Changing from Hidden to Transparent Taxes: Estimate Transparent Tax Rate Needed to Keep Government Revenues the Same

Once all the data is collected, both hidden tax revenues and taxable consumer purchases for the same number of years, and broken down within the same taxing authority area, then you are in a position to begin your calculations.


There are different calculations that need to be performed on the data that has been collected.

One is to divide the actual hidden taxes collected by the actual taxable consumer purchases for each year you collected your data.  Doing this will show you what the transparent tax rate would need to have been for each of those past years so that each taxing authority would have received the same total dollars in tax revenues.  Because of the normal highs and lows in the economy, the percentages shown for each year you collected data should also vary.

This leads to the next calculation you should perform.  For this one, you will first add up all the hidden taxes collected for all of the years you gathered data, and you will also add up all of the taxable consumer purchases for all of the years you gathered data.

This will give you two numbers.  You will now divide the total amount of hidden taxes collected over all the years your data covers, by the total amount of taxable consumer purchases for those same years.

This will give you one number that will be an average percent which, if collected during those same years as a transparent tax, would have provided the same long-term amount of funding dollars to each taxing authority.

Thank you for taking time to read and ponder my opinion on this topic.
An Opinion Article by Dave Kemper
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It has been said that: "One definition of insanity is to do the same thing, the same way, over and over and over again, each time expecting to achieve a different result."
Therefore, we must either CHANGE the way we live, or we bind our future to our past as if with CHAINS.
"I do not consider myself to be better than anyone else.  But I do believe in exercising my right to not stay stupid."

David W. Kemper, Author
© Copyright 2014 by David William Kemper.  All right reserved
No part or portion of this publication may be modified in any manner without the express written permission of the author.  Quoting from this publication is allowed on condition that the name of the author and the name of the publication are included.