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Robert Arvanitis's avatar

Government takes many slices to hide the total take. And that is just the cash.

Government also takes by unfunded mandates, PLUS borrowing (tax on unborn), PLUS estate (tax on dead), PLUS cost of all laws, rules and regulations, PLUS inflation, the cruelest tax falling worst on the poor. Overprinting currency = inflation, cheats savers and lets government borrow even more.

It's vicious and deliberate; future be damned.

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Ataraxis's avatar

I’ve always felt that the death tax is immoral. Everyone pays taxes their whole life, but that’s just not enough for the Leviathan. The State should have no interest in a person dying a natural death, but instead, immorally steps in and steals a dead person’s money.

There should be a Constitutional amendment outlawing this immoral act.

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Jeffrey L Minch's avatar

Estate taxes were enacted to fund wars. They were never intended to fund continuing operations. They are confiscatory and penalize success.

Estates are built upon income and seed corn that was "after-tax" capital and should not be taxed.

The answer is a flat, broad, consumption tax wherein the wealthy pay their fair share as they consume. A small floor to protect the poor is also in order. It would eliminate the IRS as a bonanza.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Robert Arvanitis's avatar

You are of course correct.

We must decide systematically: 1. jobs of govt. 2. how much of GDP for that. 3. bases & rates of income or assets.

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Ataraxis's avatar

Agreed. This country needs a national discussion on the purpose of government. But we don’t discuss big ideas anymore.

I would love to ask a politician, what’s the moral basis for the death tax?

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Jeffrey L Minch's avatar

The current Biden budget proposal contains a capital gains tax rate twice the current rate. The magic number is 39.6%.

The US had no income tax until 3 Feb 1913 when the 16th Amendment to the US Constitution was ratified granting the Feds the right to tax income.

We should have a consumption tax rather than an income tax and it should be slightly progressive by inserting a floor below which there is no tax.

The biggest problem is the Federal gov't's insatiable hunger for profligate spending and their inability to control both that appetite and the bloated gov't it has created.

We have more IRS agents than US Marines and that is disgusting.

It is a slovely mess and the corruption is beyond belief.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Illinois Entrepreneur's avatar

Imagine what the savings from eliminating the IRS alone could pay for?

Imagine what the savings from paying CPA's to file tax returns could pay for?

Imagine what the savings on the legal fees having to battle the IRS could pay for?

And, all those IRS people could actually be doing something else that is far more productive and useful.

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Jeffrey Carter's avatar

Imagine the opportunity costs inside all entities that pay tax when they divert resources from figuring out how to avoid tax to figuring out how to improve their business

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Illinois Entrepreneur's avatar

I sometimes wonder what the Founders would say if they could be transported in time to today, and observed our modern tax system.

Not only on the complexity of it, but the pure plethora of various taxes--including on income--and the sheer amount taken. Wasn't the Tea Rebellion over a 2% stamp tax?

My, how times change.

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Jeffrey L Minch's avatar

They would start a bloody Second Revolution!

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Illinois Entrepreneur's avatar

That would be a fun novel to read: Founders come back from the past, dislike what they see and start the 2nd American Revolution.

On the other side is Joe Biden and Barack Obama.

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Tom Eckert's avatar

And the uni-party in Washington!

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Tom Eckert's avatar

Amen to that!

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Tom Eckert's avatar

Great post today Mr Carter! I feel as if the government has been playing "3 Card Monti" with the tax system for so long they think we're going to be forever duped! Keep up the good fight and the information may eventually seep into the low information voters consciousness!

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Mitch Weiner's avatar

"3 Card Monti" haha, perfect ...nails it

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Mike Mathieson's avatar

A simpler way of looking at it is that Corporations view taxes as just another operating expense. Objective is to minimize it (as all expenses) and include it in the determination of selling prices.

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David A. Rosen's avatar

The other GREAT shortfall is that while not only does the general population not understand how the tax system works, politicians and government workers are in the same boat. For example, we put tariffs on China recently to reduce dependance on their goods and the subsidies they provide. Then at the same time, we are choosing to tax companies more to drive them to "off-shore" their manufacturing. All this while we encourage more on-shoring of manufacturing with government grants, but forget the extra tax burden impact to the companies.

