Posted on 02/22/2005 4:22:02 PM PST by groanup
December 6, 1996
Tis' the Season to be Taxed
by Peter Ferrara
Peter Ferrara is general counsel and chief economist at Americans for Tax Reform and an associate policy analyst at the Cato Institute.
On your way to grandmother's house this holiday season, paying taxes will probably be the last thing on your mind. But that is what you will be doing every step of the way.
First, when you get in your car to drive over, you probably don't realize that 45 percent of what you paid for the car actually went to the government in taxes at the federal, state and local levels, rather than to the car manufacturer. When you put gas in the car, you probably don't realize that 54 percent of what you pay for it goes to federal, state and local taxes rather than to the oil producer. For the tires on the car, 36 percent of what you paid goes to taxes rather than to the tire manufacturer.
Once you get to grandmother’s house, you're still not done paying taxes. If you have a little rum with your eggnog, 72 percent of the price paid for it actually goes to the government. The same goes for any other drink made with distilled spirits. If you have a beer instead, 43 percent of what you pay goes to taxes. And even if you just drink soda, 35 percent of what you pay for a can goes for taxes at all levels.
Once you sit down to dinner, the tax man is still there with you. About 31 percent of what you pay for bread goes to the government in taxes, rather than for the bread. About the same would be true for the turkey and the rest of the food. Unless you provide for heat and light solely through the fireplace, you will be paying taxes again. At least 26 percent of your electric bill goes to the government in taxes.
Don't think you can avoid any of these taxes by going out to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. About 28 percent of what you pay for a meal at a restaurant actually goes for taxes, rather than to the restaurant. Nor can you avoid the tax man by staying home and just calling grandma on Thanksgiving Day. That is because about 50 percent of your phone bill actually goes to taxes, rather than to the phone company.
This tax burden arises in part from taxes assessed directly on the consumer, such as state and local sales taxes, liquor excise taxes telephone excise taxes, federal and state gas taxes, food and beverage taxes, and others.
But that is just the beginning. The producer in each case must use what you pay for the product for a heavy tax burden as well, including federal, state and local income taxes, payroll taxes, property taxes, use taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, workers compensation taxes, corporate franchise taxes import fees, and others. In fact, 30 different taxes are imposed on the production and sale of a loaf of bread. The government imposes at least 43 taxes on the production and sale of a gallon of gas.
This is just another part of the excessive burden of taxes working people must bear. Overall, close to half or more of what working people earn ends up going to taxes rather than for their own families. The average family pays more for taxes today than for food, clothing and shelter combined.
This article originally appeared in the Washington Times.
For your ping list sir.
Tax PING
LOL! By one second!
...and who said we are not ALREADY OVERTAXED into socialism??? Over half of my income goes to taxation -- how about you??? --- and Washington hears about it DAILY!
Doesn't really look a bit old, does it?
That's a tie in my book! Calling all Ancient_geezers!
A Taxreform bump for you all.
If you would like to be added to this ping list let me know.
John Linder in the House(HR25) & Saxby Chambliss Senate(S25), offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and SS/Medicare payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement in the form of a retail sales tax:
H.R.25,S.25
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information:
Okay, no payoff.
Calling all Ancient_geezers!
Must be dinnertime.
ping
Wrong! It took 38 seconds! ;-)
I don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you could elaborate so the rest of us are up to speed on this.
"Calling all Ancient_geezers!"
Ancient Goddesses too? LOL......I resemble that remark.
The "Tax Bite" of several products and services can be found at: http://www.atr.org/taxbites/index.html
Might as well get these guys over here as well so they can tell us how wrong this article is.
Thanks for a good link. Bookmarked.
He then went on to say that we were better off than the Europeans, because they were closer to the 60% range. I was unconsoled.
For me, a big issue about large government involvement in the economy is inefficiency. Do government employees work as hard or spend money as efficiently as private workers do? No way (at least in the aggregate, if someone has a story about some individual government employee who takes his trust seriously)!
And even if you just drink soda, 35 percent of what you pay for a can goes for taxes at all levels.This could only be possible if people didn't pay income and payroll taxes. But guess what! They do.
I have spent a lot of time in Texas. The roads, for the most part, are excellent. A lot of farm roads and county maintained roads. Why on earth does Texas need another 4,000 miles of new roads? This sounds like a sweetheart deal and I can't believe Texans would go for it. I have been just as disillusioned with Republicans in Georgia who were swept into power for the first time since WBTS reconstruction. They have taken it upon themselves to posit all sorts of mischief. One of their dumb ideas was to enact an emminent domain law that made it easier for private developers to steal land from private individuals. Neal Boortz got on that one and with the help of a lot of Freepers and others got it squashed.
Now, having said all of that, I can't think of anything libertarians have ever gotten that they wanted.
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