What do you all think about Predictive Taxes, so we can say exactly where our taxes are going? Would that be a good idea? Do we need to know at all? Why haven't we got them already?

What exactly do you mean by "predictive taxes"?

As in I get to say how much do I get taxed? Or where my money eventually ends up?

Where your money ends up. So each budget would tell the tax-payer that, for instance, 10% of his income tax would go on health-care, 20% on education, 5% on trnasport etc. It could also work with other forms of direct and indirect taxation.

If I can decide where the money goes, why even use the goverment as the middle man and rather just pay for it directly myself? I can pay the health care insurance myself and education myself.

You wouldn't be deciding where the taxes go. The government would just be telling you as a percentage figure. The way in which you influence where the money goes is by voting for one party over another come election time, and by making the government aware if you are unhappy with the ways in which your money was being spent.

As far as Health-care, and education gp those were just examples. You can't, for instance, maintain a transport infrastructure or the armed forces yourself.

What I am getting at is do you want tyhe government to tell you exactly where your money is going, and why don't they do it already?

I think it's a great idea. While one can research this and find out, it's not exactly easy. The only argument against it would come from people who are afraid that an informed voter will not vote for their party (and there's a good argument to be made that neither the Democratic nor the Republican party structures really WANT to have informed voters).

Otseng is correct IMO If I get to decide where my money goes lets leave the very expensive middle man out of it. In fact lets leave the expensive middle man out of my pocket anyway..

Due to the freedom of information act makes it possible for you to know exactly what you want to know. In fact you can request a copy of the budget from the GAO for a small fee to cover paper and labor they will send you a copy of it. That also is what stumping is all about right? I mean looking to see where your money WENT is kinda like closing to barn door after the horse runs off isnt it?

Checking that the candidate did what they said they would do is very simple again just by requesting voting records. Or you can check them out on the web just do a search for congressional voting records.

Personaly I wish we would get back to community style taxation. A small flat tax to the feds to kep them doing what they are supposed to do and a broader more business oriented tax structure on a local level. Then the moneis collected could be concentrated in that community. Rather than me paying taxes to support some crackhead in LA or DC my tax dollars would go to help a local.

GBYA

Aahz

Um, I think you are missing the point.

You wouldn't be deciding where your money goes

You wouldn't be looking at where it has gone.

With predictive taxes you would be told what percentage of your taxes are going to be spent on what

Parties could campaign on this point, and your influence on how your taxes are spent would be through the vote, just as it is now.

The difference would be that it would be a lot easier for the voter to see where his money was going.

Predictive taxes would therefore be a step towards real transparency of government.

Howdy Jonbon,

Apparently you missed the fact that I said IF it was like Otseng said.....Then followed up with seeing where my money WENT is like closing the barn door after the horse runs off.

I also pointed out that all of the information you are looking for is readily available. So basically what you want already exists you just havent bothered to look for it...


How about if we just get back to being a Republic and the Fed taxes go only for defense? LOCAL/STATE Taxes are for social ills.


GBYA

Aahz

Fair enough - but please note that what Otseng was talking about was not really what I was suggesting.



But most of that just tells you where your money went, rather than where it is going to go.

It also does so in terms of tax dollars rather than percentages, which doesn't mean a lot without extensive study of how much money is available in total and where it all went.

What I am getting at is governments promising at election or budget time to put 25% of total revenue generated from income tax into education, or 15% of income generated from Corporation tax into business incentives in depressed areas.

It would just make it far easier for the simple voter (me) to understand what's going on.

Definately, an awesome idea.

I think it'll happen eventually, just not any time in my parents' (or yours if you're old enough ) generation.

Although it is possible to find all this information out, it should be easier for the simple tax payer.

The IRS used to have a pie chart on its tax instruction booklets that gave this information. As far as I know, it still provides this summary.

A simple web search will yield the details of the current and past federal budgets. You can probably get your state, county, and local budgets the same way. This is all public information--if not on the web, then at city hall, county recorder's office, and state capital.

If you are denied this information--raise a stink! Somebody's crooked, and it isn't you.