Terrel L. Shields
Elite Member
- Joined
- May 2, 2002
- Professional Status
- Certified General Appraiser
- State
- Arkansas
We are too much sheep to riot in 2012 but give it a few years and some will get a backbone when they realize that their children will suffer.
Buffet is a hypocrite. If he wants to pay for taxes then pay himself a large salary instead of taking the profits he makes as capital gains. No one is stopped from writing that check.
This nation needs to reduce the corporate tax rate to 12 - 15% to compete with Switzerland and Ireland...but to do so we have to raise the capital gains to insane levels. Those high capital gains taxes will destroy farming where huge deductions for equipment are taken in accellerated fashion in order to stay viable. It means any farm that gets in trouble (say, due to drought) can sell out only to be slammed with deficiet taxes for "captial gains" that were on paper only. I have watched farmer after farmer over the past 20 years build large poultry farms, have to sell out for the mortgage or even bringing some cash to the table at closing, only to find they had a tax burden of $20,000 to $50,000 due to "capital gains" after depreciating those barns out over 7 years.
If we stop "tax loopholes" then expect even fewer people to take energy conserving measures. I talked to a restaurant that looked at installing geothermal heat pumps in their new building. It would run $60,000, more than triple the cost of a conventional system. But if they were doing a house, they could get one-third of the investment back as a tax credit. Without the tax credit, they elected to go conventional and pay the extra monthly costs. I got a tax credit for installing U-30 windows. nigh a $1000 off the price in effect. It was a huge incentive.
Most "tax loopholes" were meant to do some sort of business stimulation or social engineering that, at the time, seems the right thing to do. Over time,there may be mission creep or the times change...but the weakness of any income tax is evident in such policy. VAT taxes should be imposed and all income taxes eliminated.
Secondly, congress needs to bring home the US companies that move their headquarters overseas. Give them an ultimatium. Come back or get out. No more shell offices in Zug; move your whole office structure overseas and your CEO and board of directors should be treated as foreign agents. Make them register, give them a 6 mo. work visa then send their sorry butts to Abu Dhabi or Switzerland after it expires. Finally, there are few countries that allow unfettered purchases of property by foreigners. That needs to stop as well. If the Chinese won't allow Americans to buy Chinese soil, then they shouldn't be here buying ours. Force them to divest it...and since those CEOs above are no longer considered US citizens, force them to sell their house in the Hamptons or Malibu.
It is time to level the playing field. The rich have used the congress to tilt the table in their direction and they have all the marbles....take it back by fiat or take it back by force... it's our choice.
Buffet is a hypocrite. If he wants to pay for taxes then pay himself a large salary instead of taking the profits he makes as capital gains. No one is stopped from writing that check.
This nation needs to reduce the corporate tax rate to 12 - 15% to compete with Switzerland and Ireland...but to do so we have to raise the capital gains to insane levels. Those high capital gains taxes will destroy farming where huge deductions for equipment are taken in accellerated fashion in order to stay viable. It means any farm that gets in trouble (say, due to drought) can sell out only to be slammed with deficiet taxes for "captial gains" that were on paper only. I have watched farmer after farmer over the past 20 years build large poultry farms, have to sell out for the mortgage or even bringing some cash to the table at closing, only to find they had a tax burden of $20,000 to $50,000 due to "capital gains" after depreciating those barns out over 7 years.
If we stop "tax loopholes" then expect even fewer people to take energy conserving measures. I talked to a restaurant that looked at installing geothermal heat pumps in their new building. It would run $60,000, more than triple the cost of a conventional system. But if they were doing a house, they could get one-third of the investment back as a tax credit. Without the tax credit, they elected to go conventional and pay the extra monthly costs. I got a tax credit for installing U-30 windows. nigh a $1000 off the price in effect. It was a huge incentive.
Most "tax loopholes" were meant to do some sort of business stimulation or social engineering that, at the time, seems the right thing to do. Over time,there may be mission creep or the times change...but the weakness of any income tax is evident in such policy. VAT taxes should be imposed and all income taxes eliminated.
Secondly, congress needs to bring home the US companies that move their headquarters overseas. Give them an ultimatium. Come back or get out. No more shell offices in Zug; move your whole office structure overseas and your CEO and board of directors should be treated as foreign agents. Make them register, give them a 6 mo. work visa then send their sorry butts to Abu Dhabi or Switzerland after it expires. Finally, there are few countries that allow unfettered purchases of property by foreigners. That needs to stop as well. If the Chinese won't allow Americans to buy Chinese soil, then they shouldn't be here buying ours. Force them to divest it...and since those CEOs above are no longer considered US citizens, force them to sell their house in the Hamptons or Malibu.
It is time to level the playing field. The rich have used the congress to tilt the table in their direction and they have all the marbles....take it back by fiat or take it back by force... it's our choice.
