Here is a pretty safe prediction for November, Dr. Jill Stein will not become our first woman President, although she appears to be on the ballot in enough states to make it feasible. So it might seem that considering her party’s tax positions is not of primary importance. Actually I generally don’t study anybody’s proposals too hard out of the fear that it will confuse me when I am trying to figure out what the rules are now. If you are forward looking though it is worth considering what third parties are considering. Their proposals have a way of working their way into the mainstream over the long run. It does look like under the Green Party, Warren Buffett would stop complaining about not paying enough taxes.
Here are the specific proposals (several are not very specific)in the section of the Green Party’s platform labelled “Fair Taxation” along with my .
1. Cut taxes for wage-workers
- Exempt people earning less than $25,000 per year and families earning less than $50,000 per year (adjusted for inflation) from the federal and state income taxes.
- Exempt food, clothing, prescription medications, other necessities and second-hand goods from sales taxes.
2. Fair taxes for corporations and the wealthy
- End corporate welfare, such as the bailouts for Wall Street, the big banks and the automobile industry; subsidies for agribusiness, Export-Import Bank loan guarantees; tax abatements for big box stores; the tax loophole for “carried interest” from private equity and hedge fund managers; tax deductibility for advertising and business entertainment; offshore tax avoidance schemes; giveaways for new sports stadiums and casinos.
- Impose a financial transaction tax on trades of stocks, bonds, currency, derivatives, and other financial instruments.
- Block financial transactions with tax havens, to stop tax evasion.
- Decrease the $1 million home value cap on the mortgage interest tax deduction for federal income taxes, to reduce the tax subsidy provided to those living in the most expensive homes.
- Restore the estate tax.
- Apply the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (Social Security and Medicare) taxes to investment income and to all levels of income, not merely the first $106,800 earned.
- Oppose the privatization of Social Security.
- Enact a wealth tax of 0.5% per year on an individual’s assets over $5 million.
3. Eco-taxes to help save the planet
- Establish a system of carbon taxes on all fossil fuels, to begin to reflect the real environmental cost of their extraction and use. Carbon taxes should be applied as far upstream as possible, preferably when possession of the carbon-bearing fuel passes from extraction (for example, coal mine; oil wellhead or tanker; gas wellhead) to the next entity in the supply chain (for example, coal shipper or utility; oil refiner or importer; natural gas pipeline). Offset potential regressivity for lower income individuals via the Green Tax shift that lowers income taxes and/or other approaches.
- Eliminate tax subsidies for the oil, gas, coal, nuclear and timber and mining industries.
- Enact a Green Tax Shift that shifts from taxing people and work (via income and payroll taxes) to taxing natural resource extraction, use, waste and pollution.
- Enact a system of Community Ground Rent/Land Value Taxation that distinguishes between the socially and privately created wealth of land, by increasing the taxes on the former to retain for society the value that it collectively creates and lowers them on the latter to reward individuals for their initiative and work.
- To ensure that prices reflect their true environmental cost, enact a system of True Cost Pricing (TCP) for goods and services. TCP is an accounting and pricing system that includes all costs in the price of a product. TCP charges extractive and productive industries for the immediate or prolonged damage (pollution of air and water) and diminishment of natural resources caused by their acts.
- Impose a carbon fee on goods imported from nations with lower carbon taxes than in the U.S., based upon the carbon spent in manufacturing and transporting them to the U.S.
4. Taxes for a better, healthier USA
- Simplify the tax code. Make it transparent, understandable and resistant to the machinations of powerful corporate and wealthy interests.
- Eliminate tax incentives to send jobs overseas.
- Raise taxes on tobacco, alcohol, soda pop and other junk food.
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Full Disclosure
Although I never thought much of their economic policies, I am registered Green, because of their positions on criminal justice. I also like what they say about immigration. I voted for Ralph Nader in 2000, but George Bush was my second choice. I do think there is a lot to be said for the free market, but I really think the people who allocate capital for a living have been letting the rest of us down lately. After a decade of historically low income taxes rates, we have high unemployment and zero returns for ordinary savers. My borderline Tea Party friends have similar dark thoughts sometimes and even a couple of them thought a financial transactions tax might not be such a bad thing.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.
Originally published on Forbes.com on September 3rd, 2012