[ExI] The Dogs of Immortality

[Damien Broderick]

--- James Clement <clementlawyer at hotmail.com> wrote:

 > As a former practicing tax attorney (in a prior lifetime), I met with many
 > officials at the higher levels of the Internal Revenue Service over the
 > years.  Their attitude is that 100% of all money "belongs" to the government
 > and it's only through their generosity that you or I are allowed to "keep"
 > any of it...  I'm not exaggerating, I've had many, many conversations about
 > this and have been shocked at their attitude.

My wife, who is a currently practicing and ferocious tax attorney in 
this lifetime, offers a somewhat different perspective: that IRS 
functionaries act as if all taxpayers are likely to be cheating, 
hiding taxable income, claiming fraudulent deductions, etc. This 
attitude is very annoying, of course. After all, it's extremely hard 
to see how they could possibly think this--since, as we know, almost 
all taxpayers (those reading this post, for example) are renowned for 
never fudging even the tiniest bit. Right?

<picture of horse laughing>

But of course the IRS can go overboard, and recently (I understand) 
has been especially, uh, diligent.

Damien Broderick