Rodriguez for Congress campaign
Tax Reform
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[October 17, 2016]
To many individuals the U.S. Tax System
is a reflection of the government as a whole, as the tax code is
bloated, unnecessarily complex, and seemingly broken. If we were to
combine all the statutes, regulations, and related case law that
constitute the tax code, the total would include about 70,000 pages
consisting of more than ten million words. Such a lengthy and
complex system creates a huge burden when it comes to the amount of
time and related costs to comply with our broken system to the tune
of an estimated 8.9 billion hours and $409 billion in lost
productivity per year.
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 Much of the complexity in the tax code results
from the numerous deductions that have accrued over time due to the
toxic influence of special interests. In addition, the U.S.
currently maintains the highest marginal corporate tax rate of all
developed nations in the world at 39.1 percent as compared to the
average rate of 24.1 percent among the other developed nations. This
system is untenable since such a tax rate makes the U.S. a less
competitive place to do business and encourages multination
corporations to find creative ways to shift as much income overseas
to countries with lower tax rates. This, in turn, creates an unwieldly situation in which the firms that have the most creative
accountants benefit over those that provide the best products and
services. Moreover, this causes tremendous disparity in the amount
that different companies pay in taxes while also decreasing
government revenues and limiting necessary vital services.
 With such a high level of complexity and a high compliance cost, it
is clear that we need to do better to reform our current tax system.
The goals of any tax reform initiative should be to reduce
complexity, to create a fairer system, and to reduce compliance
costs so that individuals and businesses can reallocate their
resources to more productive tasks. In order for us to achieve this
end, we must work together in a bipartisan fashion to restructure
our tax system rather than simply applying new bandages to a broken
system.
Such fixes to the tax code will need to include a simplification in
the number of the special deductions and tax credits that are
currently available. Since these deductions and credits create
unneeded complexity, we can more effectively achieve the goal of
generating government revenues without increasing tax rates on
average Americans by creating simple individual and family
allowances that would be available to all Americans to ensure that
equitability and fairness are essential elements of any tax system
overhaul. [to
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 In addition, it is essential that we create a more
competitive corporate tax system that reduces the marginal tax rates
on corporate income while simultaneously eliminating tax loopholes
for certain business that cost the government billions of dollars in
needed revenue. Such a step is important to create an environment
where entrepreneurs can focus on running their businesses instead of
navigating the tax system. As Americans, we do not have to accept a
broken and overly complex tax system. Instead, we should and must
demand true reforms that streamline the system and raise sufficient
revenues to fund government services adequately. By making a firm
commitment to bipartisanship in order to get things done, we can
achieve real reforms such as creating more competitive corporate tax
rates, an idea for which both Democrats and Republicans have
indicated support in the past.
Junius Rodriguez believes that essential fairness must be the
benchmark as we reform the U.S. tax code. He noted that “Great
nations are those that shoulder the responsibility that is incumbent
upon them rather than bequeath to future generations the burden of
our folly. True tax reform that is fair and equitable in nature can
be our greatest civic undertaking of this century, and if done
properly, it can generate much-needed revenue to serve the nation’s
interests. This is what the People today are demanding of those who
wish to serve and lead.” [Text from file received] Past related
articles
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