Get rid of the IRS and start taxing investments. I don't mean tax investment income, just tax every dollar of stock when it is purchased. By doing this we can accomplish several goals. Speculation and short term thinking that got us into this mess will be stopped cold. Before we actually spend money on a stock we will ask if it really make long term sense. Once the tax is paid no other tax is levied. We will be able to glean tax dollars from foreign investors who currently just come in, make their big bucks and disappear with the profits. Naturally the tax cannot be so high as to keep everyone from using Wall Street to build their nest egg but it should be enough to make folks rethink churning stocks. One of our biggest problems today is worrying about the next quarter, not the next year or five years.
We probably cannot fund the entire federal government from taxing stock trades so should also implement the FairTax and rid ourselves of the IRS forever.
And one more thing to add to the mix, every dollar that is sent to Mexico should be taxed at the FairTax rate.
Before poo-pooing the idea please read Jesse Eisinger's piece in Portfolio.com
Comments (6)
Not poo-pooing idea outright but it just doesn't go far enough and it is more based upon envy and misunderstanding than deep thought.
For a better and more comprehensive approach please consider that we simply adopt a nation wide Consumption Tax, which even hits the illegal alien, underground cash based and illegal drug economies which are currently left totally out of most TAX proposals.
Please see: http://www.Fairtax.org
What is the FairTax plan?
The FairTax plan is a comprehensive proposal that replaces all federal income and payroll based taxes with an integrated approach including a progressive national retail sales tax, a prebate to ensure no American pays federal taxes on spending up to the poverty level, dollar-for-dollar federal revenue neutrality, and, through companion legislation, the repeal of the 16th Amendment.
The FairTax Act (HR 25, S 296) is nonpartisan legislation. It abolishes all federal personal and corporate income taxes, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, and self-employment taxes and replaces them with one simple, visible, federal retail sales tax administered primarily by existing state sales tax authorities.
The FairTax taxes us only on what we choose to spend on new goods or services, not on what we earn. The FairTax is a fair, efficient, transparent, and intelligent solution to the frustration and inequity of our current tax system.
The FairTax:
* Enables workers to keep their entire paychecks
* Enables retirees to keep their entire pensions
* Refunds in advance the tax on purchases of basic necessities
* Allows American products to compete fairly
* Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
* Ensures Social Security and Medicare funding
* Closes all loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
* Abolishes the IRS
We offer a library of information throughout this Web site about the features and benefits of the FairTax plan. Please explore!
Equal Taxation -- Everybody pays the same amount of Taxes. Not a percentage, but a fixed dollar amount. No exceptions poor, middle, rich, all pay same amount of tax dollars. This includes Mr. Obama's administration nominees, especially Tim Geitner.
Equal Taxation would discourage people from demanding more and more benefits from Big Brother.
You want it -- you pay for it.
"Fair Tax" is an even bigger misnomer than the "Patriot Act"
Hey jumpfast, I think you did jump a little fast! The last thing this idea is based on is envy and why would you need to question my thinking process as shallow? If you would think a little deeper you will understand that we now have over 12 TRILLION taxpayer dollars tied up in Wall Street. Much the stock that is purchased each day is by foreign investment. This is a way of having those who are benefiting from the government, pay for the government, a user fee of sorts.
Personally I have money in mutual funds and will be happy to pay tax on the stock when I buy it, knowing that's the last time I'll pay tax on it. Maybe I didn't completely communicate that point. Tax isn't paid by the seller, only the buyer.
By the way, did you read the Eisenger column?
Just a thought, but businesses and rich people do not pay taxes. This is especially true of Geitner and Daschle.
However, we need to look (as the CIA does) at the wealthy as a national resource. We measure the future success of other nations by the number and percentage of millionaires they have. An economy will fail without them.
If you mandate that a company pays higher taxes, the cost of their products will go up accordingly. If I sell coffee and my taxes per pound go up 40 cents I will increase the cost of my coffee about 50 cents (the tax will need to be administered) as will every other importer. You not only increased taxes upon the poor, the increase was compounded.
Just doesn't seem like the best option.
Tax the rich as Obama promised. Regulate and monitor Wall Street thugs. The regulators need to be regulated. The government laid off many of the Civil Service employees who job was to do that. Remember the boxes were moved around (and distroyed)?
Anyone having control over other people's money needs to be under strict observation and checks. We learned that after the last Wall Street robbery in the Great Depression.
We learn that as the clergy robbed their congregation. We learn that as Enron, Halliburton, etc.robbed the people, fruad, etc. It's an age old lesson.
Banks "too big to fail" were made such to escape financial responsibility and over sight. Ronnie Reagan was the first President to allow this type of financial cover up.
Heard in hearing on the hill about banking problems:
-Oh we don't do financial business like that any more. Money is moved around the world so no one knows where it came from and where it goes. It's the way we do business today.
No representative rose up and said in anger....WHAT! I did at home just shocked at such bull.