The child tax credit is income limited, and stops at 17 yrs old for everyone. We haven't been able to claim it for years. I have to pay school taxes and I sent my kids to private school, which I had to pay for also. No tax breaks for that either. You aren't paying anything to support anyone's kids when a parent gets to pay less taxes. You are supporting the continuance of our country through future generations. Just because you have not contributed to the continuance of our country doesn't mean you won't benefit from it.
Do you still pay for 24/7 police availability? Fire department? Roads to drive on? Do you get a tax credit if you never use the fire department? The police? How many people live their entire lives and never use their services? Did you ever go to school yourself? College?
Woman who work get a tax credit for paying someone else to take care of their kids. I took care of my own. Did I get a credit for that? No.
Not many are ever happy about the taxes they have to pay. I'd still rather pay my taxes than live anywhere besides the US.

Cathy
when she first came home

Here in Ohio, they get you two ways, by real estate taxes AND local taxes for the schools. And they just built new onto our school (we used to have 3 schools each in a different burg elementary, middle and high school) so they added all this new building onto the high school so everyone could be at one place.....and have already asked for more money.....Give ME a break!!!!

I just want to say...please add it to those that are using it and have children...as they are the ones that get tax breaks anyway....

I just get pissed off everytime we have yet another school tax added to our property taxes. We just had a tax passed for maintenance funding to take care of the schools that are falling apart. I don't even have kids and yet I have to pay for the schools and the idiots that misappropriate funds for the schools. I think our property taxes are 80% for schools. Then there is the fact that we pay as much for WSG as a family and if I was awake I could start with a list.

Where are our tax breaks? Why does a family get a child tax break. They were the ones that wanted children they should have the funds to pay for them. Why should I pay for them?

Then don't get me started on the single women, home owner with no kids.

OK OK....calm down, LOL!

That's a great idea! My dogs are therapeutic, isn't there some kind of write off for that?

Michelle, Helen, Penny, Spanky and Faye pup

people just take it to a personal level.

"If that's the case, there is good news. Did you know according to Schedule A, Line 1, you can deduct the cost of your own health insurance and other medical/dental expenditures? There is a "benefit" for you! Don't qualify for that benefit because your medical expenses do not exceed 7.5% of your gross income? "

I know that....I couldn't claim a penny of it towards my taxes thanks.

This was not a personal attack on you or anyone else who has children. I personally admire parents, working parents and parents who have raised NICE well rounded children.

I'm not against schools or education. I have no beef with taxes for schools for basis education...just what I got when I was in school. College was paid for by parents, students working, student loans and any grants or scholarships that you could qualify for. Heck my father was a school teacher with a Masters in History. What I'm against is continued increase in taxes and misappropriation of funds.

I think it's great you have raised, cared for and educationed your children on YOUR income. My opinion wasn't about you or your family.

I will give you an example of something that irritated me this week in regards to education. And this is in the mids of tax increases to maintentenace schools that are falling apart becasue they aren't being maintained. There is a certain family I know who got their child into an advanced class. The child was initially turned down and they appealed and retested her math skills and she made it. This is a class of 25 students which is an advanced program paid for by tax dollars. The class is going to be eliminated because of budget cuts and the parents went to our states representatives to appeal. Mind you these people can well afford to pay for private school and tutors. These are the kind of programs that irritate me that our tax dollars go to. These parents make well over 300k a year.

I agree not every penny of our taxes is allocated wisely. I agree some of it pays for programs or services myself or others do not agree with or do not directly benefit from. However, I am proud to pay taxes and feel it is my duty as an American citizen to do so.

You say: "Guess, what?? I am 34, single, own my own home, make good money, pay for my own health insurance out of my own pocket, and paid for my own college by the way........and haven't gotten any "benefit" from it."

This confuses me. No benefit? It seems your current lifestyle is a "benefit" of your hard work. Surely you consider the daily blessings you receive to be fruits of your labor?

Maybe I assume wrong. Maybe you consider the only "benefits" in life to be tax breaks or government subsidy of some sort. If that's the case, there is good news. Did you know according to Schedule A, Line 1, you can deduct the cost of your own health insurance and other medical/dental expenditures? There is a "benefit" for you! Don't qualify for that benefit because your medical expenses do not exceed 7.5% of your gross income? Congratulations, that's not called being penalized by the government, that's called being blessed enough to be either relatively healthy or very wealthy or both.

No benefit to paying your way through school? I beg your pardon. Check out Line 49 (education credit) and line 33 (student loan interest deduction).

But wait! There are more "benefits". Lines 10,11, and 12 detail how you can deduct your home mortgage insurance and points. Sounds like a "benefit"! According to Line 5, you can deduct either state and local general sales taxes or state and local general taxes. Line 6 says you can deduct your real estate taxes. CHA CHING, "benefit"!

Crying foul because someone else qualifies for Earned Income Credit and you don't is tantamount to complaining "someone else got a PINK balloon and I only got five purple ones! No FAIR!".

Complaining about paying taxes for schools when you don't have children? Sure it doesn't benefit you right this second, but try using some foresight. Good education now equals quality workforce in the future. Need an example? Fast forward thirty years. At 74 you will likely need the skills of a doctor or other health care professional who just may have gone to the school you paid taxes for. Poor education, poor doctor, poor Jessica. Good education, good doctor, good outcome for Jessica.

