Let's play a game...

[The Ressurrected One]

Now, without googling; who said the following?

"Congress went beyond merely enacting an income tax law and repealed Article IV of the Bill of Rights, by empowering the tax collector to do the very things from which that article says we were to be secure. It opened up our homes, our papers and our effects to the prying eyes of government agents and set the stage for searches of our books and vaults and for inquiries into our private affairs whenever the tax men might decide, even though there might not be any justification beyond mere cynical su ion.

The income tax is bad because it has robbed you and me of the guarantee of privacy and the respect for our property that were given to us in Article IV of the Bill of Rights. This invasion is absolute and complete as far as the amount of tax that can be assessed is concerned. Please remember that under the Sixteenth Amendment, Congress can take 100% of our income anytime it wants to. As a matter of fact, right now it is imposing a tax as high as 91%. This is downright confiscation and cannot be defended on any other grounds.

The income tax is bad because it was conceived in class hatred, is an instrument of vengeance and plays right into the hands of the communists. It employs the vicious communist principle of taking from each according to his ac ulation of the fruits of his labor and giving to others according to their needs, regardless of whether those needs are the result of indolence or lack of pride, self-respect, personal dignity or other attributes of men.

The income tax is fulfilling the Marxist prophecy that the surest way to destroy a capitalist society is by steeply graduated taxes on income and heavy levies upon the estates of people when they die.

As matters now stand, if our children make the most of their capabilities and training, they will have to give most of it to the tax collector and so become slaves of the government. People cannot pull themselves up by the bootstraps anymore because the tax collector gets the boots and the straps as well.

The income tax is bad because it is oppressive to all and discriminates particularly against those people who prove themselves most adept at keeping the wheels of business turning and creating maximum employment and a high standard of living for their fellow men.

I believe that a better way to raise revenue not only can be found but must be found because I am convinced that the present system is leading us right back to the very tyranny from which those, who established this land of freedom, risked their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to forever free themselves..."

[The Ressurrected One]

Or not.

T. Coleman Andrews, Commissioner
Internal Revenue Service
1953-1955.

[desflood]

Amazing, isn't it, that way back when the American people actually agreed to an income tax.

[The Ressurrected One]

Amazing, isn't it, that way back when the American people actually agreed to an income tax.

Well, there's actually a lot of debate over whether or not the 16th amendment was legitimately ratified. And, from the literature I read, Democrats used the same tactics to initially sell an income tax then as they do now to justify raising taxes...It'll soak the rich and put money in the poor pockets.

[The Ressurrected One]

Wow! Tax Day and we can’t get a discussion going?

Twenty-seven hours. That's the revised figure on just how long the average person in this country spends filling out their tax return this year. That's three working days. What do you make a day? So, if your time is worth about $150 a day that would mean that you can add $450 to your tax bill this year. Now, that $450 dollars is just part of your cost of compliance with the Internal Revenue Code. Add to that any other expenses you incur for record keeping and tax management during the year and it starts to add up.

What's the total nationwide cost? About $500 billion, and that estimate might be low. But that's money. You can't really get a grip on $500 billion; so, let's try to put it in terms of people. It takes people to do the bookkeeping, maintain the records, and fill out the forms that are necessary for tax compliance on both the personal and business level. How many people? You might be shocked to learn that tax compliance in the U.S. takes the combined work effort of about 2,700,000 people working eight-hour days five days a week just to make sure that individuals and corporations comply with our tax laws. What a hideous and unforgivable waste of human potential.

But hope is on the horizon! There is a way to spend zero hours a year preparing your federal income taxes. It's called the Fair Tax Plan (based on a national consumption tax). You would pay taxes only when you spent money and never have a dime withheld from your paycheck. The rate would be 23% and would be reduced to 15.6% after indigent rebates for necessities.

Just imagine. No IRS, no forms to fill out and no tax day. April 15th would just be like any other Spring day.

The Fair Tax Plan has found some new momentum with a ringing endorsement from a letter to Washington policymakers from 75 renowned economists. Add these voices to Alan Greenspan, Milton Friedman and others and we're looking at a something more than a legislative pipe dream.

Talk about leveling the tax playing field. Class warfare and wealth envy aspects of the federal income tax are nothing new, they were there from the very beginning. Isn't it time for a system of funding our federal government that isn't based on class envy?

History can be depressing sometimes…

After the idea of an income tax was declared to be uncons utional, in the late 19th century, the politicians in Washington chose sides and drew their battle lines.

