by onyx
Posted on 11/20/2012 4:40:26 PM PST by RobertClark
Tax policy really tells you a lot about a government... what politicians’ values and priorities are. People can SAY anything, but in a way, tax policy is putting their money where their mouths are.
For example, politicians like to talk about technology, efficiency and transparency. But just take a look at the tax code to see where they really stand. Estonia’s Taxation Act of 2002, which form the preponderance of that country’s tax code, is 43,370 words.
In Canada, the tax code is close to 1 million words. And in the US, the tax code is so daunting that simply the INSTRUCTIONS for form 1040 shatter the record books at 178,096 words… over four times the entirety of Estonia’s tax code.
US tax code is so massive, in fact, that the Government Printing Office charges $1,028 just to print a copy of it!
And for most taxpayers, it’s still virtually impossible to file online. It’s 2012 already, yet taxpayers in most ‘advanced’ western nations still have to carry around reams of paper as if we’re still using the telegraph.
Then there are the rates themselves. In places like France, Belgium, and Germany where the government confiscates the majority of what people earn, the message those governments are sending is quite clear: citizens are nothing more than dairy cows for the government to milk.
As I wrote yesterday, tax rates across the board in the United States are set to increase dramatically in 2013. For example, if you happen to kick the bucket on or before December 31st, the government will charge a 35% tax on the value of your estate that exceeds $5 million.
If you happen to kick the bucket on January 1st, however, the tax goes up to 55%, and the exemption goes down to $1 million.
Moreover, this exemption is not indexed to inflation. Which means that the more Ben Bernanke prints, and the more asset prices become inflated, the more people will fall into this category.
Again, the message they’re sending is quite clear– citizens, even in death, are dairy cows for the government to milk.
Perhaps most shocking is increase in dividend tax rates, set to rise from 15% to as high as 43.4%. Individuals who start productive businesses are being heavily penalized. Individuals who save their money and put it to work investing in other people’s businesses are being heavily penalized. This says a lot about government values.
Ironically, the new government of the People’s Republic of China has decided the REDUCE their tax on dividends. Years ago it was 20%, then dropped to 10% in 2005. Effective January 1st, though, the dividend tax rate in China will drop to a mere 5%.
2.) A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3.) Abolition of all right of inheritance.
4.) Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5.) Centralization of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6.) Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State.
7.) Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8.) Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9.) Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equitable distribution of the population over the country.
10.) Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial product.
Sound like America?
These are actually the 10 Conditions For Transition To Communism according to the Communist Manifesto written by Karl Marx in 1848.
Ironically, the new government of the People’s Republic of China has decided the REDUCE their tax on dividends. Years ago it was 20%, then dropped to 10% in 2005. Effective January 1st, though, the dividend tax rate in China will drop to a mere 5%.Means to an end, to attract business out of the USA. Just have to read Red China’s constitution to see what they are truly about. (Never mind the fact that the author used Red China’s full name.)
Only countries which actually experienced living under communism or socialism are turning more capitalistic. Formerly capitalistic countries in Western world are turning socialistic. Eventually they will turn back but first they must experience the horrors first hand.
An insult to free range dairy cows (who have more freedom)
These countries that lived under communism/socialism aren’t turning more capitalistic. I can’t see a single one that is actually going towards what the USA used to be right now, and whatever ones have actually tried to in Europe and the former USSR (there are a few) are no longer being allowed to. And if any countries are truly “formerly capitalistic”, it’d be the USA and the UK.
I wouldn't include Germany in that grouping. Tax rates there are actually better than in the US; as a matter of fact, anyone who has dealt with any taxing entity in the US will find that they are considered to be nothing more than revenue streams or tax slaves.
We soon will be. All Hail Comrade Obama!! LOL /sarc
I love that graphic - may I borrow it?
“These countries that lived under communism/socialism aren’t turning more capitalistic.”
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I found post Communist Slovakia to be quite capitalistic during my 8 years there, 2001 to 2009.
The same would be true for the Czech Republic.
not mine...saw it posted earlier by FReeper onyx
What’s also crazy is that the Nazis weren’t all that far away from the Communist Manifesto either, they certainly believed in 1 through 6, and believed in a soft version of 7 & 8 in the sense that businesses were only allowed to operate under the condition that they professed the beliefs of the Nazis, and couldn’t disagree with them, same with the press.
Everyone has to either move their income off shore or under the table. Cut off this milk supply and sit back and watch them eat their own.
It should be a hell of a show. It is just a matter of time until the cash cow runs dry we might as well speed it up so we can get by the crash and start rebuilding this country.
What does Red China’s constitution say?
That’s getting suppressed by the EU. (Those were among the ones I was thinking of too. What the EU did to Vaclav Klaus is reprehensible.)
Obamanation Communism File.
Why should those countries emulate the USA model? Look at where that model is going now!
Just couple of factual examples:
Formerly communist China is creating more individual millionaires than any of the so called capitalist countries.
Formerly big government type socialist India now boasts some of the wealthiest industrialist individuals in world. British Jaguar is now owned by Indians?
Both country’s GDP has grown 3 to 4 times faster than USA in the last decade.
They can keep their millions as long as the government lets them.
Point is, not even the USA is emulating its former model. The USA is now emulating everyone else in the world.
And since you are calling Red China “formerly communist”, I’ll just ignore your platitudes now.
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