Change the tax codes

In the [April 13] editorial “Time to tax services,” IBJ would reduce the state’s sales tax from 7 percent on tangibles—products imported from communist China, Vietnam and North Korea as well as Mexico and India. The reduced sales tax would be extended to American services on things like automobile repair, haircuts, landscaping and plumbing services, which is a tax on American labor, wages, salaries and services. However, businesses would be exempt from paying service sales tax.

Which plan would create good-paying Indiana jobs with good benefits for American citizens: IBJ’s plan or a plan that would repeal all state sales and consumption taxes, and replace those taxes with an import tax or tariff on any country with a trade surplus with the United States?

A replacement plan could give every income-receiving American a $50,000 standard deduction and keep current dependent exemptions. The next $50,000 would be taxed at 2 percent, the next $50,000 at 3 percent, and so on.

The plan also would give a standard deduction of $10 million for all Indiana businesses after deducting for compensation and benefits for American labor, except for CEOs and their immediate subordinates. The second $10 million could be taxed at 1 percent, the third $10 million at 2 percent, etc.

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M. Brent Pittman, Brownsburg