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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (84604)	11/7/2004 7:07:19 AM
From: JDN	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

Like I said before, I would support a flat tax so long as it can be prepared ON A POSTCARD. I lean toward VAT tax ONLY cause I know from my years as a CPA that a heck of a lot of economic activity goes UNTAXED at all putting the burden on us HONEST folks. Some estimates go as high as 25% of GNP. Just imagin if we could get at that how low rates could be for EVERYONE. As to Bush's tax cuts. Remember his AIM was to REDUCE THE INCOME TAX RATE PERIOD. Thus, if you PAY MORE of course your $$ cut would be more, but the PERCENTAGE cut DID in fact benefit the lower income more then the higher income. Dont fall for the BS Kerry was espousing. jdn

To: John Carragher who wrote (84604)	11/7/2004 9:47:33 AM
From: KyrosL	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793838

The Federal Government collects about $2 trillion in taxes a year and half of that is individual income tax -- the rest are SS taxes, corporate taxes, tobacco and gas excise taxes etc. So, based on the fact that consumption is around 70% of GDP or $7.5 trillion, you need a rate of around 13% on EVERYTHING to replace the individual income tax -- I don't know where people come up with ridiculous numbers like 6%. Now, if you exclude essential goods like food and medicine, the rate goes up to 20% or more. Those are the facts. For what it's worth, I think some kind of VAT is a good thing, but it should be used only as an addition to the income and SS taxes to allow simplification of the income tax and reform of the SS tax system.