Some people are pushing a plan that has been introduced in Congress to eliminate the IRS and replace the graduated income tax with a flat tax of 17% or 20% or a national sales tax of 20%. Either plan would raise the taxes for the lower income people and cut the taxes for the high income people by approximately 35-50%, thereby making the rich richer and the average citizen poorer.
I doubt if either plan would produce enough revenue to run the government or pay off the national debt.
If I were smart enough to make a lot of money at the expense of the public I would be glad to pay the income tax.
The income tax is the fairest tax there is. It would be nice if we could simplify the tax forms so a person with average intelligence could understand them, but as to going to a new tax that would put more of a burden on the average citizen and benefit the high income people. That would be very detrimental to the country and create more hardship for a lot of people.
2 comments:
It wouold be nice if we could simplify the tax code, but since we have lawyers writing the tax code, it doesn't seem likely to happen. I guess that's why they call it a tax code!
We had a high 80% marginal tax rate several decades ago and all it did was drive wealthy persons into tax shelters which were not economic. We probably do need to raise the tax rate up to 50% for income over $1million but keep the incentive for producers to continue to produce. WE have effectively been taxed 50% due to the fall in the value of the dollar due to our large deficits. Then oil has to go up to keep up with its dollar value. The tax code is complex because our society and business and personal financial transactions are complex. Taxpayers are constantly creating structures to minimize taxes and the government must add tax code provisions to minize the effect of these new tax planning structures.
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