[GMAN]

Current federal income tax rates for this year exceed 35%. In reality, we are paying over 52% in taxes. They just don't call them income taxes. It has never seemed fair to me that just because you earn more money that you should pay a higher percentage of your income for taxes. These lawmakers put higher tax rates on those who earn more and turn around and give differerent types of deductions where some may actually pay a smaller percentage of their income after taking these deductions. It seems to be a waste of time and resources. If we are expected to pay an income tax then it makes more sense to have the same flat rate for everyone. If you feel guilty about paying less taxes than those less fortunate then by all means send the treasury a check. Better yet, you can send it to me. I will put it to much better use.

[Heavy Duty]

Originally Posted by GMAN

It depends on what taxes are eliminated as to whether I would want a flat tax. It would be more equitable. We would no longer need to file a tax return. That would save this country billions of dollars. We could eliminate the IRS, which would save billions in wages and benefits. A flat tax, as proposed on purchases, would essentially be a national sales tax. The mechanism is already in place for collection. One thing that I do like about it is that it would potentially give more control back to the states. The states could collect the money from businesses and then send a check to the feds. I doubt that we would get rid of the IRS with this type of tax but it could happen. I think 5% would be a better rate for a national sales tax. 22% is way too high if more people are paying. Nothing would help unless the people force the government to become smaller. The flat tax could help.

No tax return, how about SS or self employment tax and medicare? It is not considered income tax. You draw SS based on what you pay in. Do we all get the same amout of Social security no matter how much we make?

[GMAN]

I have not read anything about how they would handle Social Security tax, medicare tax or other payroll related taxes. Personally, I would prefer that we eliminated all of them and take responsibility for ourselves and our families. It is not the responsibility of the government to provide a retirement or income for us. It is difficult to imagine how we built this country without an income tax or social security tax. We had other taxes that supported our government and little or no debt. We also stuck with a constitutional government. That is the main problem today. The government is doing much, much more than it was constitutionally commissioned to do.


I found the following that is supposed to be the maximum deduction or cut off for Social Security tax.

Maximum Wages Subject to Social Security tax, $94200.00. Social Security tax rate (Employee) ... Maximum Social Security tax (Self Employed) 2, $11680.00 ...

There has been talk about taking the cap off. Obama and his communist party haven't met a tax they didn't like.

Social Security benefits are based upon your personal earnings and how much you have paid in to the system. The more you pay in the greater the payment. The down side is that when you die, so do the payments. Your benefits are not transferable to your descendants as it would with a private retirement program. If you die shortly after retirement then the government keeps everything that is left. The way Social Security was originally set up was so that the retiree would not live long enough to collect much in benefits. Today people are living much longer and the system cannot afford to extend the benefits for the longer time that people are expected to live.