You claim "alot of today's typical society" have chosen to have kids, chosen to opt out of an education, choose not to work, and choose not to own a home, therefore YOU pay the government to pay their way through life. Guess what? Check your US Census Bureau data. You will find the vast majority of Americans don't even come close to fitting your dismal profile of "typical American society". In fact, do some more research and see if that mysterious and fabulous "free ride through life while hardworking taxpayers pay your way" benefit actually exists.

Don't like government spending your taxes on people other than you (people whom you presume to judge negatively)? Consider a move to Somalia or some other such country with no government and set up the best life money can buy for yourself.

Looking back at your post...I think you are including yourself in the "typical" American family...my WHOLE point of the post is....you are NOT the typical family. The New generation expects everything handed to them, and they don't expect to have to work for it IMO.

Seems like you have taken this to a personal level Cathy. I was just stating my Opinion...which some of the others who decided not to have children also chimed in on.

you think the TYPICAL American family does not work and gets a free living??? Free ride? Didn't attend college? Doesn't work?? That's crazy. And I definitelty missed that ride. You think not having kids is the 'right' way and people who do are taking the "easy" way out to get a tax break?? How much do you think they get? It's certainly not enough to raise a child on.
You are only 34 years old, and someday you will get old and die and the country WILL go on. The children of today are the ones who will continue it. They will be your Dr when you are old, the ones working in the nursing home taking care of you when you can't take care of yourself. That's the continuance of this country. One individuals life span is nothing, a drop in the bucket.
Those children need to be educated to handle the responsibilty of taking care of all of our people and continuing the USA. If you never have children do you want to be excluded from getting cared for by other people's children when you need it at the end of your life? Someone else did all the work, took all the chances, made all the sacrifices and raised that kid from an infant to adulthood.
The majority of the earlier compaints were about childless people having to pay taxes to cover the cost of public schools. It is a necessary service that must be paid for, and wether you have kids or not you WILL benefit from an educated population. Just like we all pay for jails, and public transit systems, and fire and police departments, and the many many people that work for the government etc etc.....
Tax credits are given for money paid for....whatever, like real estate taxes. If you have no kids and you have not paid a penny to care for any kids, then what are you asking for credit for? Renters can't get a tax credit for real estate taxes they didn't pay, why do you need tax credits to help cover the cost of raising kids you don't have? I can NOT believe the biggest complaint was childless people being forced to pay for schools, and only people with children should have to pay those taxes, and you came back with this! If your mother raised 2 kids without help,on $6 an hour, how did she do so without using the public school system? Do you think the taxes she paid REALLY paid for 100% of her childrens' education? NO! It barely scratched the surface of what it cost. Do you think tuition covers 100% of the cost of a public college? NO! It does not. I have not had MY kids paid for by other taxpayers, my husband supports his own family, pays for our own house, our health insurance, and we are a typical American family. He had 3 jobs at one point in our lives, we sacrificed a LOT to raise our family, you and other single childless people didn't do squat to raise our kids nor did you pay for them. And MY kids are the ones that will be taking care of the ones who are around middle aged now, when they are old and can't do it anymore. Yes, it CAN be done, and people having children is the ONLY way to continue to make it happen.

Cathy
when she first came home

I've know that for many years. Yup getting the kids thier soc. sec. numbers soon......... lol!!

The other thing that just pisses me off is all the years I have put into social security and I will never see a dime of it. 28 years of social security taken our prior to being married and since my husband works for the railroad which is federal I will get his spousal. Why don't I get what is owed to me for all those years I wasn't married. Well that is of course if it (SS) is even around when I retire.

I could have kept those dollars myself and invested them over the years and had quite a little (extra) nest egg.

"Just because you have not contributed to the continuance of our country doesn't mean you won't benefit from it. "

Guess, what?? I am 34, single, own my own home, make good money, pay for my own health insurance out of my own pocket, and paid for my own college by the way........and haven't gotten any "benefit" from it. And I have contributed to the "continuance" of this country by paying the tens of thousands of dollars in taxes.

Whereas....where if I had done like alot of today's typical society...had kids, not attended college, chose not to work, not owned a home....I could have all the hard working tax payers pay for it all!!! They are the ones getting the free ride, and yet, all society seems to accept that as "OK". So excuse me for getting a little peeved, around tax time, when I have to see how much I have to give to the government, that number 1 doesn't know how to handle the budget, and #2 having to support free loading Americans that are too flippin lazy to work, and the only thing I get to tax deduct is real estate taxes....

My whole point is....the PEOPLE of the US government, has chose to stick it to the people that have decided to go the right path and not take the easy way out, and do things the right way.

And yet surprising....the reasoning I have done things the way I have is b/cause I saw my mother raise two kids, WITHOUT!!! help on a 6.00/hr factory job. So yes people....it can be done!

Off my soapbox.

I have come to the conclusion, that I need to get social security numbers for some of my dogs, seems I don't have any 2 leggers, and believe me, society is set up that if you have a job, own a house, and don't have kids.....well...bend over, b/cuase you are getting it stuck to ya!