Posted on 07/10/2014 5:40:08 AM PDT by 1rudeboy
July 1 might go down in history as the beginning of the end of the comprehensive, progressive income tax. A progressive income tax, in which the government attempts to tax all labor income and capital income, such as interest, dividends and capital gains more than once, cannot help becoming so complex that it eventually dies of its own weight. This is particularly true when the government attempts to tax the worldwide income of its “tax persons” rather than the income located in its own territory. The complexity is caused by the never-ending attempt to define what income is and what should be exempt (loopholes).
Press reports now state that the U.S. tax code is more than 77,000 pages and growing at a rapid rate. [] When laws are too complex and increasingly subjective in their interpretation, it inevitably leads to corruption. All but the willfully blind now understand that the IRS has both become corrupt and incompetent.
On July 1, the IRS extended its reach to perhaps 100,000 foreign financial institutions and millions of other non-Americans who receive or make payments to Americans. This global power grab was the logical extension of the effort to tax the worldwide income of all Americans, which requires the IRS to know about all payments to and from the United States and which financial institutions are involved in the transmittal and holding of accounts. The paperwork is unending and incomprehensible. (If you think I am overstating the case, download the new “W-8BREN-E” tax form from IRS.gov, which certain foreign recipients of U.S. payments are required to complete. Even tax lawyers tell me that it is nearly impossible to fill out the form without perjuring oneself, owing to the form’s endless ambiguity and lack of clarity.)
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
No argument from me, but still won’t happen.
good luck docking payments made outside the US
and thank you for the tax free apples
Yeah, well, good luck with that.
The reality is that any number of thousands of Federal bureaucrats can destroy you on a whim. And, unless you are very wealthy, there is little you can do.
That is very unfair to small states and will never pass.
[ Better yet, get rid of the IRS and go with the Fair Tax.
I’d agree, except for the concept of a “Prebate”, which is supposed to be a minimum income available to low-income people. The value of the prebate is determined by Congress, and once you do that, you’re right back where you started from. Either remove the prebate or can the Fair Tax.
I’ll go with Milton Friedman’s 17% flat tax on all sources of income. If you have wage, interest, dividend, or capital gain income, the distributing institution withholds 17% and sends it to the new Tax Collections department, since the IRS is now defunct. Your new Federal Tax form now fits on a postcard and the Tax Code is one sentence long: You owe us 17% of all income. Done. ]
I rather like a 10% Flat Tariff on all imported goods.
I think this law applies only to transfers of funds into or out of the US.
I know that’s how it applies to me.
I also know that’s why many banks are considering withdrawing from the US market entirely, and are dropping US citizen clients abroad.
Our government has lost its mind.
Why? Do you mean adding this tax on top of the flat tax, or this tax instead of the flat tax?
[ I rather like a 10% Flat Tariff on all imported goods.
Why? Do you mean adding this tax on top of the flat tax, or this tax instead of the flat tax? ]
No as the ONLY federal “Tax” replacing all others and capped at 10%.
In 2013, total imports were $2.756586 trillion dollars. 10% of that is $275 billion. Our Congress would spin through that in a couple of months. US military spending alone in 2009 was $283.3. Seems to me you either need to make MASSIVE cuts in federal spending, or figure out a new revenue source.
Seems to me you either need to make MASSIVE cuts in federal spending,
Yes please!
I call BS on the idea that this will simplify anything. The big question is always how do you define 'income'. For the average employed person, the 1040EZ is already pretty simple. For somebody with money, the question of what is income, what is deductible, will always be there. And for business, there will always be the need for accountants to keep track of deductible and non-deductible expense.
All the work of the income tax is deciding what is income. Working out the final tax from the tax tables or tax brackets is a couple of minutes.
Milton Friedman was blowing smoke. Any form of income tax is evil, as it gives the government control over your life.
I like that.
But I like taxing consumption better than taxing productivity...
If you don’t have taxes of some sort, you do not have a government.
Or rather, you don’t till someone invades and forces one on you.
What I want to do away with are all of the programs where gov't competes with private industry (e.g., SBA, Student Loans, ObozoCare, etc.) or funds agencies that can pass laws that have economic consequences without the consent of Congress (e.g., EPA, HHS, NLRB, etc.) I would also say that any law Congress does pass applies equally to them...no more of this I'm-more-important-than-you-so-this-law-doesn't-apply-to-me. Screw that...it's a goose-gander thing to me.
You don't get it. The 1040EZ form has little to do with the accounting of income. It is simple because there are no complex deductions. Likewise, businesses wouldn't need a staff of tax accountants and lawyers because there would be no deductions. You pay 17% of income...there are no deductions. Personally, I'd make the tax rate on business 15% of income. Any tax on a domestic business ultimately ends up as a tax on the individual anyway.
There's no problem figuring out income. Any payment to you from someone else would be income. You're confusing the concept of income with the current concept of net income.
Unless you have some kind of social system that has no form of gov't yet remains viable, you need some way to fund gov't. Friedman's idea is workable. The only tax that is truly evil is a tax on wealth, not income.
Even if the bottom line is less than 17% of income? That would destroy most every business.
Increase the sales tax and a very low flat income tax rate 12%. And watch the economy go crazy upward.
We need to dump the IRS and the income tax.
But that’s never going to happen.
All the government’s real power is in the IRS.
No more progressive tax, just 100% on everything
“I’d agree, except for the concept of a “Prebate”, which is supposed to be a minimum income available to low-income people.”
Nope, the prebate is a refund for the taxes paid at a borderline poverty level of spending. That makes the Fair Tax less regressive (penalizing to lower income folk) than any type of flat tax. It’s a means of not having to categorize various things as “not taxable” like food. Is candy food or not? Is soda? Etc. Everyone who cares to, regardless of income level, can receive the prebate.
I don’t particularly love it either, but no purely regressive tax is going to fly.
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