since9
Campaign Veteran
Actually, not so new. Regardless...
How would you like to fill out your entire tax form on the back of a postcard (with a security flap, of course)? This quote from Beretta92FSLady got me thinking:
My opinion is if the rich came to be rich by dishonest gain, they should be jailed, not taxed. If it was by dishonest gain, then they're simply enjoying the fruits of their labors. If they're involved in collusive or monopolistic business practices where they're "the only game in town" and charging ridiculously high prices, then shame on them, yes, but shame on the customers supporting their efforts, too.
Capitalism is a good thing in theory, and mostly so in practice. Competition drives the price down. In 1986 I paid $2,500 for a computer. In today's dollars, it would cost $5,150. Yet my current computer cost $1,000, is approximately 500 times faster, with 9x the screen resolution, 2 Million times more colors, and 83 Thousand times more hard drive storage. The reduction is two-fold: Better technology and lower prices. However, it's competition that drove the search for better technology. If no one had entered the market with a PC clone, we'd still be paying three times what we pay for computers today, but they would have made less than half as much progress.
The problem is, our government itself has no competition to drive progress. There's little incentive for real improvements! Furthermore, there is a tremendous incentive for pork-barreling, particularly when it comes to the bloated industry known as the U.S. Tax Code.
So, to drive progress, we must create incentives, such as letting the politicians know how idiotic they look by not implementing the following:
*** Top of Post Card ***
Total Income From All Sources (TIFAS): $100,000
Poverty Floor (from Table 1 on reverse side): $18,314
Cost of living adjustment factor (by zip code, from attached piece of paper): 1.035
Net Taxable Income = TIFAS - (PF * COLA Factor)
= $100,000 - ($18,134 * 1.035)
= $100,000 - $18,768.69
= $81,231
Tax = Net Taxable Income * 10%
= $81,231 * .1
= $8,123
Tax Owed (Refund) = Tax - Tax Witheld = $8,123 - $9,432 = ($1,309)
*** Bottom of Post Card ***
Explanation:
COLA Factor adjusts the poverty level based upon where one happens to live, and is designed to adjust the poverty level for local variances in prices. Many such online COLA tables exist today, and are commonly used by people seeking employment elsewhere to adjust what they're currently making so they know what to ask in the new location.
Table 1: Columns include Single, Married, and Separated, while rows indicate the number of qualified dependents living with the individual for more than 50% of the year. The poverty level reflects a standardized base income required for food, clothing, and shelter. It should not include anything beyond the bare minimums required to sustain life. Obviously, electricity and water would be included. Cable TV, however, would not.
Here's the neat thing about this approach: If the Tax is negative, that is, if one is below the poverty level, that amount could be divided in half and given to the person in lieu of food stamps and the 1,000's of other programs that are out there.
Benefits:
1. Little or no overhead. Say "bye-bye" to most people in parasitic professions such as accountants, tax attorneys, and IRS employees.
2. So easy to use, who wouldn't use it?
3. Built-in aid for those who're unable to get by otherwise, but halved in order to provide an incentive for them to obtain gainful employment.
As for taxing the rich, if they earn $100,000, then they pay $8,123 in taxes. If they earn $10,000,000, then they pay $998,123 in taxes.
What could be more fair?
Want more insulation? Pay for it yourself. Without government incentives, the market will either adjust to accommodate it, or it'll dry up altogether.
Want a bigger house? Earn enough and buy it yourself.
Have you inherited your money? It's taxed only once, and at a rate that's affordable. If you invest it, you're taxed only on the additional earnings, and then only when you withdraw the funds.
How would you like to fill out your entire tax form on the back of a postcard (with a security flap, of course)? This quote from Beretta92FSLady got me thinking:
My opinion is if the rich came to be rich by dishonest gain, they should be jailed, not taxed. If it was by dishonest gain, then they're simply enjoying the fruits of their labors. If they're involved in collusive or monopolistic business practices where they're "the only game in town" and charging ridiculously high prices, then shame on them, yes, but shame on the customers supporting their efforts, too.
Capitalism is a good thing in theory, and mostly so in practice. Competition drives the price down. In 1986 I paid $2,500 for a computer. In today's dollars, it would cost $5,150. Yet my current computer cost $1,000, is approximately 500 times faster, with 9x the screen resolution, 2 Million times more colors, and 83 Thousand times more hard drive storage. The reduction is two-fold: Better technology and lower prices. However, it's competition that drove the search for better technology. If no one had entered the market with a PC clone, we'd still be paying three times what we pay for computers today, but they would have made less than half as much progress.
The problem is, our government itself has no competition to drive progress. There's little incentive for real improvements! Furthermore, there is a tremendous incentive for pork-barreling, particularly when it comes to the bloated industry known as the U.S. Tax Code.
So, to drive progress, we must create incentives, such as letting the politicians know how idiotic they look by not implementing the following:
*** Top of Post Card ***
Total Income From All Sources (TIFAS): $100,000
Poverty Floor (from Table 1 on reverse side): $18,314
Cost of living adjustment factor (by zip code, from attached piece of paper): 1.035
Net Taxable Income = TIFAS - (PF * COLA Factor)
= $100,000 - ($18,134 * 1.035)
= $100,000 - $18,768.69
= $81,231
Tax = Net Taxable Income * 10%
= $81,231 * .1
= $8,123
Tax Owed (Refund) = Tax - Tax Witheld = $8,123 - $9,432 = ($1,309)
*** Bottom of Post Card ***
Explanation:
COLA Factor adjusts the poverty level based upon where one happens to live, and is designed to adjust the poverty level for local variances in prices. Many such online COLA tables exist today, and are commonly used by people seeking employment elsewhere to adjust what they're currently making so they know what to ask in the new location.
Table 1: Columns include Single, Married, and Separated, while rows indicate the number of qualified dependents living with the individual for more than 50% of the year. The poverty level reflects a standardized base income required for food, clothing, and shelter. It should not include anything beyond the bare minimums required to sustain life. Obviously, electricity and water would be included. Cable TV, however, would not.
Here's the neat thing about this approach: If the Tax is negative, that is, if one is below the poverty level, that amount could be divided in half and given to the person in lieu of food stamps and the 1,000's of other programs that are out there.
Benefits:
1. Little or no overhead. Say "bye-bye" to most people in parasitic professions such as accountants, tax attorneys, and IRS employees.
2. So easy to use, who wouldn't use it?
3. Built-in aid for those who're unable to get by otherwise, but halved in order to provide an incentive for them to obtain gainful employment.
As for taxing the rich, if they earn $100,000, then they pay $8,123 in taxes. If they earn $10,000,000, then they pay $998,123 in taxes.
What could be more fair?
Want more insulation? Pay for it yourself. Without government incentives, the market will either adjust to accommodate it, or it'll dry up altogether.
Want a bigger house? Earn enough and buy it yourself.
Have you inherited your money? It's taxed only once, and at a rate that's affordable. If you invest it, you're taxed only on the additional earnings, and then only when you withdraw the funds.
(I hate these new faces)