Posted on 04/14/2009 5:53:55 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Mending America’s broken tax code
Published: April 13 2009 19:16 | Last updated: April 13 2009 19:16
The approach of tax-filing day on April 15 invariably lowers spirits in the United States. Many taxpayers expect a refund when they have finished their calculations, but even this does little to improve the mood. The system’s surreal complexity is enough to defeat candidates for senior positions in the Treasury, let alone Joe the Plumber. Struggling with it arouses the suspicion that the income tax code is chiefly an instrument of political repression – a reminder of who is in charge.
Ceaseless meddling by Congress has encrusted the tax with extraordinary complications. The code tries to encourage or discourage most things, often both at once. The dozens of tax shelters for savings, for example, overlap in bewildering ways. Nobody seems to understand how the various reliefs interact – least of all the professional tax preparers who handle most of the work – so their incentive effect is, shall we say, muted. All a saver can be sure of is that if he comes to be audited, he will be in trouble.
/snip
Over the coming years, the US government will need to collect a lot more tax to balance its books. The income tax in its present form is incapable of carrying this burden. New taxes are likely to be needed. Regardless, for the sake of the nation’s sanity, and not just to balance the budget, Congress must reform and simplify the income tax.
(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...
After all talks of tax reform, there is this phrase at the end. Simplified tax code and far heavier tax load?
Ping!
I wouldn't put anything past Obama.
Satisfy Conservatives: Flat Tax!
Satisfy Liberals: Flat Tax at 50%!
Fair Tax... and remove any government program or agency with “endowment”, “arts”, “humanities”, “housing”, and “relations” in the title.
Election day should be moved to April 16th.
I need some stats on the tax code:
How many pages?
How much doe it weigh?
A nice photo
I’m making a sign for the tea party that has “This is your brain” (pocket US Constitution attached) on one side and “This is your brain on drugs” (photo of tax code and stats) on the other side.
There will be a heavier tax load. Somebody has to pay China the interest on all of those treasuries they're buying so government can run a deficit.
The US tax code is a global joke. Think about it, the "Land of the Free" is one of the few places in the world where you can literally go to jail for an arithmetic mistake.
Each year hundreds of millions of hours of productivity are lost by ordinary citizens who spend billions of wasted dollars on accountants, enrolled agents, retail tax preparers and computer software just trying to comply with the law. We need to scrap the whole thing but it just ain't a gonna happen.
The problem is that between a congress who love to use the tax code for social engineering, businesses and special interests who invest billions of dollars a year lobbying for tax breaks and an entire industry that has grown up around retail tax preparation any changes we do see will be minimal and will more likely hurt the individual tax payer than help.
And where are they going to get it? My state income tax is insane. My property tax is ridiculous, as is my school tax. The Sales Tax and other special taxes are going up & being extended to all sorts of new products. People are being laid off in huge numbers and are not spending (Gee I wonder why?).
Yeah, let's just create new taxes! That'll work! (sarcasm)
There were over 500 changes to the tax code this year. Only one is needed....Flat Tax 10 percent. PERIOD!
The tax code is way too complex.
Every item in the tax code is there because someone in Congress, along with their lobbyists, thought it was a good idea at the time. All of the exemptions and loopholes are designed to encourage certain activity and discourage others. I know we all like our deductions for home mortgage interest and property taxes. Those deductions are there to encourage home ownership. All of the areas of the tax code affecting business taxes likewise encourage businesses to spend money or invest in certain ways, and discourage other types of business activity.
Government needs a certain amount of tax revenue from all of us to perform the essential functions of government. Maybe they should just send us all a bill, and scrap the existing code. Then businesses and individuals would make their financial decisions based on whether that activity is good for them, not based on whether there is a tax incentive to arrange their finances a certain way.
Actually, the exemptions and loopholes are designed to reward political contributions.
Glenn Beck is printing out the tax code. He started yesterday with (I think) 3 or 4 laser printers, going non stop, even at night. He is trying to finish by tax day, but is he going to be in San Antonio, then.
Yeah, I heard himm talking about it. I guess I got the idea from him.
Yes, the meddling is the purpose of the tax code.
Brilliant. You need to post it so we can all share your wisdom. What a great theme.
This should be part of the platform.
Solution 1:
5% national sales tax. On services and new goods only. Private and used sales, no sales tax.
Solution 2: 5% flat tax. “Income” is only actualized income and gains (ie you have to cash in stocks/investments before counting it as income).
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