If my understanding of a flat tax is correct...then it would mean EVERYONE pays the same PERCENTAGE regardless of income....10% is 10% is 10%...no matter how much or how little you make, you still pay 10%.Originally Posted by Hlleonard
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If my understanding of a flat tax is correct...then it would mean EVERYONE pays the same PERCENTAGE regardless of income....10% is 10% is 10%...no matter how much or how little you make, you still pay 10%.
Senior Member
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that is also my understanding of a flat tax but supposedly the tax codes would go away and I can see a ton of cost go away with them, that would be a good thing... If that is the case then we would have no dependent deduction or any of those things so the folks who pay no taxes now would be taxed by some means or another and when you add taxes to those folks you relieve the taxes from the folks who are paying them now. I'm sure Mr Romney's 14 percent would be reduced as I doubt the rate would be as high as that.... That looks like to me the taxes are being moved from the folks who can most afford them to the folks who can least afford them
Hille, I agree with you that a flat tax would still have to make some amends for folks that had kids, or had disabilitites, was over 65, or had other limited special situations. When I say I support a flat tax, I don't mean "enter income X % = TAX and done deal". Sure there could still be some incentive programs for energy savings or for education. But the tax code could be dramatically simplified, and the number of tax forms reduced, and by doing that, we could reduce the number of return processors, and increase the law enforcement side and go after the folks that cheat. I totally agree, a person who works, makes minimum wage, is supporting 3 kids and a wife who also works, should have a resaonably amount of deductions to help reduce his burden. But, he's still an American, and still benefits from tax dollars, and still should need to contribute even if in some small way.
Senior Member
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I'm not sure we could ever get to where we have a fair tax system... We have the same discussions in our little town and I guess everywhere, they talk about a tax that is fair to everyone and nobody has a solution, more tax on property owners and they carry the burden, occupational tax and folks who work here pay the tax over the folks who live here so everything has a backside... I'm not sure why we still have the earned income credit, seems it was instituted to spur the economy in some way when it was brought about, it does look to me like a good bit of that tax refund is simply wasted by the folks who get it but that is an observation from the outside looking in... In any event, in order for the folks to pay any taxes at all we first have to take those refundable credits away from them and that is considerable in some cases... In a situation where those folks get multiple thousands of dollars due to this refund, their tax bill would have to increase by that same amount plus the few percent you spoke of so the end result might be a family's taxes might be increased by a third or more of their yearly income if the credit is counted in that income... If a family now has a 20,000 dollar income and gets 4 or 5 thousand in refundable credits, that makes a 25,000 dollar income so in order for them to pay any taxes they would first have to lose that 5,000 dollars from their income before any taxes were paid by them... If these folks don't need this refund then why are we giving it to them.
Senior Member
Heck, I don't mind a progressive tax....as long as it is PROGRESSIVE for everyone.
Unfortunately, people on the bottom have no dog in the fight. When people at the bottom of the chain cannot even pay 5% in taxes, something is wrong.
Even when I was up and coming and made significantly less than I do now, I still paid taxes......
Now, don't get me wrong, I benefit from tax breaks too. I benefited from child dependent deductions, home mortgage deductions, college credit deductions, etc, etc. but I have not benefited so much that I never paid taxes.
Maybe I need to put myself into a tax bracket that I actually DON'T pay taxes.......If Obama is elected again, maybe I will do that.
On another note, this is the first year in 25 years that I actually got a tax return. The only reason is because I have two kids in college, and took the Horizon tax credit enacted by Obama.......I may not agree, but hey, it's free money.......I guess it is only fitting though, since I've saved for 20 years for college, only to see 1/2 of it go down the tube due to bad economic policies of Bush AND Obama.
Later,
Geo
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