Comment: A Taxpayer’s Ideas on Tax Reform This is a great country. I have no problem with paying my fair share to finance the provision of the common defense, the promotion of the general welfare, and the maintenance of essential infrastructure of the USA. That said, abolish the income tax and implement a national sales tax. Do not implement any VAT taxes. They are dishonest, the tool of socialists. They enable governments to hide confiscatory taxes in the price of goods. Taxpayers should be slapped in the face with the amount of tax they pay, not “frog-boiled” into ever higher rates. The Income Tax is tyranny. It forces all of us to determine what our taxable income is. It forces me to keep books and records I don’t want to keep. It forces me to keep receipts I don’t want to keep. It forces me to buy software I don’t want to buy. It forces me to spend time I don’t want to spend and do work I don’t want to do. It is forced bean-counting. It is involuntary servitude, the opposite of freedom. I resent it. I despise it. To illustrate, I describe my situation. My wife teaches piano at home. If it weren’t for the income tax, she would keep track of who has paid for the month and who hasn’t… that’s all. She knows she doesn’t lose money. She knows she makes some money. She doesn’t care exactly how much. She keeps books only for the IRS. I have a couple of modest rent houses, starter houses I chose not to sell as we moved into larger ones. I know that I make a little profit on them. I don’t care exactly how much. I keep records only for the IRS. Our attitudes and our preferred practices may not be “good business practice” but we don’t care. In our view the cost/benefit ratio of practicing “good business” to marginally enhance profit is just not worth it. We are compelled to maintain “good business practice” only for the IRS. Do not implement a flat tax. It is still an income tax. It has nothing to do with tax simplification or abolition of taxpayer servitude. It has only to do with progressivity or the lack of it. One still has to jump through all the same hoops and spend all of the same hours to determine the taxable income that one must pay the flat tax on. Once income is determined, a single rate doesn’t buy you anything. At that point, graduated tables/rates are no problem. If you absolutely must keep the income tax, abolish loopholes instead. Keep some progressivity. Make it difficult for the clever affluent to continue to shelter income. Progressivity in a sales tax? Keep a remnant of the IRS to administer rebates to lower income families. They already administer and cut checks for a welfare program based on returns, namely the “Earned Income Tax Credit”, so they can do it. Only low-income folks with usually very simple income situations, (e.g. W2 forms only) and then only those who wanted to, would file returns to establish eligibility for rebates. This would mean 10 - 20% of taxpayers filing (almost all simple) returns instead of 100% filing. Or… exempt essential goods from the sales tax. Things like non-gourmet food, most medicines and medical services, and ordinary, non-“designer” clothing. Tax obscene luxuries at a higher rate. (e.g. personal vehicles over $75,000; homes over $750,000 in Wichita, KS dollars, etc.) and don’t allow goods to be bought overseas and brought into this country to avoid taxation. Thanks for allowing me to comment, R. L. James, Amarillo, TX |