I preface this by saying I’m a news/political junkie, avid Social Media user (Twitter junkie @robertropars), but in no way an economist. But having watching the debt ceiling debacle and the stupefying right wing clamoring to avoid any increase in revenue on the wealthiest Americans just frosts my flakes (roasts my chestnuts? burns my toast? you get the point).
So I did some research wondering about the flat tax (aka sales tax) approach brought up a few years ago and off/on since. I wondered if a tiered approach to taxing would help us and make things more fair. I started by trying to see a breakdown of Americans by salaries and found this page.
From there I came up with the following. Is it right? Wrong? Best for all? Fair? I think it’s at least an idea. Would love to get some feedback/discussion as to what people think of this and how it might help our country get out of debt and back on track (where we left off as former president Clinton left office and we had an actual SURPLUS).
1-Decrease size/scope/nature of IRS. Taxes come off paychecks right into government revenue no need to file each year.
2-With the following tiered flat/sales tax approach, most Americans would have less taxes coming off paychecks – more to spend/save every paycheck. If right now 28-30% of your check is going to taxes-imagine only 10-20% coming off and instead being actual money you have now, not a year from now as part of a refund.
Deductions maybe change for community service, environmental investment, saving at least x% of annual salary in a year and/or at least x% invested in retirement fund in a year, etc. Military service would reduce tax by half for each tier for successful service?
0-$25,000 – 28.22% of households – 0%
$25,001-50,000 – 26.65% of households – 10% tax off paychecks
$50,001-75,000 – 18.27% of households – 20% tax off paychecks
$75,001-100,000 – 10.93% of households – 25% tax off paychecks
$100,001-250,000 – 15.73% of households – 30% tax off paychecks
$250,001+ – 1.5% of households – 35% tax off paychecks
As for corporations, not sure what to do but hey the Supreme Court said you’re people too, so pitch in!!
US corporations – 35%
Foreign corporations – 40%
Companies can get breaks for job creation, environmental compliance, community investment, etc.
I’m really just trying to get some constructive dialogue out there and hope this is helpful to someone out there. Let me know what you think!
