Shai Gar Tax Revision Challenge

Excellent - if tax were no longer indexed to total income, but to the rate of pay, it would encourage people to work more hours and more jobs, which in turn would increase competetiveness in the jobs market, which drives the demand for higher education and trade skills.

Ultimately a more sophisiticated work-force will be the only thing which can preserve our standard of living, as large third world countries improve their economies.

 

What about people who are self-employed or own small businesses, or who have rental income?

In those situations, you sometimes wind up working almost 24/7, and you may or may not even get paid, so it sort of makes it hard to convert it to anything hourly.

In the states, if you are self-employed or own a small business, you must pay self-employment tax, which is effectively paying into unemployment benefits for people who lose their jobs. But, if your business fails, or is impacted by a bad economy, you are not able to collect unemployment benefits for yourself. This seems grossly unfair!

(Not sure what it's like in Australia, though.)

(Not sure if you want input from the US or if this is just for Australian taxpayers)

 

You really believe this stuff, dontya.

 

If government wanted to stimulate small business, perhaps the personal rate of an owner/operator should be their total income averaged out over 16hr days/6days a week. Rentals and capital gains should perhaps be taxed as is, because increases in these kind of investments are linked to high rates of borrowing.

 

If you have something to say on the topic, please post - this is an interesting topic to me.

 

How about Salary / 200 = tax. That would roughly correspond to the above hourly rates, and people who make RIDICULOUS salaries (ie. athletes) get to contribute more to society.

 

And by "work the system" what do you mean? Because that sounds suspiciously like "tax evasion" and "breaking laws". Is that what you mean?

 

Oh, I see.

There are a lot of different ways to structure a company or a small business, and in some cases, in the U.S., counting yourself as an employee is not possible/legal. And incorporating yourself can be problematic as well -- you wind up paying more taxes.

Must look into it more, it's very complex and the laws are always changing.

Ugh, taxes.

 

No, of course I don't need to be an ENTP to work my way around this.

I've done a great deal of reading on the subject, in fact, and it is something I'm continuously interested in. There are aspects of my situation that you are not aware of. Assume you don't know everything.

 

Not too much, honestly. I have heard of setting up trusts and have a general idea what it involves.

I considered making my 6- and 3-year-olds employees, but the government is already onto that little trick. (curse them) LOL!

I do know I need to look into the tax issue further.

Some taxes are fine by me, but currently if you count federal, state, local, property and sales taxes, well over half our income; probably more like 60%, goes to taxes, and it irks me. We are not entitled to (full) unemployment, and the social security fund is likely to go bust by the time we are old enough, and we work hard, and have for a long time, and are not exactly robber baron elites, either. So yes, I am interested in tax issues and I'm annoyed with myself that I haven't figured something better out!!

And at the moment (April $%^-ing 16th) I am unusually annoyed about it. But I don't mean to dominate your thread with my complaining! I'm sure some people have excellent ideas and I'd be glad to hear them.