Tax amendment

The Congress’s ability to levy taxes shall be limited to income taxes, national sales taxes, import taxes, and export taxes. The Executive branch shall have the ability to establish reasonable usage fees. This amendment repeals the 16th Amendment.

Limitations - All branches of the government shall make no law or ruling imposing any additional taxation means other than provided for by this amendment. The salaries of Congress, the President, and the members of the Cabinet shall not be permitted to increase during any fiscal year Congress increases the income tax rate or the Sales Tax rate. Should the Congress fail to raise enough revenue to cover all spending during a fiscal year, the salaries of the next session of Congress, the President and the members of the Cabinet shall be reduced proportionally. At no time shall Congress collect more than 33% of the income from any individual or business by means of taxes on income or sales in whole or in part.

Income Tax - The Congress shall establish a single tax rate for all individual income and a separate single tax rate for all business income. The tax rates, expressed as a percentage of income, shall be paid equally by all income earners and shall not include any additional provisions, set asides, special classes or exemptions. Congress shall establish a detailed listing of all acceptable expenses that reduce income. The expenses shall be available and applied equally to all individuals and business.

Sales Tax - The Congress shall establish a single tax rate for all sales transactions. The tax rate shall be expressed as a percentage of the standard monetary unit and shall be paid within 30 days of sale. The tax rate shall be applied to all sales equally regardless of the nature of the sale or goods being sold and shall not include any additional provisions, set asides, special classes or exemptions. At no time shall Congress collect more than 10% of any sale.

Import Tax - The Congress may establish a tax rate on any and all imported goods as it sees fit or is required by treaty.

Export Tax - The Congress may establish a tax rate on any and all exported goods as it sees fit or is required by treaty.

Usage Fees - The Executive branch may establish a usage fee to cover the cost of expenses of services provided by the Executive branch. The usage fees shall be limited to services offered by the government on an optional basis that are available to all members of the public, and are delivered within 30 days. The usage fees must be specific in nature and be paid only by the specific consumer of the optional service. The usage fee must be limited to the cost of providing the service and accompanied by a written receipt of the user fee that provides information on what costs are being paid.

Get rid of:

"Income Tax - The Congress shall establish a single tax rate for all individual income and a separate single tax rate for all business income. The tax rates, expressed as a percentage of income, shall be paid equally by all income earners and shall not include any additional provisions, set asides, special classes or exemptions. Congress shall establish a detailed listing of all acceptable expenses that reduce income. The expenses shall be available and applied equally to all individuals and business. "

And I'll buy it. Otherwise don't wast my time, Even Ron Paul's amendment is much better than this.

H.J.RES.45
Sponsor: (introduced 4/25/2001)
Latest Major Action: 5/9/2001 Referred to House subcommitte.
Title: Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States relative to abolishing personal income, estate, and gift taxes and prohibiting the Untied States Government from engaging in the business in competition with its citizens.

Modify to prohibit all income, payroll, gift estate taxes as HR2525 calls for, or we will see European VAT style hidden taxes along with payroll excises to take over in the place of the of the current individual income tax(i.e. personal income tax) that Ron Paul amendment prohibits.

Alan Keyes refers to the income tax as the slave tax that should be abolished as a moral imperative, and replaced with a National Sales Tax:

Keyes on Taxes & Government Spending:

"The income tax in effect makes us vassals to the government – the politicians decide how much income we can keep. No mere “reform” of this slave tax, such as flattening the rate, can correct its fundamental denial of control over our own money. Only the abolition of the income tax itself will restore the basic American principle that our income is both our own money and our own private business - not the government's."

"Replacing the income tax with a national sales tax would rejuvenate independence and responsibility in our citizens. True economic liberty and moral revival go hand in hand."

"A national sales tax would also put the American citizen back in control of national fiscal policy. The best way to curtail government spending is to cut taxes, because they can’t spend what they don’t get. But with a sales tax, we could deny funds to a spendthrift government – and give ourselves a tax cut – whenever we make the private choice to alter our spending and saving habits."

The intent of the structure of the income tax is for political and social mainpulation not revenue collection. The Individual Income tax is maintained to establish and hold every person in the country in perpetual legal jeopardy and to create artificial divisions among the electorate (rich vs. poor; big business vs. the little guy; etc).

