Some smart Democrat could champion True tax reform.

[AndyHammond1970]

What about a tax system in this form or similar structure.

Fed Income tax
0% $0-25,000
20% $25,001-50,000
29% $50,001-100,000
35% $100,000 and above

Then take this scale and apply it separately to to income derived from dividends, Capital gains, and investment interest. Apply these rates with flatly.

Then have a set corporate tax like 22% applied flatly.
Restore the estate tax as it was but raise the threshold to
$5,000,000

and with regard to payroll taxes that are for Social Security
raise or remove the cap that exist now in the 70-80k range.
Limit the Business's contribution to the first 50k.

I was wondering how one might figure out if such a system would increase or decrease revenues, or if it would be relatively revenue neutral.

Anyway once that could be determined the percentages could then be readjusted if necessary.

Thoughts......

[arewethereyet]

1. its a good way to tick off people in the 25-50K bracket

and there are quite a lot of them.

[AndyHammond1970]

4. my personal income last year...

was 51k and i paid 8k in fed tax; under what i proposed i would have paid only a little over 5k.
I didn't intend to say those percentages are set in stone but instead
to propose some way to remove the tax that now kicks in at less than 10k on people. and instead to get it up around 25k that would at least give u the first 25k that represent the most crucial money for subsistence as tax free.

[spooky3]

2. Variations on flat tax schemes (e.g., removing many existing

deductions, such as the ones for interest and real estate tax payments, which benefit a lot of middle class homeowners) have been proposed many, many times. All have failed. I don't mean to be a downer on your idea, but it's just that the reason that many deductions were put in the code were to encourage people to do certain things and to try to acknowledge that people at the same income level may not have the same ability to pay (e.g., exemptions for children). Whenever a proposal takes something from one group and gives it to another, it has to be carefully considered as to how these groups with react, fairness, and political power of the groups. It's not surprising why the code really does not change much.

[mopinko]

5. deductions

the purpose of deductions to the income tax, although they have now been perverted to mere incentives, is that people should not have to pay taxes on money that is not really "theirs". like money they pay to state and local taxing bodies. that is why there is a standard deduction. that is why their are deductions for children. that is why there are deductions for contributions to your church, which god said you should give 10% of your income to. (not like i needed a reason to not believe in god) now, there are precious few of these deductions left, since st ron threw out most of the ones that middle class people pay. but do you really think that a person who pays 30% of their income to take care of a sick child ought to pay the same taxes as a single person with no one depending on them?
you want to talk about how multibillion dollar corporations elude paying any taxes at all, that's a different discussion. but let's be the party of the little guy here, eh?

[mopinko]

3. raise or remove the cap that exist now in the 70-80k range.

this is my pet peeve. they are doing everything they can to destroy faith in social security. it is not funded with TAXES. it is not an income redistribution program. it is an insurance program. the payroll tax is the worst misnomer in the political discourse today. it is the premium we pay for our retirement, disability and survivors insurance. PLEASE DO NOT FUCK WITH IT. we all know that they diddle around with this money, diverting it into the general revenue, instead of putting it in a lock box like they should. but can WE please stick up for the intent and integrity of this very important program, and keep it from becoming just another welfare program.