Publicola

Income taxes are deducted off the top of your pay. On April 15th, you're supposed to file the tax forms & pay the remainder. We all know this right?
The tax is taken out incrementally week by week, or month by month, depending upon how you get paid, & the bulk of taxes are usually taken out by this method, often leaving a small sum, or in some cases a small refund, to be settled in April.
April 15th is just a few days shy of being an exact 6 months away from Election Day. think that's coincidence?
Have you ever wondered how proposals for or against tax increases would be effected if taxes were taken out in one lump sum on, say October 20th?
I could be wrong, but I would imagine that if more people saw the tax being demanded as one lump sum rather than an aggregate of smaller payments, they would be more apt to elect representation who would not raise taxes, & possibly even elect those who would lower them.
I base this assumption on my observation of people who are self employed versus those who work for someone else. I hear everyone complaining about taxes & what is done with the money by government, but usually the self employed complain just a bit louder & just a bit longer. This is probably due to the fact that they usually pay a higher rate since they have no employer to cover half of the tax, & they are usually required to pay quarterly estimates of the tax against the projected tax itself.
I am no fan of the income tax for several reasons & i strongly support dropping it in it's entirety. There's a link to Fairtax on this page that should be worth checking out. It basically proposes to replace the income tax with a national sales tax & discusses in some depth the details of such a system.
In the meantime, I say we move the tax filing deadline to October 20th, if for no other reason than to watch those up for re-election sweat a little.