Atlasian Budget Congressional Committee

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Keep in mind that if and when the Congress pursues healthcare reform, there are going to be some pretty drastic changes to the tax code in that alone (especially if we want to transition from employer-provided to employer-subsidized insurance).

I think it would behoove us to review previous budgets.  Like NeverAgain said, there is a lot of room to work on taxes.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Riley brings up a good point - we need to figure out how extensive we want our taxes to be. In real life, there is quite a long list of excise taxes, as well as individual and joint tax brackets. Do we want to keep things reasonably simple as we have done in the past, or do we want to try and model it closer off what America does?

While I am not a member of this esteemed body, I urge Congress to keep the budgetary process as accessible and inclusive as possible. Keep in mind that most of the people who play this game are not tax experts: we need to make sure that we're not shutting them out of the process by creating a budget so intricate that only a few elite players can understand it.

[Potus]

Tax expenditure is 1/3 of all fiscal policy. It's not like I'm asking you to create a register of accounts for every office. Listing values for the mortgage interest deduction isn't hard.

The cost of tax expenditure besides the EITC is much more dependent on the rate structure adopted rather than the spending approved. The EITC is unique in that it should probably be considered a spending program, but that's beside the point. We have to build the rates and then determine what portion of the revenue would be diminished by existing tax expenditure.

[tmthforu94]

Here is a tax plan that Potus wrote that others have contributed to:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

[tmthforu94]

I support these changes. They create a fairer and simpler tax system that encourages growth. The one thing I figured we could potentially do was expand on excise taxes - that has been one of the more popular topics of discussion in the past.

[Blair]

I'd want some tweaks to corporation tax; perhaps three different brackets

[NeverAgain]

I'd want some tweaks to corporation tax; perhaps three different brackets

My plan was 100K - 1M: 15%, 1M - 10M: 21.5%, 10M+: 28%.

Paying for these with cutting loopholes like the Cruise Ship loophole. We will end LIFO accounting, end oil and gas preferences (except for R+D), reforming the measurement and character of gains, and reforming the treatment of insurance industries and their products in the tax code.

I will be proposing an overhaul on corporate tax reform today/tomorrow. Those brackets will be part of my compromise budget.

[tmthforu94]

Other thoughts/proposals on taxes? Haslam? JoMCar? Pingvin?

[Pingvin]

I'm going to make a quite a radical step here and propose a flat tax rate of 15% for everyone with over 10,000$ of monthly income.

[Classic Conservative]

I support both the Pingvin and the Potus plans

[Prince of Salem]

I like the Potus plan as it is.

[tmthforu94]

New Budget Committee Members:
Tmthforu94, JoMCar, NeverAgain, Blair, LLR

To start, Speaker NeverAgain has gone ahead and introduced a Corporate Tax Reform Bill. Especially for Senate members, I encourage you to weigh in on that debate: SB 2016-031.

[Blair]

I think the best way for these committees to work is how me and Never-Again have done- use the committees to break down parts of the problem and work on a bill by bill basis rather than expecting one big bill.

[tmthforu94]

Well, NeverAgain has already proposed a basic version of what the budget looks like, based on US numbers. I don't really know how we can break a budget into multiple bills, but maybe we can go through it section by section.

For reference:

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Is there a preference on whether we start with revenue or spending? Personally, I think it makes more sense to start with revenue.

[NeverAgain]

Sure! I say we start with income taxes.

[tmthforu94]

Income Taxes:

Here are a couple proposals to get us started, by Atlasian politicians and RL politicians.

Proposal A (Riley)
$0-10,000      10%
$10,001-40,000   15%
$40,001-$100,000   20%
$100,001-250,000   25%
$250,001-500,000   30%
$500,001+      35%

Proposal B (Pingvin)
15% Flat Tax

Proposal C (Hillary Clinton)
Ordinary Income%, Capital Gains%, Income Brackets
10% 0% $0 to $9,275
15% 0% $9,275 to $37,650
25% 15% $37,650 to $91,150
28% 15% $91,150 to $190,150
33% 15% $190,150 to $413,350
35% 15% $413,350 to $415,050
39.6% 20% $415,050 to $5 million
43.6% 24% $5 million and above

Proposal D (Jeb Bush)
0%    $0-22,600
10%  $22,601-87,500
25%  $87,501-163,800
28%  $163,80+

[LLR]

Proposals A and C both look good to me

[NeverAgain]

I'll bring back my beautiful specimen. I think more work needs to be done on it (for CGT). But I worked pretty darn hard on it and I'd hate for it to go to waste.

