"History, real solemn history, I cannot be interested in.... I read it a little as a duty; but it tells me nothing that does not either vex or weary me. The quarrels of popes and kings, with wars and pestilences in every page; the men all so good for nothing, and hardly any women at all - it is very tiresome." Jane Austen spoken by Catherine Morland in 'Northanger Abbey'
For years I have been highlighting the demand in Canada for tech workers. The October 2019 employment data is typical of the obvious trend: Professional, Scientific and Technical Services employment is up +7.4% Y/Y while Service Producing is up 3% Y/Y and Goods Producing is up 0.1% Y/Y.
Yes, the information revolution is producing new data consumption markets at the corporate level, but what about our social contract and our environmental needs? We need to direct capital and labour towards complex issues like environmental remediation, infrastructure, education, health, wellness, and electoral and taxation reform. Tax reform should be taken on by the tech sector, because the political institutional approach towards taxation is built upon generations of carrot and stick incentives which end up benefiting one voting constituency over another. If we are to take on the the greatest challenges to our well being, the Automated Payment Tax developed by Edgar L. Feige, Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison would indeed kick start stubborn 20th century institutional thinking into a progressive 21st century that the new tech sector generation dreams of. How? The APT (Automated Payment Tax) is a micro tax taken at every financial transaction where each side of the transaction gets debited a small amount of capital that is credited to the government in a revenue neutral algorithm. Professor Feige's team modeled the U.S. economy from late 1990's data and realized that it would take less than 2% of every financial transaction to produce a revenue neutral state where all the government's fiscal objectives were met. The APT would eliminate the need to file tax or information returns. That in itself should provide enough incentive to read the 41 page PDF study by Feige. The foundations of the APT tax proposal—a small, uniform tax on all economic transactions—involve simplification, base broadening, reductions in marginal tax rates, the elimination of tax and information returns and the automatic collection of tax revenues at the payment source. The APT approach would extend the tax base from income, consumption and wealth to all transactions. Think about the desirability and feasibility of replacing the present system of personal and corporate income, sales, excise, capital gains, import and export duties, gift and estate taxes with a single comprehensive revenue neutral Automated Payment Transaction (APT) tax. If we want to take on the challenges of the 21st century, ie: the urgent generational "moonshots" facing us, then tech sector - take on the challenge of tax reform.
Simon J. Thorpe agrees in his 12 page PDF: "The global financial crime wave is no accident Financial crime is a feature of our global financial system not a bug." said pioneering economist Susan Strange. November 28, 2018 by Naomi Fowler Financial Secrecy Index - 2018 Results  The Automated Payment Transaction Tax By capitalizing on financial data processing technology, it is possible to create a tax code for the 21st century that is astonishingly easy for all citizens to understand and administer because it eliminates the need to file tax or information returns. The foundations of the APT tax proposal—a small, uniform tax on all economic transactions—involve simplification, base broadening, reductions in marginal tax rates, the elimination of tax and information returns and the automatic collection of tax revenues at the payment source. The APT approach would extend the tax base from income, consumption and wealth to all transactions. (Wikipedia) The system known as the APT or Automated Payments Transaction Tax (41 Page PDF with charts) was developed by Edgar L. Feige, Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
DREAMING OUT LOUD One Tiny Little Tax By Daniel Akst, The New York Times, February 2, 2003 OFF-THE-BOOKS-WORK and a $500 Billion Tax Gap: An Interview with Edgar Feige By Steve Lawrence, The Gail Fosler Group, July 30, 2013. Ramifications of Implementing the APT As with any major change what is viewed as positive for one group may be considered a negative for another. These are listed in accord with the expected majority point of view. Think about the desirability and feasibility of replacing the present system of personal and corporate income, sales, excise, capital gains, import and export duties, gift and estate taxes with a single comprehensive revenue neutral Automated Payment Transaction (APT) tax. In its simplest form, the APT tax consists of a flat tax levied on all transactions. The tax is automatically assessed and collected when transactions are settled through the electronic technology of the banking/ payments system. The APT tax introduces progressivity through the tax base since the volume of final payments includes exchanges of titles to property and is therefore more highly skewed than the conventional income or consumption tax base. The wealthy carry out a disproportionate share of total transactions and therefore bear a disproportionate burden of the tax despite its flat rate structure. The automated recording of all APT tax payments by firms and individuals creates a degree of transparency and perceived fairness that induces greater tax compliance. Also, the tax has lower administrative and compliance cost. Like all taxes, the APT tax creates new distortions whose costs must be weighted against the benefits obtained by replacing the current tax system. POSITIVES
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Implementation of this elegant and simple idea in Canada would allow Canadians to create an original, authentic social organization that would eventually be copied by all other nations. Let's apply the power of the internet to get this Automated Payments Transaction Tax idea into the mainstream and into application. Canadians, write your Member of Parliament." BR |
History, Charts & Curated Readings"Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement; and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." George Santayana Vol. I, Reason in Common Sense Archives
December 2019
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