“46% of households [estimated] will end up owing nothing in federal income taxes.” *
I believe that everyone (excepting minors, full-time students, and the disabled) needs to be paying some form of federal income tax. If you make less than $10k a year, if you are collecting unemployment, even if you are living off of just social security, some small piece of that should be taxed.
Here’s why: Everyone gets a vote. This means everyone has the opportunity to choose representatives and programs that will increase or lower taxes for those who pay them. If an individual pays no taxes, then he has no incentive, no skin in the game, to keep taxes low. Only when it hits the pocketbooks of individuals will they stop and think if it is really worth the cost.
The fact that almost half of Americans are not paying any income tax is startling. Of course, having everyone pay taxes only makes sense if government spending does not increase. I’m realistic enough to recognize that it probably would, so I freely admit that this is really just a pipedream.
*Source: http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/26/pf/taxes/income-tax/index.htm
I believe that everyone (excepting minors, full-time students, and the disabled) needs to be paying some form of federal income tax. If you make less than $10k a year, if you are collecting unemployment, even if you are living off of just social security, some small piece of that should be taxed.
Here’s why: Everyone gets a vote. This means everyone has the opportunity to choose representatives and programs that will increase or lower taxes for those who pay them. If an individual pays no taxes, then he has no incentive, no skin in the game, to keep taxes low. Only when it hits the pocketbooks of individuals will they stop and think if it is really worth the cost.
The fact that almost half of Americans are not paying any income tax is startling. Of course, having everyone pay taxes only makes sense if government spending does not increase. I’m realistic enough to recognize that it probably would, so I freely admit that this is really just a pipedream.
*Source: http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/26/pf/taxes/income-tax/index.htm