AK
X.com/@Krypt707
Feb 4
Empowering Taxpayers: A Direct Allocation System for Tax Dollars 💰🇺🇸
Objective: To ensure that taxpayer money is spent in alignment with the ideological, principled, and desired outcomes of American citizens. 🗳️✨
Proposal:
1. Annual Tax Allocation Form:
📄Structure: Each taxpayer would receive an annual digital form during tax season with a series of checkboxes corresponding to various spending categories with detailed subcategories (e.g., Education 📚, Healthcare 🏥, Defense 🛡️, Environmental Protection 🌍, Social Services 🤝, Infrastructure 🏗️).
Selection Process: Taxpayers can allocate their tax contributions across these categories according to their preferences. The percentage of taxes allocated to each category would be determined by the taxpayer.
2. Minimum Tax Burden
Baseline: The minimum tax burden would be calculated based on a similar design to the current average tax rates relative to income, ensuring that everyone contributes a foundational amount.
Category Determination: Public Vote: During election season citizens would vote 🗳️ on which categories should be available for tax allocation. Only those categories receiving a majority vote would appear on the next year's tax form. This process ensures that the categories reflect current national priorities and values. A select highly crucially funded categories, which are transparent, and also voted on would be required from each taxpayer.
https://www.marketplace.org/2024/01/19/what-would-happen-if-we-could-choose-where-our-taxes-go/
3. Advantages
Transparency and Control: This system gives taxpayers direct control over how their tax dollars are spent, enhancing transparency and accountability in government spending 🔍💡.
Engagement: Making tax time an active choice rather than a passive obligation could transform the experience into an engaging civic activity, potentially increasing public participation in fiscal policy 📊🤩.
Efficiency and Effectiveness: By aligning government spending with public priorities, this system could lead to more effective and desired outcomes in policy implementation ✅🔧.
https://x.com/TheRabbitHole84/status/1886090486626271729
https://taxfoundation.org/blog/how-many-words-are-tax-code/
Empowerment: Empowering citizens with decision-making power could strengthen democracy 💪🗽, giving individuals a tangible sense of influence over national policy and spending.
Political Discussions: there would be less emotional and psychological burden among citizens when discussing politics, as they would feel less responsible for the opinion of others in situations of stark contrast.
https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/20/your-money-your-choice/
4. Implementation
Government Role: The government would be responsible for presenting the categories for public vote, managing the voting process 🗳️, and then implementing the tax allocation system based on the results.
Education and Outreach: Public education campaigns would be necessary to inform citizens about the implications of their choices, ensuring informed decision-making 📚👨🏫.
Live Accountability
Similar to the US Debt Clock, a live clock that reflects additions to selected tax categories could provide reassurance of designation of funds when selected.
5. Expected Outcomes
Increased Satisfaction: Taxpayers might feel more satisfied knowing their money supports causes they believe in 😊💸.
Policy Innovation: With public input, new areas of focus could emerge, leading to innovative policy solutions 💡🌟.
National Cohesion: This could foster a sense of unity 🤝 as citizens see
National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) This article discovered that higher tax revenue is realized from citizens that feel more empowered by their choices regarding allocation of tax dollars:
"Our evidence contributes to understanding why some individuals are more willing to pay taxes than others and why tax compliance varies across countries. It has been documented that nations with the most effective government services, such as the Scandinavian countries, also exhibit the highest levels of tax morale (Kleven, 2014). The concept of reciprocal motivation offers a natural explanation for this correlation: better government services cause taxpayers to be more willing to pay their taxes. Moreover, this reciprocal mechanism can lead 64 For more details, see Appendix A.8. 30 to self-reinforcing cycles. For example, if taxpayers develop a negative bias about how much they benefit from their tax dollars, they may become less inclined to comply with their tax obligations. This reduced compliance can lead to lower government revenue and diminished services, turning the initial bias into a self-fulfilling prophecy."
https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w29789/w29789.pdf [page 30].
Conclusion: By implementing this system, we can make taxes not only a civic responsibility but also an exciting and impactful part of American democracy, delivered in a way that provides live accountability, 🗽🎉, handing back the power of wealth and influence to the people, who can decide how best to benefit the country, its citizens, and the world 🌎🌟
https://x.com/KalonKoritz/status/1832927785305698675
