…there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, “A quart of wheat for a day’s wages, and three quarts of barley for a day’s wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!”

According to Nina Olsen, of the Taxpayer Advocate Service (an office of the Internal Revenue Service), at least 4,000 people, from 2005 to 2010, officially renounced their U.S. citizenship specifically over taxes.

What’s more important is that those number have greatly increased with every passing year.  In Federal Fiscal Year 2008 it was 148 people, but in 2010 1,534 people gave up being ‘Americans’, because of taxes.

Not all the numbers are in for 2011, but for the first half of last year 1,024 people quit the U.S.

Nina Olsen told Congress that the biggest reason for people leaving the U.S., to avoid taxes, is that they are confused “…by the complex legal and reporting requirements they face and are overwhelmed by the prospect of having to comply with them.”

Other economists agree: “…the tax code is just maddening in the complexity, and they don’t necessarily want to soak the rich but they don’t like to see when companies like General Electric get all these preferences!”-John Berlau, economic analyst

A CBS News poll found 52% of people in the U.S. believe “unearned” income (capital gains, dividends, ie Mitt Romney style income) should be taxed the same as “earned” income (that’s right Romney did not “earn” his income under current tax rules).

Olsen also accused the IRS (whom she actually works for) of tricking people who owe back taxes, with “…the promise of reduced penalties, only to find themselves subjected to steeper penalties.”

Anyone remember the official reason for the Revolutionary War that created the United States?  “No taxation without representation!”