TAXATION

Our country began as a revolt against high, oppressive taxes and Commonwealths intend to continue in that tradition by eliminating high taxes. The tax system we have today is a runaway tax system that takes too much from the individual while it encourages runaway government growth and fiscal irresponsibility with no adequate system of checks and balances. Commonwealths advocate the elimination of income tax altogether and propose under ideal conditions to rely only on excises and tariffs for federal level funding as directed in the Constitution. Retail sales taxes will be approved for certain government levels where appropriate.

The high rates of taxation that are supposedly justified by redistributing wealth to the lower classes is a sham since only sparce dubious benefit is given to the lower classes. Instead, high taxation spawns wasteful, inefficient government spending and excess government growth which skews money into the bureaucrats' and special interests pockets. The effect: more government jobs which have nothing to do with actual product development but instead create red tape and frictional overregulation. Then the special interests take advantage by easily raising their prices for their products as unchecked government spending fills their coffers , perhaps making it harder for the rest of us to afford whatever they are selling. Not only that, but by high taxes confiscating wealth from the wealthy, businesses that could have grown and expanded in an efficient fair manner from that wealth spent on their goods and services never occurs. Thus, there are less jobs and opportunity for the working lower classes to benefit from and instead more poverty and hence government dependence is created. Notice this wealth confiscation has a punishment effect too which discourages entrepreneurs from expanding and producing more. So the economy suffers overall with less production and real employment taking place. This cycle only feeds on itself which shows that the best way to a prosperous economy for everyone willing to participate is through low taxes.

Whatever services government provides through taxation should be explicitly spelled out to the people for approval and broken down categorically into a bill or invoice form for the citizen to see where their monies go and what returns they get in services. Some services may even be charged on a per service basis where appropriate to help keep taxes low. This will encourage cost effective, accountable public services and promote customer service quality upon the citizens who pay for such services. Government should fulfill these same standards of service and fiscal accountability that businesses do in order to survive in the private sector.

Under normal conditions, the total taxes paid by the citizen at the local, state and national levels combined should not exceed 10% of gross income. Does it not seem absurd to tax more than what the church and our Judeo-Christian heritage ask for in tithing? Temporary exception may be made to meet the needs of a valid crisis. Such temporary exceptions should not be binding or renewable for terms longer than one year.

Ask yourself -- with government taking half the national income in taxation, why are not the ills of our society yet fixed by government? The squanderers do not deserve to manage all that revenue. The people could do much better for themselves and thus society in general by managing more of our own earned money.

In accordance with the above arguments, the Commonwealth Party supports the implementation of the Fair Tax as a major first step towards our tax goal.