Income Taxes

Income Taxes:

"Taxes shall be levied according to ability to pay". - Franklin D. Roosevelt

The only people that have a problem with income taxes are those who pay them. According to numbers published by CNN, this year about 47% of Americans should be very happy because they will pay no income taxes at all, and some will even get a tax refund*.

That leaves the other 53% of us to pay the entire bill.

Our current tax code exceeds 5.6 million words. Few people (except the 47% above) will argue that our income tax system has been in need of repair for decades. The problem is, that few can agree on how to fix things. From accountants, to lawyers and IRS agents, hundreds of thousands of people are employed just to administer our federal income tax system. It is doubtful that any of them would like to see things change. Even our elected representatives don't want change, like Representative Charles Rangel from New York who not only chairs the tax-writing Way and Means Committee, but is being investigated for not paying his taxes.

The time has come for a national sales tax to replace our current income tax system. A sales tax with limited, strategic exemptions (like food and utilities) can be designed so that the tax is not burdensome for low income households yet is fair to all Americans. A national sales tax could eliminate virtually all evasion and fraud and the need for a huge government bureaucracy to run it. Unfortunately, we would need to find something to do with all of the out of work accountants and lawyers.

* By giving a tax refund to people who have paid no taxes, the federal government redistributes wealth.

CNN, 47% Will Pay No Federal Income Tax: