America is supposed to be the land of the free, yet it is has one of the most vicious tax regimes in the rich world. Once blessed with comparatively low tax rates and levels of regulation, businesses and entrepreneurs flocked to the United States from the sclerotic systems of Europe (and elsewhere). Now American businesses are fleeing America’s shores and foreign-born entrepreneurs are less inclined to come at all.
The collecting of taxes is always a sticky subject for proponents of the free market to address. This is due to their natural tendency to spurn taxes in general. Yet, if change to the current unfair, prosperity-stifling tax regime is to occur, we need to offer a meaningful solution beyond the simple call to reduce taxes and spending (appealing as they might be). One solution that might go a long way toward improving how the government collects taxes is the Automated Payment Transaction Tax (APT tax).
Coming thirteen days after state and federal income tax returns were initially due, Tax Freedom Day, according to the Illinois Policy Institute’s Senior Budget and Tax Policy Analyst Benjamin VanMetre, marks the point in the year when Illinoisans have worked long and hard enough in the aggregate to cover their share of state, federal and local taxes “and can start keeping their hard-earned money.” About a third of Illinois residents’ efforts this year – 118 days’ worth out of the calendar year’s 365, in other words – went just to paying taxes.
Economics · Featured · Liberty · Politics · Random
With all the talk of America’s forgotten middle class, it’s worth taking time as we begin a new year to consider that the country’s seeming obsession with wealth and inequality may instead be turning the U. S. into a country with only two classes: the governed and the governing.
Although at first glance Nebraska’s tax system may appear competitive nationally, it lags behind its regional neighbors, who are its primary competitors for attracting new businesses to the state.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Featured · Podcast
Dan Pilla, author of the Heartland-published Ten Principles of Federal Tax Policy, discusses the current tax system in the United States and how it does not follow any of the ten principles laid out in his book. Pilla is a taxpayer’s rights advocate and has defended countless tax payers against the IRS. He helps individuals and businesses who struggle with our tax problems, which are plentiful.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Featured · Government · Liberty · Regulation
The clock is ticking. Hopefully politics won’t impede the way forward until such a time when this nation can no longer be rescued from it self-imposed downfall, precipitated by an all-powerful, reckless government whose goal it is to please what has become a nation of greedy, government-dependent Americans.
Featured · Speaker Series · Taxes
Standing by itself, Pilla’s Ten Principles of Federal Tax Policy is one in a series of eight other brief guides in Heartland’s Legislative Principles Series, each having its own set of principles central to its topic of debate.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Featured · Government · Legal Affairs · Liberty · Speaker Series · Taxes
The Heartland Institute’s author series hosted Dan Pilla, author of the Heartland-published Ten Principles of Federal Tax Policy on November 14. Pilla is a taxpayer’s rights advocate and has defended countless tax[…]
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Taxes
The ongoing battles in Washington over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling are merely symptoms of a raging disease wracking the body politic: terminal government obesity.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Featured · Liberty · Politics
Given his consistent conservatism across the board, from free market economics to social issues, Ken Cuccinelli is emerging as the Ronald Reagan of Virginia.
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Liberty · Politics
Phil Mickelson, the affable “aw shucks” fan-favorite on the PGA Tour and one of the game’s greatest golfers, really stepped in it this week. He ticked off liberals by hitting[…]
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · Environment/Energy · Taxes
Regarding Peter Ferrara’s recent post: I often talk about taxes being the price for government services. The idea was introduced to the profession in 1896 by Knut Wicksell. He added[…]
(Originally published at ClassicalPrinciples.com) Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has done Republicans and the nation a great service by proposing major changes in the Byzantine way the US collects its[…]
Budgets/Taxes · Economics · FIRE · Taxes
The income tax in the U.S. is the most progressive among the developed countries. Who made it so? John Goodman and Michael Stroup tell you at Townhall. An excerpt: Barack[…]
Yesterday our friends at the Tax Foundation released their annual State-Local Tax Burden study which highlights what state’s taxpayers are facing the highest and lowest tax burdens in the country.[…]
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