libertybelle wrote:
>
> http://www.enterstageright.com/0400taxslave.htm
> <http://www.enterstageright.com/0400taxslave.htm>
>
> Are Americans tax slaves to the government?
> By Ralph Reiland
> web posted April 17, 2000
> Your taxes are done, and you're about to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
> Not so fast! The nightmare isn't over on April 17.
> If you stop for a $10 pizza on your way home from dropping your 1999
> tax return at the post office, the taxman will be right there to grab a
> slice
> or two. On top of paying the sales tax, you will also be picking up a
> major chunk of what government charges the pizza-shop owner for
> property taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, federal payroll taxes,
> federal, state, and local income taxes, and worker's compensation
> taxes. Altogether, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform,
> the taxman gets $3.80 on that $10 pizza.
> If you're flying the next day, the taxman is up early and waiting at the
> airport, pocketing $40 on every $100 spent on an airline ticket. And
> he's there in the hotel lobby when you land, snatching $43 on every
> $100 of the hotel bill. Go out to dinner and another $28 of every $100
> of the tab ends up in the government's pocket rather than with the
> restaurant, the farmers, truckers, and everyone else who worked
> together to produce the meal.
> No matter where you turn, the hand of government has its fingers in
> every pocket. A recent study by Price Waterhouse shows that 30
> different taxes imposed on the production and sale of a loaf of bread
> account for 27 percent of the average retail price. Buy some new tires
> and $36 of every $100 you pay goes to the taxman. On the price of a
> new car, Americans for Tax Reform says total taxes reach 45 percent
> of the showroom sticker price. Add some gas and 54 percent of what
> you pay goes for 43 different federal, state, and local taxes, rather than
> to the oil producer and retailer.
> Taxes now eat up an incredible 38 percent of the gross income of the
> average family, a higher peacetime rate of taxation than the American
> people have ever experienced. By comparison, the typical two-income
> family in the mid-1950s paid 28 percent of its income in taxes.
> Each year, the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions;
> enough paper to stretch 28 times around the earth. To comply with the
> U. S. tax code's maze of contradictory rules, deductions, exemptions,
> and loopholes, Americans are spending 5.4 billion hours and $200
> billion each year. And that's not counting the taxes paid. To put this in
> perspective, Americans are spending more time and money each year
> on their taxes than it takes to produce every car, truck, and van in the
> United States.
> When the federal income tax was launched
> back in 1913, it was levied upon only the
> super-wealthy, the richest one-half of 1
> percent of the population, with a top tax rate
> of only 7 percent. By the end of Herbert
> Hoover's term in 1933, the top rate had
> skyrocketed to 60 percent. By the time
> Franklin D. Roosevelt was finished in 1945,
> the top rate was over 90 percent and
> exemptions had been lowered to capture the
> incomes of the middle class for the first time.
> Michiganians can take some comfort in the fact that what they pay in
> taxes to the state of Michigan has been, overall, virtually unchanged
> since 1996. But the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency recently reported
> that when you add the growing burden of local taxes to your state tax
> bill, the total amounts to 11 percent of personal income. That's just as
> high as the high-tax days of Governor John Engler's predecessor,
> former Governor James Blanchard.
> In 1913, the average family in America had to work until January 30
> before earning enough to satisfy the taxman at all levels. This year, the
> average American family will work through mid-May in order to earn
> enough to pay federal, state, and local tax bills.
> "Compare this to the plight of medieval serfs," says economist Daniel J.
> Mitchell of The Heritage Foundation. "They only had to give the lord of
> the manor a third of their output and they were considered slaves. So
> what does that make us?"
> Like I said, it ain't over on April 17.
> Ralph Reiland is associate professor of economics at Robert Morris
> College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and an adjunct scholar with the
> Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. More
> information on taxation is available at www.mackinac.org.
