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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

For once and for all, shouldn't we have a minimum tax?

There's a report out in the last few days about taxes paid in America.

And it shows we're kooky.

46 million of us pay no taxes at all?

I've reported a bit on this before.

Does this make any sense?

Shouldn't we ALL pay at least something on our taxes, so we can keep our infrastructure and schools--everything--running?

Wouldn't that make sense?

But no, we let corporations and wealthy people, mostly, pay for tax breaks--mostly by buying their Senators--and then jockeying up the books.

I've proposed this before--why don't we put in place a, say, 10% minimum tax that EVERYONE has to pay, for being a citizen and for having access to this country of ours and our markets?

Doesn't that make sense?

Oh, and, finally, check out the byline of the original article: "Surge of “Nonpayers” Will Be Part of Bush Tax Legacy."

One more way George W. screwed up the country and the world, with what time he had.

Note: Thanks to the Kruse Kronicle for bringing this to our attention, via Tony's KC Blog.

Original link: http://krusekronicle.typepad.com/kruse_kronicle/2009/12/almost-4-out-of-10-americans-pay-no-income-tax.html#tpe-action-posted-6a00d83451b14d69e201287631af3b970c

3 comments:

Sevesteen said...

I would rather switch from taxing income to taxing spending, with a sales or value-added tax as a complete replacement for income tax. Buy a foreign car, and it still fully supports our infrastructure. Buy 3 pounds of gold chain with the proceeds of your drug sales, and it still supports our infrastructure. Invest money and don't get taxed until you spend it. Fewer chances for loopholes, special treatment and tax evasion.

Mo Rage said...

but taxing purchasing is always regressive and hurts the middle- and lower-classes while benefiting, greatly, the wealthy.

Congress would start writing loopholes as soon as it was created.

Sevesteen said...

The elimination of tax shelters and similar loopholes would make up for some of the regressive part, and the rest could be done with a fixed rebate that every adult citizen gets--this could be set to the taxes spent by a 'poverty level' income.

There is nothing that can entirely prevent congress from acting stupidly, but it would be more difficult to hide loopholes for "things the wealthy buy" than under the current system.