I've long been opposed to a flat tax or the so called "Fair Tax" on the basis that once you grant the government the ability to levy a consumption tax then it's probably just a matter of time before they ratchet the rate up to the stratosphere. What might start as a 20% flat tax today could be 30% or even 40% a decade from now. But when I see things like the following video, it makes me re-think my objections. Our tax code is so complicated that the only people who don't get screwed by it are the people or corporations who can afford an army of tax commandos to handle their business. Maybe a flat tax is the way to go.
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I'd just like to see the U.S. switch to a lower corporate tax rate but get rid of all these loopholes. Get it down to 15% or so. The current U.S. effective corporate tax rate is 13.4%. That means the corporate tax rates of 33% go down by more than half because our businesses know that our politicians are nothing more than whores that will give them anything they want for the right price.
When a patient has cancer, you treat the cancer and not the symptoms.
Arguing over what is the right amount is wasted time.
Rather we should be questioning why we pay taxes in the first place.
Nip it in the bud. Get government out of our lives and we will solve our tax problem.
Move to Central Africa then.
didn't know they let retarded children on this website
Typical uninformed comment. Whenever someone advocates for less government intrusion you always see these type of people jump to the most extreme conclusion that less government = no government.
If you think what we currently have is optimal you aren't looking around. Less government would be less costly and provide more freedom.
As for the topic of this thread, I agree that we should eliminate loop holes, for everyone. Makes me sick to think that part of my taxes goes to support people who have children, own homes, pay interest on student loans, etc. Remove all of these deductions, have a progressive system with a limited government.
Done and Done.
I dunno man, 80 billion a year to a great government agency like the department of education sounds good to me.
Here is an excellent example of Walmart's loophole:
http://nywalmart.blogspot.com/2007/02/wal-mart-tax-loophole.html
Double Irish Dutch Sandwich anyone?
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/04/28/business/Double-Irish-Wit…
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-21/google-2-4-rate-shows-how-60-b…
If someone has to explain that to you, you're hopeless.
No, other way around. We all should question why we pay and what does the money get spent on. Everyone who pays taxes has the right and obligation to question this.
tsk tsk poor thing i can't even begin to imagine what it would be like to have an undeveloped brain like yours
Tip of the iceberg... so many other loopholes in my sector (real estate), often based on leveraged speculation and deferrals based on re-speculation. You don't even need to go off-shore for those.
Seems like there is a race to the bottom between the individual states, in terms of tax favours/subsidies to corporations.
I know man. Thank you Jimmy Carter. What a clown.
But how dare you question why we pay taxes. I mean America's educational system has continually improved since the advent of the Dept of Education.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-28.pdf
[quote=TNA]I know man. Thank you Jimmy Carter. What a clown.
But how dare you question why we pay taxes. I mean America's educational system has continually improved since the advent of the Dept of Education.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-28.pdf[/quote]
knowing that logically thinking people like yourself still exist gives me hope for this website and humanity
Yeah man, well people like us are few and far between. Too many of the sheep cry out to the government to parent their lives. You would get more utility burning $100B than you get by having the unconstitutional Dept of Education.
I don't see why people don't make an effort to make improvements to the current system. My perception is that if people entertain an impossible fantasy, they don't ever have to really make an effort to engage in reality....they can always cop out and say that "since my version of reality isn't happening, it's not my fault". And I don't buy that. Just like our monetary system, the tax system worked fine until people started mismanaging it: lousy managemeng will screw up any other system put in place, so why not address the lousy management? And as Carlin once pointed out, this nation hates its politicians, but we elect them....so who is really to blame here? The average person is so partisan that they've convinced themselves that the other half of the coutry is the problem....but I think that's not true. And I think a lot of people know this, but it's easier to play the blame game.
IMO, a flat tax is about as relevant as the gold standard: it's easy and simple to think about, but the reality is that it's a very inferior system. I question the judgement of people who disagree: shall we reinstate the divine right of kings, go back to the horse and buggy, or renounce our knowledge of astronomy and just all agree that the earth is flat? No, that would be....ignorant.
This is where public debate is, yes? What the taxes are and what it's spent on is most of that conversation. Am I missing something here? (rhetorical question) To fund what the gov't does. If you want to dismantle the gov't, cool, me and my gang will run my block. I have an AK47 and I decide to make myself king, next we're going to conquer the next town over No? Doesn't sound good? Ok, so some sort of gov't is needed. That costs money. For more, take US Gov't 101 or read a book. I definitely think that it can be cut down in some places and made more efficient in others....focus on that. But his whole infatuation with dismantling the government is delusional: realistically, that's not going to happen, so get real or kindly stop gumming up the conversation. Open letter to all extreme anarchists: you are ignored. Grow up.As for flat tax: this idea won't get any traction for a bunch of reasons, and this debate has been beaten to death. Look at the countries that use a full flat tax system: for the most part, they're barely above third world nation status. In addittion, rich people/companies can afford accountants and lawyers that will beat the flat tax system as well.
As for ANT's comment on people owning houses or having kids: those are deductions. It's one thing to acknowledge a tax rate and then get a discount because the govt (aka....people) value those things, it's another thing all together to set up my "headquarters" in another region and funnel money through there. Also, flat tax systems in use in other countries have both deduction allowances and people/companies beating the system on havens.
In other news, most people posting on this thread have already made up their minds, so anything else is rather futile....yes? No one is here to actually open their mind and learn the different theories, they're here to push their own opinion.
Why bother? It's always the same.
all I will say is that if you are well read, you would understand the context behind my simple statements.
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