Taxes

[langeweile]

TAXES
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines
(indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax
(FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax
(42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense
(tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges
(tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties
(tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes
(Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax
(SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and
local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone state and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines
(indirect taxation)
Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax

COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

What happened???

 

[WoodPeckr]

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

What happened???

100 yrs ago was 1905.
The middle class in the USA really flourished and expanded greatly after WWII and was more the product of the Union movement and not the lack of taxes.

 

[someone]

TAXES
COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

What happened???

100 years ago import duties were the big thing. Given the stage of economic development, they were easier to collect (for similar reasons, third world countreis still relay more heavily on import duties). I suspect that what you really mean to ask is why taxes are a higher percentage of GDP today but that is a different question.

 

[ice_dog]

You work for the tax man, don't you.

100 years ago import duties were the big thing. Given the stage of economic development, they were easier to collect (for similar reasons, third world countreis still relay more heavily on import duties). I suspect that what you really mean to ask is why taxes are a higher percentage of GDP today but that is a different question.

 

[someone]

You work for the tax man, don't you.

No, but one of the graduate courses I teach is public economics.

 

[oldjones]

TAXES
…edit out long list of specific taxes…
COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

What happened???

Right, in 1905 there were no school taxes, traffic fines, court fines, property taxes or liquor taxes (taking items only from your list)? If you find anyone who actually believes that, I've got a few hectares of moose meadow to unload.

 

[langeweile]

Right, in 1905 there were no school taxes, traffic fines, court fines, property taxes or liquor taxes (taking items only from your list)? If you find anyone who actually believes that, I've got a few hectares of moose meadow to unload.

As always you are missing the point!!!
Glad to see that you took me off your "ignore list".

 

[Hard Idle]

TAXES ...>
COMMENTS:
Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

What happened???

100 years ago, many of the items and concepts on that list didn't even exist. For those who would be satisfied with the service, infrastructure, convniences and health conditions of 100 years ago, I believe there are still a few swamps in Brazil, Bangladesh, Haiti and a few other places where one can still live in such comfort.

Of course, you cannot have telecommunications taxes when there are no telecommunications, nor a road tax when 90% of all roads are dirt or gravel!

I spit on the middle-class prosperity of 100 years ago:
* .primitive plumbing, or none at all - heating the water for a weekly bath LOL!
* .unpaved roads stinking of horse shit.
* .commuting on foot or by horse in the coldest, most sprawled out country on earth.
* .perpetual dusk under a cloud coal and wood particles, chronic pnumonia
* .social services and infrastructure comparable to rural Afganistan

No need to go on, it's too depressing. For the most part, I am satisfied with the returns on the government spending and / or assistance to industry that helped progress along and which has to be gradually repaid through taxes. The average man of 100 years ago had little more comfort, services or conveniences than a shelter-dweller of today, and probably didn't smell any better.

 

[FOOTSNIFFER]

....and these sentiments, my friends, if why we'll always be taxed the death in this country. Most government 'investments' are actually transactions of decline....they take one dollar from the productive private economy and trade it down for less than one dollar of government "services". We just can't compare what the government "gives" us in services, with what the untaxed money could have produced in its place.

I wish there was a true conservative movement in this country that would advocate an aggressive reduction in the size of gov., and a radical reduction in taxes. But it'll never happen as canadians have bought into the trudeaupia dystopia.

 

[langeweile]

I find it amusing that the great defenders of goverment on this board really don't have an answer, that makes any sense.
Instead they pick on irrelevant details and attack the messenger.
Seems to me that those that cry the loudest are probably goverment employees, that waste my tax dollars hanging out on this board. Finally my suspicions have been confirmed.
And now...GO BACK TO WORK...

BTW the list is not my brain child. Some of the taxes listed are a stretch, but that's not the point anyway.OJ and BBK

 

[oldjones]

As always you are missing the point!!!
Glad to see that you took me off your "ignore list".

Sorry, the ignore list thing was only ever your idea.

So: many of the taxes in your list did exist 100 years ago. We frequently hear from you how prosperous the US is now, and you'd have to tell me what other country you believe has a bigger middle class. I must agree there's a big and growing national debt in your country (and we've all read far too much here about Clinton reducing it and GeorgeII increasing it) but that's hardly unusual among nations—the trade deficit's probably scarier. There's not much left of that last statement of yours, if that's where I should have seen your point.

