Geoff Duncan

You knew it was coming! The time of year when I morph from a mild-mannered, laid-back, come-as-you-are, vaguely socially-conscious whatever to an anti-tax libertarian spaz. Although a few of these figures are approximate, here's how my income was consumed by taxes in 2004:

Being self-employed, I don't pay Social Security tax separately; it's rolled into my Federal income tax as "self-employment tax." It really tweaks me off. If I owned real estate, I probably couldn't afford to be alive. And although my figures for 2003 are somewhat more approximate (I didn't keep as detailed local tax information, for instance), this looks to have increased from roughly 30.8% in 2003, which is still absurd, especially since my net income has been declining during these years and is far below what would be considered a one-dollar-in-three bracket. Let's hear it for the administration's tax reform efforts! Huzzah!