Comment: To Whom It May Concern: Thanks for giving the public the chance to comment on your task. I'd appreciate it if you would consider these thoughts in your deliberations: 1. Discrimination against the rich is just as unethical as discrimination against the poor. Progressive taxes are a form of discrimination against the rich. The only truly ethical income tax would be a flat tax. 2. I'm a Mensan and have a Ph.D., yet I cannot figure out my own taxes correctly. Something is wrong here. Probably I'm just not as smart as I think I am. But on the off-chance that I am.... The tax code needs to be simplified so that anyone with a high school education can read and understand it and any related forms. This, too, calls for a flat tax, with no exceptions allowed. (My reasoning for a high school education cut-off is that we pay to educate everyone to that level, so it makes sense to expect them to perform to that level.) 3. My Ph.D. is in Instructional Development and Technology. I spent many years designing training materials and I love to take complicated materials and make them simple. So I also understand how to do the reverse: If you want to make something complicated, add exceptions to it. This again means a flat tax (because a graduated tax is one form of exceptions to a flat tax) with no exceptions. 4. Once you open the door to even one exception to the flat tax, you'll find that stepping out that door puts you on a slippery slope. How are you going to tell the next special interest group that it can't have an exception, too? 5. Don't fall for the myth that we should exchange income taxes for value added taxes, and put the highest taxes on luxury items. The rich didn't get rich by being spendthrifts. 80% of the rich in America got rich on their own (according to the book, The Millionaire Next Door), and they did it by not trashing the education we gave them for free, by saving and by being frugal. I recall the law passed 10-15 years ago to pump up the taxes on luxury items, like yachts. The rich stopped buying them, and the law was quickly repealed. Thanks again for listening. Wilma Bennett PO Box 370236, Reseda, CA 91337 818-343-4076 |