a world where a modern infrastructure and a social safety net come standard. Turn on the faucet and clean, drinkable water appears! Flush the toilet and presto! - no longer my problem. What a wonderful world. That's taxation.

But with the latest egregious tax bill having passed through congress, I'm out, I’m not paying any more. The documented lies of our President, and of those in Congress supporting this bill, have stripped the moral obligation to obey the legislation.

I have discovered in past years, that one can 'create' information on tax returns, but I have previously erred on the side of caution, giving the IRS the benefit of the doubt. Cost basis, I'd underestimate. Charitable donations I sometimes claimed, sometimes not. House burglarized? I'd resist the temptation to exaggerate the loss for tax purposes.

But not any more. Sure, try to find the missing transaction on that stock I bought thirteen years ago. Need another deduction - oh my car was broken into, damage incurred $5,000. You wanna say that didn't happen - here's the automated police report.

To maintain ethical integrity, I should donate these ill-gotten proceeds to the homeless, where it should have gone in the first place, but you know what, I think I’m gonna keep it.

After all, to paraphrase the New Yorker, the rich will get richer, but with the poor getting poorer it all averages out in the end.

With a Perspective, I'm Luke Pease.

Luke Pease lives in Oakland.