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The Biden Administration and All Things Politics

Eminence said:
By giving the refund to all nobody needs to report any income.

The refund simply covers the first X dollars of tax for everyone.
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So, the government just assumes that everyone gives them the correct amount?

This is obviously just the GOP trying to get the Democrats on record as voting for income taxes & the IRS.
 
gandalfe said:
So, the government just assumes that everyone gives them the correct amount?

This is obviously just the GOP trying to get the Democrats on record as voting for income taxes & the IRS.
Click to expand...

The GOP proposal is stupid, I'm certain of that and I haven't even read it (I imagine it takes an axe to the current system with nothing viable in its place).

But the system I'm trying to semi propose (I just wouldn't mind it as best I can tell, I don't know enough about any of it to really know) goes like this:

All purchases are subject to a federal tax (Buck said 15%, but I'd guess a bit higher, somebody with more econ knowledge can look into that more)

All adults/citizens/legal residents (there can be plenty of debate over who gets included) get a refund to cover their first X dollars of taxes from spending on the year.

Say we want the first 20k anyone spends to be taxfree, then if the tax rate were 20% we'd give everyone a $4,000 check that year to offset the sales tax.

No income would need to be reported at any point, and all taxing would be at the point of sale.
 
Too many big companies with strong lobbies depend on our current system of taxation for billion dollar revenue streams (TurboTax, H&R, TaxAct, etc.), so it will never change to anything more progressive. And rich people line too many pockets in congress, so their rates will never do anything except a token increase under one administration followed immediately by decreases from the next admin. We are stuck in this IRS hell since our politicians can be fully bought and paid for under the current system of lobbying and "donations", so what is best for the people will always take second place to what is best for the big lobbies, where the legislators make their "real" money. No one will shoot the cash cow.
 
Eminence said:
The GOP proposal is stupid, I'm certain of that and I haven't even read it (I imagine it takes an axe to the current system with nothing viable in its place).

But the system I'm trying to semi propose (I just wouldn't mind it as best I can tell, I don't know enough about any of it to really know) goes like this:

All purchases are subject to a federal tax (Buck said 15%, but I'd guess a bit higher, somebody with more econ knowledge can look into that more)

All adults/citizens/legal residents (there can be plenty of debate over who gets included) get a refund to cover their first X dollars of taxes from spending on the year.

Say we want the first 20k anyone spends to be taxfree, then if the tax rate were 20% we'd give everyone a $4,000 check that year to offset the sales tax.

No income would need to be reported at any point, and all taxing would be at the point of sale.
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sounds kinda socialismy to me ;)
 
fishonjazz said:
sounds kinda socialismy to me ;)
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Lol.

My biggest concern would be setting the UBI type number too low, where it wouldn't do much good and overall the tax would still be pretty regressive. But theoretically it becomes more progressive as it rises - at 100% we could have that socialism we dream of ;)

I imagine something separate would have to be done about stationary money/wealth that isn't being spent, personally I'd tax interest/stock gains at an even higher rate than income (sales in this scenario), but if we could get an equal rate I think that'd be a big plus over the current system.
 
Quick back of the napkin math. If I assume a VAT replaced the majority of US federal revenue and captured the entire US GDP and that I didn't want the median US household (currently about $68,000 a year) to pay taxes (effectively at least), I would be looking to set the new sales tax at ~34% and each US household would be receiving a check/UBI type thing for ~$23,000 a year.

Edit:

If done for US adults - 30% and ~$9,000 each

If done for all US residents - ~40% tax rate and ~$12,000 to each individual

Also assumes other government expenditures stay approximately consistent. I like the 'individual' version the most, obviously rates/amounts would go down if you wanted to set the barrier lower (I set it at median income) or higher if you wanted it higher.
 
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gandalfe said:
So, the government just assumes that everyone gives them the correct amount?

This is obviously just the GOP trying to get the Democrats on record as voting for income taxes & the IRS.
Click to expand...
I don't think this is a GOP proposal. They get too much money from tax attorneys and preparation companies to ever seriously float it.
 
One Brow said:
So, if I buy a car from a neighbor, they have to report the tax? Would interest be taxed? Capital gains?
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Presumably if they sold over Y dollars of stuff a year, yes they should be doing the tax. I have no clue what Y should be, that's for someone smarter than me to figure out.

Ideally I would like interest/capital gains taxed at the same or higher rates as to whatever the current primary tax system is (currently income, in this scenario sales), but I'd say that's a separate battle to fight. Having them lower than primary tax is pretty inherently regressive.
 
Bucknutz said:
More…

View: https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1613287188908724231?s=46&t=Zwo5-UgK29IrWXwOQ6598A
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More found and reported by Biden's legal team.

When it comes to classified documents it seems like the smart play is to have your team find them and return them.

Declaring that you've looked and determined that you have no such material only to have a source call the FBI and tip them off that you've got an entire room filled with documents that you couldn't have missed seems to be the wrong way to play this one. Especially when they come to get them and determine that there are still missing documents that they haven't found.
 
Don’t blame Democratic leaders for being a tad pissed off at Biden’s White House.

www.cbsnews.com

White House's response to Biden documents frustrates Democrats inside and outside the West Wing

West Wing staffers, officials across the Biden administration and Democratic Party officials expressed frustration to CBS News with how the White House has explained the situation.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

“A Democratic Party official from the Northeast aligned closely with the president and his senior staff added, "There's no real equivalency between the Trump document situation and Biden's. However, why in the world didn't they get the story out earlier, like before the holidays? And why didn't they get the full story out at once, instead of drip, drip, drip with each new discovery of documents? Put simply, it was not handled well at all."
 
fishonjazz said:
It is concerning. Just adds to what i already thought about biden (that he shouldnt be our president)
Really sucks that trump was the opponent. Anyone else probably beats biden.


Sent from my iPad using JazzFanz mobile app
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Biden had several opponents before he faced Trump. My #1 pick was Warren and by a lot. Next I had Pete then some mix of Kamala, Yang, Klobuchar, Booker. Then Sanders, then Biden and finally Bloomberg.

I think Warren would have made a great President. Had she just not believed her family when they claimed specific types of heritage I think she might have got the nomination, but with that BS dogging her I think it pulled her down just enough. I think her window has passed and I wouldn't be as excited about her as a candidate in 2024, but who knows what kind of joke the other candidates will be.
 
Gameface said:
Biden had several opponents before he faced Trump. My #1 pick was Warren and by a lot. Next I had Pete then some mix of Kamala, Yang, Klobuchar, Booker. Then Sanders, then Biden and finally Bloomberg.

I think Warren would have made a great President. Had she just not believed her family when they claimed specific types of heritage I think she might have got the nomination, but with that BS dogging her I think it pulled her down just enough. I think her window has passed and I wouldn't be as excited about her as a candidate in 2024, but who knows what kind of joke the other candidates will be.
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Devastatingly disappointing that our political machine has been reduced to hoping someone becomes the candidate who is less of an embarrassing loser than the other guys so we can feel vaguely ok about voting for the next party-line shill. We are way past looking for the "best" candidate. Now we are lucky to get someone who isn't fully incompetent or corrupt. **** me.
 
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