Posted on 04/18/2016 9:06:11 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
WASHINGTON - Almost everyone agrees that America's income tax is too complex. Considering this, you might expect that simplifying the income tax would be a slam dunk. Sure enough, the various presidential candidates have proposed sweeping overhauls. But any agreement is mostly rhetorical. The odds that the next president, whoever it be, will engineer genuine tax simplification are negligible. On this Tax Day, it's worth pondering why.
Make no mistake: I think we'd be better off with a simpler system. By this, I mean a system with a broader tax base and lower rates. I'd eliminate most tax preferences and cut the top personal rate (now 43.4 percent) to 30 percent. There would be no preferential rate on dividends, interest and capital gains (profits on the sale of stocks, bonds and other assets) - income enjoyed mostly by the upper middle class and wealthy. They'd pay as much or more in taxes as today.
Here are some tax preferences (aka, "loopholes" or subsidies) I'd repeal along with government estimates of how much tax revenues would rise in 2016:
• The exclusion from taxable income of employer-paid health insurance ($211 billion).
• The deductibility of state and local taxes ($84 billion).
• The deductibility of mortgage interest ($62 billion).
• The deduction for charitable contributions ($54 billion).
• The partial tax-free status of Social Security ($40 billion).
In total, the income tax would raise as much revenue as it does now, but top rates would be lower and preferences fewer. If more money were needed to close budget deficits (as is likely), I'd slowly introduce a carbon tax. Still, I would keep two big tax preferences, because they advance crucial national goals.
(Excerpt) Read more at realclearmarkets.com ...
This analysis is correct as long as the President is beholding to the political special interest groups. There is one candidate running for President who is beholding only to the citizens and that candidate is Donald J. Trump.
Too many hands in the pot........................
I wonder what this socialist thinks about fairly taxing EBT in general, SNAP, WICs, AFDC, TANF, Section 8 or EITC entitlements.
The reason the tax system will never be reformed is elites can afford to hire CPA’s to do their taxes.
If outside ‘help’ was outlawed these corrupt blowhard elites would have the system reformed before April 15 of next year...
Repeal 501(c). Repeal the concept of “non-profit”. Most of them are money stashes for the Left.
Make the endowments of Harvard and the rest taxable. Likewise remove the tax-exempt status of the Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and all the rest of the Left-funding “foundations”.
—yep—I suspect there are at least as many accounting firms as there are law firms in the country—they aren’t going to take kindly to “tax reform” —unless it would make tax forms even more complex—
What language do you zpeak?
Been twice through the Mediterranean countries and parts of Northern Africa. Your $60 shoes at our stores are 500% more costly throughout places like Italy, Spain and so forth.
I bring this up on this tax reform thread because I see this where the USA is going with our socialists.
No matter what we reform things go like cancer with taxes unless you do the two basic things.
#1. Shrink the size of government.
#2. Deny people access to the Treasury for all but a brief time unless elderly or massively disabled.
I read another article about half of American households paying no taxes which is a problem.
Who can say they are out of work for years unless....
They are on drugs.
They are lazy.
They are unwilling to look for a lesser paying job when their prior job stopped or the profession went belly up.
Stop the benefits and behavior will change. Then you get more tax payers.
Trump wouldn’t get any further than the rest because the current tax system is designed to help those who donate the most to the political system.
It is important to know that there were three major reasons the modern tax code was adopted, none of which had anything to do with the real reason for putting the modern tax system in place (redistribution):
1) the system was touted for its simplicity. The original 1913 form was one page.
2) the rates were low, and for the large majority of Americans, non-existent. Rates started at $20,000, which was a ton of money in 1913. Most Americans didn’t make that much. Moreover, the rates went through six brackets from 1/2% at the lowest rate to the top rate of 6%.
3) Congress was having trouble keeping up with the constant tariff revisions that were becoming a full-time job for congress (like patronage was in the 1880s).
Any system that replaces the current one has to deal with the first two issues.
If Donald J. Trump is able to mobilize the public behind him and take the Presidency away from the Establishment, then there is a good chance he will be able to convince the Congress to go along. To think otherwise is to acquiesce to the corrupt system we have, and I am not ready to do that quite yet. Are you?
I just did my taxes last week.
It was a disaster..........................
Even if it is only a few dollars out of their wages or government handout.
It's like Dopey Opie Obama said - everyone should have some skin in the game.
(although this isn't what he meant)
Even if it is only a few dollars worth of skin.
The 45% who pay no taxes at all might think differently about government handouts and other spending if they knew some of it was coming out of their pockets.
"This Week" on ABC
Jan 11, 2009
BARACK OBAMA: What we have to do is to take a look at our structural deficit, how are we paying for government, what are we getting for it, and how do we make the system more efficient?
STEPHANOPOULOS: And eventually sacrifice from everyone.
BARACK OBAMA: Everybody is going to have to give. Everybody is going to have to have some skin in the game.
I think you are confused. Congress created the monstrosity that is the US Federal tax code, and only Congress can fix it. As folks where I’m sojourning this spring on the other side of The Pond would say, “not bloody likely.”
Short of a Convention of the States promulgating a amendment to repeal the 16th Amendment and its subsequent ratification, I don’t think there is a politically feasible way of simplifying the tax code — every deduction and credit has a vocal constituency that can sway a goodly portion of Congress.
A complex tax code is precisely what the tax lawyers want. They benefit from the code and they made the laws. Everyone should be paying a share and all able bodied should be forced to work for their handouts.
Most taxpayers I know pay about 50% of their income in taxes. It is criminal to suggest they pay more, but hey, that’s what happens when the federal empire is in place to enrich the lawyers and rat politicians.
Ok, I can understand you disillusionment, but why don’t you give Donald J. Trump a couple of years while you organize the Convention of the States. The CoS is still a good idea to get rid of the 16th and 17th Amendments, but a lot of good can be done just cleaning out the Code of Federal Regulations.
This guy sounds like a jackass who wouldn’t be happy until we are all wearing rags and living in grass huts.
You’re going to tax me if my employer pays for my health care, but if my employer doesn’t pay for my health care, I’ve got to pay a penalty instead? Not bloody likely!
The five “loopholes” he lists would target the middle class working people, just like taxes always do.
The loss of the mortgage interest deduction will price too many people out of being able to afford a home; state and local taxes amount to multiple taxation of the same dollars; charities will lose out on billions that will no longer be given. SS has always been a Democrat Ponzi swindle. They use your money for 30-50 years and then want to tax YOU for the privilege of getting some of it back (hoping you will die sooner rather than later).
Such a deal!
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