do you believe in the equal sacrifice theroy of taxation?

Question

in other words if a poor family makes 10k a year and the tax rate is 10% then they would pay $1000. If a rich person makes 10 million a year they would pay $100,000.

oops, typo'ed the number. sorry about that.

bostonianinmo, I am generally quite forgiving of people's typo errors on the internet. I would appreciate the same courtasy that bull rooster showed to me. As for the numbers, I paid roughly 12k in income tax last year on a 66k income. what do those numbers tell you?
I would be in favor of a lower end cut off limit for the extreamly poor, maybe 25k per year? but all and all I am still in favor of the idea. Hurling insults at me did not further your ideas or your cause with me.

Answer 1

Well, 10% of 10 million is 1 million, not 100K, but I get the question. In my opinion, no a flat tax is not the way to go. I mean don't tax anyone to highly (or they may just leave) but strictly flat tax probably isn't great easy, I mean some people at the low end just won't be able to afford it.

Answer 2

Back to math class, Bud! That's hardly equal -- 10% for the poor guy and 1% for the rich one!

FYI, a single person making only $10k a year pays less than $200 in Federal income tax. And barely survives on what they earn. Why would you penalize them with a 5-fold increase in taxes? Are you really that cold-hearted, or are you just completely uninformed?

And what gives you the idea that a flat 10% tax would be sufficient? Fact is, it would need to be closer to 25% to 27% to raise the same revenue that the current graduated tax raises. Run the numbers with your own income and see how badly it would hurt you. If you come out owing less tax, you're quite wealthy indeed. If you're like most taxpayers, you'll pay MUCH higher taxes with a flat 25% tax on all income.

Addendum: If you paid $12k in Income Tax on $66k, it looks as if you overpaid by a bit. A bit under $11k would be closer to correct. And a 25% flat tax would cost you $16.5k instead of $10k to $12k. If you're happy with throwing the IRS another $4.5k, by all means write them a check -- they do accept donations!

(Since you don't allow e-mails, I can't correct things in private so I have to put it here. I'm not here to endear myself to anyone, by the way. If your numbers or logic are defective in my opinion, I'll so state.)