The intent of the structure of the income tax is for political and social manipulation not revenue collection.

Well, I disagree in part. It's about both, actually, since so much revenue comes in with it. But the basic point is valid, that we are penalizing the very behavior we wish to see - generating a good or service someone is willing to pay for - and we we should certainly eliminate the income tax.

Robert Heinlein had a good idea. How about a wealth tax? Some percentage of what you have is taxed each year. Those who work to earn more will gain wealth, but the parasites living on daddy's wealth (Ted Kennedy, yes this means you.) will eventually be poor.

The real key to Heinlein's idea is that you get to declare your own estimate for your wealth. The catch is, if someone wants to buy you out for your declared wealth, you have to sell - or pay three years back taxes at some new value declared high enough to make the buyer decide not to buy. No IRS, just let entrepeneurs find the bargains, and either take advantage of them or cause people to declare a fair value.

I'd include a sales tax as well, in part to avoid incentives for wasteful consumption (if the tax man is gonna get it anyway, might as well blow it on something that won't be around at the end of the year). Still, though the total Federal budget should be reduced dramatically, there will always be a need to raise money. It seems to me that those who have money (wealth, not just cash but personal property, etc.) or those who are spending money are the logically valid places to get it. But we surely shouldn't penalize earning money.

People need to be first made aware of just how much tax they are paying.

Will never happen as long as you allow taxes to be hidden behind the veil of product price (i.e. in inflation buisiness tax).

I beleive that establishing a single rate that applies to all would create a back lash against the income tax.

Any tax laid out of the immediate sight of the electorate(e.g. business or corportate income and excise taxes), or bearing the guise of an "Social Insurance" (e.g. SS/Mediscare payroll taxes) serve only as extra shells for Congress to hide the pea under manipulating the electorate's perception of the true burden of largess.

Flat rate is fine, multiple simultaneous tax systems just means multiple peas and manipulation of public perception. Using a foreground and apparent Individual income tax with a background corporate tax system, simply provides the fodder for demogoguery of business as a whipping boy to remove "corporate welfare" in there legitimate deductions of cost to determing income on which to base their tax rates.

Flat marginal rates are not the determinant of a flat effective rate in a income tax by no means, the devil is in the details of what defined as "income" to be taxed and how it is computed.

John Linder (R Texas) offers a single rate, single stage tax proposal that will accomlish the change over in one step, and provide total visibility of taxation to start encouraging the electorate to push for smaller government not just get rid of a noxious tax system. It is a comprehensive bill to kill all income and payroll taxes outright, and provide a revenue neutral replacement:

H.R.2525
SPONSOR: Rep Linder, John (introduced 07/17/2001)
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.
Refer: http://www.fairtax.org & http://www.salestax.org

Robert Heinlein had a good idea. How about a wealth tax?

In simpler words, a tax on property. Annually diminishing the fruit of ones' productivity and destroying right to property and inheritence. No thank you.

Please understand that Heinlein, was an entertaining author, that could mix social commentary with science fiction and make a very good and convincing story. That did not however make his stories particularly conservative or a defender of property rights or a guide to moral living. Read: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress R. Heinlein. "Gospodin, commerade.", Stranger in a Strange Land & his following other Lazaruth Long anecdotes for clear and convincing evidence of where his social and moral views trended.

A wealth tax hits Two out of the first three of Engels/Marx primary tactical goals.

It is always good to remember the philosophical roots of the left which can be found here: Manifesto of the Communist Party, by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels, published in 1848. Among their recommendations are these:

The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degree, all capital from the bourgeoisie, to centralize all instruments of production in the hands of the state ... . Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property ... . These measures will, of course, be different in different countries. Nevertheless, in most advanced countries, the following will be pretty generally applicable.

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes.
2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax.
3. Abolition of all rights of inheritance.
4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
5. Centralization of credit in the banks of the state, by means of a national bank with state capital and an exclusive monopoly.
6. Centralization of the means of communication and transport in he hands of the state.
7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the state; the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan.
8. Equal obligation of all to work. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture.
9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of all the distinction between town and country by a more equable distribution of the populace over the country.
10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labor in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production, etc.

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