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PoliticsOL.com Editorial - Week of July 15, 2001
Tax Collectors Out of Control
A recent proposal by Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach shows just how out of control many tax collectors are in the United States.
Auerbach wants to place a county property tax on satellites that are in Earth orbit.
An elected official -- who might not be one for much longer if he keeps coming up with more literally out of this world schemes like this -- Auerbach claims that satellites manufactured by Hughes Electronics Corp. and others are nothing more than equipment that is temporarily "out of the state." Auerbach believes that since the satellites will eventually return to Earth -- albeit, by the laws of physics -- that this is enough to legally entitle the county to seek the levies. Talk about being space happy!
The California State Board of Equalization this past week temporarily shot down Auerbach's proposal, but the assessor says he might fight the issue in the courts, wasting yet even more of Los Angeles County residents' tax dollars on his ludicrous idea.
But, each year, all across the United States, they are similar zany tax laws or proposals by federal, state and local government officials. For example:
California's failed experiment with a "junk food" sales tax
The U.S. government's idea to tax U.S. citizens as they returned home across the Canadian or Mexican border
Federal income taxes on tips earned by waitresses, barbers, etc. [You can legally give anyone a gift of up to $10,000 annually that is tax-free. But, give a waitress a $2 gratuity and she'll owe tax on it.]
Naturally, outcries over taxes has led to many grassroots and some not-so-grassroots organizations to spring up all over the nation. But, most of these self-proclaimed "tax reform" groups are so libertarian they don't feel any tax is worthwhile. [Of course, many of them also happen to be tax-exempt, too, as non-profit organizations.] Instead, they reserve most of their ire towards the income tax which, ironically, in principle, is probably the most fair and necessary of all taxes, fool-hardy attempts to abolish the IRS or proposing half-baked, flat-tax or value-added goods and service tax concoctions. Publicity stunts, news conferences, studies and reports on the above might be great for their fund-raising efforts, but they do little towards reducing the high tax burden on average citizens.
Far too few of these tax "reformers" fight on the tax issues discussed below:
Property taxes. They can be skewed, as California's revolt with Proposition 13 showed in 1978. Middle and low-income home owners, especially senior citizens on fixed incomes, were literally being taxed out of their homes because of rising property values. But why should the property tax you pay on your home rise simply because its value has increased in the eyes of those who want to purchase it? A more interesting debate would be whether property should even be taxed at all. The property tax, which originated in America during its colonial days, used to be a strong indicator of one's wealth. That is no longer the case today. There are likely hundreds of thousands of Americans who own far more land than Bill Gates.
Federal telecommunication excise taxes. They were first adopted by Congress more than one hundred years ago to help finance the Spanish-American War.
Sales, service and use taxes. They hit lower income households the hardest, as these citizens pay a higher percentage of their incomes on items for every day living and use. In many cases, these regressive taxes apply even to food and medicine.
Motor vehicle registration fees. They tax car owners based on the purchase price of their automobiles, decreasing annually over time. A new car owner is already paying more taxes on a higher-priced vehicle with the sales tax. Yearly auto registration fees discourage owners of older cars from purchasing newer, more fuel-efficient models. The fee is supposed to pay for state highway and related expenses. In theory, therefore, every car owner benefits. Yet, in some states, such as California, some of the monies collected instead go into the general fund and have no direct correlation to highway improvements and upkeep.
Various municipal taxes. For example, many cities charge properly owners to repair sidewalks, usually after tree roots, weather, auto accidents or normal wear-and-tear damage them. Sidewalks are city property and the whole city should share equally the cost for their upkeep.
Unfair tax deduction laws. For example, the tax code allows corporations to deduct the cost for employees' health insurance plans but prohibits individuals from doing the same. After all, your job is your income source. Health care is an expense that keeps you physically able to earn that income.
Taxpayer-financed sports stadiums. Many of these are nothing more than expensive, unnecessary work projects which serve as an excuse to increase ticket prices for the average fan while fat-cat city lobbyists give tax-deductible tickets out to local politicians.
The point is that if you were to sit down and itemize all of the federal, state and local non-income taxes you pay, you'll be surprised to discover that they may actually exceed your income taxes.
Tax reform organizations should worry less about how much multi-millionaires will receive back in federal income tax rebates and instead focus their efforts on (1) opposing insane tax proposals such as Auerbach's satellite tax idea, (2) eliminating many of the loopholes in the federal income tax system that allow too many wealthy individuals to avoid paying any or little taxes and shifting the tax burden unfairly upon others, and (3) eliminating or scaling back many of the unnecessary and often duplicative state and local taxes that average Americans pay.
PoliticsOL.com reserves the right to shorten or to edit letters for clarity. Only signed letters will be considered for publication. (i.e., include name, city & state of residence)
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