OCR Text |
Show C(o)IMlM(iIiilftSf THE VOICE OF BUSINESS Wcotfch ufl Americca tfhe IKS hos good news tfor youl By Richard L. Leslier, Prenidenl Chamber of Commerce of (lie Uniled Stales Here in Washington, nothing can beat the speed and efficiency of Congress spending the public's money, except the IRS, when it collects what Congress taxes away. Through the years, we have learned our tax code is uniqueit's uni-queit's the only code that actually breaks people. Imagine then my surprise, sur-prise, with tax time again upon us, to have recently heard one television network net-work calmly announce: "The Internal Revenue Service says the average U.S. taxpayer will pay less federal income tax this year." How, I wondered, could the IRS make such an absurd claim? When I saw the statement I realized what had happened, happen-ed, and I understood why millions of Americans are often misinformed and confused about economics. The IRS spokesman was quoted saying: say-ing: "Generally, the average American will pay less taxes in 1979 than he did on the same income in 1978, because the tax tables have been broadened... There are more pluses than minuses for taxpayers." tax-payers." That statement is fine, and technically technical-ly correct, as far as it goes. However, because it is incomplete, and because it omits the essential, it is misleading. It clearly gives the impression the average taxpayer might get a break. Will he or she? No. Taxes are not going down, they are going up, way, way up. In fact, they are rising by one of the fastest rates in the last 25 years. According to Commerce Department estimates, federal individual in-dividual income tax receipts increased by $35 billion in 1979. That works out to about $400 per return. Funny, isn't it, that the IRS never cited those numbers? The problem is simple, but rarely ' acknowledged. When taxpayers seek cost-of-living increases, they are automatically bumped into higher tax brackets. For each percentage point that taxable income increases, individual in-dividual income tax receipts go up about 1.6 percent. As inflation accelerates, ac-celerates, the resulting loss in net take-home take-home pay and purchasing power becomes more severe. The federal government is the biggest big-gest winner, because inflation permits it to line its pockets at the average citizen's expense. Anyone who still believes otherwise should ponder very carefully the following facts. Since 1970, federal tax receipts have jumped from $195 billion to $514 billion without Congress Con-gress ever voting a major tax increase. Indeed, we've supposedly had tax cuts! Taxes at all levels have shot up so fast, they have outpaced increases in both wages and profits, and now consume the largest share of the family budget. The bottom line is this: As the federal government increasingly benefits from these automatic windfalls, more and more moderate-income Americans are being pushed into tax brackets formerly former-ly reached only by the wealthy. By allowing the tax system to transfer these huge sums of precious capital away from investment in research and technology, and into often wasteful government spending and consumption, consump-tion, we are damaging our prospects for real economic growth, more jj secure pensions, a better standard' living for all Americans, and ultinJj ly, our national security. Misinformation has played a key ret in our recent economic decline. Prgfiuj which are the very lifeblood of ' economy and which, when adjusted W inflation, have not been keeping up income, prices or taxes, have bw-systematically bw-systematically denounced as excessiw On the other hand, taxes, which hjjf risen so dramatically, and which ha. done so much to cripple personal ssu' ings, risk-taking, incentives and overj -industriousness, have been descrittT as declining. j Finally, double-digit inflation J-caused J-caused by government's own excess creation of money to finance its oJ unrestrained expenditures, and has to higher taxes and mounting deficit Yet government consistently blac inflation on working Americans, usj it as an excuse to control wages a prices, and raise taxes still higher, i . government can eventually balance: budget which it never manages to j In George Orwell's famous look iit totalitarian future, "Nineteen ; four", the heresy of heresies was 013 ; mon sense. The final, most esse command from the Ministry of Trj was to make people reject the evide: of their own eyes and ears. Only i could all truth be wiped out, andr.ii ' the freedom to believe and say tha;:i ' plus two equals four. Such a society is still abhorrent uj . Nonetheless, we must realize freea and truth will not forever endure.:') -continue sacrificing them piece i -piece. |