Chicago PM Sunday 15 September 2012

The Wall Street Journal

Gentlepeople:

The Wall Street Journal's Holman W. Jenkins,  Jr. writes as fine an article
(Saturday 15 September 2012) on tax reform as has appeared anywhere.

One element of tax reform rarely mentioned:

The Statistical Abstract of US shows 73% of ALL federal taxes come from
employer bank accounts (withholding) not taxpayer bank accounts.  Sure,
the employee gets a note from the employer: “Because we hired you, we must
send this money to the feds under jail threat, but if we weren't we would give
it to you.”

Compounding the problem: employers do the only thing they can do: add the
cost of that tax to the price of their product, changing what are supposed to be
voter paid income taxes to a national sales tax. Added irritant: how often do
you hear: 'I paid in! I deserve medicare! I deserve Social Security!'

The solution to this scam: Get a majority of the House of reps, 60 Senators, a
President to change US Tax code from 'every employer making payment of
wages shall deduct and withhold upon such wages a tax...' to 'every employer
making payment of wages shall pay all wages to the employee....' The employer
still calculates the tax, including a note to the employee: 'Here is what the feds
are expecting you personally to remit in 30 days.'

Final solution:  a flat 20% tax of all income of all voters (income:  money you
didn't have yesterday that you have today.)  If our present system, higher tax
rates on higher incomes, is continued long enough, everyone ends with the
 same amount of money  (See Soviet Russia and North Korea for that result.)
To avoid problems with  very low income citizens you have a single
exemption:  no tax on first 20%  of total income.

Returning to the 90% of voters who are wage earners the responsibility of
writing monthly checks to fund the government would encourage voting for
legislators more likely to support proposals such as thoe of Congressman Paul
Ryan.

Arnold H Nelson  ah_nelson@yahoo.com