A flat, modest Federal tax rate for everyone. Everyone. There is no such thing as a "poor" person in this country.
This is something I've been thinking about for awhile. It seems to me that
Representation without taxation is tyranny! The tyranny of the "gimme's"--those who expect to feed at the public trough. If
everyone had to pay for all these "programs", there would be a
lot more pressure on government to keep the size of government in check.
I live in California. A couple of years ago, my income dropped to about $50,000. My state income tax on $50,000 was
$50!. With at few dollars less income, it would been
zero! That means there are a
lot of people in California who are voting in legislators who are paying
zero state income tax. No wonder this state spends so much. If everybody had to pay their part of all these programs, I would expect that our elected representatives would be a lot more frugal.
Sam Adams: I just noticed that your post, above, was addressed to me. What you say certainly makes sense in the context of the original poster's point. I was pointing out that you can effectively have today what he wants, if you have a business that would make it a reasonable business expense. For example, I know a psychologist who made his Beech Bonanza airplane a business expense by opening a branch office that was just far enough away to make an airplane reasonable. If one were to have a business, say, teaching NRA gun safety courses, I suspect that one could legitimately write off a gun or two. And as I said, you're not going to have to document the gun to the IRS unless they audit the expense or depreciation. (I note that you're a CPA, Sam, so I defer to what you have to say on this subject) (And for everyone, I have to put in here the "IANAL" caveat--I'm not a CPA or a lawyer, and you really, really need to check with the appropriate tax professional before deducting something that might be a problem with the IRS.)