Ehmorgan,

You are confusing paying taxes under an IRS installment plan with lying about one's income or simply refusing to pay taxes. I have never come close to contemplating anything like that. I am not -- repeat not -- claiming that it the height of responsibility or that it is the best way of dealing with your finances. But it does *not* impose costs on others. It is ultimately profitable for the IRS, which gets a return of 9 percent or more -- substantially higher than the government's cost of borrowing. And far from discouraging people from paying their taxes, my story explicitly urges people not to try to hide from the IRS if they come up short at the end of the year, but to use the financial tools that the IRS makes available to pay their taxes in a way that is manageable both for the taxpayers and the government.

Mark