posted on September 11, 2003 02:52:20 AM
Got this from a friend. A lot of truth to it.
Amen,
Reverend Colin
Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
Capital Gains Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Court Fines (indirect taxes)
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money)
Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)
IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)
Liquor Tax
Local Income Tax
Luxury Taxes
Marriage License Tax
Medicare Tax
Property Tax
Real Estate Tax
Septic Permit Tax
Service Charge Taxes
Social Security Tax
Road Usage Taxes (Truckers)
Sales Taxes
Recreational Vehicle Tax
Road Toll Booth Taxes
School Tax
State Income Tax
State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)
Telephone federal excise tax
Telephone federal universal service fee tax
Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes
Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax
Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax
Telephone State and local tax
Telephone usage charge tax
Toll Bridge Taxes
Toll Tunnel Taxes
Traffic Fines (indirect taxation)
Trailer registration tax
Utility Taxes
Vehicle License Registration Tax
Vehicle Sales Tax
Watercraft registration Tax
Well Permit Tax
Workers Compensation Tax
COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago and our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
posted on September 11, 2003 06:54:12 AM
here you go,fascist colin, oops i meant to say reverend fascist colin, hope some of this explains because you lately have been a jerk to some of us, when we tried to show you why taxes are why they are, not really wanted to hear, but only insulting, so i guess i will return the favour, so blame your idol Bush and oh yea it's going get worse, he he he
Stuck in a terrible fiscal state
Americans are paying the price for the overconfidence of their second-tier governments.
When you consider how much attention we (rightly) pay to American politics, it's surprising how little we hear about the adventures - and misadventures - of the 50 American state governments. Few of us know those governments are putting themselves and their citizens through the financial wringer at present, even though it's a cautionary tale for our own state governments.
You would have heard that California's governor, Gray Davis, is so hugely unpopular he's been recalled by popular petition, with Arnie Schwarzenegger running in a vast field of would-be replacements.
The greatest cause of Davis's unpopularity is the draconian measures he's been taking to deal with California's yawning budget deficit. But its budgetary crisis is just the most extreme of the crises facing virtually all the US states. Between them, they have deficits totalling $125 billion.
How did the states get themselves in such a parlous position when America's recession in 2001 was the mildest on record? Well, it was pretty much all their own work.
Their tax revenues grew strongly during the long boom of the 1990s, particularly their cut of the capital gains made from the sharemarket's tech stock boom. (Most US states have income taxes and company taxes, which they piggyback on the federal versions.)
The state pollies saved a little of the extra revenue by putting it into "rainy day" reserve funds. For the most part, however, they conformed to Parkinson's third law: "Expenditures rise to meet revenues and to exceed them."
Over the course of the 1990s, the states' spending per person grew by 28 per cent in real terms. In particular, they spent more on primary and secondary education, more on prisons and more on health care.
The states have primary responsibility for a joint federal-state program called Medicaid, which subsidises the health care needs of the elderly and other low-income people.
There is, however, a qualification to the rule that politicians will spend every dollar that falls into their hands. As the '90s boom progressed, the states became confident the good times were here to stay, so they cut tax rates quite heavily.
After that masterstroke, it was only a matter of time before the bursting of the sharemarket bubble and the slowdown in the economy left the states up a creek. Their revenue has fallen, their spending hasn't, and now they face budget deficits equivalent to 20 or 25 per cent of their annual revenues.
It's worth noting that the revenue currently being lost as a result of those earlier cuts in tax rates is equivalent to roughly half the size of the deficits the states now face.
Note, too, that all but one of the states have constitutional or legislative provisions requiring them to at least balance their recurrent budgets. Fortunately, however, most of those provisions have built-in loopholes that allow the pollies to fudge around them to a greater or lesser extent.
Even so, for the past year or two the states have been under huge pressure to do whatever it takes to eliminate their deficits (notwithstanding the weak state of their economies).
About half of them have raised tax rates, or are considering it, particularly taxes on cigarettes and alcohol. Some have increased sales tax and a few income tax.
Some states are looking to increase their revenue from gambling, while most have jacked up all manner of court fines and fees for services, including tuition fees at state universities and colleges. The University of Iowa's fees were raised by 18 per cent (and no namby-pamby stuff about real interest-free loans).
For the most part, however, the states are slashing their spending rather than raising taxes (some enacted provisions during the '90s requiring that bills for tax increases be passed by more than a simple majority).
