Well, it is that time of year here in the US so it seemed appropiate to have a thread about taxes. There are many trains of thought here and this should be an interesting thread.

We are way overtaxed. For me, I am in favor of a flat tax rate. Everyone over $X amount pays the same percentage rate. It becomes a very simple process instead of the current pile of loopholes and redtape. Business pays a flat percentage. I would also say no taxes on Social Security benefits and unemployment benefits. It is amazing to me that the 2 groups who really need the money, our Seniors and the unemployed, are taxed on their meager benefits. Who in the world thought that was a good idea?!?!?

I also think that the Bush tax cuts should be made permanent. It made a significant difference in my tax bill.

I'll vote for you Eric

They have the tax laws so screwed up, you need a law degree to do your taxes.

I believe, if elected, both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will get rid of the Bush tax cuts.

Just an observation.


Otherwise, I agree - the US Tax Code is ridiculous. Changing it, however, will probably put a lot of lobbyists out of work. Wouldn't want that, would we?

Oh, I feel a grass roots effort building....


This is not income tax related but it is tax related....I found this today.
Gas Tax Hike Proposed


And we wonder why we are losing jobs to other countries?
U.S. States Lead the World in High Corporate Taxes

This post has been edited by Eric: Mar 20 2008, 05:53 PM

In point of fact, a large part of Social Security is not taxed unless you have more than a specified total amount of income.

I have to agree--- the current tax laws fill far too many rows of books, provide a sieve of loopholes, fill too many lawyer's pockets, and have set up a bureaucracy that has far too much power over people's lives. I am not sure a flat tax, or a Value-added tax, or a national sales tax is the best, but simplifying the process is certainly in the long-term interest of the government (it would be cheaper to collect) and of its citizens (who plow through forms and booklets and taxservices and accountant's spreadsheets). Taxing consumption seems far better than taxing savings and investment, especially given the current American economy.
Z

Anyone get the feeling its about time for another tea party? I'm just sayin' ....

Let me tell you how it will be
There's one for you, nineteen for me
'cause I'm the taxman,
yeah, I'm the taxman

Should five percent appear too small
Be thankful I don't take it all
'cause I'm the taxman,
yeah, I'm the taxman

If you drive a car, I'll tax the street
If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat
If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet
Taxman

'Cause I'm the taxman,
Yeah, I'm the taxman

Don't ask me what I want it for (ha ha Mr. Wilson)
If you don't want to pay some more (ha ha Mr. Heath)
'cause I'm the taxman,
yeah, I'm the taxman

Now my advice for those who die
Declare the pennies on your eyes
'cause I'm the taxman,
yeah, I'm the taxman
And you're working for no one but me

Taxman - Beatles (Revolver album 1966)

This post has been edited by Vicki: Mar 21 2008, 09:35 AM

Yet more new taxes proposed.

CA Global Warming Tax

This proposed "fee" would generate $400 million annually. If this program is that important, how about the government of CA trim $400 million out of their current expenditures to fund this project. What a concept.

How can we in good conscience sit back and allow the government to continually confiscate more and more of our income? Someone please show me an example of a country that has taxed themselves into prosperity.

Let's face it the government is going to get as much of your income as they possibly can by legal means and when the legal means run out they'll just pass more ways of making it legal to take it another way.
Since I collect Social Security I have had to pay substancial taxes on it each year. This is because of my husband's income. I never figured up the actual percentage that ends up taxable but it is over 75%. That alone bothers the, and peeves me no end. I'm obviously not the only one in this country paying taxes on their Social Security but since we pay a Social Security tax while working (I don't believe there is a choice as to whether or not to have it taken out) wouldn't this be the same as paying tax on a tax? I'm sure that the government or someone else can find a way to justify this but it doesn't seem quite right to me and makes me a little more that mad.
By the way, if the government is so concerned with the possibility of Social Security going broke there is a way that they could save a bundle each month on what is paid out in Social Security benefits. Stop paying it to ex-wives!!! Ken and his first wife got divorced a little over 20 years ago. She married the "other" man, (boo, hiss) In the mean time Ken and I got married. Now even though they were and are divorced and she had remarried she can, at her retirement age, collect Social Security benifits off of Ken. If I'm not mistaken he has to be dead first, which is the only way she'll ever get anything from him, over his dead body, but the fact remains she can collect Social Security off of what his benefit were. I too will be able to collect off of what his benifit amount was if he passes away before I do if what I would get by doing it that way would get me a better benifit amount. In the mean time I and the "ex" can and probably will, both be collecting off of the same Social Security account. What she gets doesn't affect the amount that I get, she gets the same benifit. Am I the only one who thinks this is a crock of "horse s"? After a divorce let the ex-wives collect on their own Soc.Security benifits or her other husband if she remarried but not off of an ex-husband!! She's getting more than collecting on her own Soc Security benifits would be because of the law. Cut out alot of this kind of expenditure each month and it may not save Soc. Security but it sure isn't going to hurt it.

Income taxes, there's got to be a better way than using the middle class citizens, quickly begining to fit into the poverty level, carry the brunt of the tax load while the rich jump through their loop holes like clowns in a circus and keep right on getting richer. Give the rest of us some loop holes, I'd gladly jump through them.

