FT 16.18 - Budget FY 2021

[OBD]

COMMONWEALTH BUDGET
for the fiscal year of 2021

I. REVENUES
☞ Income Tax: $141,458,440,106
$0K – $125K (0%): $0
$125 – $200K (5%): $4,544,572,163
$200K – $1M (15%): $51,494,832,936
$1M – $10M (30%): $45,459,789,567
$10M – $100M (45%): $30,242,234,007
$100M+ (60%): $9,717,011,433

☞ Corporate Taxes: $222,721,286,871
$0 – 100K (0%): $0
$100K – 1M (20%): $1,052,287,645
$1M – 10M (40%): $7,087,226,512
$10M+ (60%): $214,581,772,714

☞ Excise Taxes: $30,457,309,589
Alcohol (15%): $13,087,791,871
Gas & Diesel ($0.30/gallon): $14,653,207,484
Tobacco (15%): $2,716,310,234

☞ Misc. Taxes and Penalties: $64,747,757,223
Fremont Carbon Taxation Act: $31,011,738,620
Green Vehicle Promotion Act § 2(ii): $3,602,574,479
Royalties Act:
Coal: $2,877,687,513
Gas: $1,500,722,750
Oil: $11,355,570,000
Gaming Tax: $5,100,495,700
Estate Tax (50%): $5,852,884,365
Drug Tax: $3,446,083,796
Lodging Facility Sales and Use Tax: $5,091,240,579.71

☞ FY2020 Surplus: 18,159,573,897

II. EXPENDITURES
☞ Tax Credits: $1,660,474,443
Green Vehicle Promotion Act §2(i): $1,236,935,443
Teacher's Tax Credit: $423,539,000

☞ Mandatory Spending: $206,060,590,457 (List A)

☞ Discretionary Spending: $415,502,000,000
Education: $195,282,000,000
Health and Human Services: $130,676,000,000
Justice: $36,491,000,000
Home Office: $53,053,000,000

TOTAL REVENUES:
TOTAL EXPENDITURES:
TOTAL SURPLUS:

Sponsor: FM Harry S. Truman (FF-LAB, North Dakota)

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Right. We have a lot of work to do, which is why I would prefer we get started on this sooner rather than later.

Our first task will be to compile all legislation passed since the FY2020 budget; then we can start to consider new sources of revenue &c.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Just like last year it's well past time for us to bring in a regional VAT.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Just like last year it's well past time for us to bring in a regional VAT.

How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?  I'm very hesitant to support any sales or regressive tax unless all our other budgetary options have been exhausted.

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Just like last year it's well past time for us to bring in a regional VAT.

How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?  I'm very hesitant to support any sales or regressive tax unless all our other budgetary options have been exhausted.

Because we currently have top income tax brackets of 30-60% on top of the 41% top federal income bracket and top corporate tax bracket of 60% on top of the 28% top federal corporate bracket. Meanwhile after regionalising state taxes we are now the only part of the OECD with zero consumption taxes.
Consumption taxes are the bedrock of the welfare state because they are an economically efficient way of raising revenue and you can only effectively wring so much money out of income and corporate tax.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Just like last year it's well past time for us to bring in a regional VAT.

How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?  I'm very hesitant to support any sales or regressive tax unless all our other budgetary options have been exhausted.

Because we currently have top income tax brackets of 30-60% on top of the 41% top federal income bracket and top corporate tax bracket of 60% on top of the 28% top federal corporate bracket. Meanwhile after regionalising state taxes we are now the only part of the OECD with zero consumption taxes.
Consumption taxes are the bedrock of the welfare state because they are an economically efficient way of raising revenue and you can only effectively wring so much money out of income and corporate tax.

Okay, but that doesn't tell me "How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?"

[AustralianSwingVoter]

Just like last year it's well past time for us to bring in a regional VAT.

How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?  I'm very hesitant to support any sales or regressive tax unless all our other budgetary options have been exhausted.

