Does Tax time have your stressing? This time of year can be exceptionally hard on lots of Americans because we are all scrambling to collect the correct documents and remember all the expenses and income we made over the last 365 days all in order to report everything perfectly to Uncle Sam. If you need a little break from the pandemonium, you have come to the right place! Here are a few light-hearted, amusing facts that center around our tax season.
- EZ means easier - The instructions for the basic 1040 tax return form are more than 100 pages long as opposed to the 1040EZ instructions, the most basic tax return form, which are around 40 pages long.
- “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the Income Tax.” If these are your feelings about taxes, you are in good company — the words of the late Albert Einstein.
- Astronaut Jack Swigert, the command module pilot for Apollo 13, got his assignment at the very last minute due to health concerns of another astronaut. In the rush to get aboard Apollo 13, Swigert forgot to file his taxes. According to the Apollo13 space log transcript, the crew on the ground laughed, but Swigert seriously needed to file an extension.
- Even celebrities have issues when paying taxes. Pamela Anderson had a $1.7 million lien against her for unpaid taxes. Dog the Bounty Hunter, aka Duane Chapman, has owed up to $2 million in unpaid taxes at a time and Wesley Snipes spent three years in prison and continued to battle the IRS afterward although he was acquitted of felony tax fraud and conspiracy.
- Dealing drugs really doesn’t pay, but you might! Some states require drug dealers to pay taxes on the drugs they sell. In those states the tax may be due as soon as the drug is in their possession, meaning someone caught with drugs may have to pay a fine for unpaid taxes on top of punishment for their other crimes.
- Violent Chicago mobster Al Capone famously got caught on of all things, tax evasion. Fellow mobsters, including Al's brother Ralph "Bottles" Capone, Frank Nitti, and Jake "Greasy Thumb" Guzik, were also charged. Among jailtime and other penalties, Al Capone had to pay $215,000 plus interest in back taxes.
Although “fun tax facts” may seem like an oxymoron, I hope you got a little chuckle out of these and it makes your day a little lighter!
