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US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

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Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#11

Post by imtringued »

PrinceRichard wrote: post #4

Here's my proposal for taxes. Completely eliminate income tax and every other form of currently existing tax for individuals and businesses. Replace it with a small tax on all electronic transfers, like 1-2%. Compliance is offloaded to private institutions and the entire headache of preparing and filing taxes is eliminated, along with the thousands of pages of laws about and what is and isn't taxed and how much. This…

If you are going to cut the budget by 90% why not start with how you are going to do that? Getting rid of the income tax is largely inconsequential in comparison.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#13

Post by anm89 »

actually_a_dog wrote: post #6
shostack wrote: post #3

Does this in any fashion help pave the way to a more modern tax filing system whereby the government tells you what you owe without today's current labyrinthine filing process like other countries have had?

No, because Intuit is still going to keep lobbying against it.

Not sure why this is downvoted. This is factually accurate and a major factor in why we haven't seen tax reforms.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#14

Post by refenestrator »

m0llusk wrote: post #7
PrinceRichard wrote: post #4

Here's my proposal for taxes. Completely eliminate income tax and every other form of currently existing tax for individuals and businesses. Replace it with a small tax on all electronic transfers, like 1-2%. Compliance is offloaded to private institutions and the entire headache of preparing and filing taxes is eliminated, along with the thousands of pages of laws about and what is and isn't taxed and how much. This…

Most tax utopians rally around LVT. Transfer and transaction taxes are regressive. Reducing the federal budget greatly would cause a great economic contraction likely resulting in social and political chaos.

Since you're boosting it here, do you have a link to any sort of analysis where the math works out on a land value tax?

I totally get the philosophical attraction but I just do not see how you pull trillions of dollars out of that without some crazy outcomes. Land with a financial skyscraper handling the GDP of a small nation could have a lower 'unimproved' value than an acre with really nice soil, for example.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#15

Post by actually_a_dog »

anm89 wrote: post #13
actually_a_dog wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, because Intuit is still going to keep lobbying against it.

Not sure why this is downvoted. This is factually accurate and a major factor in why we haven't seen tax reforms.

Take a look at my comment history for the past 2 weeks if you want to see a bunch more unexplainable downvotes. I've also been repeatedly IP banned multiple times during the same period, sometimes even multiple times a day, which has never happened before. I don't spam requests to the site, and haven't changed my browsing habits a whit. I've emailed admin and they won't even acknowledge me as a human. It's pretty maddening, actually.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#17

Post by refurb »

shostack wrote: post #3

Does this in any fashion help pave the way to a more modern tax filing system whereby the government tells you what you owe without today's current labyrinthine filing process like other countries have had?

No. Most of the complexities in the tax system are due to tax incentives and exemptions that the tax payer needs to verify.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#18

Post by amanaplanacanal »

imtringued wrote: post #11
PrinceRichard wrote: post #4

Here's my proposal for taxes. Completely eliminate income tax and every other form of currently existing tax for individuals and businesses. Replace it with a small tax on all electronic transfers, like 1-2%. Compliance is offloaded to private institutions and the entire headache of preparing and filing taxes is eliminated, along with the thousands of pages of laws about and what is and isn't taxed and how much. This…

If you are going to cut the budget by 90% why not start with how you are going to do that? Getting rid of the income tax is largely inconsequential in comparison.

To get rid of 90% you would have to kill social security and Medicare. I don’t see that ever happening. In addition you would have to cut the defense budget, since that alone is more than 10%. I’d be on board with that, but again I don’t see it happening.

Re: US Treasury Department to monitor all US bank accounts over $600 [pdf]

#20

Post by amanaplanacanal »

refenestrator wrote: post #14
m0llusk wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most tax utopians rally around LVT. Transfer and transaction taxes are regressive. Reducing the federal budget greatly would cause a great economic contraction likely resulting in social and political chaos.

Since you're boosting it here, do you have a link to any sort of analysis where the math works out on a land value tax? I totally get the philosophical attraction but I just do not see how you pull trillions of dollars out of that without some crazy outcomes. Land with a financial skyscraper handling the GDP of a small nation could have a lower 'unimproved' value than an acre with really nice soil, for example.

The land with the skyscraper would likely be in the middle of a city, and would certainly be worth more than a random acre in a rural area no matter how good the soil is.
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