They (whoever the ominous they are) say that great minds think alike……Terrance of Sibboleth (go to blogroll and visit a very good site) has a post on the same issue today……
The plan is the taxation one that GOP presidential candidate is trying to sell to the American people or should I say the conserv voter?
For all his crazy stuff on Muslims and such I found the simple definition of his 999 plan was 9% corporate tax, 9% income tax and 9% national sales tax….I could agree with all those as long as the tax code was simplified along with this plan…like everyone pays 9% income tax regardless with the exception of pewople living below the poverty line….no deductions, no breaks……. Would I ever vote for him? NOT a chance but the idea , as I knew it, was appealing…..
But as I look at his plan I found that it was not as simple as I had originally thought….check it out from his website……
- Achieves the broadest possible tax base along with the lowest possible rate of 9%.
- It ends the Payroll Tax completely – a permanent holiday!
- Zero capital gains tax
- Ends the Death Tax.
- Eliminates double taxation of dividends
- Business Flat Tax – 9%
- Gross income less all investments, all purchases from other businesses and all dividends paid to shareholders.
- Empowerment Zones will offer additional deductions for payroll employed in the zone.
- Individual Flat Tax – 9%.
- Gross income less charitable deductions.
- Empowerment Zones will offer additional deductions for those living and/or working in the zone.
- National Sales Tax – 9%.
- This gets the Fair Tax off the sidelines and into the game.
What can I say….there is not much more in Cain’s platform that I can get on board with but I think his idea on taxation could use some consideration….the problem is there are too many ifs , ands and maybes in his proposal….if he would simplify it a little more….I think it would be better…..typical Repub stuff with capital gains….still protects them from taxation…..and the business tax would be abused beyond today’s attempts…….all in all a 999 plan that is more simple and easy would be more to my liking….but at least he tried.
Now I would like to ask my readers to tell me what their ideas are on taxation……thoughts?
You of course know where this comes from if you invert the 999 don’t you?
Larry…you know I was trying to figure a way to use that in the post…..but I decided not to…..that whole great minds thingy again…..lol
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999 does sound appealing because of its simplicity. Will it be enough to pay for everything? And the sales tax – would it do away with county sales tax too? Or will that be piled on top.
A flat tax sounds so good in theory, and I would love it. Implementing it would kill so many jobs that are dependent on a complicated tax code – CPAs, attorneys, all those H&R block type places. Not to mention the IRS would be scaled back quite a bit. Which might not be bad, but again, more job losses.
Spinny, the county, city and state tax would remain….for without Fed money they would have to pay for services that they should provide……and then think of all those jobs lost….there is always a paradox in these things…..
Lobotero,
Larry said it best, I think, when he said that issues like these are red herrings. There is almost no chance of Cain pushing this through Congress, but he’s doing what all the Republican candiates seem to be doing: blowing smoke up the asses of extremists.
Terrance….so true……campaign promises are about as reliable as a rattlesnake in heat……
And thanks for the mention.
You are welcome and I like giving credit where credit is due……
Who gets hit worse from a 9% federal sales tax, the guy spending 50K on purchases out of his $250,000, or the guy spending 15k out of his $25,000? Let’s see…9% of 50k = $4500 out of $250,000 = 1.8% tax on income. 9% of 15k = $1350 out of $25,000 = 5.4% tax on income….of course that is before reducing the “income” of Mr. Fatcat by his capital gains and donations. Which would also have the benefit of reducing his 9% income tax, whereas Mr. 25k would be paying 9% on all his income.
Hi Bob and thanx for the comment……yep it is very regressive tax and the sooner that people realize it the sooner we can send him packing back to his pizza dough….
Yep….I smell anchovies on this one!! Where did the Republican philosophy of “get revenue from those who can’t afford it to help those who have the most maybe provide a meager employment opportunity to the downtrodden” come from? It’s a kind of “give them enough to keep them quiet, but don’t allow them to make enough to threaten our existence” type of philosophy. Hey, seems to have worked so far. 9-9-9 is nothing more than an extension of that philosophy.
Bob, it has been their philosophy most of the 20th century……..only thing standing in their way was Glass-Steagall and Clinton assisted in that repeal….and then the shit hit the fan and it was Dems that made it possible………..999 does not address state and local sales tax….so once again the poor really gets hammered…..