The purpose of taxes, as I've always seen it, is to pool public funds to serve ALL the American people. This includes defense, enforcement of federal laws, federal projects like interstate highways, social programs that help Americans of all ages, railroad infrastructure; a pause here to define infrastructure.
Infrastructure:
There has been some debate about what constitutes infrastructure; this is my opinion: Instructure includes all the things that All Americans need to function and live in the current, modern world; what's needed to get and hold a job, to get from place to another, to communicate with our families and people we interact with, etc. So, for me, infrastructure includes:
the physical aspects of highways; railroads; bridges; telecommunications infrastructure including satellites; some aspects of public transportation; some aspects of ports, airports and other aspects of domestic, interstate and international transportation; safety measures; assistance with funding of shared infrastructure; all of the physical needs of providing defense like physical military bases, housing, vehicles, etc.; funding assistance for public schools of all levels; and more.
Infrastructure is a large and expensive aspect of our lives. These are things that all Americans use if not daily, at least from time to time. They cannot be provided in any other way than to collect funds from everyone and provide what's needed wherever it's needed.
So we have several budget categories but first revenues: if you visit the U.S. Treasury web site, you'll the sources of revenues for our government. The top 2 amounts are individual income taxes and social security/Medicare taxes. What isn't entirely clear from the Treasury's web site is whether the $ numbers of revenue are projected or actual revenues and that matters. We know what the various revenues should be but they often do not come in as expected and there is often a shortfall as in municipal governments. That is why there is are fiscal years for all levels of government and fiscal years vary among the various levels of government and must be adjusted for transactions between them. It's why most municipal governments base their budgets on actual revenue receipts from two years previously; to base government spending on projected revenues is definitely "living on a prayer".
Our federal budget is huge because there are over 342 million people living in the United States. We all want various things and certain things are expected like roads to drive on and electricity for our lives and water and the Internet, etc. It all costs money. Thus taxes.
Minimum Tax
So, my first proposal is a minimum tax for ALL Americans that MUST be paid. Think of it as tithing; payments to support religions or governments. The word tithe means 1/10, one tenth. So, my first tax proposal is that everyone living in the United States be taxed a minimum of 10% of their income whether citizens or not because they use and benefit from the myriad expenditures of our various governments. If someone has no income, they pay $0; if someone earns only $2, 400 a yr their minimum tax is $240 that year; if some makes $1.6 million dollars a year, their minimum tax that year is $160,000. This is a minimum tax, everybody pays it, there are no deductions from it. There may be higher tax rates for various citizens for various reasons and there may be deductions but the minimum tax is the minimum that can be paid. And, in case it escaped your attention, I said everyone living in the United States, citizen or not. And, in case you are unaware, non-citizens, whether legal or not, already pay taxes and many serve in the military; I've known some.
Sensible relief
The other tax proposal I have is that American citizens before the age of majority and seniors, would be free from income tax, including the minimum tax. This means that young people who are intelligent and resourceful who make money before they're able to vote are free from taxes. This means that they can make money to use for whatever legal purposes including savings for education, training, their own homes and vehicles, etc. There would be a number of regulations and safeguards to ensure that this is legitimate personal income.
In addition, seniors, after a designated age, would be free from taxes.
A lot of study and changes in the designations of senior and age of majority would have to change. For instance, they say that the brain develops and ages in various stages. Should that be the determinant of how we designate how citizens are viewed for various legal matters including taxation? That would have to be determined.
Finally, not-for-profit designations would be restored. A not-for-profit used to have several tax designations including the familiar 501 (c)(3). According to Wikipedia, there are 29 categories of the 501 (c) nonprofits in the U.S. While many are very small, volunteer-operated organizations that do a variety of community work, some are vast, national organizations with enormous budgets and revenues. When I first began grant writing, all libraries were 501(c)(3)s as were most foundations. One of the rules of foundations is that they were required to spend 85% of their annual revenues in payments for public programs of various kinds. There was also a rule about executive compensation. That all disappeared and large foundations have been found to collect funds for charities that never see the money and foundation executives have been found to be paid huge salaries. All that needs to be reviewed and revised.
One type of nonprofit is a religious entity: a church, a synagogue, a mosque, etc. They have been tax free from the beginning, I believe. Things change. I know of one church that wielded so much influence that it changed the traffic pattern in my neighborhood for the benefit of its congregation. That is unacceptable. I knew of another group of churches whose influence affected the zoning in a neighborhood where I used to live so that housing was eliminated so they could have a joint parking area. Also unacceptable. In view of such influence, and because they use publicly funded infrastructure and services just as much as the residents of the surrounding neighborhood, I feel very strongly that religious entities MUST be taxed the minimum tax.
The business of government is very large, very diverse and very complex. As citizens our educational system should include, again, Civics classes throughout high school including some of the details of government funding and taxation.
Enough of this for now.
