I hear ya man, that's why I say all a flat tax does is tax the poor more and taxes the rich less, just to make the right wing bitchers happy.Consumption taxes are perhaps more difficult to evade and easier to administer. They can be structured so they are very progressive. A perfectly flat income tax is a bad idea for reasons I have already mentioned. We have currently an income tax that is virtually flat and not a few economists believe that our flat income tax is a contributor to the transferring of capital from the middle class to the wealthy we have experienced since the 1980s. I personally believe, for a healthy and sustainable economy, it is very important that at least some capital be left with the middle class, particularly the lower middle class!
However, if you try to "opt out", the IRS will almost certainly put you in prison to make an example of you and to discourage others from trying the same.
yes, a wealth tax is very interesting, it was the original tax talked about in the Bible. 10% of everything you own, good year or bad year. Explain to me how it would work. I would hate to see a little old lady have to sell her house she raised her family in because it is now worth more than she can pay the taxes on.The most economically efficient form of taxation is on wealth, not income or consumption. The problem with wealth taxation is governments who try any variant of it invariably retain the other taxes as well, defeating the purpose.
Unless you are wealthy, in which case you can agree to pay back part of the normal fine and walk.
By the way, is anyone here old enough to remember the "luxury tax" fiasco?
the funny thing about a wealth tax is, I really wonder how many U.S. citizens actually have a positive net worth. So almost nobody would owe a tax at the end of the year.yes, a wealth tax is very interesting, it was the original tax talked about in the Bible. 10% of everything you own, good year or bad year. Explain to me how it would work. I would hate to see a little old lady have to sell her house she raised her family in because it is now worth more than she can pay the taxes on.
take the kid finally making 200k, but he owes 70k student loan, 12k credit card, 500k mortgage, 15k car loan...negative net worth, no taxes owedthe funny thing about a wealth tax is, I really wonder how many U.S. citizens actually have a positive net worth. So almost nobody would owe a tax at the end of the year.
yes, a wealth tax is very interesting, it was the original tax talked about in the Bible. 10% of everything you own, good year or bad year. Explain to me how it would work. I would hate to see a little old lady have to sell her house she raised her family in because it is now worth more than she can pay the taxes on.
oh man "toil" that is certainly not an American word. You sound like you may be from one of those other countries where they do actually have a VAT tax, so you should know what you are talking about.The VAT starts out as a wealth tax, taxing the creation of value as opposed to the subsequent disbursements (to toil, as rents to capital, etc). But every country with a VAT then retained income taxes, etc.
yeah, a dumb question for you, you don't own a store so you are not going to be drafted into the federal tax collecting force. Let's just turn every merchant into a tax collector. What's one more regulation and one more federal agency they need to deal with? Doesn't anybody actually make money anymore? Or do we all just work for the federal government.Consumption taxes are easier to administer than ever! What a dumb question... Sales taxes are consumption taxes, they are programmed into Point of Sale Terminals.