Universal Basic Income

[sarg123]

Obviously, there are wealthy people who pay a lot in taxes, but there are also those who don't.

I just did a report on Berkshire Hathaway for my Corporate Finance class. My understanding was that Warren Buffet, who at one point was THE richest man in America, pays almost no taxes. I didn't check the others on the list, but I'm sure they have all the top accountants and lawyers making sure that they pay as little taxes as possible. Who's fault is this?

I came across this quote when I was taking Taxes I -

"Anyone may arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes. Over and over again the Courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everyone does it, rich and poor alike and all do right, for nobody owes anypublic duty to pay more than the law demands."-Judge Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810 (2d Cir. 1934), aff'd, 293 U.S. 465 (1935)

So who is at fault here? If people are trying to keep more of their money, and not hand it to the government, that is their complete right. But who wrote all these laws that allow rich people to pay almost no taxes? As a side note, why is home equity loan interest deductible, but my credit card loan interest is not deductible? There is no question that the tax law favors the rich, probably because rich people are writing it.

I think that the problems here are extremely complex, and there are no simple answers - cut taxes, raise taxes - these solutions are all meaningless on their own, without a broader plan of how to implement it. For example, in the Kansas experiment you cited, they cut education - that can't be acceptable.

The government needs taxes to pay for the school system, they also need taxes to maintain infrastructure. I also happen to agree, and I think that almost everyone really agrees, that the government should provide a safety net for those who need it. But the government also wastes a lot of money, really they do. And everyone keeps talking about the high corporate tax rate, but honestly, how many companies are actually paying this? They all take a million deductions in every possible way, shape, and form.

So the end result is that everyone gets out of taxes, and the government keeps borrowing more and more money to pay for it all, and at some point it's just going to blow up in our faces. I feel sorry for my children, because it is them who will actually be paying for all this, whether for real, or in super inflation (when the government just keeps printing money to pay all their obligations).