If Abigail Disney Thinks She Should Pay More Tax She Can Always Send A Check To The Treasury

Abigail Disney, as one of the heirs to the Disney fortune, thinks that rich people should pay more in tax. Which is fine, just copacetic. Right after she leads the way by paying more tax – voluntarily – herself. She can do so by simply sending a check to the Treasury. Make it more than the cost of a stamp and it’s rumoured that they’ll even send a thank you letter.

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””] The heiress, 59, has long been a proponent of lowering executive paychecks and taxing the rich more. “The problem is that there’s a systematic favoring of people who have accumulated an enormous amount of wealth,” she said. Disney signed on to a letter with about 200 other millionaires living in New York last month, asking lawmakers to introduce a “millionaires tax” on households earning more than $5 million to help fund affordable housing, infrastructure and other initiatives. Disney declined to say what a fair tax would be for millionaires, but noted that there needs to be more conversations about what is fair and how to rectify the inequality between the working class and the super rich. [/perfectpullquote]

That’s cool. Your political and moral ideals aren’t wrong just because you’re rich. But we do need to insist that foot meets road, that drapes and carpet match, that what we must be forced to do is something that you’re willing to do voluntarily. Which means sending the Treasury a check Ms. Disney:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]The US has an account, “Gifts to the United States”, specifically for charitable-minded citizens. Send them a cheque, they’ll cash it and spend the money on government. Last time I checked, the figures they received were $2,671,628.40. Roughly speaking, 1 cent per head of population. OK, so, yes, taxes were too low in the US that year. By exactly that amount.[/perfectpullquote]

So, you go prove you’re really willing to pay more. Then we’ll start to have that interesting conversation about whether we should:

[perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Did you know that if you feel you are not paying enough tax you can simply send a check to Uncle Sam? To say thank you for all of the blessings that have been showered upon your grateful and smiling countenance? Indeed you can and the address is here:[/perfectpullquote] [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Gifts to the United States
U.S. Department of the Treasury
Credit Accounting Branch
3700 East-West Highway, Room 6D37
Hyattsville, MD 20782[/perfectpullquote] [perfectpullquote align=”full” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]That might be worth printing out then clipping and keeping. And when a campaigner tells you in his stump speech that he thinks taxes should be raised, smile sweetly and ask him how much he added to his tax bill last year. After all, if he thinks you should pay more taxes shouldn’t he already be doing so voluntarily himself?[/perfectpullquote]

That some years ago was actually about 15 years ago. The message should have got through by now, no?