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Political irony is the best irony: while many millennials are flocking to vote for Bernie Sanders, a man who brashly argues in favor of raising taxes, the same constituency seems to fear tax-season.
USA Today reports “a survey of 1,600 U.S. adults found that 80% of taxpayers’ ages 18-34 (the millennial generation) who filed taxes last year and plan to file this year say they’re fearful about some aspect of preparing their taxes. That’s the highest of all the age groups.
While the average percent of people who fear tax-season in the survey is already high at approximately 70 percent, millennials seem to fear it even more. Maybe millennials are just overreacting; perhaps, FDR’s was right when he said: “all we have to fear is fear itself.” Or, maybe millennials just don’t want a partisan IRS combing through every one of their receipts.
There are some serious reasons why millennials fear tax-season, as the USA Today continues: “Almost a quarter (22%) of those nervous Millennials say their biggest worry is making a mistake on their returns.” As they should, one mistake on your tax forms and you could be audited, jailed, or labeled as a good-for-nothing-tax-dodging-cheat who should be burned at the stake in one of Sanders’ next stump speeches. Who can handle that type of pressure?
The article goes on to say that another big worry for millennials is the fear of “leaving tax-refund money on the table.” No one likes leaving things on tables, especially money. More fears that come with tax-season include fraud, and hacking of personal information from IRS servers.
All is not lost for the millennial generation. Politicians have a prime opportunity to curry favor with millennials (a significant voting bloc now) by working on two specific objectives: simplifying the tax code and lowering taxes. By simplifying the tax code, millennials will not have to worry about making a mistake on their tax returns. As for the fear of “leaving money on the table” with their tax return, the government could simply stop taking money out of their paychecks and let them keep what they earn.
No serious working-American likes paying taxes; it’s a long, complicated, and intrusive process which causes more problems than solutions. If we cannot abolish taxes, lets at least make tax season so easy a child (or a Sanders supporter) can do it.