Time to junk income taxes? (The 5 Principles that should guide us for a new tax code)

Reuters ^ | 01/07/2012 | David Cay Johnston

[SeekAndFind]

This is America’s 100th year for individual income tax, a system as out of touch with our era as digital music is with the hand-cranked Victrola music players of 1912. It is also the 26th year of the Reagan-era reform for both personal and corporate tax, a grand design now buried under special-interest favors.

With U.S. elections in November, and the George W. Bush tax cuts due to expire at the end of 2012, it’s time for a debate that goes beyond ginning up anger over taxes and the superficial issue of tax rates.

It’s time to consider whether to get rid of income taxes, personal and corporate. What are the strengths and weaknesses of our current system? Should we tax individual and corporate income — or something else?

We need to think about it. Whatever systems we consider, we should weigh up what it takes to raise the necessary revenue along with such other attributes as minimal compliance cost, leakage and economic distortion.

Times change. Tax systems must change with them or else their lubricating effect turns to sand, wearing down the gears of commerce.

Just as the Industrial Revolution transformed a nation of farmers and mechanics into a land of factory hands and office workers, so too the digital revolution and globalization are fundamentally remaking society.

We need for our tax system to serve our 21st century civilization and its needs, including the costs of aging infrastructure and an aging population, costs that will be borne one way or another.

5 PRINCIPLES

Five ancient principles that have survived the test of time and are, therefore, profoundly conservative, should guide us.

[taxcontrol]

Don’t waste your time on this ... It’s starting point is “The first is the moral principle of progressive taxation”

The first and overriding principle is equality of percentage. Everyone pays the same rate.

[Mikey_1962]

Is there anyway to complete a 1040 form without surrendering your 5th amendment rights buy supplying the government information that can be used against you?

Of course you could refuse to supply the government information that can be used against you, but you would be charged with willful failure to file.

Hmmm.

Time for Income Taxes to disappear.

[monocle]

Income taxes should have the sole goal of raising cash to fund legitimate government expenses. No exemptions should be allowed. If the federal government wishes to encourage one activity or another, the government should separately pass legislation to encourage activities which it deems desirable.

[Repeal The 17th]

I read the article but never saw 5 principles, only two.
The first is a farce:
“...the moral principle of progressive taxation
that the greater the gain you manage to attain,
the greater your duty to pay back the society...”
-
I was hoping to see a principle that said something like:
“No one should be exempt from taxation;
everyone should have some skin in the game.”
But no such luck with this author.

[aMorePerfectUnion]

RINOmney says he will not sign a pledge to never institute a VAT tax in America.
Socialist swine.

[Jacquerie]

The progressive income tax is an immoral and unconstitutional affront to a supposedly free people.

Outside of three wars, the United States government survived quite well off imposts and excises for the entire 19th Century. Kick up direct taxes as in pre-16th Amendment days during national emergencies, and repeal them once the emergency passes.

[Misplaced Texan]

Is there anyway to complete a 1040 form without surrendering your 5th amendment rights buy supplying the government information that can be used against you?

The other factor is that income tax is slavery. PERIOD!

The government determines your income by setting your tax rate. The government tells you how much of the money you earned that you get to keep. The only explanation is SLAVERY.

There is no justification for an income tax. Why does the government need to know how much money we earn? There is only one reason. That reason is so they know how much they will let you keep.

There has to be a universal sales tax, a VAT, or some type tax that does not delve into our personal lives.

[DuncanWaring]

Here’s how it should work:

Divide the cost of operating the Federal Government for a year by the number of people in the country, and send everyone a bill for that amount.

[Repeal The 17th]

I have considered something similar but dividing the budget by congressional district...
problem I see is dealing with what happens when a district can not or will not pay up?