OnTheIssues interviews with presidential candidates: on Tax Reform

Mark Stewart: A progressive tax system to me seems unfair

A: It's not right to tax people just "because you can". Similarly I dislike taxes on alcohol and cigarettes, many of which are bought by addicts. They have a hard time stopping, but state coffers are buoyed by taxing their addiction. A progressive tax system to me seems unfair - wealthy people take no more government services than poor people. A straight tax seems more fair - a certain percent across the board, with NO exceptions. That alone helps America rid itself of many lobbyist, who USE the tax code to favor special groups. Income taxes unfairly give power to Congress, lobbyists, and big corporations. They use the tax code selfishly and manipulate the rest of us. No income tax de-fangs them and improves democracy.

Jim Hedges: Higher taxes on the wealthy

A: support

Jill Stein: Increase inheritance taxes; use it as "Aristocracy Tax"

Stein: I'd call it the "Aristocracy Tax." We instituted an estate tax so we would not have massive inherited wealth so we would not have an aristocracy like we left behind in Europe. Now wealth disparities are greater than ever in history--we have more than an aristocracy going on. An aristocracy tax is only part of it--a couple can pass on $11 million in wealth before it's taxed--that's pretty outrageous--and it got codified under Obama--he made permanent the Bush tax cut on that aspect. We need to massively reduce the inheritance gift--the aristocracy gift--and broader tax reform so we don't have such massive accumulation of wealth in the first place. We need to restore the inheritance tax and it should be progressive at higher levels of inheritance.

Roseanne Barr: Supports making taxes more progressive

Q: Support

Virgil Goode: Opposes progressive taxation

A: No.

David Walker: Make effective tax rates progressive, not marginal tax rates

A: Are we talking about the effective tax rate?

Q: Most people mean a progressive marginal tax rate, where high-income earners have a much higher tax rate for their top marginal earnings than do low-income earners.

A: I am FOR making the EFFECTIVE tax rates more progressive, but I'm against making MARGINAL tax rates more progressive. Like a Reagan-style reform. Our current tax system is an abomination-- it needs to be simpler, fairer, and more competitive. And we need to broaden the base--fewer and better targeted tax preferences bring top marginal tax rates down to 25% for corporations as well as estate taxes and individuals. We should eliminate the differences with capital gains and ordinary income like Reagan did. So the bottom line marginal rates would go down but the effective rate would go up for the wealthy.

David Walker: Broaden base; make top rate 25%; make capital gains 25%

A: Yes, up to 25%. But we've got to get more people paying and less people taking a free ride--that's dangerous in a democracy. This proposal would also eliminate the need for the Buffett Rule.

Q: By the "Buffett Rule," you mean Obama's proposal that the top 1% of income earners, such as Warren Buffett, pay a surtax so that their marginal tax rate isn't lower than the bottom 99% of income earners, such as Warren Buffett's secretary?

A: Yes; eliminating the differences with capital gains tax rates would eliminate the need for the Buffett Rule.

Rocky Anderson: Strongly supports progressive taxation

A: Strongly Support

Andre Barnett: Opposes progressive taxation; simplify instead

A: Disagree, the US constitution outlines a limited taxation infrastructure. Our current tax code needs to be stripped and simplified.

Robert Steele: Eliminate all income taxes & corporate taxes

• Implement the Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax on Inauguration Day 2013
• Eliminate all personal income taxes from Inauguration Day 2013.
• Eliminate all business and corporate taxes (and subsidies) on Inauguration Day 2013
• Eliminate the Internal Revenue Service by the 4th of July 2014

Robert Steele: Automated Payment Transaction: tax all financial transfers

Robert Steele: Make taxes progressive by taxing currency & stock trades

A: Strongly Support. HOWEVER, I favor the abolishment of personal income taxes, business incomes taxes, and all other forms of tax such that we can eliminate the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The Automated Payment Transaction (APT) Tax vastly expands the range of taxed transactions to include currency trading and stock trading as well as inter-bank transfers.

Scott Keller: Don't increase personal federal taxes in any way

A: If it means increasing any personal federal taxes in any way then I oppose it. Eliminate income taxes completely ASAP, at least at the Federal level. Eliminate or overhaul the IRS so that they work for the people rather than against them. If we return to sovereign money we will find hundreds of new options open up for us as a country. Currently the Federal Reserve prints their money and lends it to us while we pretend that it's ours. Not a dollar in circulation belongs to the United States citizens. The constitution says to coin our own money, not borrow it.

We will not participate in wealth transfer, but rather in poverty transformation--helping poor people and poor areas of the country transform themselves through innovative plans which are laid out on our website rather than taxation.

Brian Moore: Steeply graduated income tax and estate tax