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Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by hermitdev on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @10:20PM (#13992362)
The number of US citizens that pay federal income tax is closer to 35%. All forms of income tax ought be abolished. A consumption tax of around 18% would provide the same federal revenue. It would simplify tax reporting (i.e. reduce expenditures on tax reporting), and increase the tax base (people living on trust funds would pay in at a higher rater). Look into the "Fair Tax" for a well reasoned proposal for such a tax.
Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by avmich on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @11:40PM (#13992684)
Answering to one of replies.

> Federal "revenue" is a mistaken concept. The federal government just deletes money via taxation in order to offset the created money from spending. The government doesn't need or have any dollars, they are the source of the fiat currency in itself.

Does it mean that taxation in USA works differently than taxation in a country with currency tied to US dollar by a fixed exchange rate? In that country government can't, I assume, so easily print money and delete them.

Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by quadrangle on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @11:58PM (#13992758)
replied in other thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13992751

but YES, different

Re:Stanford Professor Loses Political Battle To Simplify Tax... by quadrangle on Wednesday March 29, 2017 @11:32PM (#13992646)
Are you counting non-earners like kids and retired folks in that 35%?

Federal "revenue" is a mistaken concept. The federal government just deletes money via taxation in order to offset the created money from spending. The government doesn't need or have any dollars, they are the source of the fiat currency in itself.

The entire point of any tax or spend decisions is to further some political objective. For example, we tax everyone in order to assure the fiat currency has value. We also tax to discourse certain behaviors. We tax to have some impact on who has how many dollars in order to address social issues.