Virtually all states have reduced Medicaid benefits to low-income earners, restricting dental cover and occupational and physiotherapy, and reducing spending on nursing home care.
Kentucky has released lesser-offence prisoners up to a year early. To fend off Oregon's plan to cut its school year by a month, its teachers agreed to work for two weeks without pay.
Primary and secondary school teachers have received lay-off notices in more than a dozen states. In Oklahoma teachers have driven buses, mopped floors and cooked cafeteria food as support staff have been sharply reduced. In parts of Colorado, schools have shifted to a four-day week.
According to The New York Times, states are also "dismissing state troopers, closing parks and schools, dropping bus routes, eliminating college scholarships and slashing a host of other services that have long been taken for granted".
Then comes the tricky stuff. Because the US states still use cash accounting and don't publish balance sheets, they can pull stunts such as shifting public service payday from the last day in the old year to the first day of the new year.
The Illinois Government has sold its big glass office building in downtown Chicago and pocketed the proceeds. But, instead of moving out, it's renting the building back. (To be fair, the Howard Government has pulled that trick countless times.)
And get a load of this. In 1998, the US states won a major case against the tobacco companies that entitled them to perpetual compensation for the costs tobacco-induced illness had imposed on them.
The Davis administration has sold for almost $4 billion California's right to collect over the next 25 years a total of $8 billion in compensation. Other states have done similar deals.
So ... thank your lucky stars you're not a Yank. Only in America. It could never happen here. Or could it? Over the past five or six years, our states have been waxing fat on the strong economy plus amazing growth in conveyancing duty revenue from the never-ending property boom. Needless to say, they've spent most of the extra revenue.
But when the property boom ends, conveyancing duty won't just grow more slowly, it will collapse (because what drives collections is not so much the rising price of houses as the number changing hands).
Remember the foolish virgins? I'm not sure our political virgins are much less foolish than America's.
posted on September 11, 2003 07:05:39 AM
Do you think it might have also something to do with selling all the family silver.
All the natural monopolies.
posted on September 11, 2003 07:33:32 AM
Also 100 years ago....
Death and Disease was rampant. Standard of living was much lower. Mom DID stay home with the kids, but mainly to supervise their piecework labor for the local sweatshop owner. Hopefully they could do enough pieces to get the money to purchase a mouthful of food. Life expectancy was much lower. Prosperity came from the backs of the lower classes would would be paid LESS than slave wages. At least with slaves, they got food, shelter and clothing. Sweatshop owner's would pay less than that. SOme of those taxes you mention didn't exist because the item didn't exist or was so rare it didn't need control. And some you mention are just for your effect and have good reasons for them
posted on September 11, 2003 08:47:07 AM
Barnes and Noble rules ! nothing beats a large chain bookstore where you can relax grab a cup of coffee and read for a while without having to have some uptight mom and pop nickle and dimer grip and moan .
posted on September 11, 2003 11:08:25 AM
Wow, when you see it on paper colin, it makes you wonder how people can afford ANYTHING!
In Ontario, all of our earned money goes to taxes until around July 10th, then the rest is ours to spend. So if you make 40K, you'll be allowed to keep about 18K to live on for the year, so Canada's no joy ride either!
posted on September 11, 2003 11:43:46 AM
Does Canada have a reward system like the States for turning in tax cheats? Seems like at that tax rate there must be a LOT of them.
posted on September 11, 2003 01:20:35 PM
Not that I know of, gravid. Does this happen in the U.S? I know a handful of people that sell on eBay to suppliment their income, but don't claim it because half would go to the gov't. It's either that, or prostitution.
posted on September 11, 2003 01:21:30 PM
I don't understand the Canadian tax system.
What do they do, tax you only until July 10?
Then after July 10 your tax free on your income?
Anyway, we're taxed, on most, not all, the taxes Colin mentioned above.. no CDL license in this house, no hunting or fishing (any longer) in this house, no toll bridges or tunnels here, but most everything else we pay, up the arse. Its not fun having to pay taxes, but we do, and still get by ok.
Well gotta go out.. I know there's gotta be a tax out there somewhere for me to pay!
