A modest proposal this April 15

[Little-Acorn]

This country would be better off if we changed a few laws:

1.) Tax withholding from everybody's paychecks, stops immediately. And paychecks go up significantly as a result.

2.) Every week or two, the Fed govts and state govts, send a bill to each citizen for the amount they are no longer withholding, payable on receipt, and everyone must write a check or MO each time, to pay it.

3.) State and national general elections, instead of being held every November, are held one business day after Income Tax day (which is usually April 15).

This will make the country better off, because state and Federal taxes and spending will be brought down to reasonable levels faster than any politician could ever hope to do. And we will start electing politicians who are actually interested in controlling those taxes and spending again.

I'm not saying this proposal is perfect. There will be problems with enforcement, the pain of sending money to govt that you really needed to pay your daughter's tuition or whatever. But this proposal is better than what we are doing now, and will result in a better-run, more free country than it is now.

 

[Mr. H.]

Mmmmmm......

...no.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

This country would be better off if we changed a few laws:

1.) Tax withholding from everybody's paychecks, stops immediately. And paychecks go up significantly as a result.

2.) Every week or two, the Fed govts and state govts, send a bill to each citizen for the amount they are no longer withholding, payable on receipt, and everyone must write a check or MO each time, to pay it.

3.) State and national general elections, instead of being held every November, are held one business day after Income Tax day (which is usually April 15).

This will make the country better off, because state and Federal taxes and spending will be brought down to reasonable levels faster than any politician could ever hope to do. And we will start electing politicians who are actually interested in controlling those taxes and spending again.

I'm not saying this proposal is perfect. There will be problems with enforcement, the pain of sending money to govt that you really needed to pay your daughter's tuition or whatever. But this proposal is better than what we are doing now, and will result in a better-run, more free country than it is now.

I like point 1 and point 3. Point 2 sounds awful, though I do understand the point you're making.

 

[Oldguy]

I don't see how that would affect spending, other than to make the government spend more. Can you imagine the administrative and postage cost for mailing every taxpayer a bill every 2 weeks?

 

[Little-Acorn]

I don't see how that would affect spending,

That's right, you don't see it.

Can you imagine the administrative and postage cost for mailing every taxpayer a bill every 2 weeks?

I get a dozen bills from various groups, every week. You will find that pretty much every American does. What's one more?

Obama spends more than that on White House parties and vacations.

 

[The2ndAmendment]

One day, when taxes are extremely high one everyone in order to pay the interest on the Debt, there will be a national disobedience where we'll stop paying taxes, simply because we'll starve to death if we do pay the taxes.

The first people that will do this are blacks and latinos, who are generally more poor than whites. It will be a fun day when they revolt against the Democrats.

 

[Mr Natural]

Paychecks go up, spending goes up, prices go up.

In the end it's a wash.

 

[Foxfyre]

This country would be better off if we changed a few laws:

1.) Tax withholding from everybody's paychecks, stops immediately. And paychecks go up significantly as a result.

2.) Every week or two, the Fed govts and state govts, send a bill to each citizen for the amount they are no longer withholding, payable on receipt, and everyone must write a check or MO each time, to pay it.

3.) State and national general elections, instead of being held every November, are held one business day after Income Tax day (which is usually April 15).

This will make the country better off, because state and Federal taxes and spending will be brought down to reasonable levels faster than any politician could ever hope to do. And we will start electing politicians who are actually interested in controlling those taxes and spending again.

I'm not saying this proposal is perfect. There will be problems with enforcement, the pain of sending money to govt that you really needed to pay your daughter's tuition or whatever. But this proposal is better than what we are doing now, and will result in a better-run, more free country than it is now.

I like point 1 and point 3. Point 2 sounds awful, though I do understand the point you're making.

LittleAcorn can of course speak for himself/herself but I saw the point of No. 2 as a concept of the taxpayer actually having to write a check for their taxes and being aware of how much that actually is. Now, probably most Americans don't even look at the deductions from their pay check but consider their take home pay their wages. And because of that they don't realize how costly the government we have actually is, and how much better off they would be with a much smaller, less expensive, less intrusive government.

Other suggestions is that everybody pay their taxes up front in which case they wouldn't see a paycheck each year until sometime in April or May. Or let everybody keep all their wages and pay their taxes at the end of the year. That would be a real eye-opener to many Americans.

 

[Foxfyre]

I've been looking for an appropriate place to post this. This thread seems as good as any.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

This will make the country better off, because state and Federal taxes and spending will be brought down to reasonable levels faster than any politician could ever hope to do.

Since when have politicians looked to spend at reasonable levels? Is this a joke?

 

[Foxfyre]

Incidentally, from the folks who calculate that every year, we Americans achieved tax freedom n 2012 on April 24. That means that we worked for three months and 24 days just to pay our tax burden to the federal, state, and local governments. But because it was taken out incrementally or otherwise paid out in small doses, we hardly noticed.

