identifying sales tax

Aaron Gaudio prothonotar at tarnation.dyndns.org
Thu May 12 18:43:59 EDT 2005


On Thu, 2005-05-12 at 14:09 -0500, Rod Engelsman wrote:

> So the IRS (Federal level) actually allows you to deduct taxes (sales) 
> that have been paid to the state. They also allow deductions for local 
> property taxes.

Unless you are a business, I believe what's new in the tax code is that
you can choose to either deduct the sales taxes paid OR state and local
income taxes paid, but not both. Furthermore, the IRS provides a table
of estimated sales taxes paid in case you don't want to tally up every
receipt (similar to how here in NY they allow you fill in a Sales and
Use tax for things you bought that are taxable but which you didn't pay
sales tax on [namely, internet and catalog purchases]- they also provide
a standardized table).

> 
> You may bitch about your VAT or GST or whatever, but our "system" is 
> infinitely more complicated. In fact our tax system is similar to our 
> health system in that the defining characteristic is the lack of any 
> real "system".

I don't really have experience with other country's tax codes, but my
understanding is that many Western countries have complicated tax codes,
and although the US's is one of the most complicated, I believe it is
not technically the most complicated (in terms of pages of Tax Code).
Unfortunately, the numbers escape me at present. Also, keep in mind
that, aside from the growing flat-tax movement in Europe, the simplist
tax codes are often found in authoritarian regimes.

-- 
Aaron Gaudio <prothonotar at tarnation.dyndns.org>



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