Americans in general should pay more taxes .

OZ, I haven't run the numbers but if you look at our GDP of 14.5 Trillion, that would be a shitload of money. Throw in an additional 5% for luxury purchases (cars, boats, etc.,) and that's a ton more. I am also talking about across the board... every purchase made by anyone, regardless of status or affiliation within the borders of the US. No exemptions.

This coupled with fiscal discipline and a balanced budget could get us back on solid footing. But, honestly, what do I know? There are far smarter people getting paid a butt-load of money to fuck up our country.

 

Yep, I know the score... I'm pretty adept at this stuff. My statement was a generalization. Thanks, I should have been more specific or used a better example.

 

Lol

We have a 5% federal Goods and Services tax on pretty much everything , plus on average another 6% Provincial sales tax , is there no similar set up in the US on general purchases ?

 

Years ago the guberment tried passing a "yacht tax" (intended for the ultra rich) but it ended up hurting the yacht makers themselves

Luxury taxes don't also tax who they are supposed to

 

Yea, I'm not so sure 5% would do it, but again - I've calculated it as much as you have.

I assume it would be on top of the existing state taxes?


Most proponents of the "fair tax", seem to be around the 30% mark, with exclusion to used goods and business purchases.

 

State sales taxes, gas tax, etc...

 

No raising tax rates is the exact wrong thing to do. But it doesn't surprise me coming from the great white north.

Changing our tax code making it more fair ie flat taxes... elliminating capital gains taxes and taxing 80% of the population instead of 45%... I'm all ears

 

Won't happen that way.

Property tax is a state/local tax.
Flat tax would only replace the Federal income tax.

Too many fingers in too many pies for a single flat tax to replace every income/property/sales/use/tax/fee/registration/toll that we pay.

Those who say that Americans are not paying enough taxes are not looking at the big picture.

Federal income tax rate of 10% to 35% depending on income
State income tax of up to 11% (California's top marginal rate kicks in at around $40k)

State and local sales taxes of up to 12%.
That's an income tax... and it unfairly targets the poor.
As much as 12% of every purchase is a tax payment. Who spends the majority of their income? The poor.

Property taxes? Thousands every year.... regardless of income.
Bought a nice house when you had a good job, job took a shit and now you're barely scraping by, keeping up on your payments and no luxuries.... now comes a tax bill for that $400k house that you worked your ass off to buy.

Registration "fees" (taxes by any other name)... my Taco will likely cost me close to $300 to renew the tags next year.

I pay taxes on my utility bills
I even pay taxes on my wife's disability compensation.


While the Federal income tax rate may indeed work out to 10-15% for the majority of Americans, we still see 40% or more of our income confiscated by some government agency.

 

Agreed, we are up shit's creek are barely holding onto our paddle

 

Have you ever been to Canada ?

 

Florderp doesn't have a State income tax, and our vehicle registation fees are low by Cali's fee's by a great amount

 

That's not too bad

 

Flat tax isn't a fair tax, it is a regressive tax code

There is no need to get rid of Capital Gains taxes, as that tax is available to everyone

You still don't get it

 

Agreed.

But Texas has one of the highest property tax rates in the country.

Some states have no personal income tax, such as Nevada, but they take it from businesses, who in turn pass that on to the consumers.
They are still paying taxes, it is just hidden in the prices of their products.
Example: Gasoline in Nevada is comparably priced to California (who simply taxes everything and everyone), yet neighboring states are much cheaper.

I was basically posting up near worst-case examples... but on average, about 40% of American income it handed over in some form of tax or fee.

 

Yes, I had a girlfriend from Vancover, lovely person...visited her relative a few times. She lived 70% of her life in Canada. Total socialist in her political views... voted for Obama of course... and now regrets it. flat tax is the only fair tax... all others based on wealth status must be eliminated IMO - Property taxes suck! I can say this because i pay $60K per yr and get nothing for it.... Have you spent time in the US

 

How is it regressive? It may be more regressive than we have now (i.e. poor people don't pay ANY taxes), but is it less fair?

Lower income families have kids in school, use our roads, and other services taxes pay for. Is it not fair that they use a service but don't pay for it because they 'cant'?

I guess you'd need to define 'cant'. There are a lot of 'low income' families - but not near as many that are truly scraping by.
Lots of poor people would die to be a poor person in this country.

 

Vancouver , nice , my neck of the woods

I like Obama

Yes I've been to the States

 

My fear is our country is becoming a country of takers... non-producers. When the non-producers outnumber the producers and can then vote themselves, by majority, whatever financial freebies they feel they can get away with, then we are screwed as a nation. There is only so long you can continually draft the wages of the producers and give to the non-producers before the burden becomes unbearable.

Our current state is dire in my opinion. As the baby boomers begin their long retirement, welfare and social security recipients are on the rise, and those holding insanely gratuitous federal/state public-sector retirement plans are joining the retiree roles, we are heading towards a financial cliff. We cannot sustain this pace for long.

So, what is the solution? Raise taxes? Maybe, but then we run the risk of further stagnating an already slow, if not static or dying economy. And by any reasonable measure, it is dying a slow death. So slow, many are incapable of seeing the inevitable.

Again, everyone must have a stake.

 

Capital gains taxes you for being susccessful... why is everyone paying the same amount of income tax unfair - I get it you don't... as a matter of fact I retired at age 37 because I get it. What I do get is that I do not believe taxes need to be raised period our government... fed state local - take Stockton, CA (just filed chapter 9) can't manage an outhouse!

 

Thats a great idea! With the extra money we can buy Canada fix it up and sell it to China for 15 trillion then were out of debt.