What is your opinion on taxation?

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What is WP's opinion on taxation?

I am somewhat ignorant about what taxes are I admit, but I think the laws in the United States need to be updated and reformed. How low of a tax rate is too low?

Taxation is a tricky thing. Being "fair" and making everyone pay the same rate is hardly fair at all, as 30% of a minimum wage worker has an exponentially larger impact on disposable income than a worker who makes $50,000, who is in turn exponentially more affected than someone who makes $200,000, and so on.

You also can't rely entirely on an income (and/or property) tax, as a consumer based society would crumble from the bottom on up. But at the same time, you can't just eliminate income tax and put the entire burden on business, as that would collapse the economy from the top down.

The weird thing is that almost every proposal on tax reform has some merit, but usually is based on a faulty assumption that only one factor should be considered.

Taxation should be negative (ie. government handing out free money). Only if you earn more than enough to sustain yourself, should it be a regular tax.

I like knowing that most residences where I live pay $5,000 - $15,000 per year in property taxes. This means that the residents will care about the city. Also, property taxes separate people by income class, so the middle class does not have to live among the poor class.

Being a tax accountant, I can state that the Internal Revenue Code is 73,954 pages long and goes through 5,000 changes in a give year. The tax profession is a racket because of it. Does that explain why we need to simplify it?

Taxes are more than just funding public services.

Income tax was used to break up the Trusts, and bring down the Golden Age, where people became Royality due to keeping the profits of industry.

Higher taxes, which went up to 95%, blocked a few people from getting all the money, land, assets, and forever shutting out everyone else.

Taxes also promote employment, as payroll is a deduction, but you still retain the value of the labor.

We have had it right a few times, taxes that broke up the Trusts, and paid off WWII, Ike had 95% top rates, and paid our war debts in a few years, while industry boomed, and a huge middle class formed.

High rates for business promote employment, low rates promote buying other companies, running up debt, huge paychecks for CEOs, Wall Street, and the least possible left for employees and stock holders.

The Mitt method of buying companies, selling off parts, firing the employees, sending production offshore, paid taxes at a 15% rate. One caused the other.

With 45 million war babies retiring, Social Security has only an IOU from Congress. As a pay as you go system each current worker will have to pay at least $50,000 a year to make the numbers work

No one pays more than 15.?% on the first $115,000, then it is a free ride

Making all income subject to Social Security, Mitt would pay 30% on his $100,000,000 income.

There is a social purpose to taxing. It can make keeping diverse business and full employment the goal of tax planning.

Recent history shows lower taxes produced 3% of people owning half of all income, and a national debt growing to $17 Trillion. One caused the other.

Abolish Capital gains, make all income equal, and have top tax brackets, like over $10,000,000 at 95%.
Offshore income to be taxed in the year it is earned even if it is in a Hong Kong Bank.

Something will have to be done about Congress, before the dollar becomes worthless. Do what they did to the Postal Service, you must prepay Social Security, then discharge the National Debt, fund the VA, before giving yourself a raise, or contracting for Hellfire Missiles @$5 Million each to kill one IS fighter, when there are 100,000. Members of Congress own a lot of Defense Industries, and are not subject to insider trading laws.

Congress must be subject to all laws, government employes subject to Social Security, so we all have a common interest.

We need another Government to govern the one we have.

A sound dollar rising in value is the best defense we have.

With it we can have better health care, free higher education, and rebuild the country, with high speed trains, new cities, and a higher quality of life for the next generation.

We The People includes widows, orphans, the old, sick, disabled, rug rats, school children, and the as yet unborn. To Form a More Perfect Union, all must be included.

"Where there is no vision the people perish."

Nothing stands in our way but 545 whores in Washington.

TAXATION IS THEFT!

I've been wanting to say that.

I think it's Denmark, who are credited as having the happiest citizens in the world, despite also being amongst the highest taxed. The reason given is that the taxes go to making the country as a whole better for all of its citizens. Some like to equate this with communism, but the people of Denmark also enjoy more freedoms than many countries with lower taxes, and there is no oppression of any concern. Rich or poor, Danes love their system.

Taxes are really just a socialist thing anyway, a way of sharing that doesn't fit with a truly capitalist model.

Danes I've talked to hate it. That's why they moved to the U.S.!

You're a tax accountant now?!?!?!

15.x%?

I am in that income bracket. I pay about $50,000 to 60,000 in taxes per year, and it makes me sick.

State taxes + Federal taxes + Social Security + Medicare + Property taxes + Sales tax + Service taxes is ~40-45% for someone making $115,000 with no kids, and no large itemized deductions.

Are you Hagbard?

It's an ingredient in the soup and just like with cooking it's gotta be balanced.

There's a sweet-spot where you neither have too much nor too little and where you have revenue maximized at the best compromise point between private sector enterprise getting enough oxygen to flourish and government getting the best quantity of tax dollars it can on the curve.

I might suggest that there is an error in your sampling methodology.

Replace the income tax with flat across the board tariff and excises, that's similar to how our country funded itself most of its history and I think we wouldn't be having most of the problems we have today with government if it stayed that way. It's freer, more honest, a lot simpler, and help American jobs. It's pretty messed up that the onus is put on individuals with a tax code that only professionals can understand.

They are in the minority. They are/were probably wealthy Danes, who did not want to share their part.