You are elected POTUS - What is Your Tax Plan?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

A 9.75 percent flat national sales tax. Exemptions are for food, clothing, essential communications tech, medical needs, and housing.

Essential communications tech is specified as tablets, net books, laptops, cell phones, home computers.
Hidden taxes on cell plans are to be ended.

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Federal Income Tax and disband the IRS

Taxes on internet purchases are also banned.

So what all are you gonna cut in spending?  Even after eliminating all discretionary spending, including the entire Department of Defense, there wouldn't be enough revenue in what you propose the tax base be to pay for what's left.  Assuming you're defining sales tax in the usual fashion, your proposed tax is less than one-third of the level of the so-called Fair-Tax proposal, and you're proposing a whole raft of exemptions to the tax. Even assuming every component of the GDP were subject to your tax rate, which your proposal explicitly rejects, you're not raising enough revenue to pay even two-thirds of current mandatory spending.

Not even current mandatory spending is safe from my blowtorch.

Given your positions, I don't doubt you'd like to cut mandatory spending, but your answer was unresponsive to my question of "What spending would you cut to bring the budget into balance with your preferred level of government revenues?"

[Deus Naturae]

A 9.75 percent flat national sales tax. Exemptions are for food, clothing, essential communications tech, medical needs, and housing.

Essential communications tech is specified as tablets, net books, laptops, cell phones, home computers.
Hidden taxes on cell plans are to be ended.

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Federal Income Tax and disband the IRS

Taxes on internet purchases are also banned.

Just curious, why would you ban taxes on internet purchases?

[barfbag]

Corporations:

No tax deduction for expenses incurred in connection with short sales of stock.
Level highest corporate tax rate at 34%.
Require adjustments to profits to reflect economic gain and loss.
Phase out graduated tax rates for large corporations making over $1,000,000.
20% tax for receiving a parachute payment in excess of the deductible amount.
No tax deductions for donations prior to occurrence.
Provide a 10 year operating loss carryback period for tort liability deductions.
Reserve funds for mining and solid waste closing costs.
Reserve funds for decommissioning costs.
Require taxpayers to treat start up expenditures as deferred expenses.
Require companies to maintain a list of shareholders.
Double the tax penalty for promoting abusive tax shelters.
Require reporting of donated property within two years of donation.
Tax penalties for failure to file, gross valuation, and intentional understatement.
Entire interest on pensions must be paid to employees by age 70 1/2.



Tax Brackets

income < $50,000                 15%
income $50,000-$75,000       25%
income > $75,000                 34%


Income Taxes:

Increase Home Owner Mortgage Deduction.
No deductions for credit and debit card payments.
Allow for IRA tax deductions for deposits of $2,000 or more.
Require social security numbers for dependents over the age of 5.
Reduce windfall profit taxes by 23%.
Cut capital gains taxes nearly in half.
Make child tax credit permanent.
No national sales tax or VAT.
Tax increases damage federal revenue by causing higher unemployment.

 
Tax Brackets
 
income < $64,600      15%
income < $195,000    28%
income > $195,000    33%


Deductions

medical and dental expenses
charitable contributions
casualty and theft losses
qualified interest on property used as a residence
estate tax


Life Insurance Policies:

income includes- premiums
                         decreases in certain reserves
                         other amounts includable in gross income

deductions- general life insurance deductions
                  special life insurance deductions
                  small life insurance deductions


Budget and Economy:

Decrease the maximum amount of property subject to tax credits to $270,000.
0.5% tax credit for businesses who contribute to stock ownership plan.
Increase taxes on foreign earned income by 7%.
Freeze maximum estate and gift tax at 55%.
22.5% windfall tax rate on newly discovered oil.
Continue cell phone taxation.
Increase alcohol tax by 20%.
Double tax percentage of cigarettes and tobacco.
Eliminate investment tax credits for property used by foreign governments.
Tax revenue made on bonds as income.
Increase recovery period for dilapidated property by 3 years.
Prohibit property from being used as payment to a spouse in place of alimony.
Children of divorced parents may be claimed by one parent or the other.
$50 penalty for late alimony and child support payments.
Property transfers during a divorce not subject to the gift tax. 
Raise federal debt limit from $14.3 trillion to $16.7 trillion in exchange for annual $40 billion cuts.
Freeze budget at 2.3 trillion annually until debt situation improves.

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

Flat Tax.

[angus]

Flat Tax.

same here.

I'd figure out what it costs to live, though.  Say, 40K, or 50K, or whatever, and I'd make that first bit free.  Folks making less than that pay no taxes, but I'd tax everything over that at a fixed rate sufficient to fund the government.  Whether we want a big one or a small one is another matter, but whatever size government we collectively decide that we want, I'd tax at a rate sufficient to pay for it, and the tax would be a fixed percent of all income over some income amount. 