Okay I John Doe make 60,000 dollars a year so it puts me in the 25% income tax rate from the feds.
That means I am liable for another 8.2% for social security, and don't forget the 2.3% medicare tax.
And of course in my state I am liable to pay 3.9% state income tax, and oops I almost forgot my local 1.1% city tax, so lets see how I am doing so far;
25 + 8.2= 33.2 + 2.3= 35.5 + 3.9= 39.4 and finally add 1.1 and you get 40.5%
Hmm now before I even get my pay check 40 and one half cents has come out of every dollar I earned okay I want to pay my fair share for all the agencies and departments I want helping to keep me safe and secure at home so I'll take my 59.5 cents and go prosper, but wait when I go to buy my gas there is 45.9% tax on every gallon so around here gas is just getting close to $3.50 a gallon so that equates to about another 15 cents out of my dollar for gas tax. Oh alright I do want decent roads to drive on so I'll let them have it.
Now I have almost 45 cents left to buy a house well I have a modest $60,000 home but wait I forgot about my property taxes and my school levy, and let me not forget the garbage removal that was supposed to be in the property tax but they have now added a monthly fee for that, so, ahhh, duh, two to the third power divided by the consatnt flow of the gravitational effects on my ever dwindling dollar value, multiplied by the affects of sun spots and aging of the paper it was printed on.
"I GOT IT" that comes to they get another 22.3 cents alright I got 22.7 cents to go buy food with!!!
Oh shucks!, I forgot about the 6.6% sales tax here in my state, so 22.7 cents minus 6.6 cents is
16.7 cents left to slpurge with!!
Course I forgot that I got to have a car to get to work with, and clothes to wear, kids to feed, heat for the house , I got to pay the water bill, and darn if they don't charge me to flush my water down the toilet, and so on, and so on ,and so on!
Oh forget it!
I'm going to go to Mexico, come back to the United States illegally, get a job picking tomatos and get government susidies to house, feed and school my kids, so you all worry about paying your taxes cause I'm tired of it!!! LOL

***Oh shucks!, I forgot about the 6.6% sales tax here in my state***

Wow you get off lucky, we have 9.5% on purchases, but no state income tax. Although it would work out better for us if we DID have the income tax and not the high sales tax.

Double hit - My husband works in Kentucky and they do have an income tax, and we get no cuts for not living in Kentucky. At least I live outside the city limits and have no city tax.

Exactly, UJJ!!!

Now, how in the world can any politician, no matter the party, think that increasing spending is a good idea? How can any politician, no matter the party, think that increasing taxes is a good idea?

I know that to some, Bush is the devil incarnate. Ok fine. Hate him if it makes you feel better, I really don't care. For me personally, the Bush tax cuts reduced my tax bill by about $2000. Now we have 2 of the Presidential candidates talking about letting those cuts expire. They are sidestepping the terminology by using "expire". Sorry folks, when I wind up paying more in 2011, that is an increase. No matter who the candidate, I will not support any politician who is in favor of increasing taxes.

We have to get rid of all these politicians, Presidential and Congressional, who talk about spending increases and tax increases. It is time to stop the uncontrolled spending and make some cuts. The American tax payer is simply over burdened.

The power to tax is the power to coerce or to destroy. It does not matter whether we are talking about the individual or about a whole society.
Z

Agree, Z. In our case it is destroying our economy.

Some of you that are old enough may remember this. Ronald Reagan always maintained that by reducing the tax rates you actually increase tax revenue. I agree with this principle completely. It is a proven fact. When you reduce their tax burden people have more money to spend. It goes into our economy instead of to the government. Reduce the burden on business and it has more money to invest, expand, develop new products, research, etc...Thus expanding their revenue and consequently they pay more taxes. Reagan was criticized by some for this ideology.

Well, most people don't know that Reagan was not the only President in the 20th century to understand and promote this principle.

"It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now ... Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus."

– John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962, president's news conference


"Lower rates of taxation will stimulate economic activity and so raise the levels of personal and corporate income as to yield within a few years an increased – not a reduced – flow of revenues to the federal government."

– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 17, 1963, annual budget message to the Congress, fiscal year 1964


"Our tax system still siphons out of the private economy too large a share of personal and business purchasing power and reduces the incentive for risk, investment and effort – thereby aborting our recoveries and stifling our national growth rate."

– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 24, 1963, message to Congress on tax reduction and reform, House Doc. 43, 88th Congress, 1st Session.


My goodness, how far from this has the Democratic party gotten in a short period of time. Recession is the buzz word of the day and there are all kinds of idiotic plans floating around about it. The best way to get an economy up and thriving is to cut the taxes. It is not as complicated as the politicians would have you believe.

Yes. I've heard some folks say that if JFK were alive today, he'd be a Republican. (Given only the two parties from which to choose.)

Touche'
Although Regan was always an actor to me, his stimulation to our economy is above reproach.
Our selection for the oval office would be wise to look hard and long of what has undoubtedly worked well in the past.
They all seem to have agendas that are based in grandious ideals of how they will change the future, but have no- substanence to base their ideals upon.
I always felt that the study of history was only good for making better decisions for our future.
But the canidates can't see farther back in history than the last administration, and therfore present no new hope for our economic future.

This post has been edited by unjustjohn: Apr 8 2008, 09:20 PM