Beatles on Tax Day

Today is Tax Day, the day when the government puts a gun to your head and shouts, “Stand and deliver!”

It’s the day they make sure you give them what they think you owe to pay for government’s massive waste, fraud and abuse. In return for robbing most of your money, government dribbles back a little to you in “services,” such as clogged “freeways” and a medical system that, with Obamacare, means you’ll have to wait in line for care until you die first.

Back in 1966, the Beatles were the Toppermost of the Poppermost, as John Lennon said. They were bringing in the equivalent, in inflated 2010 dollars, of billions a year. But they soon found out that Britain’s top tax rate was 95%, meaning all their hard work — and putting up with crazed fans — was for almost nothing.

So, George Harrison wrote “Taxman.” The phrase where the Taxman barks, “There’s one for you, 19 for me,” refers to that 95% tax rate. There are a lot of other great lyrics, such as:

Should 5% appear to small
Be thankful I don’t take it all….
‘Cause I’m the Taxman,
Yeah I’m the Taxman.
And you’re working for no one but me.

For an image of the Taxman, imagine Gov. Arnold “Taxman Terminator” Schwarazenegger in his Bad Terminator persona riding up to your house and tearing it apart like he did that cop shop in “Terminator 1” (from 1984); the scene where he delivers his signature line, “I’ll be back.” (Here’s a YouTube of that scene. Be afraid. Be very afraid.)

Here’s “Taxman,” more true today in Taxifornia than ever before:

— John Seiler