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To Fight $5.2B In Identity Theft, IRS May Need To Change the Way You File Taxes
coondoggie writes: Based on preliminary analysis, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) estimates it paid $5.2 billion in fraudulent identity theft refunds in filing season 2013 while preventing an additional $24.2 billion (based on what it could detect). As a result, the IRS needs to implement changes (PDF) in a system that apparently can't begin verifying refund information until July, months after the tax deadline. Such changes could impact legitimate taxpayers by delaying refunds, extending tax season and likely adding costs to the IRS.
In exchange for bringing all deployed troops home, closing all foreign bases, ending all foreign aid, and ceasing all foreign military contracts. It costs about $1 trillion in annual lost revenue in exchange for saving about $1 trillion in annual expenses.
End income tax.
Better idea: revert the legal definition of "income" to what it meant pre-1913.
Interestingly, before the oft-questioned "passage" of the 16th Amendment, "labor given in exchange for payment" was just that; income was what a business earned as a result of selling a product or service.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Or you could just do a federal sales tax. Everyone pays, including corporations, so everyone has skin in the game. No loopholes. No moving out of the country to avoid paying your share. No April 15. No tax forms. No deductions or credits. Everyone knows exactly what they are paying. Everything purchased is taxed, period.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
Think of it this way; if you make $24,000 a year, a 20% tax that reduces your income to $18,000 a year is a much greater burden than it is to someone who makes $200,000 a year and has their income reduced to $150,000 a year.
Good! Those making $24,000/yr will finally understand that government money is not free. Then you won't have the problem of people who don't pay taxes voting to raise the tax rate on those that do. Also, if you make $24,000/yr, most of your money is going to food and rent, both of which can be made to be non-taxable.
A sales tax is still going to a progressive tax since things like food, school supplies, and other absolute necessities won't be taxed at all. See, people only spend so much money on necessities, no matter how much they make. Sure, a billionaire might spend $5 million on a house, but his grocery budget is not going to be 50x more than the guy who spent $100K on a house. So low income people will spend a larger percentage of their income on non-taxed products, meaning they will pay a lower tax rate than the guy who eats out twice a day.
There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
>If you are whining about US taxation rates you are clearly a poser that has never had any actual experience with this stuff.
As a business owner who pays personal and business taxes, I'm all too familiar with them.
>The US tax code specifically panders to corporations.
Big ones. There are several types of corporation.
>The nominal rates are a pure fiction to distract ignorant RV dwelling GOP supporters.
They are a fiction because of all the other rules. You either didn't read or didn't comprehend the post you were so smugly responding to, where I suggested that applying the rates uniformly would achieve the same income at a lower tax rate.
I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
It is impossible. I am not aware of any merchants that dodge sales tax,
It is quite possible, and if you raise (or create) a sales tax in the amount you'll need to replace the income tax you'll see a lot of them doing it -- because the customers will want it.
If the sales tax is 4%, it's not worth it. When the sales tax goes to 20% or more, look out. Why do you think there is illegal cigarette traffic, because you can't get the smokes that taste right? Or is it tax-stamp created?
You'll also immediately get calls for the return of a tax on those awful rich people who are now avoiding taxation on their luxurious incomes because they don't spend most of it, while the poor folks are stuck paying taxes on every penny they earn because they have to spend it all to get by. Then you'll get a demand for some kind of tax credit for the poor, which will require an IRS and that awful paperwork you're trying to get rid of.
You'll see charity as we know it drying up because there will be no tax benefit to it, and people who could afford to buy a house because the mortgage interest was deductable won't be buying houses.
In fact, all of those social engineering projects that our tax code has been used to promote will go away. At least until you create a paperwork nightmare just as large as the existing one to bring them all back.
Repeal the 16th Amendment (or just admit it was never legally ratified), reset the legal meaning of "income" from "money given in exchange for labor" back to "capital gains as a result of business profits," and BOOM!
Problem solved.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese