Thread: Taxes?

What is the best option and why?

The current system is unbalanced, so how would it better be implicated?
It seems like no tax at all would be unrealistic, so if not the current income tax, which would you prefer and why?

-Flat Tax- everyone pays the same percentage of their income.
-Federal sales tax (what is sometimes called the Fair Tax)
-Other?

I am really on the fence about this one as all the options have good pluses and minuses.

How about a luxury tax! A tax on all items above and beyond our daily needs! Just a thought.

Originally Posted by JMS

How about a luxury tax! A tax on all items above and beyond our daily needs! Just a thought.

that's what a sales tax is. notice that stuff like bread, milk, school supplies, etc are not taxed. (at least, not in my state, might be different out in hippy land where you live )

sic-> honestly, I think either of those options is a superior alternative to the current system that punishes financial success and lack of children. the sales tax is prolly a bit more fair, but the flat tax is WAY WAY easier to implement, and would lower administrative costs quite a bit. If we are to ignore overhead in this equation (admin costs, logistics, etc) I think that despite more complicated record-keeping, a sales tax is more fair.

as stated above, many items are not taxed if they are neccesities, (in my state) so the sales tax seems a bit more egalitarian as far as the very poor are concerned... if you spend all your money buying bread and milk, you don't make enough for taxing you to be worth the effort. I also disagree with the traditional definition of luxury tax, I think all items apart fron nonessentials should be taxed at a flat rate. (e.g. liquor is taxed more than soda, yachts are taxed more than cars, etc)

Neither flat nor sales tax will be the same for everyone.
There're many people that don't report they income, those will continue paying no tax on that income.
Once the best solution is found, the harder problem will be enforcement

I like the idea of a federal sales tax, but the flat tax would be a very easy solution, and I like the idea of a bunch of tax lawyers and IRS jerk being unemployed too.

Originally Posted by JMS

How about a luxury tax! A tax on all items above and beyond our daily needs! Just a thought.

But I need the hot tub for my back and the private jet makes my commute bearable, without my hundred room mansion I couldn't survive I get claustrophobic in something as small as 4000 square feet. Need is to relative, besides we know congress would decide we only needed bread and water but they needed everything else.

Originally Posted by Wildtim

I like the idea of a federal sales tax, but the flat tax would be a very easy solution, and I like the idea of a bunch of tax lawyers and IRS jerk being unemployed too.

amen and amen

I think the hugest problem with the current tax code, is that no one has ever read it!!! Literally, I have heard that it is so long that a person is physically not capable of reading the whole thing, cover to cover in a lifetime. Now thats a problem.

I like flat and fair tax. Everyone pays the same percentage of income taxes, and anything beyond necessities has a sales tax. Like Tim said though, necessities will be a hard one to pin down.

What scares me though is when they start taxing online transactions. That's going to be a crappy day for everyone.

There are plenty of ways to implement a simpler tax code, and keep the tax progressive, without going for a flat tax. The 1040 EZ could just be extended to include all incomes, for example. Can't get much simpler than that. One tax table and standard deductions. Simplification isn't a fantastic flat-tax argument-- just a convenient one.

Originally Posted by ScottS

and keep the tax progressive,.

why would you want to? I think the point of the thread was that a progressive tax is "unbalanced" as sicboater put it.