Scott Lovingood writes:
Two specifics that should be addressed immediately.
Stop double taxation
1) Eliminate the estate tax. You pay taxes on everything you make and then you get taxed again when you die? Tell me that makes any sense.
2) Stop taxing Dividends on personal accounts- Companies have already paid taxes on the profit they generate. Encourage payouts of dividends. They provide safe distributions of cash to stock owners and encourage more stable stock markets. Dividends are a huge part of a long term wealth strategy but the current structure of taxation prevents many companies from issuing them.
This one may take a little while longer. Stabilize and limit the tax code. Now I know that doesn’t sound like much but that tax code has grown out of control. What started as something relatively simple, now encompasses volumes. Each year Congress passes more changes, more taxes, more credits, more exemptions, more of everything. It taxes a law degree and years of study to geta good grasp of the system.
Make every tax be voted on separately every four years. Congress should be held accountable for the taxes they pass. They should not be allowed to blaim previous administrations. Shoulder the onus for governing and make the tough choices.
Remember the telephone tax refund credit refund from 2006? A tax that had been around for decades that should have eliminated. By forcing Congres every four years to vote on taxes you can develop a stable system for companies and individuals to operate within. It also eliminates the ability for Congress to make last second changes that cause no end of headaches.
Everyone focuses on the healthcare system and the cost it has on the economy. Look at the cost of our current tax system. The number of people who sole focus is helping companies reduce their taxes. Simplify the system and streamline it. Take the breaks off the economy.
Ask the Wealth Squad
It’s Fix the Tax Code Friday!
Over at Only3Years, Iz contemplated the question of where she might be a year from now. The more I thought about this, the more I thought that it would make a superb Fix the Tax Code Friday…
I’m constantly asked what I think will happen with respect to a number of tax items such the AMT, the federal estate tax and most recently, tax rates for those making more than $250,000. These are great topics to speculate on – especially with a significant election year looming.
So this week’s Fix the Tax Code Friday question is:
What changes – if any – do you expect to see made to the Tax Code by this time next August? Federal estate tax repeal? Health reform surtax? VAT or national sales tax? Tax cuts or tax increases?
I promise no “I told you sos” come next year. (Umm, well depending on who you are… I reserve the right to beat up on my fellow tax pros. It’s like our own Fantasy League.)
But I’m dying to know what you think… Go ahead, chime in!
Maybe it’s summer.
Maybe it’s my grief over the UBS saga finally ending.
Or maybe I’ve just been inspired by 1LPoet to find my inner poet.
But it’s that time again. I feel some tax haiku coming on…
In honor of today’s post:
Oh Connecticut.
Your tax burden is so high.
Thank God for Jersey.
Re the UBS settlement:
It’s done, Switzerland.
No more banking secrecy.
Now you just have cheese.
Estate tax repeal.
It’s not going to happen.
Empty Treasury.
Section 1-6-2
You allow me to expense
I think I love you.
It’s no fun if you’d don’t play along! Give it a whirl below. Use 5 syllables – 7 syllables – 5 syllables.
It’s so easy, even an unlicensed tax pro can do it (that’s for you, Robert!).
No doubt Imela Marcos is sleeping peacefully tonight, dreaming of Prada and Fendi shoes…
A Philippine court has acquitted her on five counts of tax evasion filed 16 years ago. Marcos allegedly failed to file a tax return and to pay $730 US in income taxes for 1985. But more seriously, she was accused of failing to file an estate tax return for her husband’s estate and not paying the related $124 million US in tax. She was also accused of failing to notify the tax bureau of her husband’s death in 1989 (but c’mon, who didn’t know?).
At one point, Marcos faced more than 900 various criminal and civil cases stemming largely from behaviors during her husband’s 20 year dictatorship in the Philippines. Most have been dismissed, though a whopping 40 criminal cases remain.
Marcos’ husband was ousted during a revolt in February 1986, forcing him and his family to flee to Hawaii, where he died in exile in 1989.
I will admit that I have a woeful lack of knowledge as to whether a federal estate tax return was filed in the US. Anybody?
