(Hoffman, Lisa) Lisa Hoffman, Scripps Howard News Service. (SHNS file photo)

Paying taxes unites us. It also divides us. People can pay five and even six times more in state and local taxes than other folks in similar circumstances making similar incomes.

In one of the fastest-growing forms of identity theft, crooks are stealing tax refunds by swiping personal information and using it to trick the Internal Revenue Service.