my gut reaction to their tax burden,
it's number 43 on my gut reaction list .
out of 50 gut reactions.

if you can afford 5 lawyers and accountants
to weasel out of paying taxes ,based on current tax laws , have a great time

quote:

Originally posted by bendable:
my gut reaction to their tax burden,
it's number 43 on my gut reaction list .
out of 50 gut reactions.

if you can afford 5 lawyers and accountants
to weasel out of paying taxes ,based on current tax laws , have a great time

Having trouble deciphering a point. You are saying all wealthy people are tax cheats then? I'm not that bright, help me out here.

I'm battling about .310 understanding bendable's comments. That means I'm a HOFer.

quote:

HOFer.

What is that?

Hall Of Famer.

I live for the day I pay $1M in income taxes.

And that is because it would mean I had made a boatload more than that.

We would all - ALL - be better off if there were no income taxes, as the Constitution required from 1787 (ratification) till the enactment of the 16th Amendment in 1913.

What you tax, you repress. Income is the surplus of the value of what you do to others, minus what it cost you to get that done. The Founders understood that income is what makes thing work, and prevented taxing income in the text of the Constitution itself, allowing only direct taxes in proportion to the census.

Income taxes have two functions, one being funding the government, and the other being to change behavior. The rich didn't get that way by being stupid or rigid, or by overpaying costs. So the income tax changes their behavior more than most, and in ways not otherwise sensible if you don't factor in the incentives built into the arcanity of tax law.

So I'm fine with the idea of nuking the whole twisted, screwed up income tax mess. No corporate income tax, no personal income tax, none of it. Let people do what they think best to earn, and fund the government some other way.

Sales/VATs seem painless and the only valid arguments I've heard against that approach have boiled down to it being so painless that governments will have less of a fight when they want to raise taxes.

I'm fine with that...'painless' has an appeal that peaks every Spring when I have to sift through a blizzard of paper and electronic records to tell agencies that have no real need to know stuff, exactly what happened financially the prior year, but the appeal never really goes away.

And, the taxing authorities think, after getting a fair and equal hand in everyone's wallet via the VAT/Sales Tax, that raising tax rates will then be simple and easy.... they should take another look at the 2010 elections after the Taxed Enough Already party got going.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: joel9507,

To those who answered that they don't care about the taxes paid by others (e.g., I pay mine, they pay theirs, we're square...), does it matter to you that others are paying more than their fair share? Or, conversely, does it matter to you that others are benefitting more than you are allowed to?


Lastly, to those who answered they don't care about that taxes paid by people making $400k or more, how many take this position because $400k is far enough above what you make that it's not relevant?

Personally, any tax that disproportionately targets the "rich", whether it's "$400k" or people who make over a billion dollars a year, is something I would resist. Not because I make a billion--but because one day I'd like to.

I have enough on my plate already. I really do not care. I guess I have reached that stage in life that it really does not matter.