"Fair Share"

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by Riot

Adding another 5% tax on groceries, Wal Mart, gasoline, etc. us tough when you're poor, and don't forget the flat federal income tax on their entire income, too (I thought you said a national sales tax and a flat tax too?)

We'd have to exempt certain poverty-level incomes. The middle class, heck, those making less than $300,000 or so a year, hasn't had an effective "raise" in their real income in four decades. Flatline. Stagnant. They can't afford any additional taxes.

Can we just start eliminating loopholes for those that can best afford it first? The very wealthy?

I had said that people that make under $40k would pay no income tax. That means the only tax they pay would be the national sales tax. So a person that makes $25k a year would probably pay less than $750 total in taxes for the whole year.

For a person that makes $200,000 a year, I had suggested they would be in the 10% tax bracket, which would be on any income above $40,000. So that person would be taxed 10% of $160,000. So they would pay $16,000 in income taxes. If they spent an additional $70,000 a year on items that were part of the national sales tax, then they would have spent an additional $3,500 on the sales tax. That means the person's total federal taxes (income + sales tax) would be $19,500 for the year. I think that is reasonable for a person who clears $200,000 a year after expenses.

I agree with you that we should eliminate most of the loopholes that some of the very wealthy use.