Taxation

Who’s Paying?

This entry was posted in Health Care Taxation on by

Jane Galt has written a series of posts on health care that are worth while reading for all. The latest in the series is here and both Tyler Cowan and Arnold Kling quote this sentence:

Have the government pay for all health care expenditures above 15% of adjusted gross income, and cover 100% of health care expenditures by people living under 200% of the poverty line.

Both have suggestions to tweak Jane’s proposal and you should also read their posts.
Jane’s proposal with some tweaks has a lot to recommend it but the framing, yes, the framing needs to change. It needs to change for this and all other discussions that include a phrase similar to “..the government pay…” Everyone needs to be clear that the government really does not pay for anything. It takes money from you and I, the payers, and gives the money to someone else, the payees.

So, one thing missing from the above statement is the mechanism for and the rate at which the government is going to take money from you and me and distribute it to others. Once this is defined then let the payers decide whether they will fund this.


irs Respectable?

This entry was posted in Government Taxation on by

Just why was the irs tracking taxpayer’s political affiliation:

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., a member of an appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the IRS, said the practice was an “outrageous violation of the public trust” that could undermine the agency’s credibility.

I’m just a bit puzzled as to why murray thinks that this bunch of goons had any credibility.

…Deputy IRS Commissioner John Dalrymple said the party identification information was automatically collected through a “database platform” supplied by an outside contractor that targeted voter registration rolls among other things as it searched for people who aren’t paying their taxes.

And, why is it that someone outside the irs is being provided information about citizen’s tax payment status? Shouldn’t this information be confidential…at least until the irs initiates collection actions?
Via Talkleft.

They’ve Got the Firepower

This entry was posted in Taxation on by

Irwin Schiff doesn’t like the federal income tax:

Schiff contends that the federal tax code doesn’t require taxpayers to pay income tax. He disputes the government’s definition of income, and argues that the Internal Revenue Service has no authority to seize property.

He has stood staunchly by his convictions but perhaps will soon acknowledge the facts:

Anti-tax crusader Irwin Schiff and an associate were found guilty Monday of charges including conspiracy, tax evasion and tax fraud.

The authority of the irs, like all extortionists, comes from the barrel of a gun. If you do not play by their rules you get screwed. There is nothing voluntary about it.
Even in the land of the free.