Income

[Sarah in SC]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 And pets. I'd tax the crap out of pets.

Dang, dude, you need a beer.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 Good point. Let's stop taxing income. Makes no sense.

Absolutely. When you tax income, you're taxing current wealth generators. When you tax wealth, you're taxing yesterday's news.

I'd like to see income earners/generators given a break at the expense of wealth holders.

[samclem]

Tax this interweb thing! Biggest time waster/productivity destroyer there is! (present site excluded-well, maybe not)

[Gatordoc50]

Seems we all have been convinced that we need more taxes. Government produced inflation is already taxing our income and wealth at about 3% a year. Plus whatever devaluing of our currency that has occurred. Every 20 years we are giving 1/2 of our wealth and income back to uncle Sam! On top of that, you want to add a 40% income tax, raise property taxes and raise capital gains taxes?

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem Tax this interweb thing! Biggest time waster/productivity destroyer there is! (present site excluded-well, maybe not)

You mean tax it more, don't ya?

Looking at my phone bill, I note that the buttholes at the phone company are collecting tax for the gov't on my DSL service. Of course, I live in Illinois, so they might just be collecting the tax and using it to fund junkets to warm destinations this winter.

[Fishingmn]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet I'd like to see some forms of wealth taxed more heavily, real estate for example. Easy to do and folks are getting a huge bargain today on their McMansions and estate size properties.

Then the landlords such as myself who invest in rental properties will immediately pass on that tax in the form of higher rents and the people hurt will be the least able to afford higher living expenses. Around 35% of all property is rented.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fishingmn Then the landlords such as myself who invest in rental properties will immediately pass on that tax in the form of higher rents and the people hurt will be the least able to afford higher living expenses. Around 35% of all property is rented.

Gov't rent controls........

[NW-Bound]

Sure, tax children. Then import workers, who do not get healthcare, decent housing and wages. We save money that way. Oh wait! They are called illegal immigrants, and are a big factor in our lower cost of food compared to that of other nations. Perhaps we do not want to enforce the border that closely after all.

Then, tax pets. Dogs, cats, and these goldfishes too!

I am trying to find that article that said Hollande issued order to his department heads to think of new taxes. One of the recent taxes had to do with commercial trucks, and that caused some cauliflower truckers getting mad and dumping their load in public places.

We need to tax everything! That's the bottom line. More taxes on beer, wine. And what's this homebrew stuff? Tax them too, for crying out loud. Got to hire more BATF agents to look for these future tax cheaters.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by NW-Bound We need to tax everything! That's the bottom line.

Actually, we need to tax everything more. We already tax everything.

[aja8888]

I think it's about time we started taxing all the foreign countries we give money to.

And also let's tax the Saudi's for us teaching them how to find and produce crude oil in their own country.

[REWahoo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet We already tax everything.

No we don't. There is no tax on taxes. Think of the revenue opportunity!

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet Actually, we need to tax everything more. We already tax everything.

Then why Hollande is still able to look for more taxes, while we know that France already has more taxes than the US does?

Oh, I got it. We need to tax everything twice. Thrice would be better. For example, in the case of home brewers, we already tax the ingredients he buys, but we need to tax once more at the final product that he consumes, similar to a value added tax.

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo No we don't. There is no tax on taxes. Think of the revenue opportunity!

Isn't a tax surcharge kind of a tax on a tax?

Anyway..... tax on taxes..... indeed, a great revenue opportunity!

[Rambler]

Quote:

Originally Posted by youbet I'd like to see some forms of wealth taxed more heavily, real estate for example. Easy to do and folks are getting a huge bargain today on their McMansions and estate size properties.

Well, not really. All of my neighbors with similar sized homes pay 1/3-1/2 what I do in property tax. The reason is that property tax here is assessed at the time of purchase or building completion. We built. All in, we spent about $850k to buy the land and build. When completed it was assessed at a cool million. It keeps going up with CPI. When original builders and homeowners in the neighborhood started leaving due to short sales and foreclosures, homes started selling for $325k-425k. Values are back up to maybe $600-650k now, but I'm still paying twice as much as most of the neighborhood. That's fine when my home is REALLY that much more valuable, but when it is arbitrary and automatic based on original price instead of current value, that is a problem. I'd challenge mine, but word is that there are very few successful challenges around here. I don't mind paying my fair share, but we do need a better system of figuring out "fair".

R

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by REWahoo No we don't. There is no tax on taxes. Think of the revenue opportunity!

Now you're talking! The feds could tax the states on the income they receive from their taxpayers, the states could tax their counties and municipalities, etc. They'll raise their own tax rates to make up for the lost revenues, but that's making things more local, which is usually better.

Also, what about churches? Totally untaxed! If taxing commerce isn't considered a restriction on it, if taxing newspapers isn't seen as a restriction of freedom of the press, I don't see how taxing churches could be seen as inhibiting the free exercise of religion.

We must find more ways to feed the incessant hunger of the spending machine!

[youbet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rambler Well, not really. All of my neighbors with similar sized homes pay 1/3-1/2 what I do in property tax. The reason is that property tax here is assessed at the time of purchase or building completion. We built. All in, we spent about $850k to buy the land and build. When completed it was assessed at a cool million. It keeps going up with CPI. When original builders and homeowners in the neighborhood started leaving due to short sales and foreclosures, homes started selling for $325k-425k. Values are back up to maybe $600-650k now, but I'm still paying twice as much as most of the neighborhood. That's fine when my home is REALLY that much more valuable, but when it is arbitrary and automatic based on original price instead of current value, that is a problem. I'd challenge mine, but word is that there are very few successful challenges around here. I don't mind paying my fair share, but we do need a better system of figuring out "fair". R

I'd appeal. Even here in politically corrupt Illinois, similar homes with significantly different accessments are commonly adjusted to similar accessments during appeals. Your situation would irritate me, as it does you.

But what I was refering to as "easy" about taxing real estate is the fact that the system is already widely in place. Unlike, say, taxing art collections, where there is no existing system, real estate taxation can be increase by simply dialing up the numbers.

[M Paquette]

Tax the poor. There are so many of them, and we can use tax policy to discourage people from choosing a poverty lifestyle.

[NW-Bound]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette ... we can use tax policy to discourage people from choosing a poverty lifestyle.

How about just not encouraging able-bodied people to choose a poverty lifestyle like this man described here: http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...ly-68742.html?

It is his personal choice and we all respect it. It does not mean that we have to subsidize it.

[Gatordoc50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Paquette Tax the poor. There are so many of them, and we can use tax policy to discourage people from choosing a poverty lifestyle.

Now you're just being facetious. lol

[imoldernu]

Good discussion... Let me throw out a thought.

Let's suppose that the average family size is 3 persons... that you are age 30, and that your family could get along reasonably well on $200,000 a year. Now let's suppose that as the Partiarch ( or Matriarch) you wanted to insure your extended family's welfare to the third generation.
You have 60 years to live. 60X $200K = 12 million dollars
Next generation has 90 years to live. 90X $200K = 18 million dollars
Next generation. 90X $200K = 18 million dollars

Total 48 Million Dollars.

If, all wealth after that first $48 million were used for the operation of government, and to pay for the current federal debt...

Just thinking out loud.