They’re a fact of life, like telemarketers and snotty-nosed kids who sneeze on your pants. I’m talking about tax evasion, er, settlement commercials, the bane of late-night TV.
These commercials always bug me. I mean, just seeing the people on there going “I can’t believe the government is threatening to take away my house because I have huge tax debt!” makes me want to hit something. Uh, hello? Why are you in tax debt? Whose fault is it? Honestly.
Your finances are your own responsibility. There are consequences for mismanaging them. This applies for credit cards (I can’t even count the number of people who I’ve heard complain about their credit card debts as they wax their fancy car, listen to their brand-new iPod, and surf around on their shiny laptop). Taxes are even more important, considering there are even bigger consequences than falling behind on loans or credit cards. Failing to pay taxes can result in jail time. If you can’t keep up, it means you’re buying too much stuff without the means to pay taxes on all of it. In other words, if you have a minimum wage job, you shouldn’t be buying a new house. And I don’t care if you think it’s unfair to pay taxes. Either you pay taxes or your roads fall into disrepair and you’ve got Mr. Johnny McFeely in your elementary school “teaching” your kids. That’s only a slight exaggeration.
The thing that really bugs me about tax settlement commercials is the idea that people can avoid paying all the taxes they owe. It’s an easy out, which results in people paying less than they really owe. It just doesn’t seem fair to the people who pay their taxes on time and in full. Heck, I don’t even see how this is legal. No wonder the government is in such debt if they allow their own citizens to get away with paying a fraction of their taxes…*grumbles*
Whatever the case, debt is always avoidable. People would do well to remember that and avoid buying what they can’t afford or pay off in a reasonable amount of time. It’d mean less annoying commercials about “unfair” wage garnishment and foreclosure when I’m watching TV.
