The personal income tax is an egregious assault on personal property rights and liberty. The idea that the government or “society” has first dibs on the fruits of your labor is completely absurd. For the first 130+ years of the existence of the US, we had no personal income tax and we still had the military, roads, schools and more. Since the passage of the 16th Amendment, the income tax has done nothing but result in more demand for the taxation of the people and more demand for bloated government services that would be better managed by the states and private individuals and organizations.
The US’s high corporate tax rate has resulted in many negative outcomes. One is the creation of a tax code full of loopholes, incentives and other benefits to those with connections, while harming those who are not big enough to take advantage of them. Those that are unduly burdened by the corporate tax code, seek to mitigate it by moving assets and income out of the US.
If we want the US economy to grow, we need to reward hard work and success. The easiest way to do this is to eliminate the punishment that is the income tax.
Zachary Knight proposes the following:
- Reduce federal spending by shutting down programs and agencies not explicitly authorized by the US Constitution.
- Reduce federal spending by reducing the military budget by closing military bases not on US soil and ending wasteful programs within it.
- Doing the above would be enough to completely eliminate the federal individual and corporate income tax.