On the one side were the Democrats who were eager to spend the money that would come from an income tax. The Democrats included a platform calling for such a cons utional amendment permitting the income tax in both their 1896 and 1908 platforms. Republicans were opposed.

Those who favored the income tax scheme met with considerable success in capturing public sentiment with promises that the tax would "soak the rich" and would leave the vast majority of Americans alone. Wealth envy was every bit as alive and well in the late 1800’s as it is in the early 2000’s.

The history timeline now brings us to Texas Senator Joseph Bailey, a conservative Democrat, who cooked up a scheme to humiliate congressional Republicans. Bailey introduced a bill calling for an income tax. Even though Bailey himself was opposed to an income tax, he thought that the Republicans would rush in to kill this legislation. This would further the image Democrats were trying to cultivate of Republicans as hostile to the poor and concerned only about protecting the wealthy. Wouldn't you know it; things didn't turn out as Bailey had planned. Liberal Republicans, backed by Teddy Roosevelt, came out in support of the bill. Passage seemed all but certain.

Conservative Republicans needed a way to derail the Bailey Bill and the growing threat of an income tax.

In one of the worst examples of legislative play-calling in the history of our Republic, Republicans came up with the brilliant idea of announcing that they would support the idea of an income tax, but only if that income tax came about as the result of an amendment to our cons ution. This group of conservative Republicans felt that while there might be some chance the proposed amendment would actually make it through the House and the Senate, there was just no way in the world that the legislatures of three-fourths of the states would vote for ratification and make it a part of our Cons ution.

Oops.

Sail through the House and the Senate the amendment did. The vote in the Senate was 77-0 and the House approved it by 318-14. It was off to the states for ratification. Conservative Republicans were certain that the effort was doomed. They were wrong.

No one counted on the chicanery that ensued during the ratification process…

Democrats launched a massive effort to convince the people that any income tax would only be directed at the wealthy, and that ordinary Americans would be left unscathed. Conservative legislatures in the West and the South convinced their cons uents that the adoption of the income tax would have little effect on them, since incomes high enough to be taxed were rare in these areas. The people, thus anesthetized, raised little objection and the 16th Amendment was ratified on February 12, 1913 . This date should be added to December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001 as dates in American history that shall forever live in infamy.

I won’t even get into the theories, stories, conspiracies, and known facts of how the amendment was illegally ratified in several states and just plain adopted by bureaucratic fiat in others…

But, once again, there is encouraging news…

A letter signed by more that 75 economists has been delivered to the House, Senate, Treasury tax reform panel and to President Bush. Copies of the letter have also been sent to virtually every tax policy maker on Capitol Hill. The letter praises the Fair Tax plan.

Please read the letter here

75 economists, including one Nobel laureate.

The Fair Tax plan is viable and it can (and should) become law. If the people of this country get behind the plan it can become law. Reforming our tax system is nothing compared with what a small number of Americans did over 250 years ago.

I want to address negativism and the Nbadan’s of the world for a second. There seems to be a class of people who feel compelled somehow to come up with a reason why this just won't work. As soon as the Fair Tax topic comes up, people get in line to give all sorts of reasons why the plan is going to fail. There's nothing new in these responses. They generally focus on the idea that people will try to get around the tax by operating underground. So? What's new about that? The underground economy is alive and well today under the income tax!

This idea isn't perfect! No idea is! But it is certainly one heck of a lot better than what we have going now.

Our society has always had its share of people (Nbadan) who are eager to come up with a reason why something can't be done. Thankfully we've also always had a good number of people who chose to spend their time trying to figure out how to make ideas work. These are the innovators whose combined efforts have brought us the incredible standard of living we enjoy today, and who have made America the destination of choice for people around the world who want a better life.

And, as if you need more of a reason to abolish the current tax scheme…

The IRS has gotten the OK to farm out uncollected tax payments to private contractors. They estimate $270 billion goes uncollected every year, and they want that money. So now private companies are lining up at the trough to start collecting it, and naturally, keep a cut for themselves.

There is opposition from both political parties, for a variety of reasons. One is privacy, if you owe the IRS money, your private information will be turned over to another company to collect. As you can tell by the recent headlines, not all companies are too good at keeping your personal information under wraps. Of course, the IRS uses your Social Security number to identify you, which is about as personal as you get.

Then there's the collector's percentage, estimated to be 25%. Some argue that the government would get 100% if they were doing the collecting, but they're not doing so hot these days. The private collectors are expected to be more aggressive. Then of course you have the Democratic opposition. Private collectors mean less federal jobs which means less guaranteed votes in the next election cycle. The government employee unions are none too happy either.

