Taxes are one of our least favorite times of the year. If you think about it, there’s nothing more American than hating taxes; in fact, our country started from that!
While Biden has bulked up the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with 87,000 new agents, the majority of people will actually be getting smaller refunds this year, even those who barely earned anything.
Bad News on Refunds
The IRS is already warning people they will likely be getting much smaller refunds than what they are accustomed to this fiscal year.
The reason is partly that many of the items which boosted people’s refunds last year will not be around this year, due to the pandemic category having been removed.
This means less on your child credit, dependence care credit, and various other relief checks which people had been receiving in the past during the pandemic.
This also goes the other direction as well, because those who owe taxes are going to be owing somewhat more.
This is basically a return to 2019 tax levels, which would probably be no big deal to many people, except for one very obvious fact: inflation has skyrocketed since then!
IRS: Your tax refund is $32.99
ME: pic.twitter.com/OzLMiJNuhc
— Izu Uhiara (@OMGStacks) January 6, 2023
The Inflation Nightmare
With Biden’s American Rescue Plan underway in the past, people were getting much more for raising young kids and having depends, but now, that is all being cut back, even as prices and inflation are higher than ever.
Child credits specifically will be going down from $3,600 each to $2,000. It will also be a lot harder to deduct what you’ve given to charity and every part has to be itemized.
A rare spot of good news is coming for couples who are married, with them now able to claim $27,700 instead of $25,900, which is what it was for the 2021 tax year.
There’s also been a slight bump for individual taxpayers, with the deduction rising to $13,850. This is up $900 from previous levels and is at least a bit better.
Whether or not this slight increase in individual and couple taxes offsets the massive amount of inflation we’ve been experiencing is definitely doubtful.
Apart from this rare piece of good news, the outlook is very bleak, with a hostile, massive IRS out hunting for taxes from the little guy, while large corporations find all sorts of loopholes and ways to get around the rules the rest of us have to follow.
The tax agency said it just finished sending the refunds to workers who paid tax on unemployment benefits that they didn't owe. https://t.co/SHUaqR3omi
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 9, 2023
The Bottom Line
This is the standard left-wing playbook: hike up taxes on the little guy and throw out a few scraps as a way to distract people from what’s happening.
With higher costs than ever and the ongoing pain at the pumps, taxes for 2022 are just one more headache for a stressed and financially burdened American people.