> <http://www.mackinac.org.>
>
> http://www.enterstageright.com/0400taxslave.htm
> <http://www.enterstageright.com/0400taxslave.htm>
>
> Are Americans tax slaves to the government?
> By Ralph Reiland
> web posted April 17, 2000
> Your taxes are done, and you're about to breathe a huge sigh of relief.
> Not so fast! The nightmare isn't over on April 17.
> If you stop for a $10 pizza on your way home from dropping your 1999
> tax return at the post office, the taxman will be right there to grab a
> slice
> or two. On top of paying the sales tax, you will also be picking up a
> major chunk of what government charges the pizza-shop owner for
> property taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, federal payroll taxes,
> federal, state, and local income taxes, and worker's compensation
> taxes. Altogether, according to a study by Americans for Tax Reform,
> the taxman gets $3.80 on that $10 pizza.
> If you're flying the next day, the taxman is up early and waiting at the
> airport, pocketing $40 on every $100 spent on an airline ticket. And
> he's there in the hotel lobby when you land, snatching $43 on every
> $100 of the hotel bill. Go out to dinner and another $28 of every $100
> of the tab ends up in the government's pocket rather than with the
> restaurant, the farmers, truckers, and everyone else who worked
> together to produce the meal.
> No matter where you turn, the hand of government has its fingers in
> every pocket. A recent study by Price Waterhouse shows that 30
> different taxes imposed on the production and sale of a loaf of bread
> account for 27 percent of the average retail price. Buy some new tires
> and $36 of every $100 you pay goes to the taxman. On the price of a
> new car, Americans for Tax Reform says total taxes reach 45 percent
> of the showroom sticker price. Add some gas and 54 percent of what
> you pay goes for 43 different federal, state, and local taxes, rather than
> to the oil producer and retailer.
> Taxes now eat up an incredible 38 percent of the gross income of the
> average family, a higher peacetime rate of taxation than the American
> people have ever experienced. By comparison, the typical two-income
> family in the mid-1950s paid 28 percent of its income in taxes.
> Each year, the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions;
> enough paper to stretch 28 times around the earth. To comply with the
> U. S. tax code's maze of contradictory rules, deductions, exemptions,
> and loopholes, Americans are spending 5.4 billion hours and $200
> billion each year. And that's not counting the taxes paid. To put this in
> perspective, Americans are spending more time and money each year
> on their taxes than it takes to produce every car, truck, and van in the
> United States.
> When the federal income tax was launched
> back in 1913, it was levied upon only the
> super-wealthy, the richest one-half of 1
> percent of the population, with a top tax rate
> of only 7 percent. By the end of Herbert
> Hoover's term in 1933, the top rate had
> skyrocketed to 60 percent. By the time
> Franklin D. Roosevelt was finished in 1945,
> the top rate was over 90 percent and
> exemptions had been lowered to capture the
> incomes of the middle class for the first time.
> Michiganians can take some comfort in the fact that what they pay in
> taxes to the state of Michigan has been, overall, virtually unchanged
> since 1996. But the Michigan Senate Fiscal Agency recently reported
> that when you add the growing burden of local taxes to your state tax
> bill, the total amounts to 11 percent of personal income. That's just as
> high as the high-tax days of Governor John Engler's predecessor,
> former Governor James Blanchard.
> In 1913, the average family in America had to work until January 30
> before earning enough to satisfy the taxman at all levels. This year, the
> average American family will work through mid-May in order to earn
> enough to pay federal, state, and local tax bills.
> "Compare this to the plight of medieval serfs," says economist Daniel J.
> Mitchell of The Heritage Foundation. "They only had to give the lord of
> the manor a third of their output and they were considered slaves. So
> what does that make us?"
> Like I said, it ain't over on April 17.
> Ralph Reiland is associate professor of economics at Robert Morris
> College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and an adjunct scholar with the
> Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Midland, Michigan. More
> information on taxation is available at www.mackinac.org.
> <http://www.mackinac.org.>