2 ms·

Incidentally, the harryh plan for simplifying US taxes: 1. eliminate all deductions in favor of the standard deduction 2. once 1 is done you can actually elim

by harryh 7y ago

Incidentally, the harryh plan for simplifying US taxes: 1. eliminate all deductions in favor of the standard deduction 2. once 1 is done you can actually eliminate the standard deduction as well and make it a part of the tax tables with a 0% rate up to various income levels. 3. eliminate the AMT and the NIIT 4. move all FICA taxes to the employee side (which is where the incidence actually is anyways) and thus eliminate the self-employment tax. 5. roll back all the crap about S corps that got introduced in the 2017 tax bill 6. standardize all 50 state tax forms (the rates can be different but the structure should be the same)

lvh 7y ago
My favorite one that I usually keep to myself because it makes me sound like a loon since it's so far out of the Overton window (but quite popular with economists): abolish corporate income tax. Corporate income tax is regressive, because AmaGooBookSoft is much better at not paying taxes than a mom and pop grocery store. But I think you've lost most of the constituents that think that's a good thing after saying you're gonna slash corporate taxes to literally zero. I'd love to see land tax too, but I appreciate that the Constitution doesn't make that easy. But damnit, if we somehow outlawed liquor, we can outlaw inefficient tax strategies.
- harryh 7y ago
  You're absolutely correct on these IMHO. There is, at least, a multi decade trend of reducing corporate income taxes. Unfortunately all the complexity is still there even if the bills being paid are smaller. And yes, Georgist taxes on the value of unimproved land would have so many benefits. Can we get a carbon tax & dividend while we're at it? Dare to dream!
usaar333 7y ago
I generally agree on this working out well. As nits though: 1. This simplifies things like crazy, but could have all sorts of spill-over effects. (most notably reduction in charitable giving) 3. AMT, yes. NIIT is only another tax bracket though? 6. This would help dramatically, but I'm not sure how to execute it. CA nonconformity to all sorts of federal tax rules is a huge pain point (HSA being the worse one for the regular person), but it seems CA could care less about the complexity that hits its citizens.
- harryh 7y ago
  1. I'm mostly comfortable with this, though willing to concede that it should be thought about more carefully than I have. 3. Not really because of the weird way it calculates the interactions between capital and labor income. 6. Indeed. I never said the enacting the plan would be easy!

by harryh 7y ago

lvh 7y ago

My favorite one that I usually keep to myself because it makes me sound like a loon since it's so far out of the Overton window (but quite popular with economists): abolish corporate income tax. Corporate income tax is regressive, because AmaGooBookSoft is much better at not paying taxes than a mom and pop grocery store. But I think you've lost most of the constituents that think that's a good thing after saying you're gonna slash corporate taxes to literally zero. I'd love to see land tax too, but I appreciate that the Constitution doesn't make that easy. But damnit, if we somehow outlawed liquor, we can outlaw inefficient tax strategies.

harryh 7y ago
You're absolutely correct on these IMHO. There is, at least, a multi decade trend of reducing corporate income taxes. Unfortunately all the complexity is still there even if the bills being paid are smaller. And yes, Georgist taxes on the value of unimproved land would have so many benefits. Can we get a carbon tax & dividend while we're at it? Dare to dream!

usaar333 7y ago

I generally agree on this working out well. As nits though: 1. This simplifies things like crazy, but could have all sorts of spill-over effects. (most notably reduction in charitable giving) 3. AMT, yes. NIIT is only another tax bracket though? 6. This would help dramatically, but I'm not sure how to execute it. CA nonconformity to all sorts of federal tax rules is a huge pain point (HSA being the worse one for the regular person), but it seems CA could care less about the complexity that hits its citizens.

harryh 7y ago
1. I'm mostly comfortable with this, though willing to concede that it should be thought about more carefully than I have. 3. Not really because of the weird way it calculates the interactions between capital and labor income. 6. Indeed. I never said the enacting the plan would be easy!