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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nihil who wrote (41896)	6/27/1999 12:56:00 AM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 108807

". . .leaving only those too poor or dumb (or too moral) to pay." I contend that taxation of earned income is immoral. Therefore, refusing to pay tax on income derived from your own labor, and that which you personally create, is the moral position. FT

To: nihil who wrote (41896)	6/27/1999 3:39:00 AM
From: Grainne	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 108807

<<As to income tax, it is self-defeating, since the income of smart people chooses to be earned somewhere else (as in tax havens) leaving only those too poor or dumb (or too moral) to pay. Ultimately, when all is said and done, only an expenditure (or value-added tax) can survive human mobility. Taxing capital or savings or the returns on them and estates make them run away.>> This is news, I am sure, to the U.S. treasury, which regularly collects quite a bit of income tax from most of us. I would agree that confiscatory tax structures like Britain's do cause the rich to leave. I make it a point to do the exact opposite of people like Imelda Marcos, so I guess I am too moral (or dumb) to totally evade taxes. There is nothing really wrong with a value-added tax, except that it has just as many problems and inequities as income tax. It needs to be set up so that the poor can afford to buy essentials, so luxury and big ticket items are usually heavily taxed. This almost destroyed the luxury boat business a few years ago, for example. It also leads to smuggling on a large scale of things like tobacco products.