On not winning friends, or influencing them...

At our Business class this week, the instructor was talking about setting up a small business, and taxes. One of my fellow students asked "How much of your tip income can you not declare and still get away with?", to which the instructor replied "I don't think I'd better answer that". Irresistibly, my hand shot up. "Well I can. You should declare ALL your income, because it's the professional and morally correct thing to do. When YOU don't declare your income, and I do, I end up shouldering more of the burden of taxation". There followed a very uncomfortable silence.

Still, it is intensely irritating to me, this attitude that it's OK to lie about income to the IRS. The fact that so many people do it, does not make it morally right. And doing it just because others do so just compounds the problem for this country. The so-called 'black economy', comprising undeclared earnings from various sources, but including tips that employees have not declared, is estimated to run into billions of dollars. That is money that could benefit the country or reduce our tax rates, or both.

The argument I heard after the class was "Well, I don't make enough money to live on, so I can't afford to declare my tips" ... Newsflash - if you don't have much income, you won't end up paying taxes anyway. And as for the argument "everyone else does it"...

<Runs screaming into the street>