Amazingly, many who claim to be for lower taxes continue to support repealing tax breaks (and giving the government more money in the name of “fairness”). Tax breaks are good, of course, and the increasingly prevalent practice of labeling tax cuts and tax breaks as “spending” is extremely dishonest.
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/4986/tax-deductions-freedom/
Tax Deductions = Freedom
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Ryan,
Tha Tax Code is primarily an instrument of Social Control. (even Intro to Tax Law books printed by Irwin, have said as much) That We, in order to “qualify” for tax deductions, should perform Tricks, in accordance with our Master’s wishes, hardly squares with even the loosest definitions of Freedom.
It’s 2 May, not 1 Apr, right?
i would rather be given the chance to do tricks than to have no opportunity at all. That said, i too worry about government requiring us to do ‘tricks’ in order to avoid additional penalties, they already do this with sin taxes, and better to have the chance to smoke and drink than to not have the chance at all.
There is a certain truth to what ME Hoffer says. Richard Cobden, the great British Liberal, pointed out that all taxes are essentially “voluntary.” Technically, you don’t have to buy liquor or earn income or do anything else that incurs a tax, but in real life, living requires you do all those things. So yes, it would be ideal that we don’t have to do tricks to keep our own money.
But, int he un-ideal world, I’d rather have some way to keep my money as carl marks notes.
The total cost of government is not its tax levels but its spending and compliance costs. Simplifying the tax code reduces compliance costs, reducing the burden of the state. Raising taxes by cutting deductions does nothing but replace inflation or borrowing. These also have onerous effects and arguably worse – their influence is indirect to the average taxpayer.
The millions of man-hours and billions of dollars of tax compliance are a burden themselves.
- Josh
Wild Pegasus is right on the money. Taxes hurt in more ways than just the money they take. Having to hunt for just the right part of the tax code you want to take advantage of, and hiring an accountant to this end, is a real cost. Tax breaks for specific behavior redirect behavior to things the taxman likes, rather than what consumers like, which is also a real cost. Mortgage deductions, for example, artificially inflate the attractiveness of buying a home. And of course, they’re predicated on the “interest is evil” doctrine, which should have died a long time ago.
I agree that it’s deceptive to call “giving someone their own money back” an “expenditure”, but realistically, that money will be recovered from some other schmuck. And frankly, it’s quite pathetic to see someone dig in his heels to keep his pet deduction and thereby stand in the way of radical tax simplification.
Two things: The costs of compliance Is one of the Tricks alluded to..( to clarify my own thinking )
And, I’m surprised that so many are looking for simplification, as opposed to Elimination, of Income Taxes. Why are we so accustomed to believing that the level of USFed Gov spending, that purportedly “requires” revenue from an Income Tax, is a Good Thing? To say nothing of the lack of questioning, of the legality/Constitutionality of the Income Tax, its ownself.
Curiously…
Of course I’d like to see the end of income taxes. I’d also like to have Brooke Burke leap into my arms. I think both are equally likely.
- Josh
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