* Crossposted from: JustaNet Current Events
You know, I was just sitting at home today with this nice little
government form in front of me and a calculator at my elbow. Now as
everyone knows truck drivers aren't the smartest people in the world
nor are they in  the top 10% of wage earners either.
Like most of you , I've been hearing a lot about different proposed
taxation plans including the flat tax and of course the proposed
national sales tax.  The one I've been hearing the most of these
days has been the proposal of a 23% national sales tax. On the
surface this doesn't sound too bad cause we would get to keep what
we earn, not be taxed on any savings etc. and the tax would only
apply when we actually purchased something. 
 Ok, with this in mind and using rough figures... ( mainly mine
cause that's all I've got to work with ), with a gross income of
$40,000 and after itemizing deductions my personal tax burden this
year was somewhere around $3,800.  Hmmmm, that effectively looks
like a little under 10% to me.  Of course others mileage would
probably vary but even at this it still seems to me that the
privilege of paying my income taxes is more than I'm yet willing to
bear with a smile on my face.
  Now, if this new proposal went into effect and even if it were
lowered to say 20% just to keep the numbers easy to work with, and
supposing I did manage to save or put away say $2000 into savings
and investments... a 20% rate on $38,000 would still come out to
$7,200 in taxes to the federal government. Now I don't know how
those figures stack up in your income bracket but I can tell you one
thing for sure, I'm definitely NOT for this National Sales tax
unless they come up with some real cuts in their proposed rates!
 Even with that, this still doesn't take into account the State and
local taxes we all must bear and of course homeowners still have the
property taxes to fork over and under the National Sales tax
proposal we wouldn't get credit for those as a deduction either so
while it may be a fairer tax for those in the upper income brackets,
this rate they are talking about would danged sure be a hardship on
our family.
 Any comments or corrections on  how this proposed sales tax would
be levied and or finalized?
     ----========----     ghintz@daknet.com
                http://www.daknet.com/~ghintz
*SignIt 2.0 #010* Signed˙02-07-1998
... Money is Root of Evil- And we All need Roots!                             
  
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