Citizens for an Alternative Tax System
(CATS)
"[The income tax is] too difficult for a mathemetician.
It should be asked of a philosoper."
-- Dr. Albert Einstein, 1944
Problems With The Income Tax
The Income Tax Is Grossly Wasteful
Hideous complexity makes income tax compliance a huge burden -- 5.4
billion hours spent by business and individuals every year. (Because
this is a 1985 IRS study it underestimates the cost today).
Independent studies
have put the cost of complying with the IRS and income tax between $157
to $300 billion. Since the IRS only collects $803 billion a year in income
taxes, we have a tax system that directly costs us roughly $28 for every
$100 collected. That's over $2,000 per year for every individual taxpayer
in America! ($228 billion ÷ 113 million individual taxpayers.) This is
insane. When you add on the huge cost of misallocated resources
(because of all the investments made to avoid tax instead of for good economic
reasons) it adds up to over 50 cents on the dollar. This is economic
suicide. Guess who this hurts the most? If you said those lowest on the
economic ladder, go to the head of the class.
The Income Tax Raises Prices
...to the consumer -- hurting the poor the most. Included in the price
for everything you buy is corporate or business income tax compliance cost.
It is estimated that 14% of everything you spend is this hidden tax. Thus,
corporate income taxes and compliance costs have the same effect as a tax
hidden in the price of goods -- a regressive tax that hurts the poor the
most.
The Income Tax Costs Us
...productivity, jobs, economic growth, and hurts our standard of
living. Americans know there's something wrong with our economy. Good
jobs are tougher to find, and real incomes have stagnated for over 20
years. It now takes two incomes to raise a family -- one income to live
on, and a second income to pay the taxes. Yet the government still
finds it difficult to balance its budget. Productivity and
growth lag below what was routine in the '50s and '60s.
A large part of the reason is our insane tax system. It isn't just
the waste and inefficiency, bad as that is. It's the fact that when you
tax something you get less of it. And what do we tax? Work, income,
savings, investment, productivity and growth. If you were trying to
devise the most unfair, wasteful, and counterproductive system for our
economy and standard of living, you couldn't do much better than our
current system. For every $100 that the income tax raises, it kills off $35
of economic output (that's on top of the $28 in compliance costs).
Economists agree on very few policy issues, but you will find almost
universal agreement on one fact -- it is far better to tax consumption than
income.
The Income Tax Kills American Jobs
When our exports are sold overseas, foreign countries charge
consumption taxes, on top of the U.S. income taxes already paid. Our
exports pay the freight for both US and foreign governments! On the
other hand, when imports come to America, their foreign consumption tax
is lifted at their border, US import duties are low, they pay no
consumption tax here, and 70% of foreign corporations pay no corporate
income tax in the US. American products pay twice and imports not once!
This double whammy is a job killer for Americans.
The Income Tax Is Grossly Unfair
In surveys (by both Democratic and Republican pollsters) 68%
of those surveyed thought our current system is unfair. Special
interests have lobbied for one exemption after another and, with the help
of compliant politicians, have created a monstrosity. The 20,000+ pages
of IRS tax codes and regulations are so hideously complicated that even
the experts can't comprehend it all. (60% of the politicians on the
Congressional tax-writing committees don't prepare their own tax
returns.) This insane mess is the perfect hiding place for tax loopholes
for the well-connected.
Loopholes, trusts, offshore corporations, and high-priced tax
attorneys allow the elite to legally avoid many taxes routinely paid by
the working and middle class. At the other end of society, criminals,
illegal aliens and many who work for cash don't pay income taxes. The
IRS estimates only 78% compliance in the aboveground economy. How much
more do you think you're paying because of all the special interest
loopholes and tax cheating they didn't keep track of? It's just plain
unfair that many don't pay their fair share -- and it raises your taxes
whether they avoided paying legally or illegally.
The Income Tax Is Corrupt
On top of the economic unfairness, the income tax is one of the
primary reasons for the level of corrupt money in politics -- lobbyists
buying loopholes. If the love of money is the root of all evil, then the
income tax system is the fertilizer.
The Income Tax Is Immoral
...on many levels besides violating our constitutional rights. For
the socially conscious consider this -- the poor are hit with the corporate
income tax and compliance costs built into the price of goods -- an
estimated 14% of retail prices. There is no shield to this regressive
tax. The working poor have already lost 15% of their paycheck in income
taxes, and then they pay again with this hidden tax in retail prices.
For the enterprising, consider the fairness of the punishment our
current system inflicts on you. First you lose 15% to 30+% of your
income right off the top, then if you invest, you are taxed again. Start
a company and you're taxed two or three times on the same income for your
trouble. After you die the government takes yet another chunk from your
heirs. After you've done your IRA (or tax-deferred plan) it just doesn't
make a lot of sense to invest -- unless of course you're rich enough to
hire a tax attorney, lobby the government for a loophole, or set up an
offshore trust. How can you build a retirement, put your kids through
college, or become financially independent, with the deck stacked against
you like this?
It is unfair for everyone in that it taxes and punishes people on
the basis of what they contribute to society (income from productivity
and investment) instead of what they take out of society in consumption
(retail spending). Think about it -- you receive income in return for what
you do to help society and the economy. Why punish people for their
economic contribution? Doesn't it make more sense to collect taxes on
the basis of what people consume, or take from society -- measured
almost perfectly by how much they spend on retail goods and services?
The IRS Violates Our Rights
...as a free people (semi-free would actually be a better
description at this point in time -- no humor intended). By the very
nature of the system, the IRS and the income tax is a gross infringement
on our civil liberties and constitutional rights. Many live in fear of
an IRS audit, and with good reason. Your right to privacy is ignored.
You are presumed guilty until you can prove your innocence (if you can
afford the attorneys, and one is not appointed for you if you are
poor). The IRS has the power to review confidential
records without a court order, and breath-taking powers to seize your
property. And they are often arbitrary, punitive and incompetent in
exercising their sweeping powers.
Noted tax expert, Daniel J. Pilla testifies that, of the 40 million
tax assessment notices sent out every year, over half are in error! There
are five times more IRS agents than FBI agents! Are there really five
times as many citizen-taxpayer-criminals -- or is it time to change the
system? The number of lives and marriages that have been wrecked by the
IRS is untold, not to mention the number of businesses destroyed and
jobs lost. Past Senate Finance Committee hearings presented one
chilling example after another of gross abuses. We will not live in a
truly free country until the federal government stops tracking and
auditing Americans' incomes.
When you look at the damage the IRS and the income tax system have
inflicted on our country, the question really is:
|
Why have we tolerated such an insane and destructive system for so long?
|
There is no good reason - Real Tax Reform
is Ready To Happen!!
Note: Statistics reflect the time of writing (circa 1998).
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