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Countries with Flat Taxes:
It would appear that the ex-soviet states have largely embraced flat taxes...perhaps because their populations have given up on socialist wealth-redistribution schemes?
That means flat tax is communist.
Make all income up to the poverty rate of income exempt from federal taxes (except for FICA, which is their own obligation and to their direct benefit). The flat tax would only be applied to income over the poverty rate. We might as well proclaim it up front because there is really no other option in regards to the poor.2. It is not as fair. Any economist will tell you, the less money you have, the more you personally value each dollar. A person making only $20k a year will be dramatically affected by a $5k tax, while a person making $200k a year won't miss the $50k as much.
Indeed.
Not even bothering to account for those who already can't afford the tax as is at the moment. How many people would be pushed into poverty because of such a tax? Families that literally live paycheck to paycheck for example. I assume it would be a great number.
This in turn would create more of a turn to government programs, where if the people who want the flat tax get their way, won't be there.
So what will those people now be who need help?
SOL & JWF.
BOOOO-RING!Forget a flat tax. FairTax is where it's at.
Americans For Fair Taxation: Americans For Fair Taxation
What is the FairTax plan?
The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.
The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.
The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.
The FairTax:
- Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
- Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
- Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
- Allows American products to compete fairly
- Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
- Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
- Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
- Abolishes the IRS
First of all the IRS won't be eliminated, as there will need to be some sort of federal enforcement structure to see to it that the tax gets collected.
Secondly, the "fair tax" does nothing at all to address the real problem: Bloated buraucracy and its attendant profligate spending.
The only flat, fair direct tax on the populace is no tax.
If they weren't, more people would pay attention, understand them and we wouldn't be where we are.
Most, save the Balkan states. We must be careful, however, to compare the growth rates of the respective countries, as opposed to their actual incomes, because virtually all of them were starving to death 20 years ago.
No, regurgitating talking points that Boortz re-re-re-re-re-re-rehashes with alarming regularity is boring.Dude, Dude, Dude.......taxes are always BOOOO-RING!
I agree, there would have to be some government entity to collect and disburse the collected taxes, but the IRS as we know it would serve no useful purpose any more.
What the fairtax does address is keeping all of your paycheck and spending, saving, investing as YOU want to. You are only taxed on goods and services you choose to purchase. You are in control of your own taxation. Lower taxes and more dollars in the pockets of individuals and businesses would energize our economy like nothing we've ever seen. While I certainly want a smaller government, lowered deficeits and a balanced budget, revenues would greatly increase due to a more free and energetic economy.
Make all income up to the poverty rate of income exempt from federal taxes (except for FICA, which is their own obligation and to their direct benefit). The flat tax would only be applied to income over the poverty rate. We might as well proclaim it up front because there is really no other option in regards to the poor.2. It is not as fair. Any economist will tell you, the less money you have, the more you personally value each dollar. A person making only $20k a year will be dramatically affected by a $5k tax, while a person making $200k a year won't miss the $50k as much.
Indeed.
Not even bothering to account for those who already can't afford the tax as is at the moment. How many people would be pushed into poverty because of such a tax? Families that literally live paycheck to paycheck for example. I assume it would be a great number.
This in turn would create more of a turn to government programs, where if the people who want the flat tax get their way, won't be there.
So what will those people now be who need help?
SOL & JWF.
The economy that would result would be so exuberant and "flush" with opportunities that the poor who could would escape their situation and happily join the ranks of those who pay their share and have a real stake in the economy and the country.
Make all income up to the poverty rate of income exempt from federal taxes (except for FICA, which is their own obligation and to their direct benefit). The flat tax would only be applied to income over the poverty rate. We might as well proclaim it up front because there is really no other option in regards to the poor.
The economy that would result would be so exuberant and "flush" with opportunities that the poor who could would escape their situation and happily join the ranks of those who pay their share and have a real stake in the economy and the country.
I disagree that there 'is no other option in regards to the poor.' There is always the option of allowing the states and/or private sector tend to the needs of the poor.
Also, nobody is too poor to pay a reasonable percentage of their income in taxes and thereby participate in the system and rightfully take their place as responsible and interested citizens. If they are too poor to do that, they are most likely in homeless shelters or halfway houses and not filing any taxe returns at all anyway or they are headed in that direction.
But you are right that a vigorous economy is the very best and only reliable means of helping people out of poverty.
Meanwhile, if we will get the federal government totally out of the business of dispensing charity, benefits, or favors of any kind, it will need a lot less money and the system will be far less corrupting for those in government and those who are beneficiaries of government largesse.
No, regurgitating talking points that Boortz re-re-re-re-re-re-rehashes with alarming regularity is boring.Dude, Dude, Dude.......taxes are always BOOOO-RING!
I agree, there would have to be some government entity to collect and disburse the collected taxes, but the IRS as we know it would serve no useful purpose any more.
What the fairtax does address is keeping all of your paycheck and spending, saving, investing as YOU want to. You are only taxed on goods and services you choose to purchase. You are in control of your own taxation. Lower taxes and more dollars in the pockets of individuals and businesses would energize our economy like nothing we've ever seen. While I certainly want a smaller government, lowered deficeits and a balanced budget, revenues would greatly increase due to a more free and energetic economy.
The problem is spending, not finding a better way to shake down the peasants to pay for that spending.
