How much tax is too much tax? (Congress, gasoline, dollar)

[beach43ofus]

I think a ~51% tax rate is too much. Why? Because when tax rates eclipse ~50%, the total tax revenues flowing into the government begin to fall.

By "tax rate" I mean the total tax load:

payroll taxes + state income taxes + federal income taxes + VAT (if applicable)

Once this total "tax rate" eclipses 50%, the overall tax haul falls. This is called the Laffer Curve:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laffer_curve

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/laffercurve.asp

The Trillion Dollar question is, what tax rate yields the maximum tax revenues? 50%, 45%, 30%, 20%?

Trump is achieving all time record tax hauls right now, so maybe the current rates are optimal.

What is the overall current rate right now? I have no idea, do you? We need to know this.

How do you know, the current rates are not the optimal rates that maximize the tax hauls?

[Frank DeForrest]

How much theft is acceptable to you? And then please post an address.

[PCALMike]

The Laffer curve has been debunked. No serious economist believes that.

https://economistsview.typepad.com/e...fer-curve.html

[cuebald]

Taxes are levied to pay the bills of the government. How much do we need to do that?

That is necessary to give an answer to your question.

[Frank DeForrest]

Originally Posted by cuebald

Taxes are levied to pay the bills of the government. How much do we need to do that?

That is necessary to give an answer to your question.

Which are illegitimate.

[Frank DeForrest]

I have an idea, abolish the payroll tax and just send everyone an itemized bill at the end of the year for services rendered.

[middle-aged mom]

It appears a federal VAT would require a change to the constitution. 2/3 of congress and 2/3 of states would need to approve.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by PCALMike

The Laffer curve has been debunked. No serious economist believes that.

https://economistsview.typepad.com/e...fer-curve.html

More people believe the Laffer curve than disbelieve it.

It is fact that at some tax rate, overall tax revenues fall. Do you agree with that?

If the tax rate was 100% would you continue to work?

Have you looked at what happened in France between ~2010-2017 when taxes got jacked to rates as high as 75%, and the overall tax haul plummeted? So, higher tax rates = lower tax revenues

That is the Laffer Curve simplified.

Do you disagree?

[Pilot1]

When many of us add up all the taxes we pay. Fed, State and Local Income Tax, Property Tax, Real Estate Tax, Gasoline Tax, Sales Tax, other Energy Taxes, Capital Gains Tax, and several others, we are already well above 50% of our income. To me that is Indentured Servitude.

When you are forced to hand over more than half of your income to government in which you trade your time (life) in order to earn, that is not right.

[beach43ofus]

Originally Posted by cuebald

Taxes are levied to pay the bills of the government. How much do we need to do that?

That is necessary to give an answer to your question.

Isnt is better to maximize the tax haul, and then try to live w/in that budget?

Using your line of thought...what if America "needs" $4T/year to "pay the bills of the government", but $4T in taxes cannot be achieved?

Then, we need to make spending cuts right?

Why not determine what is the max tax haul we can achieve is, and then formulate our budget around that?