Shawn M. Tierney’s Blog

Taxes: My thoughts

When I watch the evening news, one thing that always irks me is “why our elected officials constantly change our tax code?” I understand they may want to argue about “what” the money gets spent on, but after 200 years you would think we would have figured out what percentage of the work-force’s income the government needs to run a town / city / state / country?

With that said, I think the time is now for the citizens of our country to demand a “well thought out,” “simple,” and “stable” tax code. Here’s two possibilities for your consideration:

Option 1 - The Flat “tax brackets”

Taxes on income up to the poverty level: ~ 1%
Taxes on income above the poverty level up to 25% above the average income: ~ 10%
Taxes on income above 25% over the average income to 15 times the average income: ~ 20%
Taxes on income above 15 times the average income: ~34%

The rational:

Taxing income earned up to the “poverty line,” which as of 2007 was ~$21,000 for a family of four, at an extremely low rate, like ~1%, factors in two realities: A - these folks are struggling just to survive so their taxes need to be very very low, and B) we do however want them to pay something, no matter how small, so they will feel that they are contributing and therefore have a stake in how taxes are spent.

Taxing income earned over the poverty line (~$21,000 for a family of four,) up to $62,500 (which is ~25% over the average income of $50,000 in 2007,) keeps taxes on the lower middle class and middle middle class reasonably low.

Taxing income earned over $62,500 (25% over the average income) up to $750,000 (15 times the average income) at ~20% allows the upper middle class to middle upper class to pay taxes at a rate similar to todays rates.

Taxing income earned over $750,000 (over 15 times the average American income) at a high ~34% tax bracket reflects the fact that companies paying people millions of dollars annually (sometimes 50 or 1000 times more than the average American) can also afford higher payments to fund our society as well.

IMHO No one who ever lived could out perform a 1000 average Americans.

I’ll post the second proposed tax system later in the week

Option 2: Sales Tax only

Charge a sales tax on all products except for the necessities of life (aka don’t tax basic groceries, clothing, home heating oil or natural gas, aka - the basics)

Make this tax included in the shelf price (like gas taxes) and not added on at checkout (like state sales tax)

This way the more you buy (aka the more you make and spend) the more taxes you pay. Which means poor folks who can’t afford much wouldn’t pay much.

The best part of this plan, which is very similar to the Fair Tax Governor Huckleberry was promoting, is that our American companies will no longer have to pay corporate income taxes, and will now be on a even “tax” playing field with all those factories over seas who also sell products here but never paid corporate income taxes.

Movie Review: Traitor (2008)

The description of this movie stated a FBI agent was chasing an ex-army special ops soldier who joined a terrorist organization. With big names like Don Cheadle, Jeff Daniels and Neal McDonough, I decided to give it a shot… and was pleasantly please to find an entertaining action/mystery movie with characters I could like, and an ending that was fulfilling. (It’s PG-13, and I agree - would not recommend for preteens or kids)

Movie Review: Wall-e (2008)

I just watched this movie last night with my 12 year old son and I have to it’s just awesome. Fun, colorful, inventive, and just plain entertaining. I would not only highly recommend this movie to all ages, it’s also on my “buy list” for my dvd collection.

Goodbye 30’s

Goodbye 30’s.

As of next week I will no longer be a 30 something, but instead will be officially “over the hill.” In reality, since the average American male only lives to be 77 years old, I’m actually over the hill already.

Strangely, turning 40 isn’t looming so large for me. Sure, it’s a milestone that gets one thinking about life, age, and many other things. But becoming a grandfather earlier in the year was for me a much deeper and more challenging milestone.

Looking back on my thirty’s I’ll readily confess I didn’t meet all the goals the song writer mentions in, “My next thirty years,” but there’s much hope I’ll meet those goals in my next twenty years.