BUSH PRAISES FLAT TAX

The Drudge Report ^ | 2-24-2005

[ApesForEvolution]

Hogwash and horse puckey!

GO FAIRTAX! http://www.FAIRTAX.org

Abolish the IRS and destroy the IRC!!

[ApesForEvolution]

H&R Block is actually IN FAVOR of the NSRT!

>>>

???

Link please?! TIA!

[ApesForEvolution]

TFTP a_g.

[ancient_geezer]

Hey! What would happen to H&R Block?

They'd be as busy as ever under any flat tax that has been proposed to date:

Flat Tax as Seen by a Tax Preparer
by Vern Hoven

Congress still gets to define what is taxable under the flat tax, a single rate doesn't cure the problems of an income tax.

[ctdonath2]

The problem I have with ANY new tax is ...

The original income tax was very simple (one page) and low (1-6%). Flat tax, NRST, Fair Tax, whatever ... all claim simplicity and relief.

Since then, that simple low income tax has mutated into a complex high tax. While I certainly welcome any tax reform - especially to one-page low-percentage - I fear any new tax would promptly mutate into an equivalent, if not worse, monster.

There is a multi-billion dollar industry in place, and everyone wants their special pet deductions (or pet fees imposed on others). Nobody will settle for "a dime from every dollar is enough."

[lewislynn]

Congress still gets to define what is taxable under the flat tax,

As if imposing an exorbitant tax on virtually everything is so much better.

[unixfox]

Slovakia was a communist country, and figured out that it needed to revamp their tax code.

So...when will the "Land of Free" do the same?

[TXBSAFH]

Russia has a 10% flat tax and their economy is booming.

[numberonepal]

Also adds more paperwork and we know what that has done in the present IRS system.

What? For whom? Certainly you're joking.

[MattinNJ]

BTTT

[MacDorcha]

"Who knows. Maybe he only has a baseball bat, but no balls. It seems we heard more about the bat than anything else. :-)"

Anyone else remeber hearing Monica talking on TV about it?
"Think of your thumb"

I almost died. :p

[ancient_geezer]

As if imposing an exorbitant tax on virtually everything is so much better.

Hint, cut government.

 

23%........... Effective total federal tax rate as % of gross expenditure for consumption:

15% ..... rate if Social Security and Medicare were eliminated
14% .......... rate if Nat'l Endowment for the Arts were eliminated
12%........ rate if Dept. of Education were eliminated
10%.......... rate if welfare & foreign aid were eliminated
etc.

So lets look at what the maximum it would take to fund those functions clearly authorized under Article I Section 8 of the Constitution, in current dollars:

http://w3.access.gpo.gov/usbudget/fy2001/guide02.html#Spending

• $334 Billion --- Defense & Military related expenditure
• $ 31 Billion ---- Administration of Justice
• $ 16 Billion ---- General Government
• $199 Billion ---- Interest on the Debt
  =========================
  $580 Billion ---- Total

Institute an across the board, Flat rate, single stage National Retail Sales Tax, which taxes all imports and domestic products with the same rate.

Replacing all current federal tax law with a retail sales tax would be 23% on new goods and services paid and receipted at the retail register. No hidden tax, no exceptions, exemptions everyone participates.

Such a tax acts in a natural manner to encourage the elimination of excess government functions through visibility of burden among all constituencies of the electorate.

The total federal government budget would move from $2,000 billions towards something less than $580 billions calculated.

The across the board federal tax rate on new goods and services would decline towards less than7%.

As tax rate on sales decreases the economic burden on retail items, the sales volumes and growth in the economy would be tremendous allowing even further reductions in tax rates below that less than 6.7% theoretic level.

That is what I perceive as the ultimate achievements possible under a National Retail Sales Tax structured in the manner of the revenue bill H.R.25. Simple common sense applied to the principal of TANSTAAFEL,( no free lunch, everyone participates in paying their way in proportion to the benefit the extract from their consumption.) encourages the natural change in attitudes required of the electorate as regards the burden of government largess in their lives.

Thomas Hobbes from Leviathan

• It is fairer to tax people on what they extract from the economy, as roughly measured by their consumption, than to tax them on what they produce for the economy, as roughly measured by their income

Hmmmmmm....... It's do able, with time and effort, once the blinders are removed from the electorate.

[marron]

One of the things about working overseas is seeing how other countries do their income tax. In most places I worked, where they had an income tax, it was handled at the employer level. If your income is "x", then a percentage is withheld from your paycheck. Done.

You do nothing. No annual filings at all. No special deductions. Nothing. No April 15 madness ever.

I asked, what happens if you over-pay? People just look at me funny, after all, how is that going to happen? Well, they say, if they take too much this week, then I guess they'll take a little less next week. Its not an issue.

The point is, that our system where ordinary workers have to get involved figuring out deductions and so forth is silly, and should be ended now. An ordinary employee should not have to deal with this at all.

If you are a business owner, as many of us are, including many "ordinary employees" who also have businesses, its different, they have to deal with tax questions. But its complicated by having to mix your incomes. Your "ordinary employee" salary should not be mixed with your business income. The mixing would not be an issue, though, if we instituted a flat tax. If you have income from another source, it wouldn't kick you into a higher tax bracket. The tax rate just is what it is.

[smokeyb]

H&R block is hopeful of the FAIR TAX passing. They'll make tons more helping people plan investments than they ever made hiring people to do tax returns for a few bucks. They don't do JUST income tax returns. They ALSO do SALES TAX RETURNS! The same is true of CPAs. I have talked with TAX CPAs personally. Looking for the link where they have stated this.

[lawdude]

"Hey! What would happen to H&R Block?"

My sis-in-law works for H&R. From what she says, most (many) that she deals with couldn't handle a 10% calculation.

[Soul Seeker]

Agreed. LOL

Congress is the impediment to any change.

Right now they are trying to impede reform in S.S. I think we'll win that fight, but I hope we win it this year so the next we can make tax reform a priority.

I prefer the Flat Tax overall. It's simpler for the public to understand, and will not be the same shock to their systems that a NRST would be initially. Seems the President is leaning towards a Flat Tax himself.

[CSM]

"The point is, that our system where ordinary workers have to get involved figuring out deductions and so forth is silly, and should be ended now. An ordinary employee should not have to deal with this at all."

Exactly what would you propose to keep the government in check? If you hide the burden from the "ordinary employee" in the disguise of simplification, how do you ensure the government remains accountable to the "ordinary employee"?

[Principled]

Russia has a 10% flat tax and their economy is booming.

THey have more than just a flat tax on income.

[dcnd9]

I'm all for abolishing the Fed IRS, Education, Commerce and Transportation Depts!

If they can collect NRST without corruption or creating mini State IRS's.... I'm there!

[esoxmagnum]

I think the purpose is that the more thats in the general fund, the more that is spent.

Take out of the general fund, less is spent.

No one could have imagined the cost of Iraq and Afghanistan, and he went through with his policy.

Reagan ran a huge deficit, but it helped our economy immensely.

We have always had a deficit of one type or another, even after WW2 when people say we had no deficit, we clearly did, we owed some serious capital to all them holders of war bonds. Thats deficit also, and it helped our economy grow by leaps and bounds.