Posted on 12/19/2004 1:40:29 PM PST by Remember_Salamis
I had a deal but Johnson and the boys stole our sacred funds and put them into the pork barrel. All those following him did the same.
Anything that increases the burden on seniors is cutting into their fixed income and that robbing their SS.
CUT SPENDING
The imminent crisis is due to a lot of things- but most acutely that the number of payers is decreasing while the number of recipients and the amount of payouts are increasing.
The nrst hr25 makes the number of payers waaaay huger. So instead of taking 15% of the first 85k or so from wage earners, they take about 1.9% on each purchase from everybody.
And of course SS needs to be reformed - but it is the case that the nrst would stabilize it.
It might excite you. The purpose of providing information is to inform.... not to excite.
I didn't write this article.
The only reason I asked is because your mortgage wouldn't be taxed. In fact, only the money spend in NEW goods and services are taxed. These high rates you're seeing are misleading. Take a look at what you would pay under the FairTax.
If your son is under the age of 18, your poverty level is $21,800. If your son is over 18, your poverty level is $27,930. Let's assume that your son is under 18. We'll also assume that your family brings in $60,000 a year, or $5,000 a month. I'm also assuming that all of your current income is taxed.
Step 1: Subtract poverty exemption from income:
$60,000 - $21,800 = $38,200 ($3,183 per month of taxable income at this point)
At this point, if you spend every dollar you have on new goods and services (excluding education), you would pay a 14.64% tax.
Step 2: Let's assume that you spend 10% of your income on a used car payment. That's $6,000 per year. That is also untaxed. Let's also assume that you save 10% of your income to send your kid to college, another $6,000 per year.
That leaves you with $26,200 in taxable income. This would equate to a 10% tax rate on your $60,000 income.
This leaves you with $2,185 in taxable income per month. This doesn't include your car payment, and it doesn't include the 10% you stash away for your kid's college. This is $2,185 to be spend on food, utilities, insurance, and leisure. If you spend any of this money on untaxable goods or services, your tax rate will drop below 10%.
Oh, on your question related to state sales taxes. It's likely that states will conform to the FairTax to make collection more efficient. That means that the state income tax would be put under the sales tax, the sales tax would be expanded to cover ALL goods and services, and a state prebate may be instituted.
-- LL, you know damn well that the prebate makes it progressive. Even a family of four making $100,000 a year would only pay 17.25%. And that's if they consumed 100% of their income. The same family making $50,000 pays an 11.5% tax under the same circumstances.
So, your state & local sales taxes are rebated on the poverty level income, reducing the rate on necessities to the state+local rate only!
The people who designed the fairTax went to the trouble of putting together state/local tax options under the FairTax:
State/Local Revenue Options under the FairTax:
-- Combined Totals for all State and Local Governments Amount
-- General Sales Taxes - 222,986,687,000
-- Income Taxes (individual & corporate) - 231,009,996,000
-- Taxes to be replaced - 453,996,683,000
-- Total FairTax Base - 8,264,000,000,000
-- Total FairTax Base (after rebate) - 6,517,900,000,000
-- Aggregate state FairTax Rate to replace income taxes - 5.49%
-- Aggregate state FairTax Rate to replace income taxes and provide rebate - 6.97%
You can be sure red or blue they all want in your pocket.
Unless you are a socialist you should understand we earned it we want and don't mess with us.
What is so hard to understand about.
Cut the dam budget...
That's over twice what they're paying today.
A couple earning $99,920 and spending all of it (a family of four surely would) would pay $17,486 in taxes (@ your 17.5%).
Today, that family of four would get to deduct mortgage payments (say $24,000), property tax (say $8,000), charity (say $2000), four exemptions (12,200), for a taxable income of $53,720.
Going to my 2003 tax tables, they owe $7359.
Bend over, family of four.
So ensure every future generation is screwed too?
The FairTax taxes consumption: the best measure of ones ability to pay.
Taxes paid as a function of some concept of annual taxable income or adjusted gross income or net income is the way in which the Democratic staff would prefer to look at the distribution of taxes. However, it is a flawed way.
Often wealth which itself may or may not be a fairer determination of ones ability to pay is not even captured in the income tax. Individuals rich in personal wealth may have very little income. That is because wealth is defined in assets that they hold their homes, properties, securities, collectibles, and other items which may or may not have been earned by them and which may or may not generate income. These wealthy individuals can often choose whether or not to create taxable income, since they can restructure their affairs to avoid receiving current taxable income. Far more than the poor or the middle class, the wealthy have the ability to control income flows (as we legally define it) appreciation vs. consumption. It is one of the reasons why Mrs. Kerry paid at a tax rate that is less than a college student on a summer job.
How much income someone happens to make in any given period is, at best, an incomplete measure of ones ability to pay? In individual cases it is not even roughly accurate. Proponents of a consumption tax propose that there is no greater measurement of the equity of a tax system than what one individual consumes for their own personal well-being over the course of their lifetime. When you think about it, why would we ever tax income in the first place? Why punish what we need work, savings, production, and self-sufficiency? If, instead of consuming his income, a rich person gives his money to charity or builds a job-producing factory, why should we punish that choice by taxing it? We should tax what people take out of the economy for their own personal use, not what people produce for society. That's exactly what the FairTax does.
If income is not consumed, then it is either saved or invested or provided to charitable causes (or government) to fund the consumption of others. The return on savings and investment will either be used to fund future consumption or reinvested to increase productivity and output. If it is saved or invested and is not profitable, it has at least been available to the economy. If we tax income and savings, we have simply taxed deferred consumption. And those that are deferring consumption are doing so because they elect not to consume it for themselves immediately, but to make the resource available for others.
That 17.5% figue includes ALL PAYROLL TAXES IN ADDITION TO INCOME TAXES!!!
PAYROLL TAXES ARE 15.3%. This family gets a MASSIVE TAX CUT!
Mortgage payments are made with after payroll tax and after income tax dollars. Only mortgage interest is paid with pretax dollars.
Under the fair tax, mortgage interest is still paid with pretax dollars - but the principal payments get to be paid with pretax dollars too - along with everything else.
Car payments too!
And state/local taxes (no taxation upon taxation)!
And Education expenses!
And all Savings!
And much more!
The 17% plus 15% is 32%.
And under the nrst, there is a rebate excepting necessity level spending. And with the nrst, consumption of previously taxed (used) goods is not taxed - any any savings or investments are not taxed...sending the effective rate for the fair tax lower still.
I pay over $800.00 a month for health insurance to cover two of us, the house is paid for, I've worked over 56 years including a war all in good faith and still want my benefits.
CUT THE SPENDING....WHEW.....
any you have to earn a lot more than $800 to make $800 available to spend.
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