National Sales Tax by Miles Ogihara The introduction of a national sales tax to the United States of America would be a refreshing change to tax policy. Like every political decision, there are both positive and negatives outcomes to adopting the national sales tax. But, the tax system would overall be better for the economy than the current income tax system. With a national sales tax, the government would be less intrusive in people's lives and reduces the abundant spending of tax dollars. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) burdens citizens with countless complex tax return forms and collects sensitive information on each person's source of income. IRS activities require thousands of employees to make sure citizens comply with the income tax laws, thus …show more content…
It would view each individual equally and not punish those more successful financially with disproportionate tax rates to those who make less money. Viewing a rich man differently from a poor man is antithetical to Judeo-Christian values and accordingly is less fair to the American citizen that works hard to live comfortably. Using the national sales tax would make tax collection blind of the financial status of any person, rather, it would only focus on the product being bought. That means no person would essentially be cheated out of a large portion of their hard earned money. All the money they provide to the government would come from their personal decisions to purchase items. If someone wants to give more tax money to the government, they can make the decision to buy more products and/or buy more expensive goods. No money would technically be "forced" from the hands of the citizens and all would be seen fairly, regardless of class. Moreover, the national sales tax would boost the economy because business would do better. For example, the current income tax hurts small businesses by taking away large sums of money, leaving companies with not enough money to employ more
Sixteenth Amendment- Authorization of an Income Tax – Progressives thought this would slow down the rising wealth of the richest Americans by using a sliding or progressive scale where the wealthier would pay more into the system. In 1907, Roosevelt supported the tax but it took two years until his Successor, Taft endorsed the constitutional amendment for the tax. The Sixteenth Amendment was finally ratified by the states in 1913. The origin of the income tax came William J Bryan in 1894 to help redistribute wealth and then from Roosevelt and his dedication to reform of corporations. I agree with an income tax to pay for all of our government systems and departments, but I believe there was a misfire with “redistributing wealth.” The redistribution is seen in welfare systems whereby individuals receive money to live. This is meant to be a temporary assistance, but sadly, most that are in the system are stuck due to lack of assistance in learning how to escape poverty. There are a lot of government funded programs, but there is no general help system to help lift people up and stay up, so there continues a cycle of
Whether or not to keep or discard the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthy, give tax breaks to the lowest tax bracket, and even throwing out the entire current tax code and replacing it with a simpler version, tax code and tax law has been a very controversial topic for the past few years. As it stands, the current tax code has over seventy two thousand pages, compared to the four hundred pages it had in 1913. There are many different stakeholders in this debate including taxpayers, corporations, businesses, etc. Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) is an organization that was “founded in 1985 by Grover Norquist at the request of President Reagan”(.N.p.). Their goal is to create and advocate for a simple flat tax,“...on the belief that they will provide a strong stimulus to investment, employment, and output” (Stokey 1). They promote their organization and represent taxpayers in all fifty states. Along with tax reform, ATR also advocates for individual health care, free trade, and spending transparency (.N.p.). Using very simple and easy to understand images, ATR is able to convey their goals and get information across to the general audience that visits their website.
The current system, although bringing in over $3 trillion, taxes income multiple times, and includes the taxing of estate, labor, savings, and investments (National Priorities Project, 2013). The system itself is complex with over 20,000 pages of regulations, requiring a massive filing system, which is set up and maintained by an even larger IRS, requiring over $225 billion in compliance costs (Hall, 2001). One can be hard pressed to find an advantage in the current system, other than the fact that it provides the government with an enormous amount of funds, and it has been road-tested.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The tax policy in the United States is very confusing. When the tax policy was originally written in 1913 it was four hundred pages. Now, over the past ninety one years, that tax policy has evolved to over 72,000 pages. Since the tax code has become so lengthy and nearly impossible to understand, the topic of tax reform has been in the minds of many. Although, most barely think about tax reform until tax season. It is a controversial subject due to the impact a change in tax code would have on the American people. The two most popular and widely known stakeholders in this debate are the two major political parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. The two parties share absolutely no common ground on the subject of tax reform, other than thinking the other parties solution is wrong. The Democrats, in general, want to raise taxes on the wealthy, while Republicans, generally, want to cut taxes for everyone (Democratic Party) (GOP). Unfortunately, with the United States economy currently doing so poorly, the parties can no longer afford to remain at a standstill, some sort of compromise is going to have to be made. The implementation of a flat tax, and discarding the current tax system would be a compromise that both parties can agree on and will simplify the tax code, overall benefiting all Americans.
