[geeks] Taxes

[Phil Stracchino]

Sandwich Maker wrote:
> " From: Lionel Peterson <lionel4287 at verizon.net>
> " I saw an interesting report last night that analyzed actual tax
> " reciepts as a percentage of domestic earnings, and oddly, no matter
> " what the tax rates were (91% down to the current "Bush Adjusted" tax
> " rates that "benefit the wealthy"), the gov't took in about 19.5% in
> " tax revenue. When the tax rate is higher, people find ways to reduce
> " their tax liability, when it drops, there is less incentive to do so...
> 
> yeah, but shifting that burden from folks who can't afford to pay to
> folks who just don't want to is not unfair.

Personally, assuming retaining an income tax, I'd like to see something 
like this:

The government annually publishes a surveyed state-by-state basic cost 
of living for a family of a given size.  Income below that basic cost of 
living is tax-free, regardless of how much money you make in total.  All 
savings interest is also tax-free, no matter how much of it you have. 
Personal inheritance would not be considered income, any more than 
insurance settlements are.  All other income, including investment 
income, above basic cost of living is taxed at a flat 10%.  No 
deductions, no allowances, no deferments, no shelters, no loopholes. 
Corporations get taxed at the same flat 10% across the board - and 
that's 10% of gross revenues, not declared net profit after cooking the 
books.

Tax accountants and tax lawyers would scream bloody murder, of course, 
as would the IRS, since they'd practically become obsolete overnight. 
But tax returns - personal and corporate both - would become one side of 
one sheet of paper, that'd take five minutes to fill out.  All the 
parasitic cost of complying with the current bloated system would just 
go away, and as a bonus, it would become much easier to detect tax 
evasion, and most tax fraud cases would be open-and-shut.


-- 
   Phil Stracchino, CDK#2     DoD#299792458     ICBM: 43.5607, -71.355
   alaric at caerllewys.net   alaric at metrocast.net   phil at co.ordinate.org
          Renaissance Man, Unix ronin, Perl hacker, Free Stater
                  It's not the years, it's the mileage.