| Show THE VOICE OF BUSINESS myths about the code tax r 1 By Hy y Richard L L. L Lesher President Chamber of or Commerce of or the United States Would you be surprised to hear that The richest half of Americas America's taxpayers pay pay 93 percent of the personal personal personal per per- income tax lax Loopholes and fringe benefits are of most value to the to middle income group Americans owe more to their government than a medieval serf owed to his overlord Its It's all true These are just a few of the iconoclastic revelations contained in a mind blowing article on tax policy appearing in the March 1978 edition of Harpers magazine The article was written by Paul Craig Roberts who is both college professor and Senate His simple thesis is that we are all being taken by a parasitic government in unholy alliance with hearted good-hearted tax ref reformers who place their faith in a afew afew afew few simplistic slogans without ever checking the figures Mr Roberts first demolishes the myth that the low income group is most heavily taxed while the rich escape All you have to do he points out is examine the data published by the Int Internal Revenue Service You learn that ta taxpayers payers in the bottom 50 percent by income pay only 7 percent of the per person income b x while those in the then s r i a top 50 percent pay 93 percent Is this a fluke caused by heavy taxes on the low low- middle group No The highest 25 perc percent nt pays 72 percent of the tax The highest 10 percent pays almost half 49 percent And the highest 1 percent pays 19 percent This hardly sounds like soaking the poor for the benefit of the rich Furthermore he says if you tou counted untaxed aid to the poor such as food stamps housing subsidies and other forms of welfare you would find that their real income exceeds that of many taxpayers Tax cuts to help the poor are popular with the government for two reasons he says First because the poor dont don't pay any taxes so it costs the government nothing And second because inflation soon moves people out of the lower brackets and into the range tl where they DO ow owe taxes Wha What about those famous loopholes that are allow the rich to avoid paying their fair share Fringe benefits are a larger percentage percentage percentage per per- of a salary than they are of a 00 salary and so are itemized deductions Roberts points out deductions are the primary income shelter for tor those in the middle to lower tax brackets where most of the income is he says And that is why the government wants to eliminate the deductions so it can get its greedy handson hands on more of your money O The greatest loophole of all in our tax income system Roberts says works for the benefit of government It is the loophole that allows government government government govern govern- ment to use inflation to increase taxes pa constant and even declining levels of purchasing power without having to legislate higher tax rates Over the last 10 years wages have just kept even with inflation But wages plus taxes have not because the governments government's revenues dont don't simply rise by oy the amount of inflation they rise by times the rate of inflation thanks to the progressive tax code Worst of all says Roberts those who feed at the public trough are not even worried by the prospect of taxes so high that they wreck the economy because that would call for new government aid programs and more government employees to run them What can be done A flat the across board tax cut large enough to compensate compensate compensate com com- for inflation plus the push into higher brackets would help temporarily tem tem- Another possible solution being discussed is indexing the tax code for inflation so taxes remain the same on the same purchasing power Still another is a constitutional limit on the total amount of national income that may be taken by the government These alternatives are worth a lot of thought and discussion One thing I can guarantee you If we dont don't save ourselves ourselves our our- selves no one else will do it for us |
