Not much happened today. I walked the dogs twice today, and I finished the taxes site that I wanted to finished. I also watched a couple of shows, and podcasts. I sent a reminder SMS to someone who will be helping me get the dogs to the vet appointment. Andrea also called me with a problem which I solved.
As for plans for tomorrow, not much is planned. Tomorrow is a holiday which means no buses even if I wanted to go somewhere. I will plan to be home for the most part though.
I have an idea that is radical, and I am sure many people will disagree. However, it will solve a number of problems. I will suggest a national sales tax. There will be two types. Standard, and Luxury. Standard Sales tax is imposed on most things, while luxury is imposed on very high end things, as well as tobacco, and alcohol. The extra money gained on the tax on alcohol, and tobacco can be used for prevention programs. There are only two exclusions from paying sales taxes. One is business to business purchases where there is going to be a resale. In example, a computer store may buy a computer from a supplier, and not pay sales tax if that will be resold. However, if it is used within the business, then there is a sales tax. The second option is person to person resale of used items.
Now, the standard sales tax could be set at 30% with 5% going to the state government. Luxury could be set at 45% with 10% going to state government. Now, this sounds like a lot of money, and in reality, it is. However, in turn – there will be no income tax. Think of it, most people pay about 25% in taxes off of their paychecks. Therefore, they are getting very close to gross which means much of the money is now going to sales taxes. There is an issue of this being too costly for people in poverty, but I will get to that in a moment.
Everyone who does federal income taxes knows the problems with it. You have complex rules, crazy formulas, and nothing seems guaranteed to be accurate. Call the governing body (the IRS) for help, and they seem as confused as you are. We, the United States – as one of the most innovative countries seems to have the most complex tax system. And all we have is talks on revising this crazy system of loopholes that the wealthy wiggle through making the poor to pay for it.
First, the government needs to end the madness. They should make it that the end of the year, the IRS should be abolished, and assimilated into the Treasury. Now, I am sure people are screams Yippee! – no more taxes. Quite the contrary, everyone will pay taxes on some level. Unless there is a resource system that the government owns, or some other means of income – there has to be taxes. Otherwise, there is no infrastructure, no civil service, no military, and no sense of ruling. Simply put, the government needs a revenue system that can sustain it, and in most countries, that is taxes.