I did my taxes early this year, but it didn't help, because it's taken me more than a month to get my return (according to the IRS website, I should get it Friday). This seems like a good time of year to bring up this discussion. What do you feel about taxes? Are we taxed too much? Too little? Is an income tax a good system, or would another system be better? Do you pay taxes? Personally, I feel that although there are many good reasons to doubt the legitimacy of the income tax, the potential downside of not paying taxes is too huge, so I pay like everyone else.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
I would love to see a flat tax, with an exemption for the first $30K you make.
Personally I think there are better systems than taxing income--such as taxing consumption. But it has never been a policy area that I was really strong in. Just make them lower and less complicated, and I'd be happy.
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I'm not voting for Ron Paul because it's not expressly prescribed in the Constitution.
It's real simple, about 65% of the US budget is for entitlement/welfare payments. Eliminate those and reduce our taxes accordingly. That would mean no more of the social security payouts, we could keep our own money for retirement and invest it instead of paying for someone else's.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
I realize taxes are neccessary for government but I get sick of seeing tax dollars go to programs that are not neccessary like the National Endowment for the Arts. I also support a flat tax or a national sales tax to eliminate the current tax fiasco but it will never happen. Too many accountants, lawyers, and government employees benefit from the system being so complicated. That's why it will never change. I remember a number of years ago 20/20 did a story where they took a average middle class Americans taxes to be done by seven different tax preparers. The preparers ran the gamut from national chains to local accounting firms. They took all seven into the IRS and the IRS determined that all seven were wrong, all seven. The IRS did an 8th return that they said was correct. Now if seven tax professionals can't get it right, how are any of us supposed to get it right?
Jason, another interesting thing is that the IRS doesn't guarantee that the advice they give over the phone is accurate. That is, you could call the IRS, get advice, use that advice on your return, and still get audited. They won't care that you asked them how to do it and followed their advice. You're the one in trouble if you did it wrong.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Arb is exactly right. Not even the IRS will back up their own tax advice. My wife used to work in data entry at the IRS. She told me that one day she noticed she was missing a return that she was supposed to be entering. She got her manager and they began looking for it. She found it, between a tiny crack between her work station and the one next to hers. The manager ordered that all the work stations get pulled apart and they found a whole stack of people's returns going back for years that had never been entered. I can only imagine the harrassment they underwent for not filing their taxes. Some may have even paid penalties that they shouldn't have had to pay. According to my wife they were never contacted about the IRS error and no apologies were made. We have a pretty low opinion about the capabilities of the IRS. Basically, if you get audited they will find something. Just get a decent attourney to help negotiate a settlement that won't put you in the poor house. That's your only hope.
In reality, the tax code should be simple enough that you can do everything on something the size of a 3x5 card but it will never happen. The monster has to eat and puting it on a diet is not an option.
The problem is that the cost of getting a decent tax attorney will put you in the poor house, and I am not joking on that either.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
A consumption tax isn't the answer either, next thing you know you'll be paying $3.95 for a $1.00 item, $1.00 for the item and $2.95 in tax. Government is the original black hole.
Lawyers for anything are expensive. I've wanted to legally adopt my son (not my biological son, he's my wife's from a previous marriage), but the cost to hire an attorney to handle an adoption when the biological father is out of country is prohibitive. Even though the biological father has never met and has no desire to meet my son.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Arbi, unfortunately, you'll eventually have to do it if you are ever going to give him the chance to be sealed to both of you.
I hate taxes. All taxes. And toll fees. And "courtesy fees" for buying tickets to events. And the Gore tax and other taxes on telecommunications. But I do like tax refunds.
Sales tax is already a form of consumption tax, isn't it? Use tax is something that should never be allowed, because it is a state taxing you on something you bought out of state and from what I've understood, states are not given the power to tax or impose tarrifs on interstate commerce. All of these are repressive taxes because those who are hardest up financially pay more percentage of their income in these than those with higher incomes. And, there is no way normally to recover sales tax or count it as a deductable expense for the average person doing their personal taxes.
I just found out from someone in my ward that here in MI, when you sell a house, you get taxed on the sale of the home based on the state equalized value (what the state assesses it's value at for tax purposes). So, not only in an local state economy that keeps on getting battered (yesterday Comerica Bank just announced it was moving it's headquarters from Detroit to Dallas) and house values are dropping drastically and houses are not selling anyway, sellers end up paying all the realtors fees, title insurance, but also a form of capital gains tax, regardless of if they actually end up making money on the sale of the home. In our community, there are reports that a number of the bigfoot houses that aren't selling (but then again no sized home is selling right now) are having to drop their price by $100K or more just to attract people to view them.
I don't believe there is any western nation that is not taxing it's people exorbitantly. Doesn't matter what form of government it is, I really feel like the taxes folks paid in Book of Mormon times (as recorded at a couple places) are not nearly as oppresive as what we endure today.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
rayb wrote: I like the idea of a consumption tax. I also like the death tax.
--Ray
Ah the death tax. It isn't enough that a family must lose their father but also their business and or farm as well because he made the simple mistake of dieing.
