No Stupid Questions

I don't have a problem with paying income tax. I do have a problem with how my taxes are spent.

Every. Single. Day. I have to hear about the US MIC turning people into skeletons for freedom. Once a year I drive by a local project, such as adding wheelchair accessible ramps to the local park, and get to feel good that some of my taxes are helping people.

Everybody is stressed out all of the time by the Sword of Damocles that is US healthcare, hoping that they do not get any kind of illness because then they will be broke, but my income taxes go to fund the free as fuck healthcare that the people in congress, who are the people denying universal healthcare to everyone else, enjoy and enables them to live. for. fucking. ever.

Real wages in the US haven't kept pace with inflation, but my income taxes don't subsidize food and housing. They subsidize corporations that gamble with peoples' homes and retirements.

Capitalism is infecting every level of society with this "I got mine" mentality that spreads isolation and mental illness, but my income taxes go to the never-ending militarization of the American police force.

Americans are increasingly undereducated and ill-informed, but my income taxes increasingly go toward the funding of theological charter schools that teach people that the world is 6,000 years old and that humans existed with dinosaurs.

I don't agree with the majority of things that my income taxes pay for, but if I try to refuse to pay then, then I will lose my home and my freedom to get ground to death in this indifferent American hellscape, my wife will lose access to healthcare and die, and my daughter will be next up in the queue to be crushed by a government that doesn't. give. a. fuck.

A lot of working and middle class people don't understand how tax brackets work and a lot of upper class people don't have a financial incentive to correct the working and middle class.

Also, a lot of upper class people have shifted their income from wages to capital gains, which has a lower effective tax rate.

I've always hated income tax whenever I hear how many times taxpayers money is mis-spent on shit that isn't needed nor necessary. Like, our taxpayer money is going into the funding of bullets and bombs that are then used to kill innocent people whether globally or domestically.

And it isn't like we have a choice to not file taxes. I mean, I'd love it if at least 50 million americans would stop filing taxes for a few years, maybe even one. What's the IRS going to do? Fucking arrest those 50 million? Audit everyone? Ohhhhhhh....I'm so scared! Not like paying taxes in hasn't done a damn thing when we need something done the most. The evidence is mountains high as to how mis-spent it is.

It ain't the tax it's the brokeness. If I wasn't so broke you could tax my dick and I'd be perfectly ok with that.

I now hate income tax because it's just giving a handout to billionaires (and military contractors, but I repeat myself).

conservatives in the us think they are saving money from having no income taxes, its true if you make millions+ year in places like texas or florida, but there are pay that make way less than that move to those states, and then are surprised when they are paying more for other taxes and then paying difference in the lack of healtchare, or schools, or public services in the area.

the problem is property taxes is very high in blue areas, which makes too expensive to live in addition to renting and housing prices.

In theory, it's not the most economically efficient. We want people to work, and taxing labor decreases the incentive to work. However, there isn't any viable alternative given the current circumstances. Labor creates all value in society and you can't easily hide labor off shore (though I guess that's what happened with globalization and China).

One should understand that income tax should be a tax on the consumption of labor (just as a tariff is a tax paid by the importer/consumer). Right-wing politicians have made the employee pay the income tax (to decrease acceptance of the system), but it should always be the employer that pays the tax.

If we start to call income tax "labor VAT" or something similar, that will probably solve a lot of misunderstandings.

I don't hate income tax. But from my personal experience, when I was a young lad with no political leaning, seeing a quarter of my first paycheck just... disappear into the void (what I thought back then) definitely made me feel something not great

I mean right now I can see that an income tax system is at the very least a "necessary evil", but I could also see how ppl without a fuller perspective of things might interpret this as almost theft (the evil guvunment stole muh money!!!!)

They know how much i make they already have my money.. Why the fuck can't they just send a bill?

Your income is taxed in payroll taxes, income taxes(federal and sometimes state), and then you are taxed for buying things. That is bullshit.

Personal income shouldn't be taxed unless you make substantially more than the cost of living. Anything over $10m should be taxed at 100% including capital gains and stock awards. If you need more motivation to succeed than $10m a year, you are a lazy parasite.

Where they need to actually tax is businesses. Tax the businesses based on profit and remove the loopholes that allow for tax avoidance abuse schemes that result in a state single digit tax percentage of profits. I would even go so far as to say that the federal taxes on businesses should only apply in interstate and international businesses and only states should be allowed to tax businesses that operate exclusively within the state's borders.

The effects of that tax plan have obvious consequences and they are all beneficial to the people.

I don't mind really, just wish it was used for more things that helped society. And it needs to be a little more progressive, though it is the most progressive of the taxes we have here.

My ex MIL, who literally used WIC and welfare when she was a single mom, and leveraged that into a nursing degree, rails against welfare now and doesn't want her taxes going to that, doesn't want to pay. Not even in a pull the ladder up after herself way, she just refuses to admit she benefited from it.

Because I could pay privately for the services the government gives me, and it'd be cheaper and better.

I 100% realize why taxes are needed but they seem like too much for some and way way too little for others. I also have a big problem for the things my tax money would be spent to support right now.

Because the government has all the fucking data it needs to just tell me how much I owe, but no they force me to calculate it myself every year. Or to pay an accountant because it's a horrible mess of a form.

My main issue is with taxes in general. Well over half of my income (some sources suggest up to 70%) ends up being paid as some kind of tax.

Income tax doesn't do anything to the 1%. You have unrealized gains, and borrow against your assets? You owe zero tax.

A wealth tax, or income tax on yet unrealized gains, would be better. Of course, that comes with its own set of issues. But, I don't think they are insurmountable.

Income taxes (and also sales taxes, in most cases) disproportionately impact lower earners. Someone earning minimum wage likely devotes the majority of their income to cost of living essentials. Conversely, someone earning 10x minimum wage will spend a much lower percentage.

The exclusion level generally is set quite a bit below minimum wages, and the a progressive tax doesn’t always fix that, as cost of living/inflation can outpace legislation very quickly.

The other reason that it’s not entirely fair is that the wealthy don’t earn a salary. They earn dividends and do all kinds of things to avoid having an income. Someone who pulls down $1 million in salary either needs an accountant or earns an additional 10x compensation via stock grants, dividends, etc., which are (in most jurisdictions) taxed very differently than income. In the USA, for example, the top tax bracket (federal) for income is 37%, whereas a stock grant held for 1 year after vesting would be taxed at no more than 20% (and I’m grossly oversimplifying).