How much should we pay in taxes?

[Blues Man]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

Something like a "consumption tax" is probably a good idea, but only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

How do you propose that ?

Do we all have to have our income tattooed on our foreheads so the seller knows that one person has to pay more sales tax than another?

 

[PoliticalChic]

I've always wondered, in a country that has produced a $30 trillion debt, why are we led to believe that paying increased taxes is needed to pay it off? The new democrat infrastructure bill is full of such taxes. And why give us a stimulus and then just take it all back in taxes?

View attachment 474844

Are taxes more or less a way to control people more than a way to generate revenue to pay for an unsurmountable debt that will never be paid down?

Or do some think that we need to keep a tax/debt ratio to keep it from all falling apart?

And what is our "fair share" of paying taxes? I hear this constantly from the government. What is fair?

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Ben Franklin

"It would be thought a hard government
that should tax its people one tenth part."

It makes me laugh every time I read it.

1. Who is to decide what is fair, and what is too much? Some religions suggest tithing, and government demands taxes.
   1. Joseph gathered very much grain: It seems it was customary for Pharaoh to take 10% of the grain in Egypt as a tax. Essentially, Joseph doubled the taxes over the next seven years (Genesis 41:34 mentions one-fifth, that is, 20%).
   2. That 20% figure appears again in the relationship of colonists to North America, and the English crown "....colonists were free to retain all the profits and fruits of their labor save for the crown's 20 percent share of any gold and silver discovered." "Freedom Just Around the Corner: A New American History: 1585-1828," by Walter A. McDougall, p.33
2. At some point, citizens become subjects, serfs, and slaves. And that reflects the history of the Democrat Party.

 

[Blues Man]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

Something like a "consumption tax" is probably a good idea, but only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

One of the things in the Fair Tax Act plan is to set the poverty level and prebate the amount of tax for that level. If your tax is 23%, and you set the poverty level at $18,000, you will be issued a $4,140 rebate on the consumption taxes you pay. So no one pays any tax on the income it takes to survive. And any used items are tax free.

I always though that prebate thing was unnecessary.

Just lower the tax rate or exempt things like clothing, food and medicine from the tax.

 

[Dragonlady]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

You can always tell when someone hasn't the vaguest clue on how the economy works because they always propose a VAT as "fair". Nothing says "I'm a gullible fool" than proposing a VAT in place of a progressive income tax.

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

 

[Blues Man]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

You can always tell when someone hasn't the vaguest clue on how the economy works because they always propose a VAT as "fair". Nothing says "I'm a gullible fool" than proposing a VAT in place of a progressive income tax.

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

People who make more spend more and buy more expensive things so they will pay more than people who make less.

 

[Blues Man]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

You can always tell when someone hasn't the vaguest clue on how the economy works because they always propose a VAT as "fair". Nothing says "I'm a gullible fool" than proposing a VAT in place of a progressive income tax.

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

And under the Fair Tax used goods aren't taxed so people who buy used cars won't pay any tax on them as they do now.

So it's pretty easy for a person to avoid at least some of the taxes

 

[DBA]

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

Exemptions could be made on basic necessities, for everyone, not just the “poor”. Luxury items, no VAT excemption. This could include things from alcohol all the way up to a new yacht or airplane.

 

[WinterBorn]

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

Exemptions could be made on basic necessities, for everyone, not just the “poor”. Luxury items, no VAT excemption. This could include things from alcohol all the way up to a new yacht or airplane.

Once you start adding exemptions you are on your way back to where we are now.

And the politicians can sell exemptions for political gain. The point of a consumption tax is that everyone pays the same percentage. If the leeches in Washington want to raise taxes, they have to do it across the board.

 

[DBA]

Consumption taxes are the MOST regressive forms of tax. The poor and low wage workers pay ALL of the taxes, and high wage workers pay less, because they spend all of their income.

Exemptions could be made on basic necessities, for everyone, not just the “poor”. Luxury items, no VAT excemption. This could include things from alcohol all the way up to a new yacht or airplane.

Once you start adding exemptions you are on your way back to where we are now.

And the politicians can sell exemptions for political gain. The point of a consumption tax is that everyone pays the same percentage. If the leeches in Washington want to raise taxes, they have to do it across the board.

I haven’t really thought the VAT tax through fully. I can see the point of adding excemptions being and issue, but I just figured if it applied across the board to everyone, it wouldn’t be hard to enforce. I can see that deciding what is taxed as being a political football with the left claiming that taxing alcohol, for example, unfairly affects the poor or some other such nonsense.

 

[Toddsterpatriot]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

Something like a "consumption tax" is probably a good idea, but only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

Complicated to administer.

 

[harmonica]

I've always wondered, in a country that has produced a $30 trillion debt, why are we led to believe that paying increased taxes is needed to pay it off? The new democrat infrastructure bill is full of such taxes. And why give us a stimulus and then just take it all back in taxes?

View attachment 474844

Are taxes more or less a way to control people more than a way to generate revenue to pay for an unsurmountable debt that will never be paid down?

Or do some think that we need to keep a tax/debt ratio to keep it from all falling apart?

And what is our "fair share" of paying taxes? I hear this constantly from the government. What is fair?

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from Ben Franklin

"It would be thought a hard government
that should tax its people one tenth part."

It makes me laugh every time I read it.

Spend less --tax less

 

[WinterBorn]

We should pay 23% to 24% in taxes. But we should pay it as a consumption tax. And every single person pays the same amount.

It is called the Fair Tax Act. The only federal taxes we should pay is a 23% sales tax. No income tax. No payroll tax. No telephone/build911/surcharge tax. No federal fuel tax.

And you would get a rebate on the 23% tax up to the poverty line, so no one is taxed on what it takes to survive. You get the rebate. I get the rebate. Elon Musk gets the rebate.

And if politicians want to raise taxes, they have to raise taxes on every single tax payer, not just select groups.

And there would be no withholding on paychecks. You make $10 an hour and work 40 hours? You get $400. The 23% tax would be on all new goods and services. Buy used? No tax.

Something like a "consumption tax" is probably a good idea, but only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

only if it is progressive, not an exploitative, regressive "same percent for all".

Complicated to administer.

That is one of the biggest problems in our current tax system.

We, in the US, spend $500 billion per year on tax compliance. Not on paying taxes. But on figuring out how to pay the least tax in our convoluted system.