Cheerleading The Getters

The New York Times' Gail Collins celebrates Tax Day and the 47 percent of the people who pay No Federal Income Taxes.

The Internal Revenue Service needs to get way better at marketing.

Somehow the government tax collectors have let the country get locked into the idea that April 15 is a day of sorrow and misery, the culmination of the dreaded filing of the income tax form.

But, in fact, most people who file get money back. (Cue the horns and balloons.)

And according to one much, much-quoted study by the Tax Policy Center, 47 percent of American households didn’t have to pay one cent of income tax for 2009. (Marching bands, confetti.)

The Times is in the very best of hands.

UPDATE: Collins is nice enough to give a back-handed shout out to the rich:

There’s no reason not to show the top taxpayers a little love. Paying a lot of taxes should be a badge of honor. It proves you made it into the league of big money-makers, not to mention the fact that you’re supporting the upkeep of the Grand Canyon. If the I.R.S. had been doing its marketing properly, little kids would dream of growing up to become really big taxpayers.

Yeah, it's a marketing problem. Maybe the president can give a bunch of speeches on how higher taxes on the "rich" are good for the country. It didn't work for the popularity of his healthcare reform plan. But this should be a snap.

Still, Gail is a little confused. It isn't the IRS that sets tax rates. It's Congress. The IRS just collects the money. It's Congress that needs the new marketing plan.

How about this for a commercial: A series of head shots of the 535 members of the House and Senate, and this voice over:

"Congress, I am more prone to be inquisitive, to promote discussion. I want to find out what your thinking was. I want to find out what your feelings are and did you learn anything."

That ought to do it.