Editorial
But we knew that, now didn’t we? We knew that the rich and powerful use the complexity of the tax code to protect and enhance their privilege. The real question is “What is it about Title 26 that–on a deeper level–let’s them get away with it?”
The hidden agenda of the Federal Tax Code is to make us all feel powerless. Most people–but especially those without college degrees–must pay an expert to figure out what they owe the government for services they may or may not want. It’s like going to a restaurant and paying someone to read a menu written in a nonverbal language, ordering without understanding what you’ve heard and then paying that same expert to figure out the tab. If you feel like someone is twisting your arm when you file your taxes you have it right: the current system is a coerced bargain between those who have information and power and those who do not. The Panama Papers are a case in point.
The Appropriate Tax—Power to the People
Take a minute to contrast the piece of crap we have now to the proposed Automated Payment Transaction (APT) tax and you’ll see what I mean. The APT is a tiny tax paid by buyers and sellers on all transactions that includes no credits or exemptions. It would replace all other federal taxes (see links below for details.)
Don’t want to pay taxes?–buy less stuff. You have the power. The choice is yours.
If the system were APT then the rich–including the Flash Boys who buy and sell so much invisible stuff–would pay more because they uniformly spend more than people with less money. The APT system is automated so overhead is minimal. Like landlines, answering machines and horse drawn buggies filing a tax return would become a thing of the past.
Yes! Filing your taxes—our annual sacrifice to the gods of nonsense, the excruciating attempt to wring meaning or at least direction out of mountain of words laid down like sediment one rainy Congressional season after another–could be a thing of the past. And instead of trying to micromanage us and the economy with the tax code the government could use fees, regulations and forethought. Off shore tax havens are not in the picture.
The only downside to the APT tax is that it would put many low income individuals who work interpreting the tax code out of business. Ditto for almost everyone who works at the IRS. It would also decimate the humongous well-heeled “cheat on your taxes” industry so aptly described in The Panama Papers. And that would be a very good thing indeed. Low and moderate income individuals whose livelihoods are destroyed by instituting the APT should be compensated by the government. Upper income CPAs, tax attorneys etc. can go jump in a lake.
In the weird world of word coincidences the fact that the acronym for the Automated Payment Transaction Tax (APT) means “suited to the purpose or occasion, appropriate” takes the cake. Even better is the fact that it takes the cake away from the 1%.
Please support the Automated Payment Transaction tax by frequenting their website and Facebook page. If you can actually volunteer real time to make the tax system more apt more power to you.
References:
http://www.theguardian.com/news/2016/apr/03/what-you-need-to-know-about-the-panama-papers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_Boys