The State 's Fiscal Future After Sending A Standstill Budget

While most taxpayers agree that tax reform is necessary for our country the problem they encounter is the difficulty they experience when trying to understand all the political terms used when discussing tax reform. This paper is an attempt to help the taxpayers of our country to better understand the political terminology and gain knowledge about some of the proposals that have been explored.

Most individuals with a general background knowledge of the United States Federal Government system are aware that in order for a bill to become a law, it must first pass a majority vote in Congress. There is, however, a very important step in the legislative process that sometimes goes unnoticed. The committee system of the legislation process ensures that the appropriate attention is given to each bill introduced to Congress. Each member of both chambers are assigned to committees and subcommittees, and are expected to become subject matter experts in their respective roles as committee members.

Hoffman, W., Maloney, D., Raabe, W., & Young, J. (2013). Federal Taxation Comprehensive Volume. (36 ed.). Ohio: South-W

dollar federal tax cut. This will be made possible by implementing a 16.25 cent on the

People do not enjoy talking about taxes because they are too political, confusing, and depressing. It is no secret that the American tax code is a mess and something many economists describe as too broken to fix. Despite this, politicians have never stopped from trying to “fix” the code, yet they have had very little success. The U.S. Government’s tax code currently comprises “more than 67,000 pages of complexities” (Boortz, Linder, & Woodall 14). The Americans for Fair Taxation (AFFT) was founded in 1995 with one goal: create the simplest and best tax reform plan that would work in the modern market and economy. The AFFT’s best solution was a bill which they promptly called the FairTax.

The current tax code for the United States is almost 74,000 pages long. Or to put that into a different light: About 116 copies of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. It is small wonder that a few of the announced candidates for President of the United States, have again begun to kick the tires on the topic of a Flat Tax. But is a flat tax actually a solution to our country’s growing tax complexity? What are the potential economic effects of a flat tax (both positive and negative)? Finally, is a flat tax even a viable solution? In short, will it work? As a concept, a flat tax is spectacular. Simplicity at its finest. As a fiscal policy, I believe that same simplicity must be examined and inspected closely.

Stanton Delaplane once joked about the IRS, saying he heard it had suggested a simplified tax form with only one question: How much money did you make last year? The IRS response was, "Mail it in"." Thank goodness, our taxes haven 't gotten quite that bad. It is true though, that the majority of Americans, most of us included, have to bite the

Our governor along with many other people in our state, recognize that our tax system is biased, unethical, and needs reform. Governor

There are some differences and similarity between the State and Federal budget. The Federal budget is bigger than the State budget. The federal government have the sovereign bank. The Federal government have the ability to print additional money when the need arises. The federal budget needs not balance revenues and expenditures for each fiscal year. At the subnational level, appropriations must not exceed revenues in the State budget. This creates restriction which is mandated for almost all the state and local finances. “This imposes a discipline at state and local government which the federal government may chronically evade. States cope by setting aside reserves in good years to hopefully cover deficits in bad revenue years” (n.d., 2012).

In chapter 10 of Lone Star Tarnished, the author, Cal Jillson explores the development of the state of Texas’ tax policy. He explains that over about the last three decades there have been some major challenges develop involving the state tax revenue including the fact that it is dramatically declining. It is also mentioned that with the Texas Republican Party being the majority party in the state, with no change in site, having implemented the ideology of no new taxes, that any proposed solutions to adjust the state tax policy will probably be rejected. Jillson does however offer some solutions that could resolve some of the issues with the tax policy in the state if the Republican Party would implement them. These solutions include a constitutional reform to amend some of the tax laws in the state to institute a few new taxes such as corporate tax and raising some taxes such as the sales taxes by about half a cent. According to Jillson, these tax modifications could generate more than a billion dollars in revenue for the state, giving it a small sense of financial relief. Even though these proposed solutions could benefit the state, they are no likely to occur because of the low to no tax perception that both Texas government and citizens

The Armey-Shelby flat tax proposal will scraps the entire income tax code and replaces it with a flat-rate income tax that treats all Americans the same. This plan would simplify the tax code, promote economic opportunity, and restore fairness and integrity to the tax system. The flat rate would be phased-in over a three-year period, with a 19 percent rate for the first two years and a 17 percent rate for subsequent years.

Section 355 of the tax code will drastically reduce, or even completely eliminate, any tax liability caused by

After the bill was passed in the Ways and Means Committee, it moved on the House of Representatives. The House passed the bill after 90 seconds of debate. During this

deduction in its draft tax return, resulting in a $40 reduction to taxes payable. There is uncertainty over

The United States tax system is in complete disarray. Republicans and Democrats agree that the current tax code is complex, unfair, and costly. The income tax system is so complex; the IRS publishes 480 tax forms and 280 forms to explain the 480 forms (Armey 1). The main reason the tax system is so complex is because of the special preferences such as deductions and tax credits. Complexity in the current tax system forces Americans to spend 5.4 billion hours complying with the tax code, which is more time than it takes to manufacture every car, truck and van produced in the United States (Armey 1). Time is not the only thing that is lost with the current tax system; Americans also lose