The US Tax code is now over 49, 600 pages.
We are all taxed twice on our money.
We pay taxes on money we save and earn and then on the interest, capital gains, or dividends that we might earn on our money.
And of course we pay taxes on all the goods we buy.
We need tax savings not tax-shelters.
In the 60's, the US had 90 percent of all large companies in the world. It is down now to less then 50 percent. This is due to aloud of reasons , but when a corporation finds it more profitable to make money in another country , they are going move there. Can you blame them? I always take the best deal myself.
Many congressman and senators want to get rid of the IRS.
Tom Delay
Jim Demint
Denny Hastert
John Lindner
and others
There are two theories of a better tax system.
National Sales tax and a flat tax.
National Sales tax (Value added Tax or VAT)
This levies taxes on goods and services but not on savings. A bill has been proposed to make a 23 percent tax on all purchases. Now this sounds hefty, but you have to look at it like this. Your salary isn't taxed anymore and corporate taxes would almost disappear, making goods cheaper. Some say that if the VAT was introduced that the price of goods would rise forcing people to stop buying goods and companies would fall to their knees. It is funny that the opponents of the VAT admit to taxes being bad for people and the economy when it suits them.
Think of it like this. We get our check with all of the taxes already taken out. Once a year we "do our taxes" and we "get" money back. We really never get the full understanding of how much they are taking from us. When taxes raise we don't really feel it. During the "tax season" we do all the work and they withhold the money to a later date when we do all the paper work to figure up how much they owe us. We don't even make interest on the money they keep to invest. Think about it like this. If we kept all of our money and on April 15th we figured up how much we owed them, we would never let the government get too big again. We don't really fell the affects. We actually sometimes think how great it is to "get" money back from the government. I would be much more willing to put the money that they suggest me to withhold from my salary and put it into a special savings account where I can make money off of it before I have to give it to the Government. For one, we would know exactly how much we are giving them and we would listen more carefully to the money and programs that they want to start or sustain. You would especially take notice if you got abetter paying job. When tax day came around and you realized how "progressive" the system is concerning a worker making more money and going into a new "bracket". The more money you make the more punitive the tax code is. Our code is sending out a subtle message: We are going to punish you if you make more money. And this is where the flat tax comes in. We all pay the same no matter what we make. If you make 10 thousand or 10 million you pay the same ratio or percentage. That is fair. It is funny to think that all the countries that institute the flat tax are former communist countries and former dictator controlled countries. Russia has a 13 percent flat tax and they have pulled themselves out of the hole since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end to the Soviet Union. I can remember when they were in hard times. Their economy has been growing on an average of 6 percent. Ours was 4.3 last quarter. The newly free Iraq has an 8 percent flat tax. We are ranked 107th out of 160 countries in economic freedom. More taxes can't make a better economy and that is why certain political leaders say that they are taking from the rich (who are really evil and steal money from everyone else and should be shot in the head and drug down the street) and giving it to the poor (the victims of the rich)*. Again this argument is based on emotion. They hide the tax code behind withholdings and ever increasing social programs. They talk about how they want to help the poor and education and welfare and healthcare. They use these pet issues to jack up the taxes. And anyone who want to give a tax cut to help out famiiles and the economy hate the poor, don't care about the elderly, want people to be sick and want to hurt the middle class.
We need to simplify the tax code for one reason: so we can see how big the government is. We have no idea how much money it is taking in. Too much. The Great Society proposed by Johnson has not made things better. We have spent almost 6 trillion dollars on the poor, HUD, welfare and all other social programs and today all I hear from the party that instituted these things is doom and gloom and how bad this country is and how we need to put more money into the social programs (Univeral Health Care anyone?). And if anyone stands in the way then the ad hominid remarks start to fly. They did it to Reagan and now they are doing to it W.
This country was not founded on great expansive social programs, it was founded on hard work and American vigor.
PERIOD
* Have you ever got a job from a poor person?
