[DennisR]

Any others want to join me? Any other ideas about making simple, easy, and inexpensive protests that will get our Congressmen and Congresswomen's attention?

[Squantos]

Gonna wrap mine around a lead dive weight and send it freight collect...........

Good I idea, I'll do it.....Stay Safe !

[Pearls Before Swine]

Flat tax good, rate too low. I've heard different theories ranging from 17% to 23% on what the flat tax would need to be to cover current expenditures. Anything less, and people scream about services.

Also, if there is an exemption at the bottom of the scale, you get lots of cheating and lying all over again. You still have to have income tracking and income tax forms to take care of that group.

[Slam]

Like Lemmings to the sea we go...

Thank you

[Decentralize]

Anyway, last night I came up with a great idea that might help politicians realize that they have to do something to end the insanity of a 46,000-page tax code. The idea is this: after sending in your 2001 tax return to the IRS, take your 2001 tax booklet and write "I want a 10% flat tax implemented by 2004," then mail it to one of your federal representatives. If they received tens of thousands of these booklets each year in their mail, maybe they would get an idea that we want simpliciation instead of punishment and distress.

That's a good idea. I got a buddy who everytime he cuts a check to the IRS writes "THE GOVERNMENT IS STEALING FROM ME" in the memo line. This probably accomplishes nothing except getting him a more extensive FBI file but I like it nonetheless.

[Coleus]

Great idea, I will do it tomorrow.

[Buckeroo]

Here is the way to protest: stake your life, liberty and freedom on the line. Let them come after you with machine guns to collect a few bucks.

[Free the USA]

Check out FairTax.org

[Samizdat]

If they received tens of thousands of these booklets each year in their mail, maybe they would get an idea that we want simpliciation instead of punishment and distress.

I have a better idea. Let's get those tens of thousands of people to just refuse to file. Then they would HAVE to do something. Until then, its a big yawn.

[ancient_geezer]

Even Russia now has a flat rate tax of 13%!

Only on their individual income tax. The rest of their system is a European style income tax with VAT on steroids, along with a 32% Social Security tax plus 30-35% profits tax on individuals.

Somehow I think something is getting lost in most of the media's rendering of what is going on in the Russian tax system:

PART TWO OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TAX CODE
by Alexander Chmelev and Evgeny Astakhov

While the article above describes the tax system as it existed in 2000, no substantive change has taken place since that time.

Putin has proposed additional changes recently but the Duma has yet to act on it, and it would only effect how small businesses (less than 20 employees) would be taxed.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/020328/russia_tax_reform_3.html

"Putin's proposal would cut the multiple taxes small businesses pay to just two: a tax of 20 percent on pure profits or 8 percent on turnover, and a pension tax, which would be reduced from 28 percent of salaries to 14 percent.

Certain service companies such as car repair shops, veterinary offices and cafeterias would be required to pay only a single, 15 percent income tax. "

***

"Businesses operating in Russia have long complained of the heavy tax burden. They are required to pay 35 percent taxes on salaries, which cover contributions for medical and social insurance, five percent sales tax, about 17 percent in value-added taxes, and one percent in road taxes. Then they are supposed to pay 35 percent on net profits left after other taxes are paid, plus various fees for meeting regulatory requirements.

Small businesses account for 10-11 percent of Russia's gross domestic product and employ 12 million people, according to the Russian State Council working group on small business. Putin and other top officials say they are committed to increasing those numbers and helping to create a middle class that could fuel economic growth."

[Pontiac]

The only fair tax….is to have a national sales tax.

I think it is immoral to make every retailer in the country a tax collector.

The idea is this: after sending in your 2001 tax return to the IRS, take your 2001 tax booklet and write "I want a 10% flat tax implemented by 2004,"

I don’t believe sending the tax booklet to the IRS is going to get us much. However if a Senator was to get a few hundred tax booklets it might draw some attention.

Now if we could all agree on which Senator to send them to.

[Pontiac]

The only fair tax….is to have a national sales tax.

I think it is immoral to make every retailer in the country a tax collector.

The idea is this: after sending in your 2001 tax return to the IRS, take your 2001 tax booklet and write "I want a 10% flat tax implemented by 2004,"

I don’t believe sending the tax booklet to the IRS is going to get us much. However if a Senator was to get a few hundred tax booklets it might draw some attention.

Now if we could all agree on which Senator to send them to.

[Mike4Freedom]

The question is not a flat tax vs the complicated mess that we have now. The right protest is to eliminate all the unnecessary spending so that we need no money from the income tax.

If the Federal government obeyed the tenth amendment, then a long list of illegal "services" would be eliminated and roughly 2/3 of the budget would go away. What is left can be paid for with various existing excise taxes and, maybe in war time, a small head tax collected by the states for the Feds in accordance to the original plan of the constitution.

[GOP_Lady]

I'm with you on the Flat Tax! I was a Delegate for Steve Forbes. GOP_Lady

[Caipirabob]

My Congressman can't read.

[BlackbirdSST]

The "Flat Tax" will do nothing to rid us of the montrosity called the IRS. If this doesn't happen first, your low flat tax will mushroom every year, and within a decade we'll be right back here again. Consumption Tax means no more IRS. You want to protest a tax increase, stop consuming. Blackbird.

[Paulus Invictus]

Not a bad idea, but they would never see them. Some twerp on their staff would trash them. Those Congresscritters and Senators will do nothing to upset the cash cart wheeling in our taxes in trillion dollar bundles.

I just spent a week of headaches filling out all the papers and conforming to the multitude of laws regulating my small home business. I came up with yet another big donation to the Feds. I am so irritated I can hardly stand it! I worked my keester off for a year, hoping to make a few extra bucks, but with my expenses and the taxes, it's hopeless. Depressing, but the Feds don't care about us "little folk" that people like Hillary hate so much.

Bring on the flat or sales tax! Neither can be any worse than our idiotic tax code, devised and regulated by morons that we pay to assure that we will continue to pay and pay and pay. Hate 'em!

[goodnesswins]

We have huge tax returns, due to my husband working ex-pat over the last few years.....we'll just send blank number of pages of our return (last year, the BIG firm that our company required to do our taxes came up with a 72 page whopper - our accountant whittled it down....).....so we'll just send in the number of pages.....I think it will be more pages than the booklet. GOOD idea!

[Principled]

creative thinking, DennisR!

[mathurine]

Incumbents have a certain electoral advantage over challengers that arises in part because they attract more contributions on the basis of their proven willingness to provide tit-for-tat with respect to tax exemptions. If we had a simple constitutional amendment which required that elections be held the same day as the tax returns filing deadline, people would think about incumbents and the government in terms of what the bill for these services and servants actually was and is. I doubt most incumbents would survice the reality of the pairing of what they do versus what it costs. A much more conservative government would certainly emerge if fiscal accountability entered into the electoral equation.

[GOP_Lady]

Steve Forbes is a "true conservative with original ideas," as you stated, and that's why I supported him.  He was the only GOP candidate to truly speak out on issues, and he has continuously done so for the past eight years.  He has done a lot for the GOP and deserves to be heard.  Remember, he is working in the background.
	GOP_Lady