LT mentioned he is going to an April 15 Tax Day Tea Party in another thread. According to Newt Gingrich, the main messages to Washington from the protests are that we need smaller government, we need better government, we need to reduce fraud, lower taxes and ultimately to send a message to Washington to “fix it or we want new leaders”.
That all sounds good. I do have some questions on taxes:
What is a fair tax rate for individuals?
What is a fair tax rate for businesses?
If we simply reduced all taxes and didn’t spend anything would the economy recover on it’s own?
LT mentioned he is going to an April 15 Tax Day Tea Party in another thread. According to Newt Gingrich, the main messages to Washington from the protests are that we need smaller government, we need better government, we need to reduce fraud, lower taxes and ultimately to send a message to Washington to “fix it or we want new leaders”.
That all sounds good. I do have some questions on taxes:
What is a fair tax rate for individuals?
What is a fair tax rate for businesses?
If we simply reduced all taxes and didn’t spend anything would the economy recover on it’s own?
Determining rates should be about effectiveness, not fairness. We should be trying to maximize some combination of factors such as national & global security, economic growth, standard of living, jobless rate, and environmental stewardship.
But if you want to compare the U.S. to other countries, here you go. Looks like personal income tax is on the low side while corporate tax is way on the high side.
Makes you wonder if reducing the corporate tax rate might stimulate the economy. Though from the graph it appears all the countries with the most powerful economies all have high corporate tax rates (Japan, Germany, UK), so there are clearly other factors in play.
What is “Fair”. That of course is ultimate question and one that I doubt we’ll figure out anytime soon.
That being said “Fair” to me would be a tax that was as a percentage “Equal”, a flat tax. Not only that but a “Fair tax” would have no deductions, for any reason. No house, kids, etc.
As far as “What rate” that rate should be determined by the cost of the services provided by the government. Of course IMHO those services should be pared down significantly
What is a fair tax rate for businesses?
I’m of one of two minds here. If corporations are truly treated as “individuals” then they should pay the same rate as the individual. I think having the same rate would also keep down on the “Games” that are played by business trying to figure out where the cheapest tax rate is.
Eliminate all the deductions, that are not “Cost of doing business”, and what’s left over is “Profit”. It’s taxed at the same rate as the individual so either leave it in the business if it’s most needed there or pass it on to stock holders if it’s less needed in the business.
3. If we simply reduced all taxes and didn’t spend anything would the economy recover on it’s own?
Depends on how you define “Recover”. If you mean will we go back to November of 2007 with the stock market was at 14K and housing prices were insane and do that in a year, nope. If you mean “Recover” as in start creating a solid economy that is sustainable after a long period of “Culling the weak” then yes
I’m not sure what you mean by “Not spend anything” either. If you mean cutting government back so they only spent on the “Basics” and lower taxes accordingly rather than the spending spree we are seeing now then I would say the above applies.
According to Newt Gingrich, the main messages to Washington from the protests are that we need smaller government, we need better government, we need to reduce fraud, lower taxes and ultimately to send a message to Washington to “fix it or we want new leaders”.
I agree with all of these things.
I find it odd that Newt wasn’t making so much noise about it under far less competent leadership, though. Best president we’ve had in at least 8 years, and now he’s complaining?
I fully intend to go to a Tax Day protest as well. It is not what is “fair” for an individual it is the fact that in the past three months I have been hit with the following PROPOSED tax increases:
Gas tax
Telecommunications tax
Meals tax
Property tax
Increase in FICA tax limits
Increase in Medicare tax limits
Increase in effective tax rate
At the same time the governor of my state is appointing political cronies to highly paid, non work jobs, taking his state police detail to Bermuda on his vacation, and generally wasting the taxes I am paying.
When the government concentrates as much on waste as it does on raising revenue then it deserves our support.
I would like for the individual federal income tax to be abolished. Realizing that is not likely to happen in the short term, I fall back to the statement that if 10% is good enough for God, it should be good enough for Uncle Sam. The only fair rate is 0%. 0% corporate tax rate - after all the corporations are simply a compilation of individuals. IMO, yes. In fact, without government intervention, we would not be in the situation we find ourselves in today.
It is not what is “fair” for an individual it is the fact that in the past three months I have been hit with the following PROPOSED tax increases:
Gas tax
Telecommunications tax
Meals tax
Property tax
Increase in FICA tax limits
Increase in Medicare tax limits
Increase in effective tax rate
I didn’t know you lived in Illionois
I’m staring a 50% increase in state income tax, in the last year I saw a 1% increase in county sales tax which is about a 14% increase. Proposed increase in corporate tax as well as doubled cost for license plate renewal and drivers license renewal.
On top of that a plethora of “Fees” that just freakin’ show up at my door with a “Pay this amount for “X”” write the check to “State of Illinois treasury”
Luckily I don’t live in Chicago where they got nailed by all sorts of additional city and county taxes on top off selling off public assets like parking meters and toll bridges to “Cover the budget gap”.
What we face today in increasing taxes is beyond democrat v. republican. It is the people of the country vs. the government. I fully intend to participate is one of the tax day tea parties, enough is enough.
What I like about Gingrich is that he is transcending political lines with his proposals. He is a bright dude and sees things in a clear light.
As the owner of a small business, I will say that the proposed tax increases will serve only to hurt my employees. I am included in that since we are a corporation and I am an employee as well. The government if screwing with us by saying that they will lower the income tax rate for 95% of all woring citizens. They are jacking up taxes at all other state and federal levels. No one will be immune, no one will actually pay less in the long run.
We are being screwed by the change that we asked for.
CA just increased the car registration fee/tax by 100%…most people don’t know about it until they go register. It’s pathetic, government is like a spending-whore.
Taxes are irrelevent right now…we have a SPENDING problem. We can jack around with tax rate all day, but we still are looking at adding rougtly 10 trillion to our debt.
I am as conservative as anyone and intellectually could have accepted tax increases if spending would have been capped - IOW, all the extra revenue would go to close the deficit. This would have been my compromise to the liberals, we could have tried it for a few years to see if it worked. But what we have seen over the last 70 days has left me breathless.
It’s not so much about taxes as it is about control, although taxes is a great way to control.
It’s also about the people having a voice. I hope it snowballs into some kind of a third party.
**
I would love to see a viable third party. After listening to Newt, I wondered how many of his ideas are actually libertarian, which hasn’t had great success in elections over the years.
*"I would like for the individual federal income tax to be abolished. Realizing that is not likely to happen in the short term, I fall back to the statement that if 10% is good enough for God, it should be good enough for Uncle Sam. The only fair rate is 0%. * *0% corporate tax rate - after all the corporations are simply a compilation of individuals. * IMO, yes. In fact, without government intervention, we would not be in the situation we find ourselves in today."
x2 (except for the “God” part)
