Recently I was having a conversation online with someone who characterized the act of paying taxes as a contractor as ”being screwed“ and I take exception to this position. Specifically I mentioned the case of Willy Nelson and the back royalties that he suddenly was coming into. I wondered how if he was in tax trouble and had outstanding royalties due him that it was interesting that the IRS hadn’t found and attached / encumbered those assets:

What I meant was if Willy Nelson had been in tax trouble they can put liens on assets and unclaimed royalties are indeed assets, not liabilities to the artists

If Willy had been audited when he was having tax trouble (and I’m sure he was audited if he was in trouble) then I’m surprised that this wasn’t one of the areas he was audited in when the IRS looked for money to attach / encumber. At that time this should have come out that he had money due him. Accountants and auditors are odd that way.

Being an independent contractor for the last 10+ years and receiving money this way myself, I would not characterize the responsibility of paying taxes as “being screwed.”

Do I enjoy paying taxes? No! But I don’t think the fact that I have to pay them — pay something – necessarily means I’m “being screwed?” No.

Now, as for the amount of tax dollars having to be paid, and as for it being equitable for small business owners and those working in the middle class? Well, don’t get me started on that one! The amount of taxes due is an entirely different bag of worms and depending on an individual or business position I might characterize that as “being screwed.”

It is my opinion that from purely a tax perspective being really poor or really rich is the best place to be. The really poor don’t have to pay and the really rich can shelter themselves in so many different ways that they can maximize reduction of their overall personal tax burden and at the end of the day they have the means to pay their tax bills, whatever they are (assuming they aren’t totally foolish with their spending like Mike Tyson reportedly has been).

The bottom line is if one earns money the he/she has an obligation to pay taxes out of that and this should be obvious to anybody in the workforce with an IQ above their shoe size.

Record companies (much as we might not care for their ethics and tactics; see: $50 million in royalties due to thousands of artists the labels have “lost track of”) and the artists are not maintaining an employer/employee relationship, they are clearly striking up business deals and contracts for intellectual property.

Ignorance of the laws is no excuse for Willy Nelson or any other independent contractor. At one time, anyway, Willy did have the $$ to pay for professional advice and counsel for his situation. The only person he can blame for not getting and taking that advice is himself, assuming of course this is what happened.

I shed zero tears for those who have the means to pay their taxes and choose not to do so.

However, those who are unable to pay their taxes because of true financial burden — it’s out there — my heart goes out to them. Most of us have been there at one time or another and that sucks.

Did this post make you go hmm?

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