People talking about flat tax is clueless and bought into someone else’s snake oil and they smiling all the way to the bank with your contribution money to Flat Tax .ORG
Only gullible buys into the theory
Sometimes the simple answers are the answers. The real issue is the % it woukd take to operate our fat government and continue to fund the free loaders.
debating them with the likes of AF is a fools errand, namely because he is a barely literate fool.
AF aside, in theory I agree with the idea of a national Flat/Value Added/Sales tax to replace the current cluster fuck we have now. The big problem is not the percentage, but how to phase it in, and also how to make it at least a revenue neutral proposition, and also keep it equitable for the "working poor" I don't really give a fuck about the "non working poor" they seem to always survive quite nicely in this country, but provisions do need to be made for those who through no fault of their own can't earn on a par with the rest of us. After all, janitors and other non skilled laborers have families to feed too..
Frst the govt uses the tax code to encourage, change, or modify behaviors. A bit hard to do with a flat tax or national sales tax.
Second, I actually own a few shares Intuit, the maker of Turbo Tax. Can you imagine the sheer number of lobbyists from software makers, to H&R Block, tax attorneys, accountants, and let's not forget the 125K wonderful IRS employees that would descend on Washington to fight any simplification?
The left's argument is that a flat, fair or national sales tax would be regressive. Like you said, you first determine how to make it revenue neutral, and then you devise ways to ensure a level of tax progressivity. The left will never agree because you can't control simplification.
Plus it's kinda hard to cheat with a flat type of tax system (lol). Seriously, this year on my return I am dealing fucking K-1's, and trying to adjust my brokerage's 1099, specifically the cost basis of certain assets. What a fucking pain in the ass.
except for all the others. I, for one, think using the tax system to further policy makes perfect sense.
Don’t prohibit; don’t order, don’t decree. If you want to encourage home ownership, don’t start making loans to unqualified buyers and later blame the big banks, just keep the mortgage interest deduction. If you want to encourage alternative fuel use, keep the tax deduction for installing energy efficient appliances. If you want to encourage business start ups like St. Croix’s plan of opening a national chain of “cheese fondue to go” stands, keep the Schedule C deductions for ordinary and necessary business expenses. Of course, giving open flames to take out customers has never been tried before but I'm sure St. Croix will figure out a way to get liability insurance.
As St Croix points out, you can’t promote policy with a flat tax or national sales tax. Do we sometimes get a poor return on our tax deduction investment? Absolutely. Are some deductions poorly thought out? Sure. Should taxpayers subsidize St. Croix’s plan of opening a national chain of “cheese fondue to go” stands until we replace St. Croix with a more practical CEO like Ron Johnson? No. But this is part of the cost of “doing business” when you use the tax code to promote policy.
Critics of the tax system always forget that there is no better alternative
Unfortunately it was short lived. The Revenue Reconcilliations Acts of the 1990's made the system every bit as complicated as it was before Reagan.
and before WW starts on his mantra about what a huge "tax cut for the rich" it was, he should really do a bit more research, he will learn that quite to the contrary, Reagan brought millions of "rich people" who in prior years paid no taxes at all back on the tax rolls and actually increased taxes on rich people.
You are right about the simpler the system the harder to cheat it. Why do you thing the two worst pieces of legislation in our nations history, The Patriot Act and ObamaCare, are so long that no one who voted for either bill could have possibly read it before voting it into law.
It should be the same % regardless of income level. 10% of $20,000 is less than 10% of $200,000
No one should be unfairly taxed because of their income.
I.e. Hey you busted your ass and make $500K so I am going to tax you more.
I think a big part of the solution is to put the fat government on a fat free and no prok diet and make them stick to it
Tell them to get a job and pay taxes first instead of hiding behind tax free political organization
You know what you call it when you tax rich people at a lower percentage of their income and tax poor people at the highest percentage of their income? You call it a flat tax. It's also known as Regression Accomplished!