[DC Al Fine]

Flat Tax.

same here.

I'd figure out what it costs to live, though.  Say, 40K, or 50K, or whatever, and I'd make that first bit free.  Folks making less than that pay no taxes, but I'd tax everything over that at a fixed rate sufficient to fund the government.  Whether we want a big one or a small one is another matter, but whatever size government we collectively decide that we want, I'd tax at a rate sufficient to pay for it, and the tax would be a fixed percent of all income over some income amount. 

What sort of standard of living would you use in your "cost to live" index?

[angus]

I think, realistically, that it depends primarily upon family size.  How much money do you need to live by yourself, if you live by yourself?  I need food, shelter, and clothing.  I think most would stipulate to that.  I would go on to say that the ability to communicate and to stay warm is necessary as well.  For two people living together, the total costs are more than for one, but not twice as much.  If you have children dependents, then you also have certain medical and educational expenses as well.  For a family of two adults and a young child living in southeastern Pennsylvania, I did a very rough estimate and find that all this amounts to about $35000 per year.  (I'm estimating $1000 per month rent, along with groceries, gas, electric, water, sewer, cable television/telephone/internet service, a clothing allowance, transportation allowance, as well as medical and dental allowances.)  I am not including what I consider to be luxury allowances, such as hotels, restaurants, theater, vacations, Christmas trees, Halloween costumes, private piano lessons, private voice lessons, soccer uniforms, LaCrosse gear, higher rents, and the like.  You could include some of those if you feel that they should also be tax deductible.  For example, one could argue that theater, piano, voice, soccer, and lacrosse all fall under the general aegis of educating the youth.  

[Torie]

Dump most deductions, so that for a given level of revenue generation, the rates are as low as possible (and yes progressive), and the system causes the least economic distortions that are reasonably possible, and the least truncation of economic growth. I also like the idea of dividends and capital gains being taxed at the same rate. I oppose any plan where earned income one way or the other (saying by lifting the Social Security cap so to that extent the SS tax becomes the economic equivalent of an income tax), is taxed higher than unearned income. And depreciation when recaptured when an asset is sold should be taxed at ordinary rather than capital gain rates. The largely regressive and economically inefficient corporate tax should be cut to the bone. I favor high estate and gift taxes (and the insurance policy scam to evade much of that tax needs to be shut down totally, and accretions in cash surrender value also needs to be taxed (at least when a policy is cashed in). Pension plan contribution deductions also need to be revamped. Right now they are really skewed in favor of very high income earners, particularly those in business such as law firms with relatively few lower paid employees.

I guess that about sums it up.

[Amenhotep Bakari-Sellers]

Raise the cap on Social security to above where it is and close tax loopholes for big oil companies.

[barfbag]

Raise the cap on Social security to above where it is and close tax loopholes for big oil companies.

Closing tax loopholes on oil companies solves everything? I've laid out a better plan on these threads and on the political forum. It could do you and the other partisans on this site some good to look through it.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

A 9.75 percent flat national sales tax. Exemptions are for food, clothing, essential communications tech, medical needs, and housing.

Essential communications tech is specified as tablets, net books, laptops, cell phones, home computers.
Hidden taxes on cell plans are to be ended.

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Federal Income Tax and disband the IRS

Taxes on internet purchases are also banned.

Just curious, why would you ban taxes on internet purchases?

Since taxes can't be levied on communications tech any purchase made via such device is protected from taxation.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

A 9.75 percent flat national sales tax. Exemptions are for food, clothing, essential communications tech, medical needs, and housing.

Essential communications tech is specified as tablets, net books, laptops, cell phones, home computers.
Hidden taxes on cell plans are to be ended.

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Federal Income Tax and disband the IRS

Taxes on internet purchases are also banned.

Just curious, why would you ban taxes on internet purchases?

Since taxes can't be levied on communications tech any purchase made via such device is protected from taxation.

That makes zero sense, plus that is NOT how the law is currently.  You still owe taxes on purchases made over the internet.  The only difference is that traditionally the retailer hasn't been responsible for them due to the point presence doctrine originating from the days of mail-order catalogs.

[Deus Naturae]

A 9.75 percent flat national sales tax. Exemptions are for food, clothing, essential communications tech, medical needs, and housing.

Essential communications tech is specified as tablets, net books, laptops, cell phones, home computers.
Hidden taxes on cell plans are to be ended.

A constitutional amendment to repeal the Federal Income Tax and disband the IRS

Taxes on internet purchases are also banned.

Just curious, why would you ban taxes on internet purchases?

Since taxes can't be levied on communications tech any purchase made via such device is protected from taxation.

Why would that have to be the case? I can understand your reasoning for a sales tax exemption for the purchase of com tech, but why does there have to be an exemption for otherwise non-exempt things purchased with it?