We’re all doing our taxes right now, I’ll bet, and in this mad dash to complete them, many people will miss this new twist on a great classic tax form hit: the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. This has been on the tax forms for years, but I think it used to be only a $1.00 donation. Oh, but now it’s a $3.00 donation (!). And the best thing about this is, you can’t opt out (!!). I mean, you can neglect to check the box to donate, but there is no box to check to decline (!!!). Imagine what might happen if there were ever dishonest people allowed to work in government jobs! They might just check the boxes for you and your spouse all the time, and then the fund would get millions upon millions of dollars! Wow! And since it says it won’t alter the amount you owe or are refunded, it’s not something you’d ever notice if they checked the boxes for you, and so they could always get away with it! And that’s why it’s so lucky we live in a country where politics and government are always so clean, honest, reliable, efficient, etc.: because otherwise, dishonest people could dishonestly take advantage of this, and when abused, this could become a huge scam adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the national debt every single year! So it’s a good thing they’d never do that.
But, just for the sake of making sure nobody dishonest ever gets into politics or government and then figures out how easy it would be to abuse this, and creates a slush fund that could possibly be stolen or misused on secret projects, etc., perhaps the IRS should simply add a box that says: “No”. Then we could specifically state that we do not wish for $3.00 to be donated to the Presidential Election Campaign Fund, and nobody could easily change our decision for us. (You know, in the future or something, just in the off-chance anyone might abuse this system someday. Which I’m sure they’re not going to. But, what if…?) Right now, there are only the options to donate for yourself, and to donate for your spouse; but if, by some off-chance, you don’t want the election fund to have any of your/our money, there’s just no way to decline and be absolutely sure that nobody could then simply check the boxes for you later, simply assuming in an honest manner that you must have forgotten to do it, and then helpfully completing the form for you. As difficult as it may be to believe, some people may not want any more deficit spending to go into the pockets of the Presidential Election Campaign Fund. (And especially since this appears not to be particularly traceable, it might lend itself especially well to abuse. If we ever had to worry about that. Which I’m sure we won’t. But still…) And after all, they are Americans too, so maybe they should have the freedom and opportunity to cast that vote if they so desire. (If we’re even allowed to choose anymore about such things, that is.)
Here’s the 1040 form, just so you can see exactly what I’m referring to (It’s on the right-hand side, about two inches down from the top of the page, just under the SSN # area.):
Warning: Reading this post may drastically increase your chances of a federal tax audit! (Oh, sorry: should I have put this part on the top? Oops! Maybe next time…)