Because we currently have top income tax brackets of 30-60% on top of the 41% top federal income bracket and top corporate tax bracket of 60% on top of the 28% top federal corporate bracket. Meanwhile after regionalising state taxes we are now the only part of the OECD with zero consumption taxes.
Consumption taxes are the bedrock of the welfare state because they are an economically efficient way of raising revenue and you can only effectively wring so much money out of income and corporate tax.

Okay, but that doesn't tell me "How would this differ from a regular sales tax, exactly?"

Well obviously they are both consumption taxes, a value added tax is merely more efficient in applying to all stages of manufacturing rather than just being levied solely upon the final cost to the consumer. My argument is how unrealistic our current tax rates are when combined with federal tax rates while we completely ignore one of the main forms of taxation and the form that best incentivises economic growth.

[Mike Thick]

FWIW I will try to get the ball rolling on some federal money soon. Can’t say for sure how much but you can count on that as a source of revenue

[OBD]

I'm compiling a list of bills since Budget FY 2020 that may affect this year's budget. I was pretty liberal about adding bills to this list, FYI. Here is the list:

14th Parliament (all bills in wiki passed below Budget)
FT 14.08 Prison Reform Package (impact unknown, but probably small)
FT 14.11 Bestiality Criminalization Act (like above, generates revenue thru fines?)
FT 14.09 Custody Forfeiture Act (like above - small impact probable)
FT 14.10 Commonwealth Fuel & Power Act (this one's probably gonna hurt)
FT 14.14 Diesel Tax Abolition Act (unsure if this is still in application but if it is it affects us)
FT 14.12 Lobbying Restriction Act (small impact thru fines?)
FT 14.15 Right to Strike Act (again, small impact through fines?)
FT 14.13 Fremont's Homeless Integration Act (like 14.14, unsure if this is still in effect, but if so, there's an impact)
FT 14.17 Regional Linguistic Freedom Act (doubt this affects the budget but who knows)
FT 14.16 WJCA II (small impact thru fines?)
FT 14.25 Please Don't Club Seals Act (small impact thru fines?)

15th Parliament
FT 15.03 Right to Organize (potential fine revenue)
FT 15.05 Medical Price Control Act (there's expenditure here for certain, though the number is as of yet undetermined)
FT 15.08 Fremont Emergency Schooling Act (like above - undetermined expenditure)
FT 15.09 Fremont Nicotine Tax Act (ah yes, new revenue)
FT 15.12 Fremont Criminal Justice Reform Act (lots of fines/moving parts here)
FT 15.01 Public Transportation Expansions/Connections Act ($21 billion in yearly expenditure + a one-time $500 million payment for HSR upgrades)
FT 15.11 Basic Income Guarantee Pilot Program Act (Ouch. That said, I remember doing napkin math that said this shouldn't cost more than a billion...)
FT 15.14 Fremont Higher Education Reform Act (will almost certainly impact the budget)

16th Parliament
FT 16.03 Feed Fremonters Act (this will cost $$$)
FT 15.18 Right to Bear Arms (costs no more than $5 billion annually, potentially mitigated by existing healthcare expenditure)
FT 16.02 Green Futures Act ($350 million in yearly green energy funding, plus several tax effects)
FT 16.06 Animal Lives Matter Act (small fine impact)
FT 16.12 Fremont Public Safety Act (definitely impacts here)
FT 16.11 Hugo Black Assis. of Counsel Act (funded by the feds iirc but just to be safe)
FT 16.10 Green Commuting Act (definitely impacts here, if small)
FT 16.17 PHAT TUSH Act (upon passage, which appears certain, will have effects)

[Mike Thick]

Just FYI the money for Feed Fremonters was from a one-time appropriation a while ago, and was just sitting an agency fund gradually being spent. So, unless I’m missing something, that shouldn’t affect spending for this fiscal year on balance

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

A month has gone by without a single post in this thread, so we really need to get back to this.  We need to add up the new spending bills passed in the last year and then decide if a sales tax or VAT is necessary.

