Donald's Blog

  This old house was only a few blocks from the state Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin. All the neighborhood cats lived in the basement during the winter. The house has long since been torn down, but in 1972 there were AR2ax speakers in the front room, and a lot of good music was heard there.

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In the 21st century I am just as opinionated as ever, and I now have an outlet. I shall pontificate here about anything that catches my fancy; I hope I will not make too great a fool of myself. You may comment yea or nay about anything on the site; I may quote you here, or I may not. Send brickbats etc. to: dcmusicbox@earthlink.net.

 

March 3, 2010

Is there a complaining-about-the-tax tax?

When I first moved to Pennsylvania last fall, I immediately received a bill from a Keystone Collections Group, which I reluctantly paid, an annual one-off local school tax, I guess it was.
      A month or so ago I received a tax return from Keystone for a municipal income tax, something I never heard of before. I sent it to my accountant to take care of, along with my Federal, Iowa and Pennsylvania income taxes.
      Today I received something else from Keystone. Apparently they want a quarterly estimate of my income (and my wife’s, separately), and a quarterly payment.
      How long does this go on? How many taxes are there? Is the “earned income tax” annual or quarterly? It cannot be both. Do Ethne and I have to do this separately? Who is Keystone anyway, some politician’s brother-in-law provided with a soft living? How do I know that Keystone isn't related to the widow in Nigeria who wants to send me ten million dollars?
      The irony here is that I am a Democrat and an old-time union member; Rash Limburg or whatever his name is would probably like to drive a stake through my heart, but the fact is that I do not mind paying taxes. But so many different taxes? To whom? For what? Am I going to hear from Keystone every few weeks for the rest of my life? Is there a guide to all this? Who put this over on the people of Pennsylvania, and how did they get away with it?