begin_within Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:14 PM
Original message
Poll question: What is the most fair form of taxation?
Which is the most fair and equitable way for governments to raise revenue?
Poll result (54 votes)
Property tax (1 votes, 2%)
Corporate profit tax (19 votes, 35%)
Personal income tax (8 votes, 15%)
Sales and use tax (3 votes, 6%)
Value added tax (0 votes, 0%)
Social Security (FICA) tax (0 votes, 0%)
Excise duties (0 votes, 0%)
Import tarriffs (3 votes, 6%)
Inheritance tax (6 votes, 11%)
Other (specify) (14 votes, 26%)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4979276
Of course the correct DU answer to this is "One I don't pay".
Donald Ian Rankin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:15 PM
Response to Original message
1. Inheritance tax is a tax on strictly unearned wealth.
It also does less to retard the economy than most other forms of taxation.
Unearned ? That wealth just magically appeared there one day I suppose.
I wonder if this is the same "unearned" as welfare payments and dividends from redistribution that they're always demanding ?
MNDemNY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:18 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. Maybe, but very effective as a social engineering tool.
Take your "social engineering" and cram it where the sun don't shine.
ahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:25 PM
Response to Reply #3
18. You should be compensated for your labor - salary and possibly equity. Updated at 12:40 AM
An inheritance is, itself, gained solely through the death of another person. There is no inherent 'earning' in an inheritance.
Of the three typical forms of income (wages, gains, and inheritance), only the first is derived from one's own labors. Capital gains, usually on stock, are attributable to the labors of others.
Strangely, we tax the income MOST that is MOST attributable to our own labors. That's stupid, imho.
Reading this on the DU just blows my mind. Since when have the DUmmies shown even a passing concern that the money they get is derived from actual labor.
It's really ironic that something like this would come up in a thread about how best to steal OTHER peoples money.
dealism (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:18 PM
Response to Original message
4. The most impactful for sure would be Corporate profit taxes
In the later part of the 1990s and earlier this decade, corporate profits were across the board at all-time highs, yet average worker compensation during this period didn't even keep up with inflation (as worker pay failed to do since Reagan).
If the corporations who are making obscene amounts of money aren't willing to pass that profit on down to those who work for them and make that profit possible, then **** 'em.
How many significant figures are there in the amount of tax paid by any one of the top 500 companies I wonder.
corruptmewithpower (47 posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:45 PM
Response to Reply #4
31. Corporations don't pay taxes.
Their customers (us) just pay higher prices. Also, our relatively steep corporate tax rates put our companys at a disadvantage vs offshore competitors
No. Corporations pass the COST of taxation on to the consumer. They still pony up the dough.
Idealism (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 03:18 PM
Response to Reply #31
41. Our corporate tax rates are not steep
They marginal tax rates are, but corporations admittedly never pay that. Our average corporate tax rate is in the low 20s (which puts us square in the middle of pack status with other developed nations).
The way our corporate tax structure is set up now, they can escape paying their fair share of taxes, but if you were to implement a Corporate profit tax, they wouldn't be able to. The government would have to redistribute the profits to the workers, considering the corporation sure as shit won't do it.
Redistribute it to the workers.
In LaLaâ„¢ Land maybe. How stupid are these people.
Zynx Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
11. I am going to say some variant of the income tax.
I think the income tax should simply be along the lines of the payroll tax with the modification that all gifts of stock and other corporate benefits should have to be accounted for in W-2s. You could tie all income to a person's Social Security number, have it instantly taken out just like with payroll taxes. Screw all the exemptions and deductions. Let's just have clean rates. We could set aside the portion for Social Security and Medicare and the excess would go into the general fund. The rates would automatically kick in at various income levels and climb as high as 40% with employer matching. With employer matching, you could get rid of the corporate income tax which is far too easy to dodge.
My criteria beyond fairness also includes stability of the revenue source because without stability of revenue it is difficult to forecast how much you have for programs. That has its own issue.
Employer matching tax payments ? WTF. Kiss your job and salary good by in that case. DUmbass.
baldguy Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 02:22 PM
Response to Original message
12. Eat the rich!
Corporate profit tax, Inheritance tax, Property tax, Personal income tax - all of them, in that order.
Great Idea. Once you're done "eating the rich" , you'll have to eat each other or starve.
jazzjunkysue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Wed Feb-04-09 05:02 PM
Response to Original message
48. Fair is irrelevant. Think about moral, ethical, responsible, patriotic
I mean, if someone uses the american rights and privileges and capitalist system to amass a fortune, and others in society are suffering, that person is morally obligated to ascribe a portion of the wealth to those who cannot provide for themselves, like children and the elderly and the infirm.
I think that portion should rise in proportion to the amount the wealth sets them apart from the average citizen.
Fair is simply applying the same percentage to all, and it's not ethical.
The last people one should ever listen to when it comes to morality, ethics, responsibility and patriotism are the DUmmies and their commie cohorts.
