Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Time for a national sales tax?

The sales tax is often called a regressive tax because it hits people living paycheck to paycheck hardest. However, the current tax situation is far from ideal. There are entire financial industries set up to help people with high incomes find loopholes and tax shelters. Not to mention that the complexity of the current system has a significant slice of world labor preparing tax forms. That's a lot of wheels spinning, but all for nothing. I would favor replacing our current byzantine national income tax system with a national sales tax, a VAT, or flat income tax. We need simplification where everyone just has to pay. No loopholes.

Here's another case on point. Did you know that Google is an Irish company? I thought they were from silicon valley, California. Nope. Maybe, they're a Bermuda corp. Who knows? All the world corporations are playing games with their money to minimize their tax bill. They're pushing their money around just like poker chips or Monopoly money. Check this recent discussion on Fresh Air.

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