My idea is a way for Federal, State, or Local governments to collect more revenue -- and maybe make taxes a *tiny* bit more fun.

Basically, the idea is to have a box on the tax return that says, "Check here to opt to pay $1 extra and enter your name into lottery to win a full tax refund for this calendar year."

Then that government, depending on its size, could randomly choose 1, 5, 10 people who get a full income tax refund for that year. For exmple, the Federal government might decide to have one winner in each state.

There could be some controls put into place. It might not be good PR to have Bill Gates win complete tax amnesty for a year - perhaps total potential savings would only go up to $100,000, after which the government would keep the additional funds. Maybe you can only win once in a lifetime.

I don't play the real lottery often, but I would probably risk one dollar every April 15th - en mass that may be a lot more revenue (voluntary given up at that) for a government. Risk is low for the Federal or State Government, as the added revenue would almost certainly offset the cost of forgiving a few people their income tax.

Your congressman might love this, because he or she could be the one allowed to announce the winner from his or her district - nothing like the PR of giving the people back their money. :-)

What do you think of this idea or comment?
(You can change your vote at any time)

I agree

No opinion

I disagree