* Tax Plan

[Liberty]

It's what security expert Bruce Schneier calls "security theater".

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_theater

 

"Security theater is a term that describes security countermeasures intended to provide the feeling of improved security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security."

[Parsad]

You sent Justin Bieber!!!!

Build that damn fence!! Actually wait until he goes back north and then build it high enough so he can't climb back

 

And don't forget Celine Dion!  But don't blame us for terrorism...we just have bad taste!  ;D  Cheers!

 

[oec2000]

You sent Justin Bieber!!!!

Build that damn fence!! Actually wait until he goes back north and then build it high enough so he can't climb back

 

And don't forget Celine Dion!  But don't blame us for terrorism...we just have bad taste!  ;D  Cheers!

 

And Kiefer Sutherland - he's the guy who gets the terrorists in the end!  ;D

[oec2000]

There is an interesting document here that adjusts the historical tax rates for CPI inflation:

 

http://www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

 

I know people keep saying that these high end tax brackets we have today are unfairly low, but historically speaking it isn't just the high end that is historically low, now is it?

 

In 1981 it looked like this for married filing jointly (and CPI adjusted, so these are today's dollars):

 

over $8,393  14%

over $13,576  16%

over $18,760  18%

over $29,374  21%

over $39,495  24%

over $49,862  28%

over $60,723  32%

over $73,806  37%

over $86,888  43%

over $113,054 49%

over $148,105  54%

over $211,297  59%

over $270,045  64%

over $400,872  68%

over $531,698  70%

 

Now, who wants to bring these tax rates back?

 

To be fair I think I cherry picked the most frightening tax brackets we've ever had -- unless you go back to the 1950s where it looks possibly even worse for the lower income earners.  Years of high inflation brought the lower income earners into tax brackets designed for higher income earners.  I wonder to what degree this played a role in the depressed corporate earnings of the period -- real consumer spending power was crushed by the shift into higher tax brackets.  How would the outcome have looked if the tax brackets had been indexed to the CPI?

 

These rates (except for the last 3 top ones) are pretty close to what Canadians used to pay around 2000 (rates were higher before and have come down since) when we were running down our debt burden. The economy was able to grow at a reasonable rate but we were helped by a weak C$ and a US economy on Greenspan steroids.

 

The problem now is if Europe and the US try to increase taxes at the same time.

 

What about a progressive sales tax versus income tax.  This would be much harder to game.  In addition to a smaller income and corporate tax.

 

Packer

 

I agree absolutely. Simple and elegant solution that has the added benefit of making many IRS/CRA employees redundant. There would be a depression in the tax accounting and legal professions but I don't think many will feel sad for them - so much completely unproductive spending is wasted in this area. We could mobilise some of the taxpayer savings generated from not having to pay tax professionals to reducing government debt.

 

I wonder, though, how well it will work as an election platform no matter how much sense it makes.

[Guest Hester]

Hermaine Cain has ridden this tax plan to first in the polls.  :o