Posted on 03/10/2011 10:42:44 AM PST by Scythian
A 10% sales tax along with a 10% payroll tax? Yikes.
Yes, from DOLLAR ONE of income. If you are poor, you should feel pride contributing to the US of A at the same rate that Bill Gates does. (In reality the poor should pay more since they consume more public services, but let’s not quibble.)
Absolutely love the flat tax however, we are having a civil war in this nation.
It is a cold civil war but eventually will turn hot.
The left with the government at their disposal has already declared war while too many conservatives are in denial.
Fine by except the government becomes less accountable for how they spend revenues and there will still be those who clamor for credits in areas such as inventions of biotech, charity, etc.
Additionally, the lawyer lobby will not allow the flat tax as it competes with their interests - tax planning, estate planning, avoidance, insurance, etc.
The lobbyists aren’t going to let it go, ever.
Think about it.
If the Oracle of Omaha is out there spouting off about how the death tax is an issue of morality and fealty to the state and he thinks everyone should pay estate taxes, why someone that rich be a proponent of letting loose monies upon one’s death?
He sure ain’t giving up his wealth to the government while alive, so why would he sell the morality of Death Taxes?
Because he as very heavy interests and investments, as well as owns, many casualty and life insurance companies.
The lack of a an estate tax is not only the single biggest competitor to “casualty and life” companies, it is, in fact, a monopoly competitor from the view and standpoint of “casualty and life” companies, law firms that specialize in estate planning and tax avoidance.
The very wealthy have huge egos and they do not intend on giving the government any more than they have to, even in death.
So that’s why the flat tax will never happen. It’s a direct competitor to very large lobbyists and the firms they represent.
BTTT
I guess I'm from the "you don't work, you don't eat" crowd. :)
But say you are disabled, you still need to pay taxes, if a person's on disability, they wouldn't have alot of income and wouldn't have to pay alot.
I guess I was thinking this was about more of a use tax than an income tax. Apparently reading comprehension is not my friend. Everyone else seemed to understand it's an flat income tax.
I am curious about something.
How is it that a graduated or progressive income tax can be discriminatory in the first place?
It seems to violate the 14th Amendment.
That being said, there seems to be something inherently evil about the income tax, because every American has to document their income and provide the knowledge to the IRS.
That seems extremely totalitarian to me.
In a free society, the only time one should be required to document their income for the government is if one has been legally accused of engaging in a criminal enterprise.
In any event, people shouldn’t be working a quarter of the year to pay the federal government. The government shouldn’t be confiscating a third of our wealth.
If we have to tax anything, it should be consumption and imports, which is what this country did before the advent of the income tax.
State and local taxes fund that.
No one should be exempt.
The same logic applies to those who currently pay taxes:
“You use the public utilities and those are financed, maintained or built using your taxes”.
If you are not paying taxes you have no vested interest in anything, except making sure the other Bastuhds “pay their fair share”, while you ride through life unblemished by any interaction with the taxman.
It would be a big mess.
Localities would have to find some other means of taxation, though. I'm afraid many of those would see an opportunity & jump into the void with some ridiculously high tax of their own.
I live in California, and know they'd be happy to take up any tax slack let go by the feds.
There is no perfect answer but one of the best I can see movement of govt back to the state level from the fed. Let the states compete on what tax structure they want. REPEAT, THERE IS NO PERFECT PAINLESS ANSWER.
Hang on, you said no deductions for businesses right? Can they write off salary’s or must they pay tax before they pay their employees? How about rent on the building? In other words are you taxing profit or income. If you tax business income then unemployment just hit 90%. Just saying.
Business taxes are an indirect tax on individuals, so that’s a nonstarter. Businesses just add the cost of taxes to the product and the public pays it, so cut out the middleman, or, alternatively, have ONLY business taxes. The rich would pay more, the poor would pay less, the IRS could go pound sand.
5%
A flat tax is a great idea. No exemptions of any kind. I lived in a flat tax country (Hong Kong) for several years. Its very simple, and everyone pays something.
But you are wrong that this will solve all of America’s problems.
Eliminating the FED would, rather, force huge change on America’s banks and America’s Gov’t spending. Shutting down the FED would really change everything.
Tax at market value on non-monetary compensation.
Not entirely.
For quick reference of how the Fed controls roads, recall the Nixon Administration forcing the states to implement a 55mph “National” speed limit.
They threatened to with hold millions of dollars in federal funding if they didn’t do as Simon Says.
They complied for fear of losing the Dineros.
Additionally, Libraries are funded through local measures and combined with State and Federal monies they get built and maintained using a combination of local, county, state and Fed funds.
In fact, right on down to the firefighter and police they cannot operate without fed funds. Go all the way back to the Communications act of 1934, current CALEA laws and even Patriot Act 1 and 2.
Fed funds pay for communications infrastructure, organization of shelters, drills for disaster planning, etc.
You cannot maintain most anything without Fed funding.
I answer bids all day long and the bids detail where the monies are coming from and they list is very explicit and long.
Even hospitals cannot function without fed monies. Right now every single hospital in California is mandated to retrofit for seismic events. I currently work on three hospitals and the project for each section is for 6 months to 1 year, with successive sections going into planning, financing and execution.
Through the bid process there is a long list of where the monies come from.
I cannot think of a single department that doesn’t get touched by the feds for most large cities.
I’ve worked on roads where the communications system for maintenance and emergency service is funded in part or whole by fed.
The BART system in the Bay Area has Patriot 1 and 2 funding for real time cameras on the trains.
Even the bridge that was completed a couple of years ago in Benecia was funded in parts by fed funding.
We have two visions of America. The Founders sought to give people their liberty, taxing them a minimum so they could retain as much of their wealth as possible and each spend it on their own private agendas. Whereas the Left's vision is that everyone should be forced to pay as much as possible to support their own private Leftist agenda. That is the problem, regardless how taxes are collected.
I'd also simultaneously cut all spending ACROSS THE BOARD
20%.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.