Art Bell Retired! George Noory is on late night coasttocoastam.com
No, we get taxed the same as you, everyday, on everything, but if you totalled up all the taxes a person pays in one year (in Canada), they wouldn't start making money for themselves until around July, because the first half is what that person would end up paying the goverment in taxes. (Hope I'm making sense.) Actually, if you added up every tax you pay in the U.S., you would probably be making (or losing) about the same. It's expensive to live.
posted on September 11, 2003 01:56:39 PM
Have you read this list.
How many pay Well Permit Tax, do you believe fines are taxes? Vehicle Sales Taxes are the same as Sales Tax. IRS penalties (not to be confused for interest) are just that penalties levied for malfeasance not to be confused with a mistake. Last time I looked the IRS does not have an inventory tax (sometimes your county or local municipality does) usually a fraction of a percent. Hunting license is a fee not a tax, directly goes to insure the future viability of the herd. And on and on. I'm surprised anyone took this joke list as fact when it is obviously fiction. Tax Freedom Day in the US is similar to that in Canada the IRS statisticians announce it yearly as it changes.
posted on September 11, 2003 02:28:55 PM
Believe it or not, we had to pay the Well Tax, as we did have a well at one time...quite awhile ago, so I don't know if it stll applys here.
As for the Vehicle Sales Tax, I'm pretty sure its sales tax.
But! in our state, we pay no food (non prepared) tax at all. But if it is prepared, say restaurant, fast food, deli counter, then that is taxed. Go figure, it all ends up in the same place anyway right
Kraft, Ok, just the way you first put it, it sounded like you were taxed only until July
edit for an i before e thing
Art Bell Retired! George Noory is on late night coasttocoastam.com
[ edited by NearTheSea on Sep 11, 2003 02:30 PM ]
posted on September 12, 2003 09:49:07 AM
Vehicles Sales Tax IS straight sales tax. However, some states (I Think Virginia is one) charges an annual vehicle tax IN LIEU OF ?school tax? I believe.
posted on September 12, 2003 09:50:11 AMBut! in our state, we pay no food (non prepared) tax at all. But if it is prepared, say restaurant, fast food, deli counter, then that is taxed. Go figure, it all ends up in the same place anyway right
posted on September 14, 2003 04:55:57 AM
I have three wells, they aren't taxed.
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I want to have Ann Coulter's babies
posted on September 14, 2003 07:00:37 AM
One sure thing about taxes...people will not be willing to pay for a war that is not waged in defense of this country.
posted on September 14, 2003 07:31:15 AM
newsweek poll shows 51% of Americans against the President's request for 87 billion dollar down payment....
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I want to have Ann Coulter's babies
posted on September 14, 2003 07:38:50 AM
Then there are those of who are for the war, but against the 87 billion to rebuild Iraq.
Kill the bad guys, set up a basic government and get out. Nobody said anything about rebuilding the country!!!
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Replay Media
Games of all kinds!
When President Bush recently requested $87 billion for the costs of war and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan for the coming year, he praised the sacrifices of those stationed overseas and expressed sympathy with the burdens placed on them and their families.[1]
The word “sacrifice” invites reflection. Which Americans, other than the members of the armed services and their families, have been asked to sacrifice for the common good? Two possible answers to that question stand out.
The President’s key budget priority — large and growing tax cuts — remains unaffected by the war. While $87 billion for 2004 is costly, the tax cuts enacted since the President has taken office cost three times as much in 2004, and disproportionately favor the well off. The President does not ask recipients of the tax cut to make even the most modest of sacrifices.
Because the President does not propose to scale back either enacted or proposed tax cuts or proposed funding increases for prescription drugs, education, or other programs, all of the costs of war will be added to the already high deficits. As a consequence, the financial burden of this war will be handed to future generations.
posted on September 14, 2003 08:16:08 AM
If... we follow a different course and let the debt mushroom — which is the path we currently are following — more and more revenue will have to be devoted to interest payments on the debt, which will leave less and less for programs, either for the elderly (such as Medicare and Social Security) or for other public purposes, such as education, transportation, biomedical research, environmental protection, defense and homeland security, and assistance to the poor and people with disabilities. This unpleasant result will be the legacy we bequeath to future generations if we continue to finance all desired or necessary costs — such as for tax cuts or for the war — by running even larger deficits.
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
posted on September 14, 2003 08:32:39 AM
Excess profits tax on those corporations benefiting from the war, such as Halliburton could be a lucrative source of funds.
