Angelika I would like to report on President Bush and his political ambitions. This time, it's about his tax reform, which was passed at the end of May. During the election campaign, Bush liked to boast about freeing Americans from the scourge of high tax payments. I boldly claim that many Americans voted for him for this reason alone. Because when citizens--no matter where in the world--hear the magic word "tax cut," most of them see dollar signs in their eyes, and everything else becomes secondary. Poor public schools--never heard of them. Millions of Americans without health insurance--not a big deal... The main thing is we pay less tax. However, liberal minds criticize the tax reform heavily because it brings the greatest financial benefits to those who are already very well-off. The Democratic Party managed to trim Bush's originally planned reform and also give lower earners and families with children a piece of the pie by increasing the child tax credit. Nevertheless, this remains more of a drop in the bucket.

To avoid boring you to death, I'll quickly summarize the most important changes. Previously, there were the following five income-dependent tax rates ("federal tax"): 15%, 28%, 31%, 36%, and 39.6%. The tax reform immediately lowers the 15% rate to 10%. The top tax rate will be reduced to 35% (by 4.6 percentage points) by the year 2006, and the remaining rates (28%, 31%, 36%) will be gradually reduced by three percentage points each over the same period.

And so that every taxpayer who submitted an income tax return for the year 2000 can immediately feel the impact of the reform, a refund will be sent out this year. Single individuals will receive a one-time payment of $300, and married couples will receive $600. That's why we recently received a friendly letter from the tax office informing us when the $600 would arrive. Now, you shouldn't think that the money will simply be transferred to your account. We've often reported that the American banking system is somewhat behind the times and that transfers, as known in Germany, practically don't exist. So, the tax office sends a check by mail to each eligible person. I find it amusing to imagine thousands of tax officials stuffing checks into envelopes. However, when you think about the costs that this entire operation incurs, it might bring tears to your eyes. The New York Times has also reported extensively in recent days that the once substantial American budget surplus has significantly shrunk. A phenomenon that many critics of the tax reform had predicted.

Typically American, the check is, of course, spent immediately. The hardware store "Home Depot" (comparable to "OBI" in Germany) is currently running TV commercials announcing that you don't even have to take the tax refund check to the bank, but can redeem it directly at all "Home Depot" locations when purchasing various goods. There are also reports of the first fraudsters who, for example, send official-looking letters that impose completely fabricated processing fees on the tax refund.

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• More topics you might be interested in:

  	Marathon
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  	Sweets
  	Japanese Class
  	The record of the month
  	Autounfall
  	How does one get the Green Card?
  	Help with spending money
  	Energy Crisis