Taxation

An Intelligent 21st Century Tax Policy

A free and safe society depends on tax revenues. We fund the military, build roads and bridges, equip police forces, and educate our children with tax dollars. Taxes support the infrastructure which enables economic growth and a free and safe society. But we must always strive to keep taxes to a minimum, run an efficient government, and focus on private sector economic growth to generate revenues that sustain our way of life.

Taxation must be fair, efficient, effective, and limited. Increasingly, our government is moving away from these priorities. The current tax code is rife with exceptions, loopholes, and complications. It places undue burdens on both individuals and corporations, and it has created an industry of tax attorneys and tax accountants. Ordinary citizens should not have to hire experts to complete mandatory tax forms!

In times of economic uncertainty, politicians often spend their time attacking those at the top. They argue that the very wealthy aren’t paying their “fair share.” They say that if the rich would just pay more in income taxes, everything would be better.

Instead we should focus on trying to lift those at the bottom—a principal understood by great leaders across party lines like John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan

When we try to pay for more by taking more, the people who get squeezed are doctors, lawyers, and small business owners—people who provide valuable services that citizens need and want. These individuals were not all born with silver-spoons. Many came from nothing, borrowed significantly to get through school or start their own business and are trying to live their version of the American dream. We need a tax code that doesn’t penalize success and also doesn’t punish the working poor. We should never punish hard work!

I favor a tax code where an individual pays no income tax on earnings up to the poverty line and pays only a relatively low flat tax above that level. Others favor a “fair tax”, a type of national sales tax. Both systems have pluses and minuses and both are vastly superior to the current tax code. It’s time for breakthrough thinking and intelligent tax policy for the 21st century economy.