Like many of you, I’ve just completed the ritual of filing my income taxes.  While I did manage to get a relatively small refund, why is it that I still feel like I’ve been robbed, beaten and left for dead?  I suppose that part of it is that I paid more in federal income taxes in 2010 than my wife and I made together in each of our first couple of years of marriage.  I shudder to think what the tax burden will be like 30 years from now.

I really can’t complain, though.  When I read about some of the hassles some rock stars endure, I feel pretty darn lucky.  For instance, I was in a meeting recently where a rock icon told the story of being told by his accountant that, as a recent tour he was on was so successful that he owed a whopping five figures in additional taxes that he hadn’t counted on.  I also read where Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are reportedly in danger of losing their beautiful home because of an almost $2 million tax bill.

Or, take Mick Jagger for instance.  He is quoted as saying, “I love America, but I can't spend the whole year here. I can't afford the taxes.”  I can give Sir Mick a rousing applause, though, for finding a solution to the problem.  Mick and the boys made international news when it was learned that they managed to only pay 1.6 percent in tax on their 2005 earnings.  How?  Through a series of offshore companies, trusts and such, that’s how.  And I commend them for doing that.

In his book, Magical Mystery Tours, Beatles friend, Tony Bramwell contends that it was the 83% British tax bracket that the boys found themselves in that broke up the Fab Four.  That’s right.  According to Mr. Bramwell, it was high British taxes that broke up the Beatles, not Yoko Ono. 

Someone owes that nice lady a sincere apology.

I wonder how we can tax that drunken band in Washington D.C. out of existence?  Now that’s a tax that I could support.