Taxes

I'd guess once you get rid of exemptions and deductions that you could lower the flat tax rate to like 15 percent and still be revenue neutral. And remember we are excluding the first 30k. So a person making $60k would only be paying that 15 or 20 percent on $30k which would halve their effective tax rate. Btw I think it's time to get rid of single vs married tax rates too.

 

Just looked. It's currently 18% of GDP so it would hurt some. At 15% we'd decrease revenues by about a sixth (unless more income got reported, which is entirely possible).

 

Change it to 15% + X%. Where the 15% revenues are intended to keep the country running and the X% is used to pay off national debt with the understanding that it is not to be factored into any new budget items.

 

I would like that. And then there is political pressure to reduce the debt. You just think of that?

 

Yes. Took about ten seconds. There was a brief break in my concentration when I filled up my dog's food bowl. Perhaps I can run the country from my iPhone.

 

I agree. Taxing their profits wouldn't change much. Removing their nonprofit status for contributions, and taxing those contributions, would change things.

 

But a lower rate would bring some economic active from operating in the black market to being open and paying a simple flat rate.

 

I was using AGI but I meant tax revenues just from income taxes. That number as a % of GDP is not close to 18%.

 

This.

 

I was doing federal income tax. total T is around 27%

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_tax_revenue_as_percentage_of_GDP

 

I actually don't mind the progressive system, but I hate to hear it tossed about as fair. It isn't remotely fair, but it is practical.

Where it kills me is that the brackets eventually rise to unfair. They should be capped much lower. We can get to 18% without killing the high earners.

Get rid of the loopholes, EITC gone (everyone above poverty pays something or gets nothing), and have people actually physically pay what their income dictates. Sans tons of revenue reduction strategies and income reduction, we could keep the brackets very manageable, even to the point of eliminating the world of tax attorneys.

 

I think you have to go flat no reductions to kill the corruption

 

The problem with that is you can't get it done, even if it would work.

A flat tax at 16% would be an increase for 75% of taxpayers.*

A flat tax at 16% would be a 5 fold increase on 50% of taxpayers.

*I took the info from here http://taxfoundation.org/article/summary-latest-federal-income-tax-data I don't know who those people are, but it looks pretty close to how I thought it would look, so I used it.

 

And those taxpayer have proven that they'll vote themselves a pay raise every single chance they have.

 

That's why you exempt the first $30k of income per person

 

They're already paying it in a hidden cost but it's through inflation.

 

I assume "they" is the bottom 50% of taxpayers. Is inflation worse on them than the top 50% of taxpayers?

 

I am actually surprised that our resident leftists haven't suggested increasing the tazes on top earners and corporations.

Are you guys sick or something?

 

Inflation hits the ones at the bottom the hardest but that's tour current policy since we're not serious about our debt

 

Food inflation is really what's f-ed us and yeah the poor gets hurt the most because they spend the highest percentage of their income on it and also have a tendency to make poor food choices like going out to eat and buying things like sodas and such where they could drink water for free.