228
votes
Accepted
Why doesn’t the IRS just send me a bill for the taxes I owe based on the info they already have?
It's certainly possible, and plans have previously been made to do it, but then what would happen to the tax preparation industry?
That may seem like a silly question, but for the capitalist tax prep ...
- 1,685
177
votes
What ethical (if any) or economical arguments are offered in defense of the inheritance tax?
What arguments are typically offered by those supportive of this
taxation technique, both ethically and economically, in order to
defend and promote its use?
Inheritance Taxes As Taxes In Lieu of ...
- 88.3k
136
votes
Accepted
What reasons are there for a Capitalist to oppose a 100% inheritance tax?
Philosophical reason - why do some people in the government have a greater right to decide what to do with the assets than the person that owned them (through their will, by giving it to heirs/...
- 886
130
votes
Accepted
Why is Trump releasing (or not) his tax returns such a big deal?
There's a whole wikipedia article on the topic.
In a nutshell, he has been the first major party nominee since 1976 not to make his tax returns public. And he did not release them in spite of ...
- 30.7k
99
votes
Why doesn’t the IRS just send me a bill for the taxes I owe based on the info they already have?
The IRS doesn't do that in the USA, because politics has decided so, as outlined in AquaticFires answer.
I have paid income tax in Sweden, Canada, and the UK. In Sweden, I was sent a completely ...
- 49.3k
88
votes
Why is a big country less suitable for high-tax, high-welfare system?
Caveat: These are impressions of a Scandinavian dude (assuming you would include Finland) who only lived in the US (in late 80's) as a grad student/post doc, but never raised a family there.
I would ...
- 853
88
votes
Why isn’t the tax system continuous rather than bracketed?
In most countries where this system is used, there is a level of continuity between brackets.
For example, in the United Kingdom, where the tax brackets are defined as follows:
0% up to £12,500
20% ...
- 28k
78
votes
Accepted
Prior to COVID-19, had any country fiscally targeted unvaccinated individuals?
Yes, in Jacobson v. Massachusetts (1905) the United States Supreme Court upheld the right of the state to fiscally target unvaccinated individuals. Massachusetts had enacted the following law in ...
CDJB♦
- 109k
77
votes
Accepted
What significance could the information in Donald Trump's tax return have to his campaign?
Answers to clarification questions
There are no "rich people" forms. However, there are forms that are far more likely to be interesting when a rich person files them. For example, when someone ...
- 90.3k
68
votes
What reasons are there for a Capitalist to oppose a 100% inheritance tax?
What you seem to be missing is that the foundation of capitalism is voluntary exchange. The rich do not inherently "deserve" their money; a capitalist philosophy rejects the idea that we have the ...
- 714
65
votes
Accepted
Why did Democrats oppose Ted Cruz's provision to allow funds from 529 plans to be used for homeschooling?
Here is the statement from Senator Wyden (D-Oregon) regarding his opposition to the amendment:
Mr. President, Senator Cruz's amendment expands tax
subsidies for upper income households to aid ...
- 8,588
58
votes
Why does the US require non-resident citizens to file taxes even for non-US income?
The United States is the richest country in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) by financial assets per capita and first in the world by wealth per adult among the ...
- 90.3k
56
votes
What is the logic behind charging tax _in the form of money_ for owning property when the property does not produce money?
Firstly, I think there is some flawed logic in the OP's premise that, historically, the purpose of taxation was to tax the production of something. When a person earns a salary, they are not producing ...
- 4,950
55
votes
Accepted
Shouldn’t conservatives embrace universal basic income?
Forget about names, except for PR purposes.
A clear-headed analyst looks that the net flow of money, now and in future entitlements. Call it "UBI" or "tax credit", call it "...
- 116k
55
votes
Accepted
How is Switzerland able to maintain low tax levels?
Comparing taxation across nations is not trivial, because different nations use different means of taxation; just because the VAT is low doesn't mean that the overall tax burden is.
Since you asked ...
- 5,340
55
votes
How does Dubai get its money?
The other answers discuss taxation in the UAE but omit the elephant in the room.
The UAE is a collection of monarchies (that's what "United Arab Emirates" literally means).
The monarchs ...
- 88.3k
54
votes
Accepted
How would one justify public funding for non-STEM (or unprofitable) college majors to a non college educated taxpayer?
After one generation, you would have lots of engineers and lawyers and few, if any, teachers.
After two generations, you would have neither engineers nor teachers.
Our culture is more than just ...
- 116k
54
votes
How is printing money different from taxing people?
I can see one difference between taxing the people and printing currency. Taxing the people only takes money away from the people in that country, as the people outside the country don't have to pay ...
- 3,108
52
votes
Why isn’t the tax system continuous rather than bracketed?
You want people to be able to understand their tax returns. Addition and multiplication are hard enough; finding your place on a curve could involve square roots or (gasp) logarithms. Even some ...
- 116k
49
votes
Why isn’t the tax system continuous rather than bracketed?
(The original phrasing of the question seemed to indicate a common misconception of the way that the tax brackets work in the US and in many other countries, in thinking that one will lose money by ...
- 461
49
votes
Accepted
What is the rationale of banning proof-of-work instead of highly taxing it?
Taxation is already complicated enough, and complicated legal codes create unintentional consequences and loopholes.
"Have a very high tax for energy consumption above a certain threshold except ...
- 78.9k
48
votes
Why do government employees pay income taxes?
Easier for everybody
For the government
Taxes are complex. It is not only how much the employee gets from the government. It is also:
other income sources
other income sources from family members (...
- 32.9k
48
votes
What is the purpose of an inheritance tax when inheritance could be taxed like other income?
Historically, inheritance was a family affair
The family being a single economical unit, spanning generations. Parents and children working together for the common survival, as a farm or small ...
- 589
46
votes
What is the logic behind charging tax _in the form of money_ for owning property when the property does not produce money?
There are two issues with your question. The first is that you're approaching this from a wrong angle. The question is not how or whether a property tax is justifiable or justified, but rather how or ...
- 30.7k
46
votes
Accepted
What prevents a government from taxing its citizens living abroad?
What prevents this in general is the practical ability to collect. The US can collect on its citizens living abroad in part because (even foreign) banks really don't want to end up on the bad side of ...
43
votes
What is the rationale of banning proof-of-work instead of highly taxing it?
It's fundamentally a different message: "This is an economic activity that is unacceptable" vs "This is an economic activity that we want a larger cut from".
- 4,798
42
votes
What ethical (if any) or economical arguments are offered in defense of the inheritance tax?
There's a number of misconceptions about the estate tax in the US. It's a tax that only affects the very wealthy, it taxes income that can otherwise go untaxed, people with vast amounts of wealth are ...
- 1,334
42
votes
What reasons are there for a Capitalist to oppose a 100% inheritance tax?
According to Merriam Webster, capitalism is...
an economic system characterized by private or corporate ownership of
capital goods, by investments that are determined by private decision,
and ...
- 499
42
votes
How is printing money different from taxing people?
Taxation
Taxes are usually paid on some sort of economic activity (earning income, purchasing goods or services, etc). In other words, they have value because the underlying activity has value. In ...
- 53.1k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible