This week the news reported that a member of Congress was floating the idea to eliminate the IRS. Now we’re talking, I’m all ears. If we can pull that off I would propose we do the same with every other bureaucracy that was invented to help us out.
The biggest problem I see with eliminating the IRS is what will be put in it’s place to finance the big, big, big government. As my father would warn us, “be careful what you wish for, it may come true.”
The flat tax idea, I have learned is not a new one. It is as old as the United States itself. Over the years the flat tax was debated, but never implemented in favor of tariffs and sales taxes. Our current income tax system wasn’t implemented until the1940’s during WW II. The new flat tax system being talked about would use federal sales tax as a way to generate money. This makes sense because it spreads the joy to anyone buying anything, like a yacht to a pack of gum. Today approximately 50% of the working class does not pay income tax. If we change to a flat tax, even children who buy candy would be paying the bill. Buying new cars would be a major producer of cash. The tax rate being discussed is 30%. If I were to buy a new car listed at $50,000, I would have to tack on an extra fifteen thousand dollars for the federal flat tax. A hundred dollars worth of groceries would add another thirty dollars to the bill. Here in Illinois I would also have to pay Illinois Income tax, and sales tax to add another ten percent to afford living in this wonderful state.
Of course I could move from the USA to one of the European countries that many of our citizens are trying to make us into because they think these states have a much better way of life than us. Which countries are they, you ask, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden? I don’t think I would like living there. Besides the weather being colder there, the Tax Foundation figures show that overall taxes collected from the Scandinavian countries is much higher than in the USA. (Compare 24.76% in the USA to 46.76% in Denmark, 43.7% in Sweden, and 39.9% in Norway. I realize that these tax figures are all mysteries, as the old adage proclaims “Figures lie, and liars figure.”
What I like best about a flat tax is that it will work without the need for a huge IRS to administrate. Biden’s request to hire 87,000 new IRS agents would vaporize without the Internal Revenue Service.
We’ve been using the current system with tweeks for the past seventy-three years and all we have to show for it is a huge bureaucracy. Remember the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome.” It is time.
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Love the line “…we do the same with every other bureaucracy that was invented to help us out.” Every little thing that is a promise help the little guy eventually does exactly the opposite.
Though, on the subject, I suppose there is no perfect system. What is seemingly fairer for the little guy, or can be sold as fairer, will normally win.
There could never be a flat tax. Half the country pays no income tax or if they have it deducted from payroll check they get a full refund re poverty standards. So if everyone pays a flat tax how do these people too poor to pay any income tax pay a flat tax ? I hope I’m not sounding like Edith Bunker but this is why we have a graduated tax. On the other hand , our yearly tax law is over 12,000 pages ! If I was( or is it were ?) in charge I’d veto anything over 75 pages and eliminate all the special considerations. Illegals don’t pay any income tax at all yet get welfare . If you work for cash they can’t tax you. The rich with their tax lawyers pay little or no tax legally and illegals don’t pay tax on cash wages so only the middle class gets screwed with present system or a flat tax system. At 73 and on fixed income I figure my purchasing power has dropped 15% since Boobin got elected.
Thanks for your input. You are very correct in all of your analysis.
The flat tax that is being proposed is a sales tax which is paid whenever you buy anything. So even the most poor would be required to pay it. Of course they will probably be able to get a refund after proving they actually paid sales tax.