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, and had the largest middle class in the world.

As Mr. Franklin said, only death and taxes are sure bets, so what are you suggesting: raising them to eliminate that national debt?

 

[langeweile]

.


As Mr. Franklin said, only death and taxes are sure bets, so what are you suggesting: raising them to eliminate that national debt?

You guys never say the obvious answer.
How about some good old fashioned accountability? How about telling me what the money is spend on? How about eliminating millions of $$ in pork? How about spending within your means? How about reducing the size of goverment?

How amount holding your goverment to the same accounting standards as any small business owner?
Example: If you or I would have acted the same way, than some of those people involved in the sponsorship scandal,Revenue Canada would hav been all over us.
Why do we ignore simple and basic rules when it comes to goverment???

Geez i guess i am just too simplistic.

 

[oldjones]

You guys never say the obvious answer.
How about some good old fashioned accountability? How about telling me what the money is spend on?

In the US and Canada, whole forests and powerplants are devoted to "telling [you] what the money is spent on", and accounting for it. That is how the sponsorship thing here was discovered. I understand the GAO and Bureau of the Budget in Washington do a fair job as well. Or was your question a joke?

How about eliminating millions of $$ in pork? How about spending within your means? How about reducing the size of goverment?

I wish I didn't have to repeat that it's been the "cut and borrow" guys like Harris, Mulroney, Reagan, and GeorgeI and II who haven't lived within their means (or delivered the prosperity they promised would fill government coffers in spite of tax cuts). Though some did cut some government operations beyond the point of safety and good sense.
It's just as boringly old hat to point out one man's pork is what keeps another from starving, and that we have democracy to figure out all together what's best for all, not just for who shouts loudest. But is this perhaps that point I couldn't hear? That lang's not happy with government? (And BTW which "our" country are you talking about?) Sorry, many's the morning I fail to find the dawn unusual too.

How amount holding your goverment to the same accounting standards as any small business owner?
Example: If you or I would have acted the same way, than some of those people involved in the sponsorship scandal,Revenue Canada would hav been all over us.
Why do we ignore simple and basic rules when it comes to goverment???

You say sponsorship scandal, I say Savings and Loans, Bre-X, WorldCom, most any airline—just ask their creditors, Enron, and who was that guy with the $6K shower curtain? You're not really saying government is the same as small business are you? Let's at least compare big with big.
Now, what were all those column inches listing taxes about, if your point was that we let goverment 'get away' with stuff? In fact we don't ignore "simple and basic rules" with government anymore than we do with anyone else; far less so if you compare business coverage w/ political coverage in the media. But ya gotta catch and convict first, as I understand things, otherwise it's just personal opinion.

Geez i guess i am just too simplistic.

OK.

 

[langeweile]

You are more naive than I thought you were.
Goverment is accountable? Yeah right, and OJ is innocent..sure.

Not sure why you make this in to a Canada and USA issue? I was using the sponsorship scandal as an example you can relate to.
You can't compare Enron and Worldcom to goverment waste. Worldcom and Enron was a scheme designed for fraud. No law in the world can prevent that. Those that cry about losing money should have read the fine print before buying any stock.
Not sure how airlines fit in to the picture. they are inefficent and survive solely on hand outs from the goverment or from their mortgage holders. Just another way of catering to special interest groups.
PORK? As long as goverments can't have a sensible and just fiscal policy i will reject any increase in taxes. How can you waste money and than ask me to give you more???
People will always spend other peoples money more freely, it is human nature to do so. It is far less consequential to spend someon elses money, than having to spend your own.
The goverment needs money to spent, no question there, how much is very much a question for me.
This by the way should be a bi-partisan issue. It is all our money, and money makes no distinction between R"s and D's or C's and L's.
Goverment waste and corruption is an international problem. It is up to "we the people" to hold our leaders accountable.

 

[Vietor]

Attempting to understand the multitude of ways that we are taxed is not a simplistic approach. Instead, if one is to understand where we are, how we got there and what can we do to fix it, this is a necessary first step.

Government regulation should only occur when regulation is required for a legitimate societal purpose, as opposed to regulation for the purpose of raising revenue. If, in the review of the multitude of taxes, we find taxes that exist only for the purpose of producing governmental revenue, such taxes should be examined and eliminated where appropriate. Anyone who does not believe that the tax codes at the state/provincial level and at the federal level should be greatly simplified is either an accountant or an employee of government. The direct and indirect costs of the present systems are immense; accordingly, the potential savings are as well.

