Michelle's hubby is gayer than PINK INK !
It's Simple Truth. Your world is full of Folks with Blinders glued on between da head.
Thought you peeps liked the truth ?
Oh wait, nevermind.........
I see your point, Red, that it would create an even larger number of people living without paying any taxes, but I am not so sure, assuming that SS taxes would be assesed from dollar one, like the current law states.
For one thing, it would eliminate the crazy tax credits that are floating around. I really don't think that there would be any more people paying zero taxes, and the number would be less, if SS taxes were continued as per current law.
My reasoning? Things like Earned Income Credit, that allow people to get a credit on their income taxes, that is LARGER than the amount that they pay in, and then turn around and use that credit to pay any SS taxes due (and often still get a check on top of that).
There are illegal aliens, who are getting tax refunds, after paying zero taxes, because of all the tax credits that are out there.
I say, if you want to help the working poor, I'm right behind you in that. Give them whatever aid is necessary to keep them on their feet. However, decouple it from the income tax code, and make it a separate program. instead of IRS sanctioned handouts.
Keep the tax code as simple as possible, and following that same theme, make aid programs as simple and straightforward as possible.
To illustrate, here is a chart showing the explosion of complexity in the US tax code:
and it only gets worse from there.
Check out this stat:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_pages_are_in_the_IRS_tax_code
How many pages are in the IRS tax code?
2010 the U.S. tax code is 71,684 pages in length.
So, doing simple math, from 1913 to 1939 (26 years) they added 104 pages to the tax code, or an average of 4 pages a year. There were 54,846 pages in 2003, and 71,684 in 2010. That is over 17,000 pages ADDED, in 7 years. Or almost 2500 pages per year.
Do we REALLY need 2500 MORE pages of tax complexity, every year?
The greatest argument, in favor of the flat tax that I hear, is that the entire tax code would be less than 100 pages (no place for special interests to hide), and the process so simple, that the average worker on a salary would have a tax form only one page long (some argue it could be post-card sized), and could do it themselves in a half hour. The average small business would have a tax form from 1-3 pages long, total, and again, the average business owner would be able to fill out the forms themselves.
