The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Speaking Of Taxes

by Dessa Rodeffer
Quill Editor/Publisher

12 January 2000

Last week I talked about the reassessment process of our property and our taxes from a lengthy meeting I attended at the Henderson County Courthouse.

I received one message, my secretary had taken, from a man that was upset and wondered if I was at the same meeting he was at, she said. He was going to call back, but didn't.

All the other phone calls and comments came to tell me what a good and unbiased coverage it was.

Three of these, in particular, were important compliments to me, since they came from the County Assessor, the County Clerk, and yet another from a past Treasurer who was a landowner himself who understands the taxing process.

Now it is time for the gathering of income and expense statements to get ready for the filing of your income tax.

Hopefully, it will mean a big refund for you, and not a big payment.

And for you who decided to buy and sell in the stock market this year, you get to learn about Capital Gains tax if you were on the winning end of the trade.

As I was talking on the phone to a salesman from California, he told me I should have invested money in Qcom. A fellow who worked with him had purchased it around $50 and sold it that day for several times that price and received a check for $64,000, he said. Too bad nearly 40% of that is going to pay tax on it, he said.

That hardly seems fair, but who said life was fair.

I guess we should be glad if we have to pay big taxes for it means we have (or had) big money.

I remember a minister telling me once that he had people in his congregation say they couldn't afford to tithe to the church 10% of their income, because they made too much money.

He said he felt so sorry for them that he was going to pray that they made less, so they could.

It seems to me, no matter what the tax, no matter what the income, some people always have enough to give while others never will.

Happy Calculating.