Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Too bad the tax system has been twisted and perverted.

I disagree.
ER — (archived)

Prosperous people should not only pay more, they should pay a higher percentage. For two reasons, they are already prime beneficiaries of the system, and because the bare necessities of life cost the poor the same as they do the rich but they represent a higher proportion of their income.

However, I could accept a modified flat tax of X percent, with an exemption of all income under Y$. X and Y could be determined in the legislature, depending on the revenue requirements of the state. For example, if X is 10% and Y is $10000 (just to pick numbers out of the air, I have no idea if they are reasonable) an individual who earned $50000/yr would pay (50000-10000) x 0.10 = $4000 in income taxes. A guy who earned $11000/yr would pay $100 in taxes. Someone earning a million every year
would pay $99000 in taxes. People below the cutoff would pay no taxes, people in the highest brackets would pay at a tax rate asymptotic to X.

In order to keep revenue constant, if the tax rate went up, the cut off point would have to go up too, and vice versa.. There would be a lot of political warfare over where to set these two numbers, but a least there would only be two numbers to fight about and to keep track of. In general, all else being equal, the lower you want the overall tax rate, the more people will have to pay some tax. The advantage is in ease of calculation: no money for kids, interest payments, charities, or buying land in the Carolinas and not growing tobacco on it.

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