A Looney Tunes Delight: The American Tax Code: Continued
Like all such endeavors within a democratic society there would be a certain amount of debate, but it would be hoped that the American Tax Code would emerge looking something like this:
Individuals making less than fifty-thousand dollars a year will pay no taxes and file no returns.
Those earning over fifty-thousand dollars a year will file individual returns only, with no special deductions, no “Earned Income”, no joint returns, no credits for college, charitable deductions, no child credits, no interest deductions, no house deductions; nothing.
From fifty-thousand dollars a year to one hundred fifty-thousand dollars a year the tax rate will be five percent.
From one hundred fifty-thousand to three hundred-thousand dollars a year the rate increases to fifteen percent.
From three hundred-thousand to five hundred-thousand the rate increases to twenty-five percent.
Everything over five hundred-thousand will be taxed at the highest rate of thirty-five percent.
The devil is, as they say, in the details, so here are a few details:
Taxable income is all income, from whatever source derived. This includes alimony, child support, pension benefits, disability, stock trading , whatever. If it all adds up to over fifty-thousand a year then it's taxable.
Business expenses will, of course, continue to be deductible. Only profit will be subject to taxes. Record keeping will be, as it is now, important. There will still be W-2's, 1099's and the like. The IRS will still need to know how much you make.
April 15th will still be tax day, unless the IRS decides on a more sensible method like making everybody's taxes due on their birthday or some other suitable date.
Retirement? You are on your own. I recommend a steady regiment of saving/investing, the government really has no business being in the retirement plan business.
The IRS will be forced to make sweeping changes to conform to the new law, but the new simplicity should work in the favor of the IRS, the nation and the taxpayer. There will still be sales taxes, property taxes, etc, but for the most part these, except for the federal sales tax, should remain at the state level. The old tax code should be stricken in it's entirety, thrown out and discarded like an old jalopy, past it's time and with ancient repairs overlying even older repairs.
There can be no tax code reform until and unless our elected leaders shed their special interest baggage, fight down the urge to impose ideological or theological agendas through taxation, step back, take a good long look at what the country needs, and give us the people a simple, workable tax code we can all live with.
My Point Being:
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For an indicator of how much respect the American people receive from their government, news outlets and entertainment media just watch fifteen minutes of American TV and all those dirty little suspicions will be confirmed.
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