lets just say we disagree the reality is that several countries have adopted a flat tax system with varying degrees of success. lithuania is probably one of the best examples. besides.............. one could very easily make the legitimate arguement that the system we got now does not work very well either......... now granted it would be a difficult and painful process to go from a complicated, wasteful tax system like the one we have now, to a quick, clean and efficient system overnight. and you are correct ed - nothing will change ..............our government will never do anything to shrink itself and be efficient the best rob
Rob I would agree with you if we had not adopted the current convoluted system. Our tax law has become so ingrained in our society that it helps to dictate when we buy a house or even when and what kind of a car we buy. If we never would have started this type of a system then a flat tax would make a lot of sense. Our tax law right now is so complex and convoluted that it is almost unenforceable. That is a very sad commentary. Surprisingly most people that we deal with actually do try to comply with the tax law as they know it or as we advise them. However, we operate in Upstate NY and my guess is that if I was in NY City it would be a lot different. One thing that always amazes me is that the more liberal political clients are the ones most likely to try to cheat on their taxes and the more conservative tend to be the ones who try the hardest to comply. I guess it's easy to be liberal when you are spending someone else's money.
I believe there are other factors at play here. Conservatives tend to be more "God Fearing" (ie. Authority fearing) and tend to play more by the rules. In a recent list of the 25 most charitable cities in America, Democrat cities (2008 Presidential election) had a large majority. #1, Seattle (Democrat) Percentage of earnings donated: 3.2 percent Average household income: $109,401 Giving per foundation: $2,633,739 Annual volunteers: 943,600 Population that volunteers: 27.7 percent #2, San Francisco (Democrat) #3, Kansas City (Republican) #4, Atlanta (Republican) #5, Dallas (Republican) #6, Minneapolis-St. Paul (Democrat) #7, Portland, Oregon (Democrat) #8, Washington, D.C. (Democrat) #9, Houston (Republican) #10, Denver (Democrat) #11, Los Angeles (Democrat) #12, Philadelphia (Democrat) #13, Detroit (Democrat) #14, New York City (Democrat) #15, St. Louis (Republican) #16, Pittsburgh (Democrat) #17, Chicago (Democrat) #18, Cincinnati (Democrat) #19, Boston (Democrat) #20, San Diego (Democrat) #21, Cleveland (Democrat) #22, Phoenix (Republican) #23, Miami (Republican) #24, Milwaukee (Democrat) #25, Tampa-St. Petersburg (Republican) Democrat cities - 17 Republican cities – 8
Brewster, I can only state what I've found with my own clients. It always struck me as kind of odd that those who were the most dependent on the government such as teachers and government employees were usually the ones who want to go "over the edge" on their taxes. They also tend to be the ones who consistently vote for Democrats. I do agree with your assessment that conservatives tend to follow more by the rules. Those that call themselves conservative tend to be more in line with authority.
Interesting that the three largest cities (areas) in the US (LA, NY, CHI) are out of the top 10 on this list. The East/West coast Democrats seem to be falling short. And Oprah doesn't seem to be making up the difference. (kidding) Yet there seem to be quite a few top 10 cities with a conservative slant that are showing quite well. Many folks between the coasts don't really care about who you vote for. They just want you to care enough to volunteer. What do you have to give? Time, money, talent..? Please give what you can, when you can, however you can. Bottom line, it's every single one of us that make the difference. Whatever little bit that we can do, it's what might be a life changer for someone else. Here's hoping for a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year to all of those that need it most!!
All I know is I would love to be taxed as low as you guys are in the US. Around 1/3 of what I work for never makes it to my bank account.
rdubnpk The problem is that everyone associated with any government body, federal, state, or local, has seen the tax system as a bottomless pit of funds to do whatever the heck they want to do with it. They have been spending our money so long and so recklessly that we are in a hole we may never dig out of. According to the economist who predicted the bank crash two years prior to its occurence, within twelve months a similiar crash can be expected at the state level which, of course, will filter down to the local level. The states will be looking to the federal government for a bail out equivalent to the bank bailout, but it probably won't be there. The state of Illinois is already six months behind on paying their bills and have had state troopers turned down trying to purchase gas on state credit cards. Many, if not all the states are in a similiar condition. The well has dried up and caught all the big government spenders with their pants down. Now back to the Stephanie thread.............
Man, did you hit the nail on the head! I see it all the time with idiotic giveaways and spending way more than needs to be. We had a guy come in who was a high school principal. He took early retirement at 55. The first thing he did was collect his unused sick days. That was $45,000. Then he took his pension. That was $70,000 per year for life, guaranteed. That means that if he lives to a normal life expectancy he will draw between $2 and $2.5 million. Oh, and that's not all. The school then brought him back as a subcontractor and paid him another $45,000 a year. We've got a retired school superintendent here who's retirement pay is over $250,000. Imagine having retirement pay of a quarter of a million a year and all of it at the taxpayers' expense. Oh yeah, and his is guaranteed. No matter how much the market goes down, he'll get his $250,000 a year. Any wonder we're broke!
exactly guys - all the rest of us have had to downsize and its way past time for the government to do the same - but instead they keep trying to avoid that reality by creating more and more laws............which require more and more people to enforce..............which cmon with me guys.............requires more and more tax money here is one of my fav examples of such stupidity that is so easy to grasp yet rarely do people clue in on it recently on the local news there was a panic over the dallas police department having to downsize............of course the pseudo news local media stations begin spreading the sensationalism as they do............ "we are not going to have enough police to handle things" when the reality is you could cut the police force in half and have more than enough police officers to cover the things which truly matter!!! the things that need to be covered like dealing with legitimate crime and CRIMINALS .............. but instead you have the government trinity (federal, state and local governments) continue with reckless abandon to create new meaningless laws, which in turn FORCE police officers to have to waste their valuable time and energy worrying and pestering decent law abiding citizens instead of focusing their efforts on real criminal activity amazing rob
