Taxes are one unfortunate of aspect of life that we all must deal with. There are taxes on our food, taxes on our purchases, taxes on our incomes and even taxes on taxes. With all this “tax” money coming into the federal and state government’s one might wonder what it is all used for. Some uses include money to fund domestic and foreign wars, enforcement of public policy and public order and the building of public infrastructure as well as many many other uses. With a society completely dependent on tax income to function and protect the interest of its citizens, one must imagine what types of systems are in place to assure the money flows. It is the purpose of the internal revenue service (IRS) of the United States to assure that all taxes are collected from citizens, corporations etc. to assure the continued functionality of the US and State governments. In order to assure they are collected in an efficient manner (and the author uses this term loosely), a tax code exists to fairly tax not only corporations but individuals as well. In addition, they are collected not only on the federal level but the state level as well. While the IRS exists for the federal government, it also exists for the states as well. All 50 states and territories of the US are in the “tax business”. As such, there are a multitude of tax codes that exist to assure all laws are met. Tax calculators are available on the internet to give an approximation (a pretty good approximation) of what ones tax liability will be. Many things are taken into account such as income, debt, taxes paid, employment and the number of members of a house hold. All these things and many others will influence the tax liability that exists. On the other end of the spectrum there are things with the tax code that offset what taxes must be paid such as amount of charitable gifts one gives. Whether one files alone or with a spouse and even if and how many children one might have. These offsets lower a person’s tax liability. On the corporate end of it, profit, loss, investments, plant and material and many other factors will influence what a corporation will pay in taxes for a given time period.
With all these multiple scenarios that play out in the tax arena, some might ask themselves how will they will ever recall or how to assure what taxes are to be paid and  alternatively how does one assure they do not pay too much in taxes. Tax preparation is a huge business in the United States because the tax code is so complex. software is available (Turbo Tax for example) to assist one in preparing a tax statement. This software has come a long way in its accuracy within the tax code as most vendors will accompany you should you be the focus of an audit by the IRS.