RALEIGH — The slate of candidates is different every election season, but we can count on one predictable story line. Pundits and professors will wring their hands about the need to get more people involved in the process of electing leaders. Political parties will spend boatloads of money and man-hours on get-out-the-vote efforts. Groups across the political spectrum will hold candidate forums and voter registration drives. Candidates and their volunteers will send e-mails, make phone calