Sales Tax is Bullshit and other ramblings...

The BBQ Pit
1

Why is it legal for me to get taxed on the money I earn then get taxed on the money I spend? It’s already been taxed once, why again?

Then, if I happen to buy property, I get taxed on the value of the property every year. Just for HAVING it.

Then, if I sell the property, I get taxed on the profits from selling it AND the person who bought it gets taxed for buying it. WTF?

And if I need to drive on a tollway to get to my property I have to pay money to drive on a road that my taxes already paid for. Toll booths never go away either. There are tollbooths in Chicago that have been there for 15+ years. It’s horseshit.

Why do I need to pay a “fee” just to get a license for something? Like a drivers license? All it shows is that I am allowed to drive. Why the fuck should I have to PAY for that? What if I didn’t have the money to pay for a license? Would they not give me one? I’m taxed up the ass every which way already to pay for the DMV and the roads. Don’t charge me a “fee” to be licensed to use them.

Why do people need to pay for a fishing license? It’s bullshit.

Why do I need to pay a fucking property tax ON MY CAR?!?! Every year! I paid sales tax when I bought it and then I have to pay property tax every year on it just because I own it? FUCK!

Taxes are fucked. Totally. fucked…

2

And actually, why do I need to pay property taxes on the thing when I don’t own it? The fucking BANK owns it. They can take it away from me at anytime if I don’t pay them for a month or two because THEY own it.

…grr…

3

Welcome to society. Don’t want to pay your dues? Leave, then.

And don’t bitch about your dues anyway-- you’re getting off cheap. The better clubs ALWAYS have higher dues. That’s why the Netherlands and Sweden, for example, are so much more civilized and nicer to live in (IMO) than the USA.

Don’t bother telling me to “go live there then!”; I tried but I couldn’t get a work permit.

By the way, I love the USA-- I’d just like to see us join the top-tier “clubs” (and that costs money, you know).

4

For the most part, I am with you. I swear, I would almost rather live under the rule of straight up honest thieves of the Mafia than the current system.

5

Yeah, taxes are fucked.

But police, court sytems, firefighters, emergency rooms, roads and repairs, garbage collection, vehicle registration, schools, libraries, all that shit costs money. Granted, there’s a lot of waste and graft that we could get rid of, but we’re still gonna have to pay for this stuff.

6

And the alternative is???

7

Move to Delaware or any of the other states that have no sales tax.

8

Actually, believe it or not, I feel for you. Short of killing yourself, what IS the alternative?

Even if there was some country that didn’t have any of the fees/taxes that were mentioned in the OP, you probably couldn’t easily move there for the same reasons I couldn’t stay in the Netherlands.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to live in a society that had no means of paying for basic services, but I suppose I wish there were such a place so that people who hate taxes could move there and be happy (though I doubt they’d be happy).

9

I hear Florida is nice.

If humid…

10

Yeah, but if they don’t have sales taxes they probably have state income taxes and car licensing fees and pet licensing fees and property taxes and sometimes city taxes and taxes on booze and tobacco and gas and taxes that you pay for your phone and utilities and so on and so on and so on. Honestly, I would sometimes rather have 100% of my income extorted from me in exchange for a subsistence level existence, It would at least be fucking honest.

11

Having grown up in Wisconsin (where there are no tollbooths) and then having lived in the Chicago suburbs for the last several years, I will happily continue to pay tolls. The roads around here are so much better than in Wisconsin.

12

The problem I have with federal (canadian) tax is that my damn money isn’t even funding LOCAL services. Toronto and the surrounding area is really getting raped all because Toronto makes money. What the fuck is up with that sort of thinking? We make money so lets take that and fund some small hick town that I wouldn’t want to live in ever? Or pay for another city’s transit system? Toronto is already screaming for cash because our public transit sucks, several schools were closed yet there are more kids than ever needing them, health care is a fucking joke etc etc. I would accept paying taxes much more if I knew my taxes were actually paying for the shit I need.

Makes me want to move to Alberta damnit. Too bad about the damn weather :smack:

13

Man, that sucks. Over here in Connecticut we have a car tax specifically for the purpose of generating toll monies. Because of this car tax, there is not a single toll booth anywhere in the entire state.

Sadly, Connecticut covers only about 4 square miles, so you run into tolls galore on any trip of consequence. But hey, nothing’s perfect.

14

Florida has a sales tax - 6%, and that can be increased on a county-by-county basis.
No state income tax, though.

15

Not to get back on topic here or anything, but I’ve always wondered something about taxes…

Doesn’t ALL money eventually become taxes? I mean, every single penny earned by anybody in America (not counting illegal activity, such as money laundering) eventually passes through “The Tax System” doesn’t it?

Hypothetical completely over-simplified example:

I own a chunk of land. On it is a gold mine. I hire people to mine my gold for me, and pay them when I sell that gold.

Free money, right? Well… sorta.

I pay tax on the land, just to have it. I buy stuff to keep the mine going, and pay taxes on that.

My worker digs up some gold for me. This counts as my income, and I pay taxes on it.

I sell that gold to someone, and we both pay taxes.

I give some of that money to the worker, who pays taxes on it.

The worker goes out and buys a car, for which he pays the taxes.

The dealership uses that money for various purposes, some of which include property taxes, sales tax (buying and selling?), and of course paying their employees.

Those employees go out and buy something, and that whole tax thing happens again.

Where does it end? Eventually, the entire value of that lump of gold has been converted to taxes. Sure, people got to buy stuff with it, and the MATERIAL purchased might be consumed (ie food), but the money… ALL the money eventually becomes taxes.

Right? Am I missing something, or is this some sort of Economic Entropy?

Taxes suck.

The alternative may be worse, however.

16

Well, I agree that the tax system is overcomplicated. But I’m not sure having all the taxes in one place is necessarily better - it’s always going to screw someone, are you sure it won’t be you? Or I suppose you could just eliminate taxes, so long as you don’t want roads, police, army, government, firemen…

17

Although taxes are absolutely necessary in one form or another to sustain the government, I agree with the OP that there are many unfair and inconvenient taxes.

The sales tax is one of the worst. It is regressive in that, rich or poor, people have to pay the same percent. A better fix is no sales taxes and fairer income taxes.

You got to Europe, though and the value-added tax (VAT) is 17.5%. Here in Japan it’s 5%. The Japanese consumption tax is different from a sales tax in that it applies to every transaction (but you get credit for tax paid, so ultimately the end user picks up the tab).

I am disgusted that IN’s sales tax is now 6%. It’s a percent, goddammit, it should stay the same. It rapes the economy to the same degree every year, no matter what inflation is.

Property taxes can also be extremely unfair.

18

I know someone who lives in Florida but got a car from a relative in another state. Instead of registering it in Florida, she registered it where she goes to school instead, because Florida’s registration fees and such are apparently really high due to having no income tax.

19

At the end of the day, we all have to pay taxes to keep the gov’t going, whether it be sales tax, income tax, PPT, tolls, fees, whatever. I think it’s way too complicated, though. Sales tax, bye-bye. Income tax, simplify. Property tax… maybe keep that on real estate. Tolls suck, mostly because they screw up traffic. Fees, definitely keep, I don’t want every Tom, Dick and Harry getting every kind of license the state offers just because they’re free.

20

Remember that the money goes back out, however–it’s sort of like the water running endlessly to the see, but the rivers never run out of water.