[rescue] OT Taxes

[Phil Stracchino]

On Tue, Apr 20, 2004 at 07:14:05PM -0400, Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> Mon, 19 Apr 2004 @ 13:20 -0400, Kevin Loch said:
> > I'm all for a flat tax rate (except for maybe a deduction for all
> > income below the poverty line).  Let all the people feel the same
> > pain and maybe all the people will complain as loudly when they see
> > government waste those dollars.
> 
> I agree.  I would love to see a flat tax rate, with absolutely no
> loopholes that cannot be described in a single sentence: 
> 
> For example: poverty level wage earners pay no taxes.

Except that's better stated as, "Income below the poverty level is
non-taxable."  Otherwise you get a big tax hit at $povertylevel+1.

Let's face it, the government's not going to miss 10% of $povertylevel
from someone who's actually paying 10% on, say, $300k.


> If it takes pages to describe, that means it was designed to be worked
> around and/or used for political maneuvering, which is not the purpose
> of taxation.

Agreed.

Frankly, I'd like to see a Constitutional amendment stating that no bill
OR REGULATION may be passed into law, or have the force of law, unless
written in plain English understandable by someone with an average
education.  This would also have the advantage that rather than dumbing
down education to get ignorant voters who can be easily led around by
the nose, it'd create an incentive to government to actually improve the
average level of education, because they could then pass more complex
laws.



Personally, in some respects I tend to lean somewhat towards the
sales-tax-only approach, for two reasons: (1) it lets you do your saving
with pre-tax dollars; (2) every time you spend some of it, you get a
reminder of EXACTLY what your real marginal tax rate is.  I think half
the current tax structure exists solely to break up tax burdens and hide
them scattered all over the place so that people don't really realize
how much tax they're actually paying.

However, I think when all is said and done, the fairest way (and the
least subject to abuse) is just a flat percentage tax on all income
above the minimum you need to live on, with absolutely NO LOOPHOLES OR
DEDUCTIONS whatsoever.  You do your savings with post-tax dollars, you
make your charitable donations with post-tax dollars, etc.  But again,
you pay one flat tax, and that's the ONLY tax you pay.  (And that
includes "assessments" and all other forms of tax-by-a-different-name.)



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