Why aren't taxes a single, fixed number? Like, instead of 15% or 20% everybody just has to pay something like $10,000 at the end of the year or something like that.
What are the historical reasons behind the percentile based tax system?
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That's how it used to work. The argument is that it's unfair to poor people.
>Bill Gates pays pocket change every year
>Billy Bob pays his life savings
federal income tax didnt become a thing until juice took over the world
They can take loans. Push more 'tax relief' programs and force a labor substitution instead of money if they can't pay after all that. To be fair, $10k a year is $833.33 a month or $208.33 a week.
Anon, I don't think you understand how much the us makes off taxes. It's 7.2 trillion.
If 300 million Americans paid 10k a year that'd only be 300 billion, which is barely anything on the government money scale.
The income tax system is held up by rich people who pay their % tax
>7.2 trillion
All of which is wasted.
no, only 7.1 trillion
>it's another lolbert-denies-roads-exist episode
The roads are all shit, so where's the money going?
To a certain tribe
To Elon Musk so he can make the rockets that don't fly that you keep hyping up as beacons of free-market capitalism.
But they do fly.
>If 300 million Americans paid 10k a year that'd only be 300 billion, which is barely anything on the government money scale.
Sounds good to me.
>Billy Bob has no money pay taxes this year
>has to take out a loan or go to prison
>has to work to pay off loan or go to prison
>no money left after loan payments, has to take out another loan
>repeat year after year
Congratulations, you just reinvented slavery.
Because that would net the nation very little revenue. There is also some correctly left ideology in it that rich people don’t necessarily deserve to keep that much from the business and people. But again, mostly seems to be a practical necessity that a flat rate would either bankrupt the poor or yield minimal revenue because our societies are wildly unequal
How did the nation make sure everyone is paying their fair share? Like 10%, how would an ancient civilization collect or audit its people?
As far as I’ve read the idea that the rich give more, that you pay what you can afford is pretty standard
huh? i dont follow
All ancient civilizations had census takers whose job was to find out who lived where and how much their land was worth. Then they had tax collectors who would go around to find the people listed in the census, and if people refused to pay they'd be tortured. If you've ever heard the expression "put the screws" to someone, that refers to thumb screws, a rather nasty handheld torture device that was used by medieval and early modern tax collectors. But ancient tax collecting was definitely inefficient compared to modern times. It was easier to duck the census or tax man than it is today. But if you were a sedentary farmer then they knew where to find you.
Ancient societies would also lay taxes on goods coming in or out at ports, tax transactions at markets, and operate industries for the benefit of the state. The Han dynasty in China made a lot of its revenue by running salt and iron mining exclusively as state owned enterprises.
Because that's dumb as frick.
They used to not be paid like a tithe at all. Taxes were paid based on property owned, or purchases. That is why so many older songs talk about "the tax man coming round", and references to hiding the nice objects/things for same. Taxes are multi-layered, however. I'll only speak for Texas, since that is where I own my property. My taxes for the house go to the school district. Water, sewage and trash pickup is a paid service from the city. Much of the power in Texas is generated by not-for profit corporations, but don't get out the vegan ideas. It just means any profit they do make is re-invested, not distributed to shareholders. If I own a business in town, the taxes for that business property go to the city government. Texas does not do state income tax, but there is a base 6.25% that most areas increase to 8.25% sales tax. All of this (Tax) stuff goes to your local and state government which is assessed fairly, and the cost is largely paid for by property owners or business owners. The aforementioned sales tax is not levied on a wide variety of foods-so people that rent do not pay tax beyond what their dipshit freeloading landlord farts onto them while sitting in an office and complaining all day. Licenses for operating certain businesses are also sold by the state.
Then, the federal government comes in, wheezing and grunting, and says "where's my cut" while fondling a child. Cut of what service, you ask? Why, the right for you to exist, silly. Assessed directly from your income, which is something that big brain smart book people say "de-incentivizes production", but that's a big gay word.
tl;dr your federal taxes used to be paid when you got booze went to a strip club or got gas or something. Now the government pimp demands a direct cut because the alternative to the government assessing a "sin tax" was income tax, which is universally agreed as lazy and moronic, but it makes the government way too much money for it to stop now.
federal taxes have existed since the start of America. Prior to the constitutional amendment that created the federal income tax, taxes were apportioned to the states based on population. This was less fair than income tax, because a state with a large population but low average wealth would have a very high tax burden, while a state with a low population but high average wealth would have a very low tax burden. Doing it by income instead is much fairer.