I think that Mike Huckabee favors the Fair Tax proposal to replace the federal Income Tax and Social Security tax (FICA) with a 22% federal sales tax.
Personally, I hate the federal income tax. I hate paying H&R Block or Turbo Tax to help me fill it out. I hate keeping track of all of my records so that I have the information to fill it out. I hate the idea that 99% of the thousands of pages of income tax law is filled with exemptions and deductions that were written into the law in order to help the rich and politically powerful escape from paying the taxes, leaving middle-class people like me to pay.
Actually that is about what it would take. Just think, if you earned a million dollars in a year, and spent only 100 thousand of it, your total tax would be 2.2% of your income. and, there would be 900 thousand dollars pulled out of the economy and not being spent.
That's what is wrong with both the flat tax proposal and the value added tax. Or sales tax.
You reduce whatever you tax. If you tax production, you reduce production. If you tax sales, you reduce sales.
If you reduce sales, you reduce production. If you reduce production you reduce employment, if you reduce employment you reduce sales. If you reduce sales you reduce production. If you reduce production you reduce employment. If you reduce employment you reduce Sales. If you reduce sales . . .
It is called regression because it causes regression instead of progress. Sales Taxes are Regressive. THEY SLOW PROGRESS.
Most people don't make a million dollars a year. Using more realistic numbers, say $50K a year, would mean you spend $5K and sit on $45K. Who could do that?
And getting rid of the IRS altogether doesn't bother me much, even if the grand experiment doesn't go quite as planned. You adjust and tweek - without the complexities of the IRS and the need to go to a CPA who just tells you it's all "gray areas" anyways, and "sign here, it's your ass if anything's out of order on this 22 page form."
Really John? Will you start doing my budget? A couple things though. I like to eat, every day. I live in the northeast, so I need heat in the winter. I wear most of my clothes till my wife makes me throw them away, so every once in awhile I have to buy some new stuff. There are some other frivolous expenditures that I can do without, razors, soap, TP, electric lights, et cetera. Hell, if you get get it down to $10k a year there could be something in it for you!
I don't think so. I may have not made myself clear. In response to Karl, I was trying to point out that only spending 10% percent of your income doesn't seem like much if you make a million bucks a year. Change that million to $50K and try only spending $5K. It's unrealistic. My mortgage payment alone is nearly three times that. To me, the million dollar example is a poor one and more a comment on wealth redistribution than a fair tax structure.
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Comments: 10
Personally, I hate the federal income tax. I hate paying H&R Block or Turbo Tax to help me fill it out. I hate keeping track of all of my records so that I have the information to fill it out. I hate the idea that 99% of the thousands of pages of income tax law is filled with exemptions and deductions that were written into the law in order to help the rich and politically powerful escape from paying the taxes, leaving middle-class people like me to pay.
Actually that is about what it would take. Just think, if you earned a million dollars in a year, and spent only 100 thousand of it, your total tax would be 2.2% of your income. and, there would be 900 thousand dollars pulled out of the economy and not being spent.
That's what is wrong with both the flat tax proposal and the value added tax. Or sales tax.
You reduce whatever you tax. If you tax production, you reduce production. If you tax sales, you reduce sales.
If you reduce sales, you reduce production. If you reduce production you reduce employment, if you reduce employment you reduce sales. If you reduce sales you reduce production. If you reduce production you reduce employment. If you reduce employment you reduce Sales. If you reduce sales . . .
It is called regression because it causes regression instead of progress. Sales Taxes are Regressive. THEY SLOW PROGRESS.
Hmmmm. Put blindfold on and sign...hope for best.