IFAS Matters - April 2013

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Jack Payne

Ah, April! As our rain barrels struggle to fill up, the federal income tax coffers begin absorbing their share of the sweat of our collective brow. For a few fortunate folks, the river runs uphill and they get a refund. But before you can log off TurboTax and look for a way to spend this windfall, the feds are asking if you’d like to apply your refund to next year’s taxes, making the idiom “pay it forward” an ironic double entendre. Not to be outdone by the IRS, we now have global Pay It Forward Day, which takes place on April 25, 2013.

“Pay it forward” is a wonderful concept that has a firm foundation in history. Ben Franklin described it in a letter to Benjamin Webb in 1784, which was about Franklin’s monetary gift to help Webb with his debts. Instead of asking to be repaid, Franklin asked Webb to help someone else out of a jam. Author Robert A. Heinlein wrote about it in “Between Planets” in 1951, and continued to embrace it as a core philosophy. And of course, there was the movie by the same name, in which a teacher challenges a pupil to change the world by “paying it forward.”

“Paying it forward” is the best kind of Ponzi scheme. It requires a flow of good deeds to keep the scheme going. It doesn't have to mean spending tons of money or effort. It can be as simple as holding the door for someone whose hands are full or giving up your spot in line to someone in a hurry. It could just mean buying a coffee for the person behind you at Starbucks.

My only question: “Do you have to claim it on your taxes?”

-Jack

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