Flat Tax...a good idea?
You don't hear there sorts of complaints too often.
One of the presidential candidates, perhaps Ron Paul, is in favour of a flat tax. I once thought that this was just some way so that the poor paid the same percentage as the rich and the rich didn't have to pay a larger percentage. I figured it was a way to hurt the poor and help the rich. However, based on Warren Buffett's claim that he only paid 17.7% in taxes (without trying to avoid paying more) and his secretary making around $60,000 paid 30%, it appears that I was wrong. Perhaps a flat tax is a good idea.
How did things get to the point where the poor and middle class pay a larger percent of their income to the government than the rich? Does anyone know? Seems kind of ridiculous to me.
One of the presidential candidates, perhaps Ron Paul, is in favour of a flat tax. I once thought that this was just some way so that the poor paid the same percentage as the rich and the rich didn't have to pay a larger percentage. I figured it was a way to hurt the poor and help the rich. However, based on Warren Buffett's claim that he only paid 17.7% in taxes (without trying to avoid paying more) and his secretary making around $60,000 paid 30%, it appears that I was wrong. Perhaps a flat tax is a good idea.
How did things get to the point where the poor and middle class pay a larger percent of their income to the government than the rich? Does anyone know? Seems kind of ridiculous to me.
posted by John E. at
08:10
2 Comments:
The problem is the definition of income tax. The tax rate we normally talk about doesn't apply to some methods of making money, forms more commonly found among wealthier people. A flat "income tax" won't fix that because the definition of income and what is exempted is a large portion of all those many pages of tax code.
When I hear politicians say "make the income tax the same for everyone" I wonder if they mean what they are saying (flat income tax) or they mean what they want people to think they are saying (flat tax on all money made, "income" or other, with no exemptions).
By
Nate, at Sat Jun 30, 05:03:00 AM GMT
Oh, and I forgot about FICA. Don't even get me started on that one....
By
Nate, at Sat Jun 30, 05:10:00 AM GMT
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