It's too bad a Wealth Tax isn't even discussed in politics anymore. Seems like it could solve a significant amount of these tax loopholes.
Personally, I think we need to keep the inheritance tax and remove other loop holes when people are making money. For instance, there is no reason we can't get rid of like kind exchange. People are always more readily accepting to pay a tax out of part of their profits.
This easiest is to tax things that cannot move away, like real estate instead of giving giant deductions.
I really wish we went full Georgism back in the day.
This easiest is to tax things that cannot move away, like
real estate instead of giving giant deductions.
* Capital flight (people invest in other countries with more sane tax policies)
* recessionary effects, including job loss.
* huge burden on small business owners that are barely making a profit
* Incorrect, unequal or subjective valuation of wealth
* Disproportionate effect on seniors
* Wealth taxes had high management cost and relatively low returns.
38% or whatever agreed upon percent as a national flat sales tax. And for the bleeding hearts that will scream this hurts the poor, Sentence two: The first 5,000/year in clothing tax free, and the First 10,000/year in food tax free.
IRS? Dissolved. H&R block? Dissolved. No more audits. No more income tax. You keep your entire paycheck! No more asset seizure by the IRS. No more tax fraud. No more tax evasion.
Not to mention that the fact that we have a progressive tax system isn't the reason it's complicated. The complication is that we have tax exemptions and deductions and the like. And those are valuable tools to making things like owning a house and getting an education more affordable, as well as incentivizing certain beneficial actions like using renewable energy.
Take your average thrifty bum. Pays X% on the totality of what they earn, minus some lump sum. And your average billionaire. Pays X% on the totality of what they spend, minus the same lump sum.
That doesn't quite seem right, unless you tax financial transactions at the same rate as groceries. It might be just me, but methinks Wall Street will have none of that.
As to not needing tax auditors, just no. You'll still need to audit companies, and their incentive will be sky high to get cash transactions and declare only some of them.
I like plans that take care of this with a prebate - $200-$500/mo checks for everyone. It could also be a precursor to UBI.
1. It's incredibly telling of you that you call those who would (rightfully) point out that your scheme is incredibly regressive as "bleeding hearts".
2. Those deductions are nowhere near enough, especially if you have a family.
Per person? In that case, we can lower it to $1k/year.
Even if both houses switch heavily Blue/Red/Something else, lobbying touches all.