trc (04/21/83)
TO: sdcsvax!sdccsu3!sdcrdcf!pmontgom Peter: I somewhat like your idea - but I wonder if it might be even better to reverse it? That is, have individuals pay state taxes, and have the federal taxes be a fixed percent of that. This would tend to restore the balance of federal and state power that has suffered so greatly in the recent past. Also, those people living in states that need less government support could reduce their federal tax load by reducing the state tax load. In fact, if taxes were centralized, I would be afraid that the federal government would find some way to use that as leverage against the states. Perhaps once the state tax structures were dismanteled, the feds could threaten to make a state go back to collecting its own taxes. (Certainly the federal government has proven that it is willing to use any and all means to get its way, including withholding funds that came in part from people who paid their share in.) Of course, I really think that a better solution is to eliminate personal taxes all together, and reduce total taxes taken in greatly. Taxes would still be applied, if necessary, to businesses which would then pass the expense on the the customers. And there would be import taxes of sort, to make up for countries that tax their businesses less than we do. The result would be a vastly more efficient gathering of taxes, and less government interference in people's lives. Tom Craver houti!trc
woods (04/22/83)
Even worse than the problem of different deductions is that, at least a
few years ago, New Hampshire (and maybe other states too) had no income
tax at all! (New Hampshire netters, is that still true?) Are you willing
to pay for the money that New Hampshire gets from the Feds?
Actually this is just one extreme example of the underlying problem: the
relationship between state income tax and Federal monies granted varies
from state to state. Therefore, it would be nearly impossible for the Feds
to collect income tax from the states without everyone having to severely
alter their tax structure to avoid creating lots of unfairness.
As for having the states collect thier tax from the IRS, I think that
puts even more power into the hands of an agency that already has too much.
I'd love to see just one tax form, but I don't think there is any way to do
this fairly.
GREG
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