Customer Reviews

100 Million Unnecessary Returns: A Simple, Fair, and Competitive Tax Plan for the United States

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Michael Graetz makes tax policy almost enjoyable. Graetz never forgets that the tax system's primary purpose is to raise the money needed to finance the government services that the nation wants in the least harmful way. Or, as the French economist Colbert put it, "The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing." Graetz provides a realistic assessment of our current tax structure and deftly identifies the failings of faddish proposals, such as the "fair tax" and the "flat tax." His proposal to reduce the number of people required to pay income tax and to add a value-added tax to our nation's fiscal arsenal deserves serious consideration by conservatives and liberals alike.

Paul N. Van de Water

Though the plan does present a comprehensive overview of his competetive tax plan, and it is written refreshingly different from the condescending "Fair Tax" book, this book is an academic tome to read. Slogging through the pages is akin to reading the IRS tax code.

This book is a pleasure to get through and does an excellent job assessing the current state of tax reform. His competitive tax plan makes quite a bit of sense too. Shifting a good portion of federal revenue to a VAT takes over 150 million individuals off the IRS rolls and simplifies the entire system. I worry that the implementation process would be too complicated to reap the benefits of the simpler system, and that this plan lacks the proper advocates in Congress, but that does not mean you shouldn't read this book and understand his plan. The VAT is a tried and true system throughout the EU, and could help the US in numerous ways.

100 Million Unnecessary Returns, Michael J. Graetz

I have not read this book, it is not in the County Library System. I have read others. If the 1940 tax plan was his ideal, all we have to do is to re-adopt that system.

But the powerful Federal Reserve Bank, which gets the weekly payments, won't give up this interest-free money. Nor will all the powerful corporations who get special treatments. The standard deduction then was $3,000 or so. THAT must be increased to $75,000 (twenty-five times greater).

The Value Added Tax is a very high sales tax, like the mis-named 'FairTax', designed to oppress ordinary people. The first income tax law put a higher rate on unearned income (interest, dividends, royalties, etc). Some wouldn't want this either, but visit the FairTaxFraud dot com site for alternate taxing systems.