Our country’s tax system is an abomination. The system favors the Rich and powerful. The actual collection of taxes falls disproportionately on the shrinking Middle Class. Unfairness and inequality are the hallmarks of our current tax structure. A Fine Mess shows how our tax system could be modified and streamlined and made more effective for all of us. T. R. Reid shows how difficult and complicated solutions to our current tax problems will be. If the Republicans and Trump couldn’t deal with Health Care, Tax Reform will completely befuddle them! Do you pay too much in taxes?
GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Prologue: Every thirty-two years
Policy laboratories
“Low effort, Low collection”
Taxes: what are they good for?
BBLR
Scooping water with a sieve
Flat broke
The defining problem; the taxing solution
Convoluted and pernicious strategies
The single tax, the fat tax, the tiny tax, the carbon tax, and no tax at all
The Panama papers: sunny places for shady money
Simplify, simplify
The money machine
Epilogue: The Internal Revenue Code of 2018.
Nobody likes paying taxes and everyone thinks they pay too much–but everyone likes the benefits of taxes (military, schools, infrastructure, etc.). I wouldn’t even mind paying Denmark-level taxes (80%), if I got all the cradle-to-grave social safety net that comes with it. I don’t think that would work in America though.
Deb, we have the Canadian health care and social services systems on display just across the international bridges. The Canadians pay GST and PST taxes on all purchases, but they receive a lot of services in return.
I have to confess that almost fifty years ago when I started working in IT and made good money I also thought sometimes that I had to pay too much tax, but thenwe discussed it and realised it was necessary. The same goes for our social security system – those who earn more, pay more!
Now as a pensioner I pay no more income tax, just the VAT of 7% (on essentials like food and books …) or 19%.
In those days the German income tax system had a “middle class effect” – if you earned more than a certain amount then every ectra Deutsche Mark you mademeant almost 40 % tax – so often it was worth thinking about “avoidiing income” i e having high business expenses …
My accountant told me I could only avoid or at least reduce taxes if I made more than a million a year …
But in the end we Germans can’t complain – and most don’t complain though of course we have many rich people who went to other countriues as “tax refugees” which I find nonsensical and not very patriotic. ..
Wolf, today most of America’s rich resort to Swiss Bank accounts and the Cayman Island banks to shield their wealth from the Tax Man.
Ditto to what Deb says.
Patti, politicians in the US get campaign contributions for providing “tax relief.” Money has warped our tax system.
I’ve thought the VAT tax would be the most fair, with no tax on food, and I like Wolfe’s comment on low taxes on books. This would make it more equitable. Those that can afford and chose to spend $1000 on shoes, expensive cars, etc will pay for that. It would also get tax money from illegal businesses (drug dealers for example) when they buy bling. I just wonder whether a black market would get really big with that system.
Usually, I trade in cars, but I sold one to a private person, and he had to pay the taxes on the sale. Not sure he did, and I was glad I didn’t have to collect it.
It’s not that we pay too much – we don’t, and whiners yelping that they do have got no clue – but it is that the Trumps and Kochs of this country pay little or nothing, let alone anything like their fair share. And yet they are the loudest screamers about how we need to lower their taxes.
Deb’s example is on target. Over 40 years ago we visited Denmark and went on a tour showing the “cradle to grave” services they get for their taxes. It was an eye opener. Every time I see people in this country saying they shouldn’t have to pay school taxes because they don’t have kids in school, or they shouldn’t have to pay for libraries because they don’t use them, it makes me sick. This is the kind of me-first attitude that helped put Trump in the White House.
E Pluribus Unum is our motto, @ssholes. It means out of many, one. Not every man for himself. When that giant tree fell on the woman and her kids in Central Park the other day, you didn’t see people taking selfies or saying “not my problem.” You saw everyone rush over to help get them out.
Maggie, I’ve always thought that instead of income taxes, we should go with a National Lottery to raise money.
Jeff, we pay the most for health care (and prescriptions) yet we get mediocre results. A lot of our tax money is completely wasted.
Jeff, I totally agree!
I’m happy to live in “Socialist” (rather Social Democrat) Europe.
Btw many of these ideas re social insurance, state pensions etc were first introduced in Germany in the second half of the 19th Century by the conservative politician Bismarck – who realised that this was a way to keep workers from revolting!
I favor a massive tax break for retired men over 66. It’s the only fair thing.
Dan, sounds good to me!
I’ve always thought of taxes as the price you pay for civilization. But I’m very wary of any tax “reform” brought about by the current Congress. To the GOP, tax reform means tax cuts for the rich.
Michael, I agree with you on taxes paying for civilization. But the power to tax is also the power to destroy.