Taxes

Overview

The main problem with taxation is that the government has undertaken too may illegitimate programs, and must take money from productive citizens in order to fund them. 

The government has no ability to create wealth.  Taxation steals wealth from productive citizens in order to benefit the preferred programs and constituencies of the governing class.  By adding a bureaucratic “middle man,” the government ensures it cannot do any task as efficiently or as cheaply as the free market. 

People freely pay for the products and services they think are necessary in their private lives.  They will continue to fund the government functions that are necessary and proper.  The unfunded programs will fade away because they are not needed.  There is no legitimate reason for citizens to pay for programs they do not benefit from and do not support. 

Opinions

The IRS is one of the many government agencies that should be abolished.  A flat sales tax, between one and five percent, should be levied on all purchases, once and only once, on any specific good or service.  The revenue from that would be more than enough to operate the Constitutional U.S. Government.

Richard Timberlake, University of Georgia

Slash expenditures; then lower taxes will follow.  There should be a flat tax on consumption.

Jeffrey Miron, Harvard University

The bottom line is that every $1 million tax increase costs the economy much more than $1 million because of the losses to efficiency caused by taxpayers' responding to the higher rates. 

Cato Handbook for Policymakers

Taxation is theft and should be abolished with those involved subject to legal sanctions.   

David Theroux, The Independent Institute

The income tax should be eliminated.  If the income tax were eliminated, the federal government could still raise revenue through excise taxes and spend as much as it did during the Clinton administration -- roughly $1 trillion annually.  

I believe that the current discussion on whether to have a flat tax or sales tax is putting the cart before the horse.  Instead of focusing on what is the most "efficient" way for the government to collect revenue, libertarians should focus on reducing the federal government to a size consistent with its permissible constitutional functions.  When we have reduced the size of government, then we can debate the best way to collect the very limited revenue needed to operate a constitutionally limited republic.

Congressman Ron Paul, (R-TX)

Contract fees and similar alternatives will do what’s needed to raise funds for law and order.

Tibor Machan, Chapman University

Taxation is theft.  If political government must exist, then let them be supported by voluntary contributions.  Let those who refuse to pay lose their access to government services rather than threatening them with jail time or confiscation of property.

Carl Watner, The Voluntaryists

Libertarians have not been able to come up with a workable alternative to taxation to support the minimal state functions of government.  Therefore, we should judge existing taxes by their relative degree of harm to economic prosperity. 

In general, consumption taxes appear less bad than taxes on income.  At the local level, I have come to view property taxes as having a functional relationship with basic local services such as police, fire, and criminal justice; it’s somewhat analogous to paying insurance based on the value of your home. 

Robert Poole, Reason Foundation

Proper constitutional federal government operations require simple, fair, equitable, and minimal tax policies and procedures. 

We support a complete transition and overhaul of federal taxation policy, after a national debate of alternatives to current income and withholding procedures, primarily focusing on a single, flat income tax, replacement with a national sales tax, or other methods of funding federal operations.

Dave Nalle, Republican Liberty Caucus

The less the better but the real problem is spending. We tax because we spend and if government spends too much, no resulting tax system could be called remotely "fair." No VAT and no income tax, but a retail sales tax would be a big improvement in simplicity and transparency but only if it were coupled with drastic reductions in the size and scope and spending of the welfare/warfare state.

Lawrence W. Reed, Foundation for Economic Education