Another appropriate exercise of citizenship is to investigate governmental expenditures. It should be axiomatic that actions taken by government should be restricted to those that cannot be more efficiently provided by the private sector, perhaps the economic equivalent of Occam's razor. This exercise will undoubtably generate further savings of immense magnitude.
The exercise itself, however, is daunting in size. What if, as a methodology to require such exercise, every tax would have a stated sunset?

 

[langeweile]

The simplification and increased transparency of the tax code would go a long way. I don't believe that it will ever happen. The diffculties surrounding the code, makes it easier to hide fraud and handouts.

 

[oldjones]

You are more naive than I thought you were.
Goverment is accountable? Yeah right, and OJ is innocent..sure.

Not sure why you make this in to a Canada and USA issue? I was using the sponsorship scandal as an example you can relate to.

Just trying to keep what you post straight; it isn't easy. Tell you what: don't use "your/our country" say "US" and "Canada".

You can't compare Enron and Worldcom to goverment waste. Worldcom and Enron was a scheme designed for fraud. No law in the world can prevent that. Those that cry about losing money should have read the fine print before buying any stock.
Not sure how airlines fit in to the picture. they are inefficent and survive solely on hand outs from the goverment or from their mortgage holders. Just another way of catering to special interest groups.

Just pointing out government has no monopoly on wasting your money (customer or shareholder, taxpayer or citizen) whether by ineptitude, graft or theft. And there have been laws against political corruption since before the Romans, and as a wise man said: "No law in the world can prevent that".

PORK? As long as goverments can't have a sensible and just fiscal policy i will reject any increase in taxes. How can you waste money and than ask me to give you more???

That last sentence reads just like something you'd say to Robert Milton, speaking of airlines, after he paid you 5¢ on the dollar, then ordered more product from your small business. Unjust, sure, but also the way of the world. I believe the stock response is, "Don't like it leave."

People will always spend other peoples money more freely, it is human nature to do so. It is far less consequential to spend someon elses money, than having to spend your own.
The goverment needs money to spent, no question there, how much is very much a question for me.
This by the way should be a bi-partisan issue. It is all our money, and money makes no distinction between R"s and D's or C's and L's.
Goverment waste and corruption is an international problem. It is up to "we the people" to hold our leaders accountable.

Reminds me of something I read once…

You are more naive than I thought you were.
Goverment is accountable? Yeah right, and OJ is innocent..sure.

Here's a suggestion: complaining about taxes—yours or ours—is like a carny barker's con; it's easy to rope in guys who think theyll have more in their pockets at no cost; it means nothing.

What's hard (so hard that none of the tax-cut obsessed pols have managed) is to say up front what 'waste' you'd cut. Let's have the OX-Goring List first, then, when we agree on it, we can see how much we have saved on our taxes. What we got instead, in Ontario, was a piddling check in the mail and a bunch of deaths from uninspected water. Apparently that was government waste.

So instead of listing a bunch of US taxes on a Toronto Escort Review Board, tell us what government programs you Americans shouldn't have so those taxes wouldn't be needed. Now that would be interesting.

 

[langeweile]

So instead of listing a bunch of US taxes on a Toronto Escort Review Board, tell us what government programs we shouldn't have so those taxes wouldn't be needed. Now that would be interesting

http://www.cagw.org/site/PageServer

Since you asked, here it is. I just love the power of the web.

There is a whole list of "pork spending"..enjoy. Add up all the numbers and you will be surprised.

i was looking for a similiar Canadian site, but it wasn't available,or at least I couldn't find it.
Cheers..OJ

 

[oldjones]

Here's my equally thoughtful proposal of what the US should immediately cut from its budget, for the great economic and social benefit of its citizens and the world.
Of course the guys wasting all that dough already gave the US a tax cut, and went huge into defecit to do it. Now is the interest on that short-term money they are now borrowing—from the Chinese I hear— waste as well?

 

[Diode]

All right..All you big Government type guys...A Question. ..or two...

100 Years ago, what percentage of the Canadian Population was employed by Government? It's about 10 % now, I believe. I bet it was much less then.

100 Years ago, what was the percentage of Government Spending to GDP?
Is it more Now?

I understand we need some govermment, but I really believe it has become an "industry" unto itself in Canada. Taxes help the Country grow..but there has to be a level of Diminishing returns, dont ya think?