Dr. Carson's Tax plan

Even though Dr. Ben Carson is technically out of the race it does not mean his ideas were no good.  As such in this first of two issues we will talk about his tax plan proposal.  Let us start.  

Dr. Carson proposed a flat tax in the same manner as Ted Cruz and some of the other candidates, but his opted for a 14.9% tax on all income above 150% of poverty level.  As such under Carson's plan, you would pay taxes for each dollar after the first $36, 375 dollars you make.  Pretty nice right, not having to pay that rate save for each dollar made past the $36,375 mark.  This helps the people who are poor or are the working poor as they get to keep more of what they earn and thus reduces the need for things like welfare as their money can only grow.  However the people under the 150% of poverty level will still pay something in what Carson calls a de-minimum tax.  In this case those people making exactly $36,375 and under will still pay a tax so that they have skin in the game so to speak, but the amount will be a much smaller percentage than the 14.9% tax rate where you could potentially pay a single dollar to the IRS.  

To make this plan work though certain requirements must be met.  It will eliminate all double taxation by not taxing people on their capital gains, dividends and interest income at the personal level.  Basically if you invest money, you will not be taxed on the earnings made from those investments, but this may mean that the pretax qualities of a 401K man disappear (Carson did not make this clear).  This is designed to stimulate the economy as taxes on investments actually restrict job growth as seen by when JFK, Reagan and Clinton reduced taxes on investments which got the country out of a recession during each of their Presidencies.  As such this means more jobs and thus more money for the government.  Also the alternative minimum tax which sometimes forces people to pay higher taxes will be eliminated along with the death tax (estate tax which taxes people on inheritance). But under Carson's plan there will be no more deductions for mortgages, charitable giving or State and local taxes.  Carson's logic is that the people who benefit from these deductions are a select group of people. Therefor if I interpret what he is advocating, these are geared toward rich people these deductions and is an undue burden on the tax code.  His logic I assume is that with these deductions eliminated the government can get a larger amount of money without the need to raise the tax rate over time.  Basically more money means less taxation later on as our savings grow.  Additionally, this makes room for Carson's other idea of Health Empowerment Account's (HEA's) (more on those tomorrow) which will be untaxed when people put money in them.

Final Thought:  Carson makes no mention of the payroll tax on his site, which means the payroll tax which funds Medicare Part A and Social Security will still be in effect.  Also, his plan does not address the income taxes on businesses, so those are not touched.  My guess is either he had planned to address it later in the Campaign or when he got into the white house.  Needless to say it is a fairly good plan and I could live with it.  Sad to say Carson is (while not 100%) out of the race for President.