Taxes are never popular, and for the record, government is perhaps the most ill-suited entity to be spending money as there is. Government has the power to raise money through taxation and other means. It spends money it does not earn in ways that rarely maximize the potential benefit, with the primary risk being political, not financial. In other words, there is waste, personal enrichment and political bribery with little to no consequence, when government taxes and spends money. Still, we need a militia, roads, water systems and emergency services. Most of the rest could be done away with, or very greatly minimized and addressed through the marketplace in my opinion.
Obama and the Democrats want to keep the tax cuts in place for all but those earning $250,000 or more. This will apparently raise $700 billion – $1 trillion in the next couple of years. The Republicans contend jobs and our fragile economic recovery will greatly suffer if the tax cuts expire because many individuals have business income that lands on their personal income tax returns. And business is the engine that runs the economy. It’s a valid point.
There’s an entity called a Limited Liability Company (LLC). This form of business is best suited for small-to-midsized businesses. The net profit of an LLC shows up on the owner’s personal tax return. So, instead of paying a corporate income tax and then a personal income tax, income tax is only levied at the personal level. So, even though that money shows on a personal income tax return it’s not like it goes into the owner’s personal bank account. It will mostly rest in a business account and be used to run the company and fund future operations.
If everyone is serious and we want to stop playing games on both sides, then we should simply grandfather existing LLC’s into the bill, and let the tax cuts expire only for those whose personal incomes exceed the $250,000 threshold.
This will generate a great deal of revenue from those who can afford to pay it, without harming the engine driving our economic recovery, which is small business.
I’m staunchly anti-tax, but until we get spending under control we will either fleece our own people, or America will soon come with a tag that says, “Owned by China.”
And last, although it’s an on-going journey, there were all sorts of issues that simply came into alignment when Jesus swept across the barren landscape of my broken heart and brought new life. I firmly believe that if we will humble ourselves as a nation before the Lord, through our political leaders, that many insurmountable issues we face as a nation will simply take care of themselves. There is a much better way, and the Creator of the universe, the One who saves men’s souls has the answers.
God bless you.