[Saint Milei]

can someone post the budget for 2020?

[OBD]

A month has gone by without a single post in this thread, so we really need to get back to this.  We need to add up the new spending bills passed in the last year and then decide if a sales tax or VAT is necessary.

The list I posted earlier is essentially up to date - if needed, I can submit the list to the Comptroller for calculation of expenditure.

[PSOL]

I believe that the Ministry or Landless People in the Fremont Homeless Integration Act is going to not be funded for fiscal year 2021. Outside of the fact that I will try and reimplement it, it’s currently only in effect till the end of this year.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I have sent a request to the comptroller general; hopefully we should hear back soon.

[OBD]

Has the Comptroller General absconded?

Additionally, we should probably move to fix our tax code in the near future - I'm willing to wait until after the COVID budget crunch resolves, but it's not reasonable to have 100% tax on anything imo.

[OBD]

COMMONWEALTH BUDGET
for the fiscal year of 2021

I. REVENUES
☞ Income Tax: $141,458,440,106
$0K – $125K (0%): $0
$125 – $200K (5%): $4,544,572,163
$200K – $1M (15%): $51,494,832,936
$1M – $10M (30%): $45,459,789,567
$10M – $100M (45%): $30,242,234,007
$100M+ (60%): $9,717,011,433

☞ Corporate Taxes: $222,721,286,871
$0 – 100K (0%): $0
$100K – 1M (20%): $1,052,287,645
$1M – 10M (40%): $7,087,226,512
$10M+ (60%): $214,581,772,714

☞ Excise Taxes: $30,457,309,589
Alcohol (15%): $13,087,791,871
Gas & Diesel ($0.30/gallon): $14,653,207,484
Tobacco (15%): $2,716,310,234

☞ Misc. Taxes and Penalties: $64,747,757,223
Fremont Carbon Taxation Act: $31,011,738,620
Green Vehicle Promotion Act § 2(ii): $3,602,574,479
Royalties Act:
Coal: $2,877,687,513
Gas: $1,500,722,750
Oil: $11,355,570,000
Gaming Tax: $5,100,495,700
Estate Tax (50%): $5,852,884,365
Drug Tax: $3,446,083,796
Lodging Facility Sales and Use Tax: $5,091,240,579.71

OK just eyeballing this and the federal budget, here are the effective tax brackets for the Commonwealth of Fremont:

Income
0-13K      10%  
13K-50k    15%                  
50K-125K   25%
125K - 130K 30%
130K- 200K 33%
200K - 210K 43%
210K - 413K 48%
413K - 441K 50%
441K - 1M 54.6%
1M - 10M 69.6%
10M - 100M 84.6%
100M+ 99.6% (!!!)

Corporate

0-100K     0%          
100K-1M    35%              
1M-10M     61.5%              
10M+       88.8%                      

Clearly, we have some work to do with these codes - I believe that the rate should be capped at 70-75% at most for the higher brackets, and clearly some numbers here are obscene. While we are in a revenue crunch now, and lower/middle class tax breaks should be a priority, making our region non-toxic for enterprise should also be important. After we get over the COVID hump, and if we can balance the budget with a tax cut, we should try. Might also be wise to create more increments for corporate tax...
        

                                             
Income
0-13K      10%  
13K-50k    15%                  
50K-125K   25%
125K - 130K 30%
130K- 200K 33%
200K - 210K 43% --> 44% (Fremont Code: 200-210K: 15% to 16%)
210K - 413K 48% --> 50% (Fremont Code: 210K-441K: 15% to 17%)
413K - 441K 50% --> 52% (see above)
441K - 1M 54.6% --> 56.6% (Fremont Code: 441K-1M): 15% to 17%)
1M - 10M 69.6% -->72% (Fremont Code: 30% to 32.4%)
10M - 100M 84.6% --> 74% (Fremont Code: 45% to 34.6%)
100M+ 99.6% --> 75% (Fremont Code: 60% to 35.6%)

