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

Originally Posted by Navaja

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

Not exactly...

One of the benefits of a flat, national sales tax is that instead of taxing income, comsumption is taxed. In such a system, no one reports income because it is no longer taxed. Instead all purchases are taxed at the point of sale. Thus anyone making purchases - including drug dealers buying Escalades - will pay tax. The sole way to avoid paying tax is to not purchase anything.

Some additional benefits of a national sales tax include that by removing the disincentives to produce, our economy would go into overdrive. It also would tax everyone equally. Which is why we will never see it happen. There are many in Congress and elsewhere who believe that taxation is not merely a source of revenue but also the first step of social engineering. Until these socialists - in fact if not name - understand the burdens of their failed policies, we are stuck with this system. Frankly, I don't think they want to see America excel and wealth redistribution is one way to put the brakes on.

Early on in this thread, Jockeys made a point about the national sales tax being harder to implement than the flat tax. This is the only thing that bothers me about it. I could also see the retirement issue, (folks who have already paid taxes on their retirement savings all of a sudden getting taxed on their consumption and needing additional rebates, headache). But the implementation thing makes me think that we would wake up one day and the Government would say something like: "Well, we are going to do the national sales tax, and the income tax this year and we will gradually fade out the income tax..." Frankly, I don't trust them to stop any form of taxation that is already established if they start a new one at the same time. And yes, I vote in all the elections in which I am able.

Originally Posted by ProfessorChaos!

Not exactly...

One of the benefits of a flat, national sales tax is that instead of taxing income, comsumption is taxed. In such a system, no one reports income because it is no longer taxed. Instead all purchases are taxed at the point of sale. Thus anyone making purchases - including drug dealers buying Escalades - will pay tax. The sole way to avoid paying tax is to not purchase anything.

Some additional benefits of a national sales tax include that by removing the disincentives to produce, our economy would go into overdrive. It also would tax everyone equally. Which is why we will never see it happen. There are many in Congress and elsewhere who believe that taxation is not merely a source of revenue but also the first step of social engineering. Until these socialists - in fact if not name - understand the burdens of their failed policies, we are stuck with this system. Frankly, I don't think they want to see America excel and wealth redistribution is one way to put the brakes on.

Originally Posted by ProfessorChaos!

Not exactly...

One of the benefits of a flat, national sales tax is that instead of taxing income, comsumption is taxed. In such a system, no one reports income because it is no longer taxed. Instead all purchases are taxed at the point of sale. Thus anyone making purchases - including drug dealers buying Escalades - will pay tax. The sole way to avoid paying tax is to not purchase anything.

Some additional benefits of a national sales tax include that by removing the disincentives to produce, our economy would go into overdrive. It also would tax everyone equally. Which is why we will never see it happen. There are many in Congress and elsewhere who believe that taxation is not merely a source of revenue but also the first step of social engineering. Until these socialists - in fact if not name - understand the burdens of their failed policies, we are stuck with this system. Frankly, I don't think they want to see America excel and wealth redistribution is one way to put the brakes on.

The trouble with sales tax is that it is regressive and falls hardest on those least able to pay it.

What is the problem with everyone paying the same tax rate on income? Is it not right that those upon whom the blessings of liberty fall disproportionately hard should support that liberty in proportion to their blessings?

You should also note that social engineering cuts both ways. For the past seven years, we have seen a radical redistribution of America's wealth from the hands of the middle class into the hands of the wealthy.

j

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.