IRS and Tax Collector Costumes

Tax day, it’s not something we look forward to but it’s inevitable, like death, so they say. According to the Tax Foundation, it takes the average Joe 99 days to earn enough money to pay his annual federal, state and local tax liabilities. Instead of getting depressed by the statistics, why not put a little personality into your April 15 destination by dressing up in a costume to protest the forced delivery of money to the government?

It all started a couple of thousand years ago in the Roman Empire with the “publican”. No one today is surprised to learn that these early tax collectors were almost always portrayed as greedy thieves who almost always took more than they were entitled to. In the era of Jesus, tax collectors were still being correctly stereotyped as greedy and tight-fisted officials, even though Jesus taught the parable of the repentant tax collector who is judged higher than the proud Pharisee because the former humbly acknowledged his sin. Make your point that even this despised profession needs forgiveness by dressing in a Biblical Tax Collector Costume styled as a long robe trimmed with fine damask.

Another historical costume idea is to dress up as a protester at the Boston Tea Party circa 1773; many of the actual dissenters who dumped the tea crates into the harbor were barely disguised as Mohawk Indians, while others wore standard colonial-era garb. If you want to dress like a modern money grabber, it’s not hard to put together a drab outfit reminiscent of an Internal Revenue Service employee. Hit the resale store for a pair of polyester pants and a short-sleeved button-down shirt; Add some horn-rimmed glasses, an oversized calculator, and a big bag of prop money overflowing with play money. This reminds us of a joke. It’s Halloween and a man rings the doorbell. You reply, annoyed that he’s apparently wearing simple, drab clothing, and ask “who are you supposed to be?”. The man replies, “I’m an IRS agent and I’m here to take 28% of your candy, put it in your briefcase, and then leave.

Another way to put some socio-political commentary into your day is to dress up as your not-so-favorite politician by supporting all the money grabs in your city, state, or country. Some of the more infamous politicians have realistic latex masks found in costume stores that you can simply match with a dark suit. Speaking up and being an advocate for your own fair tax rights and creating some attention at the same time is a great reason to dress up in these costumes for men and women.