Why do so many people approve punishing achievement by taxing income and property?

Question

Examples of punishing achievement.
When a person works a full time job and a second or third job to earn extra money, why should they be taxed more than one who doesn't?
When a person invests thousands of dollars to be educated in a high income career and finally starts making a decent wage, why punish them with higher taxes?
When that persons labor results in them buying a better home than one who doesn't work so hard, why should they be forced to pay a higher property tax?
America is supposed to be the land of equal opportunity, not equal results. Socialism offers equal results, mostly poor except for the elite who run the government.

Answer 1

Wanna tell me how else can the federal, state, and local governments raise money to provide services to the general population?

You like education for kids? You like having safe foods and products? You like having a military to protect you? You like driving on roads? You like having police & firefighters? Etc, etc, etc. Those services have to be provided somehow. If it's not taxing the value of your property and taxing your wealth, then the $$$ have to be provided some other way.

Answer 2

Because the first rule of taxation is "make sure the taxpayer can afford to pay the taxes". Also, because the alternatives would be less conducive to economy growth. Let's look at some.

Should the government punish under achievers instead?
No, see first rule of taxation.

Should we have more duties and excise taxes?
High import taxes (tariffs, duties), restrict trade. International trade is an important factor to economy growth. Not only the U.S. but other countries as well. Excise taxes, taxes on the manufacture and sale of nonessential consumer goods, is also bad for the economy. How about a tax on chewing gum? Televisions? Books? Tea? Coffee? Carpeting? Furniture? etc. Makers of those products and any others that would be taxed would face increased costs. Those costs would have to be passed on to the buyers. Also, the finished products would probably be taxed as well.

How about a national sales tax? There is some debate about the merits of this plan. Some economists claim that eliminating corporate income taxes would reduce costs for manufacturers. While this would be true to some extent, I have my doubts as to whether the additional savings would be passed on to the end product. Also, the largest fundamental flaw in the plan that I see is that the higher income people don't always spend everything they make. In essence, large income taxpayers would probably end up with a net tax break. If that happens, where is the extra tax revenue supposed to come from?

The simple fact is the income tax, while flawed, is really the best method for the funding of the government. Could our tax system be better? Yes. However, we could also pay higher taxes. Many countries have higher income taxes and some are significantly higher than the U.S.

Answer 3

No one is "punished" in America by the tax code for being successful. The more you make, the more money you have. The top rate is 35% for goodness sake! The government does not take most of what you make. Not even half. I wish the rates were lower (15%) but they are still are reasonable compared with the rest of the developed world. Yes, property tax is more when you have a bigger house, it has always been this way. We are not a land of serfs and land barrons. This is not some feudal society. In most western nations the tax rates are much higher. God bless America for low taxes.

Answer 4

You should be pay more in taxes because you HAVE more, not because you EARN more. You have to define EARN. There are a large number of people who HAVE more (the wealthy) that do not pay very much in taxes. Look at Paris Hilton. How much does she HAVE verses how much she EARNS. There are a vast number of tax shelters that the wealthy utilize to avoid paying taxes, mainly because of the fact they do not have earnings (income). This is not taxed. Yet a low or middle income earning person has to pay a lot in taxes because they EARN their money.

The people that have a lot of wealth, will spend a goodly part of that wealth. Why not tax everyone on what they SPEND. But, let us NOT allow the federal government to tax anything twice. Once is enough. Therefore only tax NEW goods and services. If we use a FLAT TAX on SPENDING for NEW goods and services,everyone would be treated equally, but since the WEALTHY will spend a lot more dollars, they would be paying MORE in taxes.

OK, I agree that is is not right to tax anyone on the basic necessity of life. But if you try to exempt any groups of items such as food, you will be letting the WEALTHY find a new loophole. They will continue to SPEND on the higher priced meats etc (New York Strip Steaks,lobster tail etc costing $15-$20 per lb) and not have to pay the tax. While, the low-income earner is buying chuck roast, chicken and ground beef at $3 per lb. How do we handle this? We do not tax anyone up to the poverty level for their family. This is accomplished by returning the amount of tax dollars the would pay up to the poverty level. This means that the low income family spending up to the poverty level on NEW goods and services would effectly pay NO FEDERAL TAXES. The family that spends twice the poverty level on NEW goods and services would effectively be paying only 50% of the FLAT RATE taxes. Both of these family could be spending far much more money on used items at thrift stores, garage sales or consignment shops and paying no taxes on these items.

Does this sound like a plan that is too good to be true? Well, the plan does exist. It is currently a bill before the United States House of Representatives (HR-25) and the United States Senate (S-1025) entitled "The Fair Tax Act of 2007"

What about Property Taxes? The value of a peice of property whether it has a structure or not on it is assigned a value. (WEALTH). Properties are taxed at a predetermined rate. Some groups of propetry (farm land etc) may be taxed at different rates than other groups (commercial office buildings) while other groups (single family owner occupied residences) may be provided discounts. But, who sets these various rates and who determines the value of the property? Who actually pays these Property Taxes? The property owner you would think. But this is the wrong answer in many cases!

Businesses do not pay taxes! Any taxes that are charged to a business are merely a cost of doing business. The tax cost is passed on to the consumer. Consider the commercial office building owner and his property taxes. He establishes a rent or lease for the building. This includes the cost to maintain the structure, handle any repairs needed, the property taxes he will pay to the local government agency, the state sales taxes he must remit, and his Federal Income tax (Corporate taxes, employer SS and Medicare taxes, his tax compliance costs (CPA to do his tax return etc) and his profit for his investment. He collects this from his tennant. The tennant might be a divorce lawyer's office. The lawyer has to determine what fee he will charge for his services. He will include the business costs of the lease to the property owner, his office staff wages, the employer SS and Medicare taxes for his employees, his self-employed SS and Medicare taxes (double taxes), the personal income tax he will have to pay and the profit he wants to live on. This fee ends up being paid by the poor person filing for a divorce. Individuals end up paying all the taxes!

Therefore, the Federal, State and Local governments should adopt a single tax plan based upon SPENDING. There would be a percentage for the Feds, another for the State and a third for the Local government.

But, since the vast majority of these taxes are currently embedded in the price posted for the goods or services, leave it that way. When was the last time you went to the movies? When you visited the box office, did the cashier sell you the ticket for $7.00, $8.00 or $10.00? Or did the ticket cost you an extra amount for State Sales tax of 7% ($7.49. $8.56 or $10.70)? The vast majority of taxes (income, property etc) are already included in the price, this is just one place where many times the "sales tax" is also quoted as an inclusive tax.

Answer 5

You're taxed more because you EARN more. Pure and simple! That's how the system works! If you buy a more expensive home, your property taxes will be higher. Again, that's how the system works. It's NOT rocket science.

If you don't like it, move to Europe. You'll pay about 30% MORE in taxes over there.

Answer 6

Think of it this way. The more taxes that you are paying, you are either doing really well or doing a poor job of tax planning. Which is it in your case?

Answer 7

Because so many people vote Democrat instead of Libertarian.

If you refuse to vote for a 3rd party, "Dr. No" (aka Ron Paul) is running on the Republican ticket for 2008 and is better than all those other guys.