A Simple, Inexpensive Way to Protest Our Current Tax Code

4/13/2002 | DennisR

[DennisR]

This is my second (recent) post on this subject, so it is just a reminder to send the front page of your 2002 tax booklet to your senior Senator. (Or you could send in the whole tax booklet, like I did, but it costs about $2.50.) Anyway, before you send your senator your little "gift," write "I want a 10% flat tax by 2004!" across the front of it. This should be a yearly occurrence until they get the idea that a 46,000-page tax code is no longer acceptable! And maybe getting tens of thousands of these will make them understand how serious we are about this. The biggest waste of my time is spent doing taxes. So please join the protest! And thanks for your support.

[beGlad]

If it's good enough for God Almighty....(okay, I know that 10% was just the minimum requirement, but it was voluntary.)

[DennisR]

...it oughta be enough for Uncle Sam...

[Fish out of Water]

index bump

[goodnesswins]

Better send one to your accountant too....they will fight this tooth and nail!

[Khepera]

[DennisR]

And what about the tax attorneys? The tax accountants and tax attorneys might have to go out and get real jobs that actually contributed to the economy instead of weighing it down!

[Teacher317]

or you could write in a $43,000 refund. The IRS only charges you with a $500 fine if you are caught. Slavery Reparations just got passed.

[DennisR]

Nice way to contribute to your retirement account...

[Cicero]

Flat tax? I don't want it.

Simplified tax, sure. Lower taxes, sure. Elminate the AMT, certainly. But a pure flat tax would be retrograde if it eliminated credits for dependents, deductions for mortgages, and some of the other basically sound features of the present tax system.

People in this country are already aborting themselves out of existence. Cutting out the credits for dependents would only worsen that dismal trend. And it would penalize married people who already have families.

[Teacher317]

People in this country are already aborting themselves out of existence. Cutting out the credits for dependents would only worsen that dismal trend.

Do you seriously envision a pregnant mother who is wavering between birth and abortion thinking about the tax implications?

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[mvpel]

My dad was just saying that he's glad he hasn't been tithing to the Catholic Church for the last few years...

[mvpel]

Friends of mine are not claiming their new baby as a dependant so that they can avoid saddling her with a Social Security number.

[bjcintennessee]

How about a flat tax that allowed a credit for each dependent?

Our government has used the tax codes for social engineering for too many years, which allowed for tax shelters if you invested in the government's current 'cause of the year'.

We haven't been able to itemize in years, so our home mortgage was never an asset to our tax burden.

The government should close all tax shelters and loopholes for everyone, and the only credit should be for dependents. This should result in a lower, more equitable tax for everyone -- IMnot soHO.

[gfactor]

"I want a 10% flat tax by 2004!"

how will taxable income be defined? its my understanding that tax rates aren't that complex, taxable income IS.

[gfactor]

Friends of mine are not claiming their new baby as a dependant so that they can avoid saddling her with a Social Security number.

sounds stupid. won't she need one when she gets a job? might as well take the money now.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

10%--a good start.

[DennisR]

I think it's a mixture. The tax code is, from what I have heard, 17,000 pages long. Having a flat-rate tax of 10% would be a step in the right direction for simplifying it. For example, why do the Feds have "long-term" and "short-term" capital gains? What business is it of their how long it takes me to make (or, in the case of last year, lose :) ) money? And why can't I deduct ALL of my losses in one year instead of it being limited to $3000? Something has to be done, and maybe this is the best way to get it started. it's either that, or we have to have a well-laid-out plan for controlled revolution.

[gfactor]

And why can't I deduct ALL of my losses in one year instead of it being limited to $3000?

this is a question of defining taxable income -- tax tables are pretty easy to come up with. what they flat-taxers don't tell you is that they really want to redefine taxable income, not tax rates.