Tom Toles for April 10, 2013

Brilliant cartoon! Lots of applicable captions:- Peace in the Middle East- Fundamental Religionists and Evolution- Capitalism- Communism- etc

Well, most either don’t pay any taxes or just file a 1 page 1040 EZ, so the rest of us just use an accountant once a year.The only problem is that taxes are way too high and the Spendocrats just want them higher.

So I guess you want to go back to the 1890s, where there was no income tax? Society relied on churches, charities, poor houses, orphanages and debtor’s prisons. How’d that work for PEOPLE? Maybe you should read Charles Dickens! Those who are in favor of a “flat tax” or a “fair tax” are usually those who think THEIR taxes are too high, but everyone else doesn’t pay enough. A 10% tax wouldn’t cover the Defense Department budget, let alone the safety net we need for the truly poor. Reagan’s “welfare Cadillac” was on point, TO A POINT! Most on welfare are white, and most don’t want to be there. We need to quit demonizing the many because of the few.

the current tax code has been built by Democrats and Republicans. How about a progressive flat tax of 20% for all income over $50,000; and a 0% rate for income under that amount. No deductions and no loopholes.

“The Remissness of our People in Paying Taxes is highly blameable; the Unwillingness to pay them is still more so. I see, in some Resolutions of Town Meetings, a Remonstrance against giving Congress a Power to take, as they call it, the People’s Money out of their Pockets, tho’ only to pay the Interest and Principal of Debts duly contracted. They seem to mistake the Point. Money, justly due from the People, is their Creditors’ Money, and no longer the Money of the People, who, if they withold it, should be compell’d to pay by some Law. “All Property, indeed, except the Savage’s temporary Cabin, his Bow, his Matchcoat, and other little Acquisitions, absolutely necessary for his Subsistence, seems to me to be the Creature of public Convention. Hence the Public has the Right of Regulating Descents, and all other Conveyances of Property, and even of limiting the Quantity and the Uses of it. All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it. “ -- Benjamin Franklin, December 25, 1783, in a letter to Robert Morris.

Ed in Baltimore is quite correct. How many of the people who support “flat taxes” and “fair taxes” believe that their own taxes would be increased by such a system, and support it anyway? Or do they think such a system would raise other people’s and lower their own? In what camp do you find most of those who favor changes in the tax code, any changes, which are to their own personal disadvantage? That should tell you something. For those who think it basic fairness that all citizens pay the same percentage in tax, how about this: a flat property tax that assesses a percentage of each person’s net worth, no matter in what form, no matter where located? See how much support such an idea would get!

“But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property … [ One ] means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.” Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, October 18, 1785.

And isn’t it interesting that the Tea Party/ Republicans/ Scalia ALWAYS cite “original intent” without reading/understanding WHAT our founders said/argued about?And HOW they changed/COMPROMISED to get the best they could at the time!

What anyone other than rich and connected people fail to realize is that taxation in America is about redistributing wealth to the wealthy.

The government pays huge sums to corporate agriculture to do nothing and the sums are returned to shareholders and executives.

The government provides marginal healthcare to poor and old people so that Wal-Mart doesn’t have to and its heirs can be toxically rich.

The government builds roads, rails, airports, sports stadiums, etc. so that corporations don’t have to—even if they are extremely profitable.

The government allows people who buy homes to subsidize the cost of it with a mortgage deduction—owners of multi-million dollar mansions are being subsidized by poor renters who pay income tax but can’t afford to buy a home.

The government engages in massive, reckless adventures with extremely expensive military weaponry so that oil companies and other multinationals will have their kind of “stability” in certain regions.

I could go on and on.

If we want to talk about tax fairness, and pay-as-you-go government, consider that the wealthy are getting a MUCH better deal today than they would with a 10% flat tax.

4my10851cs: Yeah, the poor would lose milk for their kids, the middle would lose their lottery money, and the rich would never notice.

“Let people keep what they earn? Would that be so hard?”.I would like to give you what you ask for, living in a world with no taxes for a year.

The poor should pay little. The middle class pay a moderate amount. The rich should pay the most. But GOP has the idiocracy so well trained that they argue that the rich should pay less. If an author wrote that in a fiction story every editor in the country would throw the book out the window.

I started working in mainstream accounting doing tax preparation in the late 70’s. In the entire span of my career (to date) I have listened to countless politicians talking about improving, simplifying, streamlining and making the tax codes fairer in their application. I saw it change markedly in the mid 80’s and there have been significant changes made over time. None of them (IMO) made it any simpler, fairer or easier to prepare. Quite the contrary, it was only the implementation of computers that made it easier for those in the business of tax prep.

Every year we spent several hours in seminars at our firm getting schooled in the changes that applied to the coming tax season. Simplify, fairness? No, just the opposite in reality.

Lewis Black said it best: Anyone who can convince people who don’t have a pot to piss in that rich people are paying too much in taxes is a true leader. My hat is off to those people, and they surely know who they are.

I’m semi retired and handle a very small group of returns. By the last week they’re either done or on extension. I used to do some contract work but have even shut down most of that. Too stressful at this stage of my life…

“… special interest loopholes republicans passed for their rich…” lots of D voted for the loopholes..I agree, it is time to put a CAP on Exclusions of Income and Deductions of Expenses. Would someone suggest a number ($30,000 cap).

The fine print shows that 1/2 of people earning over $100K Pay Zero Taxes:go to IRS.govselect ‘taxstats’, select ‘indtaxstats’, select ‘articles’Select: “All Returns- Adjusted Gross Income”; IRS Table 1.2; Year: 2009Go to the BOTTOM of the spread sheet.Display ROWs 41 thru 45Print Screen.Circle COLUMNs “A” and “B”Write on the printout: “17 Million Pay ZERO Income Taxes AND Earn more than $100,000”

Let people keep what they have as long as they never get sick.