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Illinois Entrepreneur's avatar

It's absolutely crazy.

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David A. Rosen's avatar

We are like a three headed monster struggling to control two legs and head to unknown destinations but focused on moving "forward" in 360 degrees.

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Rascal Nick Of's avatar

It’s interesting to me that much if not most of Bill Gates wealth is wrapped into non-profits. It seems like he is exploiting the system in some manner. The non-profit accumulates wealth tax free which he uses to influence organizations like the WHO which is working to enslave us. Interesting that…

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TBone's avatar

All by design, of course.

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Kurt Eckhardt's avatar

I'm not much for consumption taxes for the same reason I disdain sales tax-I don't think that retailers or restaurant owners should be forced to work for free as tax collectors for the Omnipresent State.

That said, I agree with Jeff that corporate rates should be zero. Corporations-that can just as easily be small businesses or sole proprietorships-are the lifeblood of a nation. They provide the jobs that feed us, the pipeline of domestic goods and services that allow us to be self contained, and the innovation that heralds a future of greater prosperity. What sane government would seek to derail, all that?

Demands on U.S. corporations have hijacked the concept of Free Trade and caused us to contemplate Fair Trade. How can a company that sets up shop across the border with no minimum wage requirements, no OSHA, EPA or other regs, and no onerous taxes, be allowed to compete versus our own companies, who're running the same race with a 50lb handicap?

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JBP's avatar

Some of it is to push more business underground and turn a blind eye to it. So they make an onerous tax on employers who run say, a carpentry business. The business owner then pays his employees in cash to avoid the tax.

Thus, the government can hold this over the carpentry business owner, and threaten to enforce against them if they don't not toe the line. Typical authoritarians.

Also may go to the Cubs game tonight the former director of Illinois Dept of Revenue. I will pick a fight with him, for old time's sake.

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Jeffrey Carter's avatar

Can't avoid the Fair Tax with cash. Only way to avoid is barter.

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JBP's avatar

What if you never report the cash to begin with? Like tipped income at Nail Salons.

Good tip of the iceberg story here in WSJ

https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/heathrow-dubai-airports-billions-dirty-money-9f49cc7f

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Duane Hershberger's avatar

It amazes me that people don't get this.

And it can get even worse than corporate income tax ignorance.

I lived in Canada for several years, during which they introduced a VAT. Even when the government clearly spelled it out, most people couldn't grasp the cumulative effect.

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Scott Michael's avatar

Thanks, came on here to mention VATs, and you brought it up first.

Taxation at every level of production. And everything has a different rate at different stages of the process. Can you imagine the productivity lost on just administering and auditing all this?

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Jeffrey L Minch's avatar

The problem with VAT -- as evidenced by Europe and England -- is the bastards don't eliminate income taxes. They add VAT to income taxes.

JLM

www.themusingsofthebigredcar.com

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Jeffrey Carter's avatar

Exactly. One consumption tax paid on new goods and services. That's it. the people that pay the tax feel it and vote accordingly

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Ataraxis's avatar

Most people can’t understand this simple statement:

Corporations don’t pay corporate taxes, people do.

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Rascal Nick Of's avatar

Excessive and unnecessary regulations are also a form of tax.

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Mitch Weiner's avatar

What is the approximate current dollar value on corporate taxes paid in any given year in the past half decade or so to the government?

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Ed W999's avatar

Neal Boortz was on to something when he was promoting the"Fair Tax."

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Contrary to Ordinary's avatar

Great article. I cannot count how many times I’ve tried, and failed, to explain this to people who don’t own a business. But the government damn sure understands it. Just like the payroll withholding tax, it’s a lot easier to force a business to collect the gov’t take than individuals. Then blame the business for rapacious prices and profits driven by greed, repeat ad nauseam in the sock-puppet media, and the illusion is perceived reality.

Lather, rinse, repeat. At every stage of production.

“The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.” —Jean-Baptiste Colbert 1619–83

I disagree with a consumption tax for just that reason. Business is still the middleman, and the hissing is still muted. Nothing changes to control government spending, or bring the facts front and center. Until every individual has to write a check directly to the government for their “fair share” they will never understand the true cost of the state.

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