I. You might have heard politicians in the news, talk about overhauling our tax system with a new fix-all idea, the flat-tax. This would simplify our overly complicated tax system and might seem appealing at first glance, however there are serious problems with it.
Almost every purchasable good has a sales tax, but some specific goods deemed as necessities and are exempt from this tax. (Hawkins) Ideally, all goods would have sales tax without regards to whether
A soda tax aims to stop consumers from buying soda to help those who are obese. This will not be effective. Therefore, a soda tax will not be good public policy. A soda tax is a tax that will add an extra cent per ounce to a bottle or can of a sugary drink, including juice, tea, coffee, energy drinks, and soda.
Taxation has always been a major controversy. Just like any major corporation, the government is constantly looking to raise revenue. The easiest and fairest way to do this is by taxing the people. However, how the people will be taxed is always an issue.
Governments would just be continuing to cause problems because another huge problem in America is there are already way too many people without jobs. When going to the store to get a soda, is there really much to think about when drinking sweetened goods has become a part of an everyday lifestyle. Why would someone suddenly put a tax on something which so many have loved and became addicted to. If there was a tax put on everything people have come to love there would be a huge tax for everything. Bittman does not think that putting a tax on sugar sweetened beverages would affect the jobs of people because he believes it would get made up by the selling of their other products. However it is important to realize that most places would not be passing this until 2018. Although, people really do need to realize what these sweetened products are doing and the reason why taxing for these goods is not looking so
Let’s begin with US revenue gain that would occur from legalizing marijuana. Marijuana Offers Extreme US revenue boost in several different ways. Shouldn’t we want to collect revenue due to taxation other then criminalization? Marijuana is too expensive for our justice system and should inst...
The use of taxes is one of the government's favorite ways to make its presence known in the economy. While this method seems blatantly obvious, many of the ways the government uses the money collected by taxation is not. Some of the money it takes is used to fund other programs designed to "protect" consumers and to "create" jobs. Be...
The four types of taxes this paper will discuss are income tax, sales tax, property tax, and user fees. Income tax was not permanently established until the 16th Amendment was passed in 1913. Most federal taxes had been previously derived from excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol and other consumer goods. The US Constitution, when written and still continues to, legitimize taxation in the United States through Article I, Section 8, that Congress has the power to lay and collect taxes, duties et al, pay the debts or provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States (Cornell Law LII). Investopedia defines income tax as ‘a tax government(s) impose on financial income generated by all entities within their jurisdictions (Investopedia, 2014). Businesses and individuals are required to file an income tax return every year to determine if they owe taxes or qualify for a refund. That is determined by measuring the total income one earns to a designated tax rate, calculating one’s taxable income, which are some or all items of income reduced by other adjustments or expenses in that tax year. There are different subcategories of income tax; there is a federal income tax that is set by the federal government, apart from a few states, there is a state income tax that is imposed on their respective residents, as well as the possibility of there being local income tax ...
However if only indirect taxes are implemented, the revenue could be useful to fund not only negative advertising, the consumers who wish to relieve the taxation burden could change to other uses to carry their groceries such as a shopping bag that can be used over many times.
We see this every time we make a purchase, taxes are a part of everyday spending. Taxes come in many forms, from income tax, to sales tax, to property taxes. As citizens of the United States, it is a requirement for us to pay our due share, and this comes in the form of taxes. The impact from taxes grossly affects the both personal finances and the economy on a grand scale. So why does the government require us as citizens to pay taxes? Well according to the article why do you have to pay taxes?
The government would most likely do this by raising taxes for the rich to fund social programs or by forcefully increasing minimum wage. Due to the growth in distance between the rich and the poor in the world I mostly agree with the source however, if the government 's power is not limited they could make the economy worse.