Tax time…
© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008
By now you have probably read about the rush that hit the TurboTax servers.
Now, that a lot of people wait until the last minute to file is one thing, but two way more interesting questions are:
Answering the second question is a whole different story. For Governments taxes are important, because that’s their main source of income. Unfortunately a lot of the filed tax returns aren’t exactly correct—creating the tax gap: The tax gap is becoming a popular target in Washington, where the White House and the Democrats who control Congress are eager to find new sources of cash without raising tax rates.
How about these possible solutions:
Technorati (All Links are external): different story families file taxes governments income tax law interesting questions last minute main source paycheck rush servers tax gap tax laws tax returns tax time taxes turbotax ethics general politics
By now you have probably read about the rush that hit the TurboTax servers.
Now, that a lot of people wait until the last minute to file is one thing, but two way more interesting questions are:
Are tax laws too difficult to understand?
Why do we have to file taxes?
The answer to the first question seems rather easy: Yes, they are too difficult. A great many people will tell you that. Top that we the fact that more and more people need the help of software or advisors to file their taxes and you’d probably agree.Answering the second question is a whole different story. For Governments taxes are important, because that’s their main source of income. Unfortunately a lot of the filed tax returns aren’t exactly correct—creating the tax gap: The tax gap is becoming a popular target in Washington, where the White House and the Democrats who control Congress are eager to find new sources of cash without raising tax rates.
How about these possible solutions:
- Create an income tax law that is very simple: 0% taxes on all income below a specific threshold; 20% taxes on everything above that until a next higher threshold; 50% for everything above that.
This has the major advantage that taxes can be easily taken out from the paycheck. Freeing up at least some of the IRS employees who then could concentrate on those who still have to file: Families/couples with more than one income, businesses. - Get rid of income tax all together and replaces them with taxes on everything—except most food and other items needed to live. The purpose here should be to not tax those with low incomes too much. Kinda like the sales tax.
What do you think?
Do you think this could be more/less fair?
How would you like to be taxed?
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