Corporate

0-100K     0%          
100K-1M    35%              
1M-10M     61.5% --> 65% (Fremont Code: 40% to 43.5%)
10M+       88.8%  --> 75% (Fremont Code: 60% to 46.2%)

I'm no Comptroller, but I'm going to try some eyeball math. The biggest hit here comes from corporate tax, as we lose around 25% of revenue from that (maybe around $55B). Ultimately, as revenue from 100K-1M is so small, there's no point to raise that, and even 1M-10M bracket's small increase doesn't help much.

The flip side of that coin is income tax - the top bracket's revenue is low enough that drastically cutting it isn't a total budget disaster, and should roughly cancel with the corporate 1-10M bracket. Meanwhile, about $8B is lost from the 10M-100M cut, and that's probably gained back by the hikes in the 200K-1M bracket. In conclusion, according to my sh*tty map, this code will result in about a $50B loss (bringing the deficit from $147B to $197B) - bad, but probably worth rationalizing our tax code.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

I can't agree to tax cuts for anyone while we have such a large budget deficit. I would also point out however that the income tax rates don't include property or capital gains, so perhaps there is some wiggle room there.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Has the Comptroller General absconded?

Additionally, we should probably move to fix our tax code in the near future - I'm willing to wait until after the COVID budget crunch resolves, but it's not reasonable to have 100% tax on anything imo.

I sent him a request back in July and again a few weeks ago with no reply. Looks like we'll be doing the math ourselves again.

[OBD]

I can't agree to tax cuts for anyone while we have such a large budget deficit. I would also point out however that the income tax rates don't include property or capital gains, so perhaps there is some wiggle room there.

That's fair - I'm OK with balancing the budget first, before fixing the tax codes (though I think we should reduce them to a reasonable level sometime soon). As I noted earlier, the income tax's top bracket is probably the easiest to cut, but it's easier to justify taxing that highly (in opposition to corporate tax, which affects worker wages), so a bit of a conundrum.

Anyway, for transparency, I'm posting the ideas that the First Minister (mostly) and I had to balance this budget. In the absence of the Comptroller General, it's probably best to start with general ideas and work outward from those. Here is the list:

Increase Revenue
- Federal Aid
- Sales Tax (potentially a Value Added Tax?)
- Property Tax
- Capital Gains Tax (taxing profits, I think?)
- Increasing taxes on lower + middle classes (bad)
- potentially implementing the environmental sin taxes I outlined in the Green Futures Act earlier?

Cut Spending
- Reducing funding for law enforcement (a transition to community-based policing solutions would likely be a money-saver, though we would still have to fund training and such).
- Looking into cutting funding, or delaying funding for, certain bills

Ideally, if the budget can be balanced, the tax rates can be fixed, but otherwise, it will have to wait until Atlasia gets over the bump of the COVID-induced deficit.

[KoopaDaQuick 🇵🇸]

FT 14.17 Regional Linguistic Freedom Act (doubt this affects the budget but who knows)

It won't make a huge impact really, although the Commonwealth might have to appropriate funds in order to fund multilanguage services mentioned in Section III.

[The world will shine with light in our nightmare]

Now that a Comptroller General has been confirmed, this should probably be prioritized again.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Now that a Comptroller General has been confirmed, this should probably be prioritized again.

In theory, yes. In practice, this is Frémont.

We would have a bill appropriating $15 million ready, by the way, but it's been sitting on the Prime Minister's desk for eight days now.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

Now that a Comptroller General has been confirmed, this should probably be prioritized again.

And it has been! I would direct members to the property tax bill just introduced in the house, which should mend our budget deficit and allow us to wrap this up before New Years assuming all are on board.

[OBD]

Yep, I submitted a list of bills passed since the last budget to CG CraneHusband, and am awaiting a response.