I love a good discussion. Some of the most recent topics on taxgirl have generated a lot of passionate discourse – and that’s great (yeah, it can happen on a tax blog). I know that folks have very definite opinions about the upcoming presidential race, Congress, the economy and apparently, even Wesley Snipes. And I think that’s great.
I don’t like stifling discussion and it’s rare, unless you’re a spammer, that I’ll delete you. But even I have my limits. Please stop and think about what you’re writing before you publish it – if it’s offensive or hurtful to another reader, reveals too much personal information (I’m not going to redact it for you – read my “ask the taxgirl” notes) or has so many swear words that my sailor brothers are blushing, I can’t post it. End of story.
If you need more tongue lashings, check out my official comment policy.
I believe that the federal income tax is a net drain on the economy. Our Society would be better off if the we just dropped the whole 14K+ pages and replaced it with fewer federal money transfer programs (i.e. spending less).
So um, does that mean I can’t pelt you with tomatoes while you’re hiding behind the furniture, all while clutching my pearls and in between visits to the sperm bank? 😉
Thanks for all your comments and support over at DD, Kelly. 🙂 I love you for it!
Currently, the middle class bears a hugely disproportionate share of the tax load. This isn’t because of the way the tax brackets are set up, but because most of the income earned by the very rich is taxed very lightly (it’s usually capital gains or dividends) or not at all (no Social Security tax over $102K per year, no estate taxes, inheritances are scot-free).
Yes, I do talk about this on my blog, middleclassimpact.com. But I wish that more people would see that what is needed isn’t phony tax “simplification” (i.e. getting rid of the small amount of progressiveness in the tax brackets), but elimination of the tax breaks that favor the forms of income typical for the super-rich such as dividends and capital gains. Then we can stop penalizing the middle class for making their money in the most tax-unfavorable way of all, namely working for it.