Lower Taxes, lower spending, simplified tax system
No one likes paying taxes, but we must have some system of revenue for government. The issue really is whether or not taxes are being used wisely, legally, and efficiently. In addition, is our current system the best way to collect taxes? I would say no to both of those issues.
Our government punishes people for saving money, getting out of debt, and selling products. We actually tax all the things we should encourage: we tax people when they buy, when they sell, when they produce, as they work, when they retire, and when they die. Taxes are so complicated that people need tax preparation software and tax advisers. Every decision we make in life seems to boil down to one question: “How will this affect my taxes?”
The conversation in DC centers on needing more “revenue.” The conversation should be about spending less and changing the way we tax. There’s no question that the system MUST be simplified, and we must spend money more efficiently. Currently almost 50% of all people pay no federal income tax; that inequity must stop. Every person in America should pay something in taxes, even if it is a small amount. When someone receives benefits not from his own work but from the work of others, that is the redistribution of wealth. Instead each person should carry his or her own load.
Corporate taxes, payroll taxes, income taxes, estate taxes, fees, and, now, value added taxes are being discussed on top of the other taxes. The time is long overdue for a massive change in our tax burden and our tax code. Our outdated tax system does not need a remodel; we need to tear it down and create a new system. I propose changing our system from taxing income to taxing consumption with a simple system like the FairTax. The FairTax eliminates the income tax, estate tax, corporate tax, and payroll tax and replaces it with a simple system of an across-the-board consumption tax for all Americans. If you are wealthy and buy more products, you pay more tax. If you purchase very few products, you pay very little tax.
The income tax did not become an American fixture until 1913. (By the way, the income tax was originally only on the “wealthy” in America.) The form 1040 in the year 1935 was accompanied by a two-page instruction booklet; the corresponding instruction booklet for 2007 was 155 pages. In fact, today’s short form, at 48 lines, has double the number of lines of the 1945 version of the standard 1040 tax return. To put this in perspective, the current tax regulations are NINE times longer than the Bible at over seven million words. If you want to get answers to your tax questions, there are more than 1,700 publications, forms, and instructions on the IRS website.
The IRS was appropriated $11.6 billion in fiscal year 2010, which is more than the amount Congress appropriated for missile defense programs. In January 2008, the IRS employed more than 100,000 people—more than the combined number of employees (as of January 2008) at the Departments of State, Labor, Energy, Housing & Urban Development, and Education, along with the Census Bureau. When you pay your taxes, remember that a huge portion of your tax burden is used to pay for the collection of your taxes.
Keeping all this in perspective, the enemy is not the IRS or the staff at the IRS. The tax problem is based in Congress and career politicians who write the tax rules. They have gone to Washington, DC, year after year with promises to make this better; instead they have made it worse. We do not need a tweak in the tax code; we need a flush. The tax code has become a method of behavior control, and Americans have allowed it by continually electing people who enjoy the power.
I support a simple flat tax for every person and corporate entity in this country. You live here and make money here you pay your tax. Done this way we all pay our fair share. No deductions and no tax code no one can understand.
The Fair Tax would be the fair tax. A tax on consumption, not at every step in the creation of a product to be passed to the consumer. Please research the Fair Tax proposal if you have not already and be prepared to state your position.
I’ve done research on a flat tax and not only would it be more fair, if done properly, it would reduce the workforce needed by the IRS.
I’m by no means putting your research down Ms. Woodard….but did you find in your research where the flat tax was tried in the US?
It started 100 years ago…and we still have it. The only difference is we have 100 years of government ‘tinkering’ added on top of it.
A flat tax would reset the system, but do nothing to stop the monstrousity coming back again…and quickly.
The FairTax (a bill in both the house and senate) would untax production, investment and savings. You can make as much money as you want, untaxed. you can save as much as you want, untaxed. You can invest as much as you want, untaxed.
You ONLY pay taxes once, at the point of retail consumption on new goods and services.
Extensive studies show that we pay 19-25% of the cost of an item in embedded taxes passed down through the process.
Be it taxes the employers pay, taxes on the goods they use or the energy they use to create it.
With the current federal tax code removed, market forces will drive those prices down (use Walmart $4 drugs as an example, how quick did others follow?). So market prices will effectively remain the same once the 23% revenue neutral FairTax is implemented.
Think 23% is too high……that what it will cost to pay for the current government we have.
Not only that but every legal American household will not pay taxes up to the poverty level, so you’ll receive 23% of the poverty level for your household in the form of a monthly prebate.
So combine 100% of your income and the prebate with everyone paying taxes, not just those producing and earning and including illegals, those paid in cash and tourists and you have an economy that can grow with no limits.
The US would become the biggest tax haven in the world.
Where do you think companies will want to set up shop?
Job creation, money pumping into the economy for investment…you name it.
I’ll be happy to talk to anyone about the FairTax and answer any questions you may have.
‘Contact Us’ via the OKFairTax website.
A flat tax would tax everyone who works or owns a business at a flat rate. I don’t see how that’s really fair for everyone because we have plenty of people working under the table as well as people not paying into the system but taking out of it.
Currently close to 50% of people do not pay taxes.
Why not tax everyone (worker or not) at one single rate?
FairTax would do that and more.
Plus the current tax system started out as a flat tax…whats to stop what we have now coming back?
I’m also a huge supporter of the Fair Tax. I’d love to hear Mr. Lankford’s opinion on the idea.
I am a proponet of the FairTax. It removes the built in punishment for earning / investment and saving. We must have a way to provide revenue for the operation of the Federal government, but our system should be as consistent as possible and as neutral as possible. The 67,000 pages of IRS code are neither neutral nor consistent. We cannot change the status quo when Congress still has the power to play with tax deductions and tax benefits for their pet people group or company.
There are two systems that might work but both are flawed. However, I believe the fair tax to be the most effective. The single largest issue about any income tax, rather it be a regressive tax like we currently have or a flat tax, is how to define income? The percentage that is utilized to tax would be irrelevant until a simplified definition of the word income is found. I heard an economics professor tell me one time that the definition of the word income is somwhere around 2700 words long. Simplify that and a flat tax might work. Until then let’s stop punishing people for success and expand our tax base from 70,000,000 to almost 300,000,000 like the fair tax would.