by: Trevor Bothwell

Only the government can give people back their own money and then claim that truthfully they do not deserve to keep all of it. And only a brainwashed people who has been taught that taxation is not theft would allow the government to get away with this. Thanks to an accounting "error", many taxpayers who received a tax credit last spring will have to repay the money.

More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the government $250 or more because of how the IRS last spring set up President Barack Obama's tax break that was designed to help consumers spend the U.S. economy out of recession.

Individuals with more than one job and married couples in which both spouses work may have to repay the government $400, either through a smaller tax refund or a larger tax bill, according to a report released Monday by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration. Social Security recipients who also earn taxable wages may have to repay $250.

Perhaps this is why our government likes tax credits rather than flat tax cuts. An individual has a much higher chance of incorrectly filing a tax return given the red tape involved to claim a tax credit than a simply seeing a lower rate of tribute to extract from his earnings. Moreover, the red tape involved in creating a tax credit permits "errors" of this sort which then benefit the State.