Unpaid Taxes Equal $2,680 Per Household »
Posted by: TechnologyExpert 1 year, 5 months agoThink of the uses of $300 billion, the annual gap between what taxpayers owe and what they pay. Skeptics, however, scoff at the notion there is a pot of gold waiting to be claimed. They say it is an illusion as long as nothing is done about the hopelessly complicated tax system.
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coreyspring1 year, 5 months ago
It really annoys me when someone doesn't pay their taxes when they are fully capable to do so... it just leaves everyone else having to pick up the slack.
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renegade421 year, 5 months ago
The thing is with taxes is that the US as a society opposes high taxes because we say we are a capitalist society. The thing is we are not a truly capitalist society because we have a government that provides public education, transportation, and other civil services. I think it is just a case of people wanting to things both ways. They don't want high taxes but they complain when things like public education, subways, and other civil sercives are poor and inefficient. I concede that it is not just a case of people not paying their taxes, however, because there are corrupt people out there pocketing whatever they can get and a significant portion of tax dodgers are rich to begin with. Still I think that it's better if we have high taxes as long as they go to improving society and that the taxes are fairly distributed (IE if you are rich you pay more, if you are poor, you pay less). (I also think that the entire economy needs to be reworked but that's not going to happen)
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Centinel1 year, 5 months ago
(IE if you are rich you pay more, if you are poor, you pay less)
That amounts to punishing the successful and rewarding the failures.
A much more equitable approach would be a flat tax. everybody gets hit with the same burden. Say 10% off the top. No paperwork and no IRS. If you earn $1.00 you pay $.10. If you make $1,000,000.00 you pay $100,000.00.
This on top of all the other "hidden" taxes we pay would pay off the national debt and provide more than enough funds for the government to operate frugally. We would probably also be capable of paying off our "foreign" debt quickly and would not need to "borrow" to continue to operate.
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Wizardcotx1 year, 5 months ago
The only way you are going to achive this is with a national sales tax.. where everything you buy no matter what, from a McDonalds Burger to a loaf of bread to a new rolls royce pays the same tax.
That is a fair and equitable and efficient way to tax for government, but it will never never never happen.
I know, I run a tax business, showing business people how to legally keep from paying any taxes to the IRS at all.
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jeffery11 year, 5 months ago
The flat tax does nothing of the sort. The problem is in determining income, not with the percentage of that income that is to be your tax. Right now, all a person has to do is look up the tax owed in a table which is no more difficult than multiplying one's income by 0.10.
Also, the progressive tax does not necessarily punish the successful and reward the failures. First, many low income people are not failures. Second, that can of food is a higher percentage of a low income person's wages than that of a high income wage earner. The progressive tax attempts to provide the funds that our nation needs to operate and allow those at the bottom enough to survive on. A flat tax does not necessarily do this.
This of course, does not mean that our politicians spend our money well or provide value for what we do need. But that is another debate entirely.
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Virginia1 year, 5 months ago
From the article: "The agency's commissioner,.. said enforcement revenue has climbed from $34 billion in the 2002 budget year to $49 billion in 2006." We paid someone to do our taxes one year and it all seemed fine to us and we had a nice refund. The next year the same company was hired again and they not the IRS said that our taxes were not prepared correctly the previous year and that we had to pay back some of our refund, interest and declare it as part of that years income. As a company endorsed by the IRS they had to report this and follow through on their new understanding of the tax code. Since then we wade through the process ourselves and do our own Federal returns. It is a nightmare and trying to do it right is not easy. We are probably overpaying according to all the advertisements by tax preparers. Anyway, if the IRS is getting enforcement money and they have the tax preparers in their "employ", I think their estimate is not totally to be believed.
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Wizardcotx1 year, 5 months ago
This whole story is a big fat lie.
there is no pool of uncollected taxes.. there is no pool og evasive tax payers, except the drug lords and pimps and other criminals, and they don't make nearly that much money.
This whole story is just more federal bullcrap trying to get more money for federal bureaucrats to spend for their own power games.
I am in the tax business so I see their incompentence first hand every day.
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Virginia1 year, 5 months ago
The first story on the right under "Related Stories" is about Federal Workers who haven't paid their taxes. They all had to pay something because they are wage earners but I guess not enough. The story states that they didn't file Fed. Tax Returns in 2005. From that you could assume that some could even be owed a refund. How do they know how much more they owe since they all paid something? Some of these folks in noncompliance work at the White House. How can someone who is not obeying the law keep working there?
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Centinel1 year, 5 months ago
You are correct. However, the government has made commitments and must honor those commitments. How could they do that without a source of revenue.
I would agree that our governments do overextend themselves by promising services that are NOT the business of government. If society would do its part and not demand that the governments do it for them; we would be far better off. Charity is the responsibilty of society. Not the governments'. I also believe that if charitable organizations handled the finances; there would be far less bureaucracy and more efficient handling of contributions. Of course it would also be far more difficult to defraud these organizations.
