4 ms·

Tbf this is a state lottery (with pooling across states) being taxed by the federal government, right? Different entities.

by pxx 4y ago

warrenm 4y ago
But it's not "fair" - when government hands-out funds, they should be tax exempt I also have a problem with government employees (who, by definition, are paid with tax dollars) being taxed on their pay It's beyond ridiculous!
- gamblor956 4y ago
  Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Creating an exception for income received from the government would lead to all sorts of crazy fraud, and would necessitate long and complex codes for determining what is an exempt government agency and what isn't. For example: is a community college a government agency for purposes of "tax exempt" income? What about a utility district? What about private-public partnerships?
  - vdqtp3 4y ago
    > Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Why is it fair for any entity to demand your personal property at gunpoint?
  - warrenm 4y ago
    >lead to all sorts of crazy fraud, and would necessitate long and complex codes for determining what is an exempt government agency and what isn't Let me introduce you to the US tax code ...
  - Dracophoenix 4y ago
    > Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Until the passage of the 16th amendment, it wasn't.
- kimixa 4y ago
  Only if it's more efficient than the alternative. It may be that having special cases and extra complexity has a higher overhead than just getting everyone to use the same path, even if that looks like "more" work from a distance. I dread to think how this may work if an individual has multiple income streams, some possibly for the public sector (so would be tax exempt), and how that may affect the total used to calculate tax brackets and similar. And the politics of defining that - no doubt whatever rules you use for this they'll be some situations that people consider unfair. It also makes it easier to compare income against the private sector, as each dollar income means exactly the same if both then go through the same tax system. The US tax system is already designed to put as much burden on the individual as possible (for whatever reason - possibly mostly lobbying from the industry that has grown up around this complexity) - more complexity feels pretty bad to me.

Tbf this is a state lottery (with pooling across states) being taxed by the federal government, right? Different entities.

by pxx 4y ago

Tbf this is a state lottery (with pooling across states) being taxed by the federal government, right? Different entities.

warrenm 4y ago

But it's not "fair" - when government hands-out funds, they should be tax exempt I also have a problem with government employees (who, by definition, are paid with tax dollars) being taxed on their pay It's beyond ridiculous!

gamblor956 4y ago
Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Creating an exception for income received from the government would lead to all sorts of crazy fraud, and would necessitate long and complex codes for determining what is an exempt government agency and what isn't. For example: is a community college a government agency for purposes of "tax exempt" income? What about a utility district? What about private-public partnerships?
- vdqtp3 4y ago
  > Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Why is it fair for any entity to demand your personal property at gunpoint?
- warrenm 4y ago
  >lead to all sorts of crazy fraud, and would necessitate long and complex codes for determining what is an exempt government agency and what isn't Let me introduce you to the US tax code ...
- Dracophoenix 4y ago
  > Why isn't it fair for the government to tax income? Until the passage of the 16th amendment, it wasn't.
kimixa 4y ago
Only if it's more efficient than the alternative. It may be that having special cases and extra complexity has a higher overhead than just getting everyone to use the same path, even if that looks like "more" work from a distance. I dread to think how this may work if an individual has multiple income streams, some possibly for the public sector (so would be tax exempt), and how that may affect the total used to calculate tax brackets and similar. And the politics of defining that - no doubt whatever rules you use for this they'll be some situations that people consider unfair. It also makes it easier to compare income against the private sector, as each dollar income means exactly the same if both then go through the same tax system. The US tax system is already designed to put as much burden on the individual as possible (for whatever reason - possibly mostly lobbying from the industry that has grown up around this complexity) - more complexity feels pretty bad to me.