Number Tax
With the debate of the federal budget finishing
up, we can now begin to dread the biggest numbers game of all, the tax
season.
Every person in this country who cashed
a paycheck, collected benefits, or earned money in anyway, will have to
account for it.
We will be dealing with a tax code that
most of us cannot understand.
This is evident by the number of tax preparation
offices that appear overnight for the tax season.
The Internal Revenue Service claims to
be simplifying this code and making it friendlier.
Maybe it is time the federal government
admitted the way taxes are collected is outdated and extremely unfair to
the average citizen.
Forty-five states already use some form
of a sales tax.
You don't think much of it when you purchase
an item because you know it's there and accept it. Maybe that is because
it is simple.
You enter the store and already know that
whatever you spend, the final total will be taxed by whatever your state
or county has set as the sales tax.
There is no hidden tax, you do not pay
more sales tax because you are single or have an above average income.
With a sales tax there are absolutely no
loopholes.
Everyone pays the same tax.
With an existing sales tax in most of the
nation,, it wouldn't be very difficult to create a federal sales tax.
There are more and more groups who
push for a national retail sales tax and to abolish the IRS.
Not surprisingly, the federal government
is against this idea.
The government would lose its advantage
in the tax system. It would lose its right to tax the money you win or
inherit, along with many other ways it bleeds its citizens dry.
I don't ever recall hearing about the federal
government adding its dollar to the office lotto pool, yet if you win they
are sure to be there at the press conference to take their large share
of the prize money.
Would anyone really miss the IRS and the
16 million forms we send out every year? If nothing else, abolish the IRS
and save a forest.
Melanie Frost is a public relations
major at Cal State Long Beach. |
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