£13tn: hoard hidden from taxman by global elite

[El Caliente]

I wonder how many US politicians would be on that list if it were revealed.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by crosswatt

So, are you advocating the complete abolition of taxation?

Of course not. Just an end to taxes on income, investments and assets.

[blackadder]

Originally Posted by Brown

Of course not. Just an end to taxes on income, investments and assets.

Kind of how it was before 1913?

[THENZA]

Originally Posted by blackadder

Kind of how it was before 1913?

Ah, the Good Ole Days...


Look how happy they are to keep all of their income to themselves.

[blackadder]

Originally Posted by THENZA

Ah, the Good Ole Days...


Look how happy they are to keep all of their income to themselves.

What would child labor have to do with income tax?

[THENZA]

Originally Posted by blackadder

What would child labor have to do with income tax?

Tried finding an image of early 20th century factory workers. Mostly pictures of children come up.

Point is, why would anyone want to do away with income taxes?
That kind of thinking is beyond me. Maybe if we lived in 1794 and everyone owned their own farm, built their own home, traveled their own cleared out trails, etc...

Those days are gone. We are (mostly) not a country of land-owning farmers anymore. We're workers. It's not every man for himself.

Without social programs paid for by income taxes, do you really think that a substantial portion of the population would be better off?

[brandon8283]

Originally Posted by Brown

Of course not. Just an end to taxes on income, investments and assets.

So what are we taxing, exactly? Inheritance? Gasoline?

[Brown]

Originally Posted by brandon8283

So what are we taxing, exactly? Inheritance? Gasoline?

consumption mostly.

purchases of:
food, houses, land, boats, stocks, bonds, CD's, televisions, etc
alcohol and tobacco get hit especially hard.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by blackadder

What would child labor have to do with income tax?

exactly. I went out to get some straw today to build my scarecrow and there was none left.

There's no need to create issues where none exist. No one is advocating child labor laws be revised or that we do away with clean air and water regulations...

Just talking about Doing away with an arbitrary and unfair Income tax.

[blackadder]

Behind closed doors, they laugh at us....

EconomicPolicyJournal.com: Cantor

[dtc]

Originally Posted by Brown

consumption mostly.

purchases of:
food, houses, land, boats, stocks, bonds, CD's, televisions, etc
alcohol and tobacco get hit especially hard.

So, you're talking about a VAT including everything without adjustment for necessities, right? Every savings deposit, every stock, every flight, every stamp. Everything.

[Dre]

Ok, I'll be on board with raising taxes on the 0.001%.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by dtc

So, you're talking about a VAT including everything without adjustment for necessities, right? Every savings deposit, every stock, every flight, every stamp. Everything.

Not necessarily a VAT since that's built into the price. I'm talking about a charge in addition to the purchase.

And yes, I can't think of anything offhand that would be excluded. Not sure about stamps though. They're essentially already a "Fee" for a service provided by a quasi governmental agency.

[dtc]

Originally Posted by Brown

Not necessarily a VAT since that's built into the price. I'm talking about a charge in addition to the purchase.

And yes, I can't think of anything offhand that would be excluded. Not sure about stamps though. They're essentially already a "Fee" for a service provided by a quasi governmental agency.

You realize that without taxing services the rate on purchases would have to be astronomical and that taxing necessities is regressive?

Either way, I have no problem with what you're saying as long as the amounts collected are sufficient. I've always favored taxes that were more like service fees so the notion of a transaction tax on stocks or other trades is appealing.

There's an awful lot of money that finds its way around taxation. It's earnings or wealth or transfers and the super rich have it figured out. Were it not for that money being hidden, the existing structure would be more than adequate and provide ample revenue.

[Brown]

Originally Posted by dtc

You realize that without taxing services the rate on purchases would have to be astronomical and that taxing necessities is regressive?

Either way, I have no problem with what you're saying as long as the amounts collected are sufficient. I've always favored taxes that were more like service fees so the notion of a transaction tax on stocks or other trades is appealing.

There's an awful lot of money that finds its way around taxation. It's earnings or wealth or transfers and the super rich have it figured out. Were it not for that money being hidden, the existing structure would be more than adequate and provide ample revenue.

I'm not certain how you could know that the rate would HAVE to be astronomical.
I do know that some consider it to be regressive.
"Sufficient".... Now that's where the fight begins.
The hidden tax money is the whole reason why I support a consumption only scheme.

Now when it comes down to it I'm sure there'd have to be some tinkering with the scheme to account for the "regressive" nature of it. I'm sure that income would come into play so that there could be credits earned by those who fall below certain income thresholds and I'm not totally opposed to that.