Your tax refund is a total scam — that blinds us to Washington’s spending addiction

But your refund is simply the US Treasury’s return of money you overpaid throughout the year — the result of a series of interest-free loans you unwittingly made to the federal government. While small-government advocates often lament the 1913 ratification of the 16th Amendment, which authorized the modern income tax, the tax alone was not sufficient to unleash the modern federal fiscal project. After President Trump’s 2017 tax cut, roughly 140 million American households paid less in taxes throughout the year — but many received smaller refunds than they had in the past, because the government adjusted employer-withholding guidelines early in the year to account for the lower tax rates.

Author: Adam Michel

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