The NeverAgain Tax Proposal

$0 - $9,999: 5% Tax Rate (Eligible for EITC)

$10K - $29,999: 10% Tax Rate (Eligible for EITC)

$30K - $89,999: 18.5% Tax Rate

$90K - $149,999: 25% Tax Rate

$150K - $249,999: 30% Tax Rate

$250K - $349,999: 33% Tax Rate

$350K - $499,999: 37.5% Tax Rate

$500K - $749,999: 40% Tax Rate

$750K - $999,999: 43.5% Tax Rate

$1,000,000+: 45% Tax Rate

[NeverAgain]

Just to let people know a bit about EITC. The maximum EITC benefit for a single person or couple filing without qualifying children is $487. The maximum EITC with one qualifying child is $3,250, with two children, it is $5,372, and with three or more qualifying children, it is $6,044. EITC is also a program that  has been supported by economists across both sides of the spectrum and with my proposal it would give this ability to families up to 40K in revenue.

[NeverAgain]

Considering Sen. Tmth is gone for the while, I am going to take over this for now.

We have 5 proposals. I am going to open this up for another 48 hours to see any other proposals, then we'll vote STV style on them.

[Blair]

Rather than doing a Trump and commenting on these at 1 in the morning I'll look over them tomorrow and give my full thoughts

[Blair]

Would anyone be open to getting rid of the the tax rate for people paying less $5000 or $10,000? We do it in the UK as a means of basically alleviating in work poverty

[Leinad]

Would anyone be open to getting rid of the the tax rate for people paying less $5000 or $10,000? We do it in the UK as a means of basically alleviating in work poverty

Unless it leads to a tax hike or deficit hike elsewhere, I'd be open to supporting that.

Income Taxes:

Here are a couple proposals to get us started, by Atlasian politicians and RL politicians.

Proposal A (Riley)
$0-10,000      10%
$10,001-40,000   15%
$40,001-$100,000   20%
$100,001-250,000   25%
$250,001-500,000   30%
$500,001+      35%

Proposal B (Pingvin)
15% Flat Tax

Proposal C (Hillary Clinton)
Ordinary Income%, Capital Gains%, Income Brackets
10% 0% $0 to $9,275
15% 0% $9,275 to $37,650
25% 15% $37,650 to $91,150
28% 15% $91,150 to $190,150
33% 15% $190,150 to $413,350
35% 15% $413,350 to $415,050
39.6% 20% $415,050 to $5 million
43.6% 24% $5 million and above

Proposal D (Jeb Bush)
0%    $0-22,600
10%  $22,601-87,500
25%  $87,501-163,800
28%  $163,80+

What would be the projected revenues for these proposals (and NeverAgain's)?

This feels weird to say, but I kind of side with the guy named Bush.

[NeverAgain]

Would anyone be open to getting rid of the the tax rate for people paying less $5000 or $10,000? We do it in the UK as a means of basically alleviating in work poverty

Unless it leads to a tax hike or deficit hike elsewhere, I'd be open to supporting that.

Income Taxes:

Here are a couple proposals to get us started, by Atlasian politicians and RL politicians.

Proposal A (Riley)
$0-10,000      10%
$10,001-40,000   15%
$40,001-$100,000   20%
$100,001-250,000   25%
$250,001-500,000   30%
$500,001+      35%

Proposal B (Pingvin)
15% Flat Tax

Proposal C (Hillary Clinton)
Ordinary Income%, Capital Gains%, Income Brackets
10% 0% $0 to $9,275
15% 0% $9,275 to $37,650
25% 15% $37,650 to $91,150
28% 15% $91,150 to $190,150
33% 15% $190,150 to $413,350
35% 15% $413,350 to $415,050
39.6% 20% $415,050 to $5 million
43.6% 24% $5 million and above

Proposal D (Jeb Bush)
0%    $0-22,600
10%  $22,601-87,500
25%  $87,501-163,800
28%  $163,80+

What would be the projected revenues for these proposals (and NeverAgain's)?

This feels weird to say, but I kind of side with the guy named Bush.

(all figures are over the next decade)

Jeb's: Around 3.8 Trillion without the abolition of the AMT, 5.3 with.

Riley's: About 297 Billion in new revenue.

Pingvin's: Costing around 2.3 Trillion without the abolition of AMT, 3.7 with.

Hillary's: Bringing in around 1.05 Trillion.

Mine: I have 6 different tests putting it at around 600 - 900 Billion in new revenue, so I'll say 750 Billion over the next decade. I also wanted to say that my Capital Gains Tax is 0 for the first 2 brackets, 10% for the next 1, 15% for the next 5 brackets, 20% for the next bracket, and 25% for the last. Adding around 150 Billion to my proposal.

[Potus]

Let me also say that I support at least a $10,000 standard deduction. Really, $15,000 would be better so all full time minimum wage work would be tax exempt. The proposal should be revenue neutral when adjusting for the standard deduction component.

If the proposal still doesn't shake out toward neutrality after a hefty standard deduction, rate cuts should go toward the 15% and 20% brackets.