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NEW - In 2016 the 2-4-8 Tax Blend will become 2-4-8 Tax Choice
The "choice" would allow all taxpayers to choose an income tax rate between 8% and 28% paired with a net wealth tax rate of 2% going down to zero. Wealth taxes paid would reduce Estate and Gift taxes (also set at 28%). This would encourage wealthy individuals to pay some net wealth taxes as a form of inexpensive life insurance.
  Wealth
0%
0.5%
1%
1.5%
2%

Income
28%
23%
18%
13%
8%

Business
C - Corp
4% VAT
8% Income
   


The Washington Post, February 2, 2012

Warren Buffett’s "nuclear bomb"

Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite was the president of Chicago Theological Seminary from 1998 to 2008 and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. She writes:

Class warfare? Yes, it’s real, and it’s a war.  Indeed, it is an ‘unjust war,’ and immoral. It is not wealth itself that is immoral in America today; what is immoral is the growing political influence that extreme wealth can buy.  It’s a struggle for political influence to get economic advantages, including tax advantages, and in this kind of class warfare, only the mega wealthy have “the nuclear bomb” as Warren Buffett has recently said.

... This is, by any measure, an ‘unjust war,’ and that is what makes it immoral.  Some of the mega wealthy have engaged in a deliberate and sustained effort to “un-level the playing field” in America. They have been spending enormous sums to create conditions that hugely favor one group (the very wealthy) over another (the rest).  To set out to do this on purpose is immoral precisely because it is creates a society that is structured to be unfair.


2-4-8 Response

Your conclusion that, “[a]ll Americans have a moral obligation to level the playing field … and “to end this class warfare through policies that promote fairness” is something I share with a deep passion. I have spent years working on the problem and sincerely believe I have found a tax solution to eliminate “class warfare” by restoring economic vitality and mobility. I would be remiss if I did not invite you to consider the 2-4-8 Tax Plan.

1) Make all business tax returns publicly available online for free. Cheating will be substantially reduced. Business contributions (political or otherwise) will be public and become part of the business’s reputation. The market will more easily and transparently identify the businesses which are productive.

2) Adopt the 2-4-8 Tax Plan which is a simple mix of three flat rate taxes. Tax 2% on individual net wealth, 4% on retail sales and 8% on individual and corporate income. The exact same rates apply to the rich and poor. There are no different tax brackets, deductions or credits, and no favoritism. The three taxes would yield about $2.6 trillion per year (slightly more than the current combination of Income, Social Security, gasoline and other federal taxes and fees).

At the risk of over simplification the process of upward mobility can be illustrated by contrasting a flat rate income tax of 28% versus a combined 8% income tax and 2% wealth tax for each of the next ten years. The latter combined tax would permit an individual to keep 20% more salary each year and tax another 2% of the amount not consumed for the next ten years. If one saved the 20% for 5 years it would be like having a year’s of salary in the bank on top of what might have otherwise been saved under a 28% flat tax rate (conservatively assuming the 2% wealth tax was offset by investment interest).

It is hard to imagine anyone that wouldn’t welcome a 2% tax on net wealth and a small 4% sales tax, in exchange for drastically reduced 8% individual income tax rate. Even Bill O’Rielly (a/k/a the “Factor”) supports a national sales tax (of 3%) as part of much needed tax reform. The concurrent elimination of social security, capital gains, estate and gift taxes; and a significant reduction of the corporate income tax rate to 8% should guarantee near universal support from social liberals and business conservatives alike.

3) More jobs through improved business competition, restored upward mobility, problem solved!

Eugene Patrick Devany JD, MPA

www.TaxNetWealth.com

 

 
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