Taxation

Last Updated 25 November 2000

A vision for our nation is:

Taxes visible and simple.

Minimal accounting and legal effort to handle the taxation process.

Taxation for revenue only; taxation should not be used to “encourage” particular economic behaviors.

Taxation as low as possible to achieve consensus goals of government and minimize governmental power.

Actions we should take include:

Simple,1/2-page income tax filing form.

Flat tax at about 20% for all income levels, above a no-tax floor of about $20,000.

Deductions only for charitable contributions.
Phase out the mortgage interest deduction in 20 years, at 5% per year.
Eliminate the married and head of household tax categories.

Eliminate lotteries as a source of government revenue.

A state lottery is a regressive means to obtain revenues - in practice, poorer people spend a much higher percentage of their income on lotteries than to richer people.
Better, more direct ways exist to raise revenues for valid government expenditures.

Reduce the federal tax portion of the GDP gradually.

The overall approach is:

Complex taxation: forces excessive effort and expense just to compute and pay taxes; favors the rich and clever over the less well-to-do; and increases mistrust of the government.

Taxes should always be visible. Our electorate can be smart enough to vote for what is necessary, without camouflage.

Taxes should be the minimum necessary to provide the revenue to accomplish generally simple goals. Taxes as tools generally fail, because government is not smart enough to use them well. Tax “breaks” add complexity, and their effects are as likely to be adverse as beneficial.