Trust me, we would notice a LOT if we had to write the check for that incrementally or at the end of the year.

 

[TakeAStepBack]

Incidentally, from the folks who calculate that every year, we Americans achieved tax freedom n 2012 on April 24. That means that we worked for three months and 24 days just to pay our tax burden to the federal, state, and local governments. But because it was taken out incrementally or otherwise paid out in small doses, we hardly noticed.

Trust me, we would notice a LOT if we had to write the check for that incrementally or at the end of the year.

Hardly noticed? Oh, I noticed my wallet is 20K lighter before I even looked at my W2. I also love paying a tax at the pump only to drive around on roads that look remarkably similar to some old photos of Post WW Berlin.

 

[The Rabbi]

Do away with witholding. Make everyone write a check on April 15th for taxes owed. You'd see people howling over it. Currently most people getting W-2s think the govt is "giving" them money every year in the form of a refund.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

I don't see how that would affect spending,

That's right, you don't see it.

Can you imagine the administrative and postage cost for mailing every taxpayer a bill every 2 weeks?

I get a dozen bills from various groups, every week. You will find that pretty much every American does. What's one more?

Obama spends more than that on White House parties and vacations.

So exactly what we need, while we're $17 trillion in debt, is for the government to spend even more money on postage and billing to send tax bills to 100 million Americans bi-weekly.

Yeah, great idea......

 

[TakeAStepBack]

I've got a better idea. Lets go back to having economic liberty and put an end to income taxation. I dont know about the rest of you, but being a subject, or a serf to the state isn't my idea of freedom or liberty.

 

[Dont Taz Me Bro]

I've got a better idea. Lets go back to having economic liberty and put an end to income taxation. I dont know about the rest of you, but being a subject, or a serf to the state isn't my idea of freedom or liberty.

Won't happen. Americans like being subjects to the state.

 

[Foxfyre]

I don't see how that would affect spending,

That's right, you don't see it.

Can you imagine the administrative and postage cost for mailing every taxpayer a bill every 2 weeks?

I get a dozen bills from various groups, every week. You will find that pretty much every American does. What's one more?

Obama spends more than that on White House parties and vacations.

So exactly what we need, while we're $17 trillion in debt, is for the government to spend even more money on postage and billing to send tax bills to 100 million Americans bi-weekly.

Yeah, great idea......

The government doesn't have to spend anything on postage. All it would require is one mailing with a tax schedule showing the amount to send in based on X number of dollars earned. Sort of like the estimated tax packets they already send to all of us self-employed folks. Believe me when you pay those estimated taxes once a quarter, or for some once a month, you are very aware of how much the government is costing you. That's probably why most self-employed people tend to be conservative I guess.

And as for the extra administrative costs, there really wouldn't be much and certainly the hundreds (thousands?) of new IRS agents the government intends to hire to administrate Obamacare could handle it as I'm pretty sure if people saw what Obamacare was actually costing them, it would be scrapped in a hurry.

 

[konradv]

I don't see how that would affect spending, other than to make the government spend more. Can you imagine the administrative and postage cost for mailing every taxpayer a bill every 2 weeks?

I see how it would effect spending. It would raise it. Every two weeks more and more people would have to be thrown in the slammer, housed and fed for failure to pay. No thanks, our prisons are full enough. Even if taxes were halved and the budget balanced there'd still be those who wouldn't have it to pay. Regardless of the budget baseline, the present situation or a minarchist one, that system would present an upward pressure on spending.

 

[Flopper]

This country would be better off if we changed a few laws:

1.) Tax withholding from everybody's paychecks, stops immediately. And paychecks go up significantly as a result.

2.) Every week or two, the Fed govts and state govts, send a bill to each citizen for the amount they are no longer withholding, payable on receipt, and everyone must write a check or MO each time, to pay it.

3.) State and national general elections, instead of being held every November, are held one business day after Income Tax day (which is usually April 15).

This will make the country better off, because state and Federal taxes and spending will be brought down to reasonable levels faster than any politician could ever hope to do. And we will start electing politicians who are actually interested in controlling those taxes and spending again.

I'm not saying this proposal is perfect. There will be problems with enforcement, the pain of sending money to govt that you really needed to pay your daughter's tuition or whatever. But this proposal is better than what we are doing now, and will result in a better-run, more free country than it is now.

Federal spending is not dependent on the revenue collected so I assume you think the tax burden would be made more visible if people got a bill instead of automated deductions and so they would pressure congress to reduce spending. That sounds like a very long shot. What would happen is the cost of collecting taxes would go up substantially due to billing and collection cost on unpaid taxes.

I think the public would complain far more about the change in the method of tax collection than they would about government spending. The public would be diverted from pressuring congress to reduce spending to fixing the tax collection problem.

 

[EricTheMan]

Personally I'm in favor of the flat tax system, except no exceptions. The first dollar earned should be taxed the same as the last, with no deductions.