SB 29-25: Federal Budget FY 2022 (Passed)

[AGA]

Atlasia is very highly taxed when taking into account regional tax rates, so maybe we could look into cutting some of them, especially the 55% top income tax rate. I'll also see if I can shift some of the tax burden onto a value-added tax, but that isn't a huge priority for me. The wealth tax should be scrapped for sure. Having brackets for corporate taxes seems like poor policy since it could encourage companies to break up even if that results in a loss of efficiency. Making it a flat tax wouldn't harm any small businesses that are organized as sole proprietorships, which constitute the majority of them.

Also, I'm assuming capital gains are taxed as income here?

[AGA]

One Time Coronavirus Stimulus spending ($5295.126 Billion)
$9.226 Billion.... Coronavirus Containment and Emergency Response Act
$4807 Billion.... Economic Stimulus Act of 2020
$478.90 Billion.... JOBS AND PAY DURING THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ACT

Why is this still here? There isn't that much spending from the previous stimulus bills that goes into FY 2022. These are the same numbers from last year's budget.

[AGA]

Objection. Looking at the Third Emergency Economic Stimulus Act, there are still payments that extend past October 1; they just decrease over time. The amount would still have be calculated, but it would be less than it currently is on the bill.

Upon further thought, the language of the aforementioned bill does not suggest an end date of the payments, so we would have to guess if Congress will end them manually.

[AGA]

Objection. Looking at the Third Emergency Economic Stimulus Act, there are still payments that extend past October 1; they just decrease over time. The amount would still have be calculated, but it would be less than it currently is on the bill.

Upon further thought, the language of the aforementioned bill does not suggest an end date of the payments, so we would have to guess if Congress will end them manually.

Are you still objecting?

I'll withdraw my objection. I don't think we will extend the payments.

[AGA]

I have a simple amendment. It reverts the income tax brackets to the ones in the OP because the current brackets result in marginal tax rates of over 100% in Lincoln and Fremont, which is nonsensical. The other change switches to a flat corporate tax rate of 25%. Progressive tax rates don't work for corporations because they can just break up to shift their profits to lower brackets and pay less in tax. I am not aware of any country that has a progressive corporate tax. Also, if anyone can help me figure out what revenue the lowest corporate bracket would generate, that would be appreciated.

The expenditure and balance numbers reflect Scott's amendment. While there is still a deficit, I think that it is fine to have one while the country is recovering from a major recession.

Section 1: Revenues

Income Taxes:  $ 1,735,038,900,000.00  ($ 1735.04 billion)                          
 by tax bracket
 0-13K      10%  $ 132,602,630,929.00
 13K-50k    15%    $ 447,780,682,763.00                    
 50K-130K   25%        $ 535,512,271,234.00              
 130K-210K  29%       $ 188,700,479,643.00                    
 210K-413K  34%       $ 220,320,135,498.00                        
 413K-441K  36%        $ 75,481,993,752.00                    
 441K-$5M+ 45% 40.6%     $ 134,640,706,551.00  
$5,000,000+ 55%                  
                                            
Corporate Taxes:  $ 347,763,510,122.19  ($ 347.76 billion) $ 313,972,295,288.00 ($ 313.97 billion)
 by tax bracket                                            
 0-100K     0% 25%       $ 0.00 $ ???
 100K-1M    15% 25%       $ 2,678,940,033.99 $ 4,464,900,056.65                
 1M-10M     21.5% 25%    $ 5,172,280,041.70 $ 6,014,279,118.26                  
 10M+       28% 25%         $ 339,912,290,046.51 $ 303,493,116,113.00                

...
                        
TOTAL Revenue: $ 3973.83 Billion $ 39040.04 Billion

Section 3: Balance

BASE REVENUE:     $ 3973.830 Billion $ 3940.04 billion
Inflation Accounting: *1.012
TOTAL REVENUE: $ 4021.52 Billion $ 3987.32 billion

Fixed Expenditures: $ 36.05 Billion
Variable Expenditures:  $ 3979.45 Billion
One time Expenditures: $ 5295.126 Billion
Interest on Debt: $ 295.40 Billion
BASE EXPENDITURES: $ 9606.026 Billion $ 4362.63 Billion
Inflation Accounting: *1.012
TOTAL EXPENDITURES: $ 9721.30 Billion $4362.63 Billion
BALANCE: $ -5699.78 Billion $ -375.31 Billion

[AGA]

Yes, that's a typo. Sen. Scott should be able to change it as PPT.

[AGA]

Sen. Yankee says it still needs feedback from the primary sponsor, so I am not sure if it has been adopted yet.

[AGA]

Nay. I would like to see some spending cuts elsewhere before supporting this.

[AGA]

The need to redo the tax code is vital to starting and keeping businesses in Atlasia.

You can submit an amendment to the budget to do that.

Respectfully, the whole thing needs to be reworked.

You can rework that with an amendment and you can change anything within the bill unless you are lazy. I wonder what would you want to change if you are willing to elaborate on that.

Most changes to the tax brackets that make it a more progressive system would have taxes of over 100% for high earners in Fremont and Lincoln. Until the regions change that we can't do much without causing a larger deficit or raising taxes on low earners which I think none of us want.

If you want to have a lower deficit/have a balanced budget there are a multitude of options you can undertake and you could take multiple options.

Firstly, you could always propose a program of austerity that will reduce public spending, but given that you are more left wing then most of the Labor slate in June, I highly doubt you would support that.

Secondly, you could always raise taxes on the poor and middle classes, but I highly doubt that anyone would support that unless taxes are raised for everyone and your opposition to that.

Finally, you could raise taxes on the rich, but you are opposed to having taxes above 100%. 

You can abolish regions but that isn't realistic in a pro-regional rights senate.
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I don't see the regions of Fremont and Lincoln lowering their taxes anytime soon considering that the latter needs the revenue and the former assumes the costs of state budgets.

Lincoln needs the revenue? Did you see the surplus in its last budget?