"Wow, that's really "HOT!"
... and I think I'll pass on paying it.
Posted on 06/17/2005 4:30:01 PM PDT by CHARLITE
NEW YORK -- President Bush's bipartisan Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform should propose a measure to assist a neglected segment of society: the avowedly under-taxed. The HOT would give those who think their levies are too low the ability to pay the steeper tax bills they say they deserve. This is the truly compassionate thing to do.
The HOT, or Higher-rate Optional Tax, would offer relief to powerful Democrats and wealthy liberals who cannot stand it when Republicans cut their taxes. Look how lowering taxes has raised the blood pressure of these Americans:
"I don't need a tax cut," Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., announced on the Senate floor. "It will not do me any more good. I can't buy more. I can't eat any more. I can't do more, and I want it distributed among the ordinary people who work every day."
"If you think it's good policy to pay for my tax cut with the Social Security checks of working men and women and borrowed money from China, vote for them (the GOP)," former President Bill Clinton told the Democratic Convention.
"I am a traitor to my class," actor Paul Newman said. "I think that tax cuts for wealthy thugs like me are borderline criminal. I live very high off the hog."
"I want no tax cuts and want to pay MY FULL SHARE of taxes to support the public good," Oregonian Harry Demarest stated on the Web site of United for a Fair Economy, an anti-tax-cut group co-founded by Chuck Collins, heir to the Oscar Meyer wiener fortune.
The HOT would ease all this pain. The IRS simply would add a small box to the 1040 tax form beside these words:
"If you believe you should be taxed at a rate above that assigned to your income bracket, please indicate here the higher rate you prefer. Kindly calculate your tax liability, and send it in."
With that easy step, congressional liberals and residents of Malibu and Martha's Vineyard no longer would have to keep the tax cuts conservatives keep throwing their way. Instead, they could send 50, 75 or even 99 percent of their incomes to Washington so the GOP Congress and President Bush can spend it even better than they can.
While this reform would increase taxpayer choice, it might generate little revenue. Arkansas, Massachusetts and Virginia taxpayers already may pay above and beyond their usual top rates, though few do this.
When Massachusetts cut its top tax rate to 5.3 percent in 2001, it let guilty liberals pay the old 5.85 percent rate. According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, as of June 15, only 930 taxpayers chose to do so on their 2004 returns, generating an extra $246,505. In 2002, 2,215 taxpayers paid the higher rate, yielding $341,829. Among 3.2 million returns filed in 2003, only 1,488 (or 0.046 percent) paid the voluntary higher rate, adding $209,216 to state coffers.
Pro-tax Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., spurned the higher rate that year. "No, I won't" pay some $800 extra, Frank told Boston radio host Howie Carr.
"I don't trust the legislative leadership and Gov. (Mitt) Romney to make the right decisions, so I'll donate the money myself." How inspiring to see a confirmed progressive like Frank choose private charity over public assistance.
"Americans recognize, as Congressman Frank also figured out, that government doesn't spend its money wisely as is and already takes too much of what we earn," National Taxpayers Union president John Berthoud observes.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., sailed into hot water last year when tax returns revealed that he also paid the Bay State's lower tax rate. Kerry thus enjoyed state tax cuts akin to the federal tax reductions he excoriated on the campaign trail.
Then again, perhaps he intended to pay Massachusetts' higher rate, but his calculator slid off his yacht.
Beneficent supply-siders should introduce the HOT in Congress even before the tax-reform commission's Sept. 30 reporting deadline.
American liberals should be given the earliest opportunity to stop resisting tax relief and send the Treasury as much of their own money as their bleeding hearts desire.
Deroy Murdock is a columnist with Scripps Howard News Service and a senior fellow with the Atlas Economic Research Foundation in Fairfax, Va. E-mail him at deroy.murdock@gmail.com
Char :)
Fair tax ping
I never really like the "just pay more then" calls. It is a silly retort. Many people argue for changes in the tax system. Those changes do not work in isolation, so for one person to just 'pay more' does not seriously address any issue. It may be fun, and they can pay if they want, but it is not a serious response to calls to increase taxes on higher earners.
So send more in, Paul. Nobody is stopping you!
I would bet the house he has a great tax accountant that takes advantage of all the tax breaks he can. What a hypocrite.
Most movie stars have production companies or other corporate structures which shelter their income from the normal tax rates straight wage-earners pay. And they take most of what the rest of us would regard as normal living expenses as corporate deductions - food, clothing, travel, etc. They take advantage of every dodge in the book, and would continue to do so no matter what the regular rate went to for the average middle class taxpayer.
Oh barkeep, start a tab here. This should be priceless!
NO, that's not quite it. You can already send in extra money or take fewer deductions that you are entitles to, so this doesn't offer anything new. What we need is a system that automatically adds a MANDATORY "rate enhancement" to anyone who makes a public statement that a given tax is too low. This would discourage such statements except from true believers, and I can take it as long as they're truly willing to put their money where their mouth is.
On a related note, some megarich leftie who owns two houses in Malibu or somewhere similar in CA, was publicly decrying how rediculous Prop 13 was because he paid some astronimical sum in property taxes on the more newly acquired house, while the bill on the other was much smaller. He didn't explain, however, why he assumed that the LARGER bill was the correct one, rather than that they should have both been at the LOWER level.
It's a good way to call them on their hypocrisy.
"When Massachusetts cut its top tax rate to 5.3 percent in 2001, it let guilty liberals pay the old 5.85 percent rate. According to the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, as of June 15, only 930 taxpayers chose to do so on their 2004 returns, generating an extra $246,505."
Liberals love the word hypocrisy...apparently because they practice it. They want the socialist programs, but won't contribute toward the government-funded Utopia they think they can create to solve the world's ills.
It is absolutely essential to push Representative Linder for a "HOT" provision in the Fair Tax Act. LOL
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If you would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25), offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement in the form of a retail sales tax that all participate in:
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
You sure can.
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Please follow these important steps to make a contribution to reduce the debt.
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What we need is a system that automatically adds a MANDATORY "rate enhancement" to anyone who makes a public statement that a given tax is too low.
I love that idea.
Sure it is...serious enough to get the Limousine Liberals to go on record.
Notice to Barbra Streisand and Ted Turner, et al:
I believe in redistribution of wealth. I want several rooms in Barbra Malibu mansion and at least 100 acres of Ted Turner's mega-ranch.
Actors, like Barbra who are mini corporations, and MEDIA mogols have a multitude of tax breaks, special *expenses* and exemptions - thanks to the taxation-without-representation legislature. For instance, Barbra has a "foundation" and her son is on that payroll.
Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas did this several years ago when the Dems were hollering for tax increases. He opened a State of Ark. account in a local bank and invited all who felt they wanted to pay more to deposit it in that account. It got little or no deposits but it did stop the clamor.
Thanks for the ping!
I remember that fund.
Didn't it only get about $1000?
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
You have a point, so let me propose my refinement to the "just pay more" system.
Put taxes on the ballot, and for tax elections only, no secret ballot. Set a percentage majority to pass a tax (or increase), something like 51, 55, 60, 66. And then the citizens vote, WITH THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, if the tax passes, everybody pays, if not, ONLY THOSE THAT VOTED FOR IT PAY IT FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.
I suspect that this would greatly reduce the overwhelming desire of the populace to tax somebody else, and the desire of elitists to condescendingly brag about how they themselves should pay more and are of such sterling character that they would if only the tax were voted in by those selfish conservatives. They can vote it in themselves and pay it, and it takes only their own vote, no excuses.
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