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Agreed. Tax filing is complicated because taxes are complicated. A flat tax on all personal income from all sources as the sole tax would make tax filing incred
by alexmingoia 7y ago
Agreed. Tax filing is complicated because taxes are complicated. A flat tax on all personal income from all sources as the sole tax would make tax filing incredibly simple. It’s equal in that everyone pays the same rate, and fair in that the more money people earn the more they pay. It would eliminate double taxation, tax uncertainty, save the economy money by eliminating tax accounting, and eliminate tax loopholes by eliminating different classifications of taxable goods, services, transactions, and events.
- rebuilder 7y agoPaying 20% of income in taxes (for example) is a much heavier burden to bear if you're making 20k a year than it is if you're making 200 000. Which is why progressive taxation exists.
- whamlastxmas 7y agoBack in my youth I didn't "get" this the marginal utility of a dollar. I was also a libertarian and Ron Paul supporter. How naive I was.
- alexmingoia 7y agoThe law of diminishing marginal utility refers to homogenous goods. The marginal utility of the dollar only has meaning in the context of a particular good or service. Whether someone earns $20,000/year or $200,000/year says nothing about the marginal utility of dollars with respect to a particular good or service. The diminishing marginal utility of dollars is the same with respect to a gallon of milk for example, whether one has $20,000 or $200,000. I’d also like to point out that “utility” is subjective. There are serious methodological shortcomings with quantifying the subjective satisfaction of various goods and services, particularly heterogenous goods like housing.
- vonmoltke 7y agoWe'll never get a system like this in the US because it removes the ability to legislate via tax code.