flat tax Options

[*krnxswat*]

for or against? share your thoughts!

for those of you that doesn't know what it is,

Q.What does "flat" mean?
A. "Flat" simply means "no graduation", or everybody pays the same rate. If you graph income levels with tax rates, there is no rise -- it is "flat."

Q.What is "graduation?"
A. Graduation comes from the idea that another dollar added to a rich person's income means less than another dollar to a poor person. In other words, when poor people get another dollar, they might use it to eat better. When rich people get another dollar, they will only increase their level of luxury slightly, probably unnoticeably. So graduation makes a rich person pay more per additional dollar than a poor person. Graduation is part of the current US income tax system. Most other countries use graduation as well.

[Aesirus]

It is very well-documented. The income tax gives teh government an unprecedented right to violate people's privacy and the use of "civil law" to steal people's property. While oen cannot be imprisoned for owing money, one CAN be imprisoned for owing taxes--which is, after all, the same as owing money.

In addition, vocal opponents of the income tax are routinely terrorized and killed by federal agents. Look up the murder of Gordon Kahl in 1984 for one example. Next to the War on Drugs, the enforcmeent of the income tax is teh single most damaging thing to American liberty.

The reason the income tax was illegal in the first place was that, until 1913, there was a general fear that the income tax would, to quote former House Speaker Robert E. Byrd, "a hand from Washington will be stretched out and placed upon every man's business. . . . Heavy fines imposed by distant and unfamiliar tribunals will constantly menace the taxpayer. An army of Federal officials, spies and detectives will descend upon the state. . ."

The amount of leeway that the IRS has in "investigating" tax returns is nothing short of violations of privacy that damage civil liberties tremendously, but since they are "civil" and not "criminal" laws (although you can be kicked out of your house, thrown on the street, and then slapped with a jail indictment for something else), normal constitutional procedures do not apply.

The growth of the American police state since the beginning of the century can be traced to two things: the income tax, and prohibition. Of the two, the income tax is the more harmful.