Legislation has been introduced to repeal the practice, but don't hold your breath. One course of action is not to owe the IRS any back taxes. Or, you call your Congressman and Senator and ask them to support the Fair Tax bill; (H.R. 25 and S. 25).

Otherwise, you might get a call some Sunday morning from Mr. Patel in India wondering when he can expect payment.

Carry on…and have a nice day!

[dcole50]

Twenty-seven hours. That's the revised figure on just how long the average person in this country spends filling out their tax return this year.

what? i realize my income is very low, which is why it probably takes me so little time, but twenty-seven hours?. am i way off base or is that stat absurd?

[The Ressurrected One]

what? i realize my income is very low, which is why it probably takes me so little time, but twenty-seven hours?. am i way off base or is that stat absurd?

I believe that's on average considering all the prep by the tax payer and his/her preparer throughout the year. Filing receipts, keeping notes, filing W-4's, and all the year-round nonsense in order to be prepared and be able to file your return in just a couple of hours or less I could have probably worded it better.

[CommanderMcBragg]

I've been paying taxes for years and am proud to do so as an American.

[Al Sharpton]

I have another game........who said....."No new taxes" ?

[Nbadan]

But hope is on the horizon! There is a way to spend zero hours a year preparing your federal income taxes. It's called the Fair Tax Plan (based on a national consumption tax). You would pay taxes only when you spent money and never have a dime withheld from your paycheck. The rate would be 23% and would be reduced to 15.6% after indigent rebates for necessities.

Flat taxs and The Fair Tax Plan are regressive tax plans. The less you make the more you pay hurts. In the case of the Fair Tax Plan, all it basically is is a consumption tax - buy a book and get taxed, but by a bookstore and magically no taxes. That gives the illusion of everyone paying the same portion, while actually being a regressive tax. In reality, they want the flat tax to apply only to earned income, while exempting investment income and capital gains.

So basically, the rich would be paying little to no income tax under the so-called flat tax and even less than they are currently cheating the system under the GOP backed UnFair Tax Plan.

[Nbadan]

Since this is the time of year that we all think about taxes the most, I thought it would be fun to throw out a few facts that you may not know regarding your taxes, our budget, and our debt.

The most recent estimates available report that our current federal deficit stands at approximately $7,800,000,000,000. That’s 7.8 trillion dollars. If this number seems too big to really put into perspective, that figure works out to an average debt of about $26,350 for every man, woman, and child currently living in the United States.

This “per person” amount has risen by over 30% since George Bush took office, when the figure stood at approximately $20,150. Remember how grateful you were when you received that $300 tax rebate check when President Bush took office? Considering the additional amount we all owe as part of the debt, consider it a gift from a loan-shark. Except instead of breaking your legs, we’re selling ourselves off to foreign countries.

According to House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer, "Four years ago, the Bush administration inherited a projected 10-year budget surplus of $5.6 trillion. Since then, we have run record deficits of more than $400 billion a year, and Congress has been forced to increase the national debt limit three times. Even worse, the administration and Congress have no real plan to rein in deficits and debt. This threatens our investments in issues important to our communities -- on everything from health care to our national security."

If you think the recent flap in Congress about the repeal of the “Death Tax” has no impact on you, think again. The Associated Press reports that if the repeal of the “Death Tax” were signed into law, it would add $290 billion on top of the current federal debt over the next ten years. That translates to an additional $1,000 or so in our “per person” share of the debt. In other words we can all (even the poorest of us) chip in to pay for a tax break that only benefited the wealthiest 1.25% of family deaths last year.

But hey, we’re paying it off, right? Nope. Well, at least not since Bill Clinton was in office. Right now we’re only paying off the interest on the current debt we owe, while continuing to run deficits in our annual budget. Last year, the federal government used our tax dollars to pay over $321 billion (over $1,000 per person living in the U.S.) on just the interest of our current debt. That represents about 14 percent of all federal spending. This means, of course, that 14 cents of every dollar you pay in federal taxes just goes toward interest payments. Not towards roads, schools, national defense, or healthcare. If somehow the federal debt magically disappeared tomorrow, we could cut everyone’s taxes by 10 percent across the board and still have over $10 billion to put toward whatever we wished.

Keep these fun facts in mind the next time you hear someone from either side of the aisle talk about fiscal discipline.

[The Ressurrected One]

buy a book and get taxed, but by a bookstore and magically no taxes.

Buy your brother's '73 Chevette, pay no tax; but, buy a Boeing 747, pay a buttload of tax.

Oh, and buy a bookstore? Pay salaries and construction costs...shop in a bookstore, pay tax.