sales tax versus income tax....

[ProblemAgain]

we already heard this tune before....to depend solely on sales taxes and do away with income tax is to shift the burden in an acutely regressive fashion onto the poorest and then up the ranks til it impacts the least on the high income earners...the poor spend a larger portion of their income  (like all of it)thus the sales tax would tax all their income while for the folks in the upper portions they would have lots of tax free income...

U.S. states flirt with major tax changes

Reuters – 12 hrs ago

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  Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal …

By Nanette Byrnes

CHAPEL HILL, North Carolina (Reuters) - Hopes for overhauling the federal tax system are fading in Washington, but in some state capitals, tax reform experiments - some far-reaching - are fast taking shape.

Across the South and Midwest, Republicans have consolidated control of state legislatures and governorships, giving them the power to test long-debated tax ideas.

Louisiana Republican Governor Bobby Jindal, for instance, called on Thursday for ending the state's income tax and corporate taxes, with sales taxes compensating for lost revenue.

A similar plan is being pushed by Republicans in North Carolina. Kansas, which cut its income tax significantly last year, may trim further. Oklahoma, which tried to cut income taxes last year, is expected to try again.

"When it comes to getting pro-growth tax reform done this year, the only real opportunities are at the state level," said Patrick Gleason, director of state affairs for Americans for Tax Reform, the Washington-based anti-tax lobbying group headed by small-government conservative activist Grover Norquist.

http://news.yahoo.com/u-states-flirt-major-tax-120409089.html

[DragaoDHJ]

We have no income tax here in Texas, but we have a 6.25% state sales tax, a city (Houston) 1.0% sales tax and a 1.0% local transit authority sales tax.  For total of 8.25% on a dollar.

I don't know if or how a national sales tax would work. Also, what would be a fair or reasonable tax rate?

[ProblemAgain]

texas actually does have an income tax, not for individuals but for corporations and it is known as a franchise tax...so to do away with corporate taxes as well shifts a burden to the individual citizens

The Texas Franchise Tax on Corporations

(Applies to reports originally due before January 1, 2008)

September 2002

Corporations with a Texas charter and non-Texas corporations doing business in Texas must file a Texas franchise tax return.

The Franchise Tax

The franchise tax is imposed on each corporation that is chartered in Texas and each non-Texas corporation that does business in Texas. See Franchise Tax Rule 3.546 for a list of some activities considered to be “doing business in Texas.”

For franchise tax purposes, the term “corporation” also includes a bank, state limited banking association, savings and loan association, limited liability company, professional limited liability company, a corporation that elects to be an S corporation for federal income tax purposes, and a professional corporation. Professional associations and partnerships are not subject to the franchise tax.

How the Tax Is Computed

Corporations pay the greater of the tax on net taxable capital or net taxable earned surplus.

http://www.window.state.tx.us/taxinfo/taxpubs/tx96_114.html

[P.A.]

Here in Tennessee we supposedly do not have an income tax and never have. But in reality we do have a tax on "unearned income". I generally pay about $1000 a year in those taxes. It mostly hits retired people like me because there is a limit on how much income can be taxed. We also have the highest sales tax in the country, 9.75% generally and 6.5% on food. Yes republicans control everything here.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

Not paying tax on your income is how capitalism works, get someone else to pay the taxes.

[Ioruach]

Don't tax you; Don't tax me.

Tax that man behind the tree.

[exedir]

OK, so most of the world collects a value added tax(VAT) because it is the easiest and the quickest way to collect money.  In states that have income taxes say, other than German, Great Britain and Scandinavia they are dependent on consumption taxes in some form for most of their revenue.  For the rest of the world that do have an income tax on the books, the rates would be consider confiscatory by most Americans reaching well beyond 50% for the rich and wealthy income.  But of course, the rich and wealthy don't pay, or don't pay much in that fraud and under and no reporting is a way of life.

And yes, Da, Mon Dieu!, as the Orson Wellesan  sized Garard Depardieu has found out, it pays to being Russian, not French to protect his money.

Nope, the idea that collecting taxes has to be progressive is not current in that the way to spend the taxes is progressively spent on more with less, who will be getting less by having more, or something, whether you are in California( 7.25% with local adds of about 1% for a total of 8.25%, more or less) or in the heart of Texas.

[LoveLife&Laughter]

The have-nots' can't afford sales tax, the haves' can.  Progressive income tax are much fairer.