A Simple, Easy Way to Protest Our Tax Code

3/31/2002 | DennisR

[DennisR]

Well, I am almost finished with the most flagrant waste of my time--doing my Federal taxes. Just look at Schedule D to enter the worst nightmare of your tax-paying lives. For years, I have thought a flat rate would be best. The only deduction would be for charitable deductions, nothing else. Even Russia now has a flat rate tax of 13%! I think that's about 3% too high, but, hey, it's a step in the right direction.

Anyway, last night I came up with a great idea that might help politicians realize that they have to do something to end the insanity of a 46,000-page tax code. The idea is this: after sending in your 2001 tax return to the IRS, take your 2001 tax booklet and write "I want a 10% flat tax implemented by 2004," then mail it to one of your federal representatives. If they received tens of thousands of these booklets each year in their mail, maybe they would get an idea that we want simpliciation instead of punishment and distress.

[Don Corleone]

There is something fundamentally wrong with your premise that we should let the drug dealers, whores, and pimps and dishonest business people get a free pass on taxes while you and I tax slave longer than necessary each year to cover their asses.

Comments like this about our dedicated public servants are (un)warranted and (un)necessary?

[DennisR]

Yes, the right way to tax is up for debate, but the idiocy of our current tax code should not be.
If nothing else, we need to have a grass-roots protest, otherwise Congress will go on its own merry way of pork-barrel spending. This might be one way to do that. And there are probably plenty more if everyone throws in their ideas.

[DennisR]

...and to think that these folks have been elected!

[Buckeroo]

Here is the way to protest: stake your life, liberty and freedom on the line. Let them come after you with machine guns to collect a few bucks.

[jadimov]

12...probably a small percentage of the population...

13...it is NOT a small amount. It measures well into the billions...

Walter Williams
---According to the most recent U.S. Treasury Department figures, in 1997 the top 1 percent of income-earners (those with income of $250,000 and higher) paid 33 percent of all federal income taxes. The top 5 percent of income-earners ($108,000 and over) paid 52 percent, and the top 50 percent ($36,000 and over) paid 96 percent of income taxes. Guess what the bottom 50 percent of income earners paid?

full text at townhall.com

[DennisR]

Somehow having my body shot full of holes for a few bucks isn't that appealing. Sending the tax booklet in seems to be a bit better for my long-term health. (Does this mean I'm not committed to the cause?)

[ancient_geezer]

I've heard different theories ranging from 17% to 23% on what the flat tax would need to be to cover current expenditures.

Here's how rates come out for a flat individual/corporate income tax, based on maintaining constant levels of revenue to pay the nation's debts etc. (not including SS/Medicare payments)

http://www.library.unt.edu/govinfo/subject/vital.html

• "The chart below shows a hypothetical set of flat tax rates and allowances that would result in revenue neutrality. This model, produced by the Congressional Budget Office shows that all federal income tax revenues [SS/Medicare, or Federal Unemployment, excise taxes and tariffs unchanged] could be fully replaced by a system with a flat tax rate of 13.1 percent and no deductions. Allowing total deductions for a family of four to reach $36,800 (more than double the amount allowed in 1995) would require a 19.9 percent rate."

Joint Economic Committee

Revenue Neutral Tax Rates for Alternative Allowances and Exemptions Under a Flat Tax

Standard Allowances	Option 1	Option 2	Option 3	Option 4	Option 5
Single	$13,100	$13,100	$ 6,550	$ 6,550	$0
Joint	$26,200	$26,200	$13,100	$13,100	$0
Head of Household	$17,200	$17,200	$ 8,600	$ 8,600	$0
Dependent Exemption	$ 5,300	$ 2,650	$ 5,300	$ 2,650	$0
Revenue Neutral Tax Rate	19.9%	19.4%	16.8%	16.3%	13.1%

Source: Congressional Budget Office, 1995.

If it were to be a Flat individual income tax alone(without personal exemptions, or any deductions), the rate would be the effective total federal tax rate with respect to gross family income.

Total federal taxes as a percentage of gross family income is 23.5% (taxfoundation)

[DennisR]

Doing the math in my head, I come up with 4%.

Basically what happens in this country is that you get punished for succeeding financially. The flat tax as I propose it would do away with this punishment and als make everyone with any income whatsover invest in the country.

[Free the USA]

Check the Bump List folders for articles related to and descriptions of the above topic(s) or for other topics of interest.

[Free the USA]

Check out FairTax.org

[DennisR]

"Total federal taxes as a percentage of gross family income is 23.5%."

Good information. Based on the perceived waste that goes on in government, 23.5% is way too high. It would be my proposal that we work our way down to the 10% rate over a period of ten years or so. Even though the protest asks for a flat rate by 2004, it would not be until 2014 that we would actually reach the target of 10%. This would allow government time to cut and adjust as necessary.

[Buckeroo]

No wonder America is lost. It is because you don't stand up for your unalienible natural rights. Don't worry, you have a lot of company in America: they are called Republocrats.

[DennisR]

Does this mean you would sacrifice your body for a few more bucks on your Federal tax return? Just asking.

[Samizdat]

If they received tens of thousands of these booklets each year in their mail, maybe they would get an idea that we want simpliciation instead of punishment and distress.

I have a better idea. Let's get those tens of thousands of people to just refuse to file. Then they would HAVE to do something. Until then, its a big yawn.

[DennisR]

It's not like I haven't thought of that before. It's just that if 10,000 people say they aren't going to file, but then 9,999 of them do...you figure it out from there. But maybe that is what it is going to take.

[ancient_geezer]

Even Russia now has a flat rate tax of 13%!

Only on their individual income tax. The rest of their system is a European style income tax with VAT on steroids, along with a 32% Social Security tax plus 30-35% profits tax on individuals.

Somehow I think something is getting lost in most of the media's rendering of what is going on in the Russian tax system:

PART TWO OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION TAX CODE
by Alexander Chmelev and Evgeny Astakhov

While the article above describes the tax system as it existed in 2000, no substantive change has taken place since that time.

Putin has proposed additional changes recently but the Duma has yet to act on it, and it would only effect how small businesses (less than 20 employees) would be taxed.

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/020328/russia_tax_reform_3.html

"Putin's proposal would cut the multiple taxes small businesses pay to just two: a tax of 20 percent on pure profits or 8 percent on turnover, and a pension tax, which would be reduced from 28 percent of salaries to 14 percent.

Certain service companies such as car repair shops, veterinary offices and cafeterias would be required to pay only a single, 15 percent income tax. "

***

"Businesses operating in Russia have long complained of the heavy tax burden. They are required to pay 35 percent taxes on salaries, which cover contributions for medical and social insurance, five percent sales tax, about 17 percent in value-added taxes, and one percent in road taxes. Then they are supposed to pay 35 percent on net profits left after other taxes are paid, plus various fees for meeting regulatory requirements.

Small businesses account for 10-11 percent of Russia's gross domestic product and employ 12 million people, according to the Russian State Council working group on small business. Putin and other top officials say they are committed to increasing those numbers and helping to create a middle class that could fuel economic growth."

[Buckeroo]

I always file after April 15. I haven't been shot yet and I am 50+ years old.

[aabbccddeeff]

If the current income tax was converted to
a "what if" flat tax, what would the percentage be?

Basically if you convert the whole income tax population into
a mythical one taxpayer, what is the tax rate they pay based on last year's numbers.< Br>

[DennisR]

Peace...but you do file, right? If you did not file at all, that would be a completely different story.

[DennisR]

According to a previous post, it is about 23.5%.