Yep, a flat tax. Everyone regardless of income pays the same $ amount.
The benefits we get from the federal gov. is equal to everyone.
Yep, a flat tax. Everyone regardless of income pays the same $ amount.
The benefits we get from the federal gov. is equal to everyone.
Um.....no, you don't understand.
Everyone regardless of income pays the same % amount.
For example if you made $100,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $10,000
If you only made $50,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $5,000
Yep, a flat tax. Everyone regardless of income pays the same $ amount.
The benefits we get from the federal gov. is equal to everyone.
Um.....no, you don't understand.
Everyone regardless of income pays the same % amount.
For example if you made $100,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $10,000
If you only made $50,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $5,000
What would corporations pay?
Yep, a flat tax. Everyone regardless of income pays the same $ amount.
The benefits we get from the federal gov. is equal to everyone.
Um.....no, you don't understand.
Everyone regardless of income pays the same % amount.
For example if you made $100,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $10,000
If you only made $50,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $5,000
What would corporations pay?
Um.....no, you don't understand.
Everyone regardless of income pays the same % amount.
For example if you made $100,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $10,000
If you only made $50,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $5,000
What would corporations pay?
You do realize that any tax a company incurs is passed on to the consumer don't you?
There should be no corporate tax at all. Everyone would benefit, and since it is regressively payed by the poor or lowest income they would benefit the most, as well as by the availability of greater opportunities for employment. Fewer corsporations would take jobs and corporate headquarters overseas.What would corporations pay?
You do realize that any tax a company incurs is passed on to the consumer don't you?
Um.....no, you don't understand.
Everyone regardless of income pays the same % amount.
For example if you made $100,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $10,000
If you only made $50,000/yr, then you would pay 10% = $5,000
What would corporations pay?
You do realize that any tax a company incurs is passed on to the consumer don't you?
What would corporations pay?
You do realize that any tax a company incurs is passed on to the consumer don't you?
That seems to be so incomprehensible to some.
Every dime paid in taxes by corporations is taken out of salaries and benefits to their employees who thus pay less in taxes - or - it is included in the cost of goods and services sold which reduces the profits of businesses purchasing those good and services thus resulting in less taxes paid. And that doesn't even factor higher costs to the incividual consumer.
So, you really can't tax corporations without sticking it to the individual taxpayer in one way or another.
Make all income up to the poverty rate of income exempt from federal taxes (except for FICA, which is their own obligation and to their direct benefit). The flat tax would only be applied to income over the poverty rate. We might as well proclaim it up front because there is really no other option in regards to the poor.
The economy that would result would be so exuberant and "flush" with opportunities that the poor who could would escape their situation and happily join the ranks of those who pay their share and have a real stake in the economy and the country.
I disagree that there 'is no other option in regards to the poor.' There is always the option of allowing the states and/or private sector tend to the needs of the poor.
Also, nobody is too poor to pay a reasonable percentage of their income in taxes and thereby participate in the system and rightfully take their place as responsible and interested citizens. If they are too poor to do that, they are most likely in homeless shelters or halfway houses and not filing any taxe returns at all anyway or they are headed in that direction.
But you are right that a vigorous economy is the very best and only reliable means of helping people out of poverty.
Meanwhile, if we will get the federal government totally out of the business of dispensing charity, benefits, or favors of any kind, it will need a lot less money and the system will be far less corrupting for those in government and those who are beneficiaries of government largesse.
We talk about a flat tax as if was do-able. It will never be politically do-able if it doesn't recognize that people who want to survive on their own may only scrape by and would be pushed into a level below bare subsistence.
It is true the state would be the best way to handle the poor, they are state problems; better still the counties, in form of the office of the Township Trustee. That is the Indiana system; the trustee is the person to go to for the poor who don't have anywhere else to go in an emergency.
The Trustee will intercede on their behalf with a landlord, employer, provide for food, or for medical help. The Trustee becomes familiar with their case, and helps them to escape the morass they sometimes create for themselves, attempts to return them to self reliance. The trustee gets them back on their feet rather than underwriting their mistakes.
Still, in the theory that county offices could be made more efficient, there are proposals in Indiana of doing away with the Trustee and rolling it into other offices to eliminate duplication and efficiency of size considerations.
But getting a handle on the direction weve been going for many decades would create a chance to reverse things away from the uber-state model to the local model
We're closer than we've been in 70 years; We'd have a cat fight on our hands; we're talking about throwing out progressivism here.But a reasonable flat tax would not push anybody below bare subsistence. I grew up at a time where anybody anticipating making more than $400/year had income tax withheld from their check no matter how small the check. That was no different from social security being withheld from that same check. You knew it would be that way when you accepted the job. And a flat tax percentage deducted would not create the overpayments or underpayments that occur when the amount of wages/earnings change under the current progressive tax system.
A flat tax could allow a personal exemption just as exists now. What is it now $3650 per person? If a person earned below whatever level is deemed appropriate, he would get his withholdings returned, but meanwhile he is experiencing paying taxes as a citizen, he is learning how to file a tax return, and he is cognizant of the effect that tax policy adopted by his elected representatives.
It would be a healthy thing and, if we can continue the liberating and freedom apprecaiting spirit of the Tea Partiers, Tax Protest Groups, 9/12ers, etc., the idea can be sold to all thinking Americans. I think there might possibly be enough of those left to get it done.