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uncleT1 year, 5 months ago
What about the small time self-employed that gets paid in cash and keeps no books?
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fred-mertz1 year, 5 months ago
Since when was the 16th Amedment ratified?? Supreme court says never. Watch Arron Russo's America: Freedom to Fascism and get yourself educated about what American's "owe" in income tax. Zero, Zip, Nada... 927 billion collected and 100% goes to the banks who loan us our own money. Not one cent goes to the American people. I owe them nothing, but I pay like everyone else because everyone believes the lie..
http://www.freedomtofascism.com/
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evelyna1 year, 5 months ago
Unpaid taxes do not equal that in my household. The article can not speak for everyone.
I think they are trying to make people believe people are sitting on this when it is untrue.
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riverdog1 year, 5 months ago
Yes, agreed, people should see the Russo film From Freedom to Facism. It's bad enough to see the waste of tax payer funds incurred from Bush, Cheney, neo con agenda in the middle east (not to mention lives on both sides, world opinon and our own struggling populace), but when you realize that nearly all of our individual taxes simply go to pay the interest on fiat money issued to the government by the privately owned FEDERAL RESERVE bankers, it really tends to ****** a person off. This scam on us all was perpetrated in 1913 by a handfull of clever thieves. People, we are living our lives in servitude to bankers and corporate interests who have us by the short hairs. Time to call an Article V convention, lose the Federal Reserve and get rid of the two party system.
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the2thdoctor1 year, 5 months ago
"Think of the uses of 300 billion dollars"...hmmm
1-2 days for Bush's war...yeah, that ought to do it.
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nostalgia1 year, 5 months ago
" new Democratic majority sees these uncollected billions as a major source of revenue that could be used to pay for education, health and other priorities without busting the budget. "
So much for wanting to balance the budget!
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busa13001 year, 5 months ago
arion wrote:
"more money is spent on the domestic side then on the military you dopey liberal dirtbag!"
$100,000.00 per minute is being spent in on the Iraqi war.
Care to do the math and tell all the "dopey liberal dirtbags" how much is spent on human services VS the Iraqi war?
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evelyna1 year, 5 months ago
They should have special funds to pay for everything. It should be up to the people what is important and what not.
People can decide if their money goes to build a bridge to nowhere, the war , health care, education etc.
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evelyna1 year, 5 months ago
I only get a $300 return. Wow, more negative debt. I owe the government even more to ****** away.
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VoyceofR3asun1 year, 5 months ago
Do I want to see more money being lost in careless government spending?...NO. Do I want the Feds spending billions of more money on top of the billions that already funnel into the miles and miles of paper trail created by the IRS?, HELL NO. Closing the tax gap is not a solution to closing the wealth gap or the deficit.In fact, long term effects will create a larger wealth gap as the lower and middle classes get squezzed a lot harder and the rich get pinched a little tighter. The problem isn't that people cheat on their taxes. The propblem is that the tax system is terribly inefficient, horribly unfair, and consistantly frustraiting to all americans. Ask yourself this question... Why must a majority of Americans have their earned money taken away while they work for it, to only pay someone else to either help them get it back from the Feds or to ensure a payment of the minimum amount owed? Visit fairtax.com and realize your options as a citizen of a free nation.
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uncleT1 year, 5 months ago
I go back in forth on the issue of flat tax verses a national sales tax. I think the stresses and adversed health problems due to worry over income taxes would be reduced. That would be a good thing for people. What was the scuttle butt saying about income taxes? You work through May of each year to pay the tax man. Outside of tax deductions like home loan interest and various retirment deferrel plans, the tax code is over bloated for the average tax payer. On home loans, which is a racket, the faster you can pay off that loan the better and you could still set up retirment plans with either a flat tax or sales tax.
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rimbaud1 year, 5 months ago
Taxes should be something they take out of your income that you never see again... no return, no refund.
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JJTopp1 year, 5 months ago
Just what we need ANOTHER stupid discussion about the ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL "VOLUNTARY" (yeah right!) PERSONAL INCOME TAX. I have no qualms with CORPORATE INCOME TAXES. But why do Americans put up with triple taxation? Personal, Corporate and, of course, the INFATION Tax (thanks to the private banker owned FEDERAL RESERVE and its Fraction Reserve Banking System). Not to mention the myriad of other taxes paid. Time for another Boston Tea Party, a big taxpayer revolt, IMO. The wool has been pulled over our eyes and we, brainwashed by our government run public school system, stupidly put up with it. Question the system folks, it is screwing you in a very big way. See http://www.fairtax.org/ for one other view; not sure we need a substitute for the personal income however since we have coporate taxation.
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WastingTime1 year, 5 months ago
"It's not just a budgetary problem," the committee chairman, Rep. John Spratt, D-S.C., said at the hearing. "It raises fundamental issues of moral fairness."
I find this statement to be hilarious from such a fiscally irresponsible congress (even ignoring funding a war on bedt, they have grossly mismanaged the budget).
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