SENATE BILL: Fair Taxation Act (Law'd)

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Do regions rely on sales tax to pay for services like states do in the US?

If so, we must at least gradually phase it out rather than cutting it out entirely so they can adjust accordingly. This will force them to either raise income taxes or something else to provide for services. This is a bigger deal than some are really realizing.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I am getting a lot of feedback from governors on this bill. I am not sure it will be feasible to enact given how much revenue they derive from sales taxes. Some are concerned that they cannot raise regional income taxes enough to cover the lost revenues they would face if this passes, especially if you factor in tax avoidance methods. At least with sales taxes, you cannot avoid them.

With all of that said, perhaps we could allow people under a certain income level to write off things like food, clothing and books on their federal tax return?

I don't want to put regions in a bad situation where they are forced to cut back their services because we have mandated them to stop levying sales tax.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I would be open to working out a deal concerning a tax credit for the purpose of covering the sales tax for low earners.

I think that would be more feasible.

I researched states that have no sales tax, and they make up for it by either 1) allowing municipalities to charge their own taxes and funding the state through those means or 2) having obscenely high gas/restaurant/hotel/other taxes to make up for the lack of sales tax.

So yeah, if we can work out some form of credit to give to those earning, say, $50,000 or less a year, that would be much more viable than eliminating sales taxes entirely.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I will post some sort of amendment to this bill as soon as I can incorporating some of what DC al Fine talked about ie a tax credit for low income earners.

Is $50,000 a year and under an acceptable number to be eligible? Maybe under $75,000 for joint returns?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

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So I basically rewrote this entire bill, but that's something you all have come to expect out of me by now.

Anyway, I couldn't find exactly what Canada does with this, but I presume the numbers are fair, though we can debate that as we go along. I think this route would achieve the goal of helping low income folks out without completely forcing regional governments to gut their services.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Yeah, shua's right. Sorry for confusing everyone by plopping my rewrite in the middle of the thread.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Is this $50,000 including the basic income or $50,000 excluding it?

Disclosure: I don't know much about the basic income bill or how it works. That's something I need to go read.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

I don't. I am fine with the bill as it is.

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

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x Duke

Thanks for another successful redraft

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

You through me for a loop but it was rewrittenby the President, just not using the redraft process official.y

Sorry. I can't keep track of my actions sometimes.