Tax cuts I like

apropos of nothing:

• Enlisted Armed Services personnel on active duty, first $50,000 AGI tax-free. For every quarter on combat duty--enlisted or officer--unlimited tax free earnings.
• $10,000 per year, per child educational payments deduction, 5 years claimed per child.
• First $5,000 net earnings on home-based businesses, tax free.
• One month (two checks) payroll tax holiday--employee AND employer (staggered months)
• DC residents: full Congressional representation, or tax free earnings of $500,000 for all full-time City residents. 
• annual tax credit for each hybrid passenger vehicle up to two per household. Treasury check kickback for gas "rebate"; savings over a certain EPA mileage rating, based on 10,000 miles driven per year. (Rebated at crude price, not retail gas price)

any others?

--TJ

Comments

[Zap]

I liked the idea of only taxing repratriated off-shore capital 10%. It was the influx of money that started up Clinton's economy post-S&L scandal.

[Ronald Rutherford]

Being late to all the good parties,
I see the strong support for our armed services men/women. Would the democrats accept tax free for the Generals and others that get paid "exorbitant" amounts.
On child care and higher education, we need to encourage and promote raising children to become productive members of our society. I don't think we have done enough to encourage childrearing in the US. Unfortanately Singapore has not had much success at raising the live birth rate also.
Th home based business incentive seems like a minor incentive. But are we trying to encourage home based vs. small business? Since the first amount of dollars earned are exempt by the personal exemption clauses, do you mean after any basic deductions are already used?
As for DC residents, I agree wholeheartedly. But we need to answer the quetions of Puerto Rico, Guam, and Virgin Islands also. I know in all these situations none of the 50 states want additional senators diluting their power. Two senators for Guam of 160,000 population? The same problems we faced when Alaska and Hawaii joined. One solution would be to incorporate these territories into already existing states, for DC it would be easy for Virginia or Maryland. We could still have a smaller DC for the government offices only.
The one month free taxes is a Republican conspiracy to favor the rich (IE more tax breaks for the rich). The first question is which month is free. Year-end bonuses for the ultra-rich tax free? Assuming no variance in monthly income, the rich making 12million will receive a refund of around $350,000 and the poor making 30,000 will get a refund of $333. Thusly the rich receives a rebate of 2.9% while the poor gets a measely 1.1%, and the results are more dramatic for the poorer.
Lastly the incentives for fuel efficient cars is admirable but fails to attack the true solution to the problem we are trying to address. If we are trying to reduce the amount of gas used and thus reduce the amount of CO2 emissions then raising the gas tax will be the best way to attack this problem. We can see the great upsurge in Hybrid sales after the rise in gas prices. But selecting one technology over another is not efficient. Why not bio-diesel, electric, ethanol, bicycles, mo-peds, etc... If we are to assume there is externalities in the sale and consumption of gas then a pigou tax (sin tax) would be the most efficient in directing the market to find solutions. Allowing individuals to make many small decisions leads to the best solution in economics.
I can always think of my parents that had two cars, an F150 and a VW bug or think of the person that owns a Hummer and a Prius. Every day they had a choice to how much to consume and at what cost they were willing to pay.

[Torrid]

thanks for the revival, Ronald. I'll only reply to clarify about the tax holiday: that's payroll tax, so it would be skewed benefit to the working class, since you're not taxed after 90 grand to begin with.

[Ronald Rutherford]

Ooops missed reading that correctly.
But now who would pay for a reduction from payroll deductions receipts or would it just be taken from reserves?
Thanks TJ.