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Carson's Tax Plan
Highlights:
1. "Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson on Monday called for imposing a 14.9% flat tax rate on income, ending taxes on capital gains and dividends and abolishing the charitable deduction and all tax credits.
By the way, the reporter goofed. Carson is proposing to end double taxation of dividends and capital gains, but all income would be taxed. What the reporter should have explained is that capital and business income would be taxed only one time.Carson has basically put forth a pure version of the plan first proposed by economists at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution."
2. "Mr. Carson’s flat tax would apply only to income above 150% of the poverty level… In some respects, Mr. Carson’s plan is similar to those of the other candidates, all of whom want to lower tax rates… But he goes farther, particularly with his willingness to rip up parts of the tax system that have been in place for a century. …In addition to eliminating the charitable deduction and investment taxation, Mr. Carson would also repeal the estate tax, the mortgage-interest deduction, the state and local tax deduction, depreciation rules and the alternative minimum tax."
Re: Carson's Tax Plan
I don't like the sound of the deductions being removed. Also, a lot of articles I've read say that Carson's plan won't supply enough funds to the federal government to function/get out of debt.
Bolded. It will come.
I don't think any candidates' tax plan will pull us out of debt completely. That's where cuts in spending have to come in concurrently.
Question-what sort of tax plan did we have before income tax? If it was a flat tax, why did we switch? I would want to know the answers to these questions before making a decision.
@MommyLiberty - the articles were mostly opinion articles in various newspapers. I couldn't cite my sources as I've just read them here and there. But I usually don't totally trust opinion articles.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0005921.html
The history of income taxes in the USA.
I know it is an UO, not only on these boards but for the country at large, but I am really bothered by deductions. I don't understand why people should be rewarded with tax breaks just for making their own personal decisions...like choosing to have children or buying a house. I don't blame anyone for taking any tax break they are entitled to...heck, I'm against it, but I still take my mortgage interest tax break. But that doesn't mean I don't think its strange and largely pointless.
Admittedly, I don't know the ins and outs of some of these more "out of the box" type tax plans. But one thing that is ridiculous with our current tax system is it is SO complicated, it actually takes the U.S. government billions of dollars just to manage it every year. What kind of savings would we see if we were able to cut the IRS by 90% with a vastly simpler tax system. And why is our system so complicated that many average citizens feel the need to use accountants and/or all these different tax software systems just to do their taxes every year?