If the "best" and the "brightest" men in our country are making "honest mistakes" in paying taxes, having difficulty understanding the in's and out's (or loopholes) within the tax code, where is the hope for the rest of us living in the land of mediocrity? Already, two of President Obama's cabinet have been found avading their tax responsibilities, the latest being Tom Daschle owing $128,000. What I find interesting, here are two easy targets for Republican's to throw into the fire. Yet, they approved Timothy Geithner's nomination, and Tom Daschle is still up in the air. There has been little scolding from the typically ready Republican's to throw the first stone. Is it because none of them are without this sin? My answer sadly, is a definite yes.
It is about flippin' time (pardon the Mormon slang) that we institute the flat tax. Obviously, it is far too complicated to pay your taxes in full, so let's make it easy. Personal taxes will make up 16% of your income. (Figure pulled out of the air.) Cut all of the loopholes, forget refunds, unless hell freezes over and the government has a surplus. Government will get smaller, eliminating the lovely IRS, except they will still have plenty of work investigating corporate and business taxes. I am confident I would have two supporters of instituting the flat tax, Timothy Geithner and Tom Daschle.
4 comments:
I actually agree with you- I think a flat tax makes more sense and would be much easier. I don't understand how people plan on doing it, though- would it come out of your paycheck like it does now? That makes the most sense to me, but I heard somebody saying they would just have a much higher tax on new things you buy. That idea doesn't make any sense to me- any clarifications on how it would actually work????
By the way- I LOVE the new background!
Don't forget to mention Nancy Killefer. She bowed out because of tax issues also. This was obviously not as big of a deal.
Flat tax PLEASE!!!! Life would be so much easier. However, the 16% figure pulled out of thin air would be more like 28%. ALSO, I don't think that taxes should be automatically pulled out of paychecks. Can you imagine the uproar that would happen if people actually KNEW how much they were paying. It would be so much harder to write the check and send it in, rather than having it automatically taken out. I think we have become blind to the amount of taxes we have been paying. We focus more on what we get, not what's been taken out. I really think there would be some major tax reform if people had to physically write the check to the IRS. They would actually see what was being taken and start fighting back, or at least they would start asking more questions and requiring more transparancy and responsibility from the government.
I read a little more about a few countries who do flat tax, Lithuania for one. They actually had a SURPLUS the first few years, because it made tax evation almost impossible. Also, coincidentally (or not) their unemployment went down, and average income went up. They're unemployment rate right now is only around 5%. Is it part of it? Who knows. Also, their flat tax started around 26% and has gone down by one percent each year following, so balance out around 21%. Not too shabby. But I thought that was interesting.
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