Protect the Farm, Tax the Manor [next year, law calls that there be no Estate Tax at all..]

New York Times Op-Ed ^ | November 21, 2009 | RAY D. MADOFF

[Carry_Okie]

I'm going to guess Teresa Heinz paid more of the government's bills in 2003 than you.

As a percentage of her income, she paid less than a quarter what we did.

[fight_truth_decay]

http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/presreturns.nsf//E2DF8209BA59B45485256F310077A3DF/$file/T_HeinzKerry_2003.pdf

http://forums.techguy.org/civilized-debate/282048-teresa-heinz-kerry-urges-democrats-5.html

[only1percent]

Heinz owns a lot of municipal bonds, and is effectively "taxed" by way of the reduced yields she gets on them (under ordinary circumstances) versus the yields if they were taxable corporate bonds of equivalent credit rating.

People who attack tycoon like Heinz for paying lower total tax rates on their mostly passive income than the upper middle class pay for their mostly earned-at-work income are actually making precisely the same argument that is made by those who support the estate tax: that there is no good reason to make the return on investment (or gift or bequest) of already-taxed income subject to lower rate of tax because it has already been taxed.

[only1percent]

Bush’s cuts in lower-middle-class tax rates was one of the several incredibly stupid things that he did. In pursuit of a goal that could never be achieved en masse (making people earning $20,000-$50,000 a year feel a common cause with entrepreneurs and executives) he instead inflicted an injury the depth of which we are only now beginning to feel: making people earning $20,000-$50,000 feel that the government services are on a net basis, given to them and not paid for by them.

[JohnLongIsland]

If the tax exemption received by municipal bond holders was eliminated and local government was to pay prevailing interest rates , one would get extreme sticker shock when their property and school tax bills arrive in the mail. Oh I rent one says, then your landlord will be the recipient of the tax increases.

[slowhandluke]

"The rich don't pay taxes, they have "charitable" foundations with which to shelter their expenses."

Your Response: Nah. The real reason is that they don't have taxable income.

Read the headline, this is about ESTATE taxes, not income taxes. And the rich do avoid the estate tax through charitable foundations.

[JoeFromSidney]

Answer? 10% VAT, no income tax, no estate tax, no other tax whatsoever.

Close, but no cigar. The trouble with the VAT is that it's too easily hidden. Make it a retail sales tax, so every consumer knows how much they're paying.