A FAIR TAXATION SYSTEM

Our federal income tax system should be changed, if not eliminated. The current system causes the government to lose trillions of dollars in tax revenue through the use of loopholes big enough for an 18-wheeler to drive through and which serve to enrich accountants, tax preparers, and tax lawyers. Everytime Congress has "reformed" the income tax, special interest lobbyists have made sure that loopholes remain for the benefit of their clients.

Do the rich pay their fair share of taxes? The answer to this question cannot be answered with a straight yes or no. The rich do pay a disproportionate share of taxes, but they escape having to pay even more through the use of exemptions and loopholes, which are not beneficial to the average taxpayer. Corporations can reduce their taxes by setting up "headquarters" in Caribbean tax havens.

The income tax just isn't fair. It cheats the government, as well as the average taxpayer. It needs to be changed, or better yet, eliminated. The current system of tax brackets and exemptions should be eliminated. The tax brackets should be replaced with four distinctive income ramges. One bracket would be a poverty level income bracket, while the other three would cover low, middle and high income levels.

People in the poverty bracket would not pay any income taxes. Those with low incomes would only have to pay a small percent of their income in taxes, those in the middle group a larger percent, and those in the high group a yet larger percent of their income. Income ranges in the four brackets can be determined by Congress and should be adjusted every so many years to account for changes in the buying power of the public.

All exemptions for individual taxpayers should be eliminated except in cases of catastrophic medical expenses and catastrophic property losses, such as those resulting from hurricanes and other disasters. Corporations doing business in this country should not be exempt from paying a portion of their taxes because their headquarters are elsewheres. And, corporations should not be allowed any deductions other than for expenditures used to modernize or expand their businesses and to repair or replace facilities damaged or destroyed by natural disasters.

Better yet, the income tax should be eliminated and replaced with a "value added" tax system, the system by which people in most European countries are taxed. A value added tax system uses a national sales tax to produce revenue for the government. In that system, everyone pays their fair share of taxes. And in that system, there would be no need to have a large internal revenue agency.

A value added tax system would shrink the Internal Revenue Service from a gargantuan bureaucracy to a small collection agency and eliminate the need for individual income tax forms, tax accountants, tax preparers and tax lawyers. Everyone, no matter their level of income, would pay a percentage of their purchases in taxes. Every corporation and organization, including churches, would be taxed for their purchases. Then, if groceries, medicines and medical care were exempted from the value added tax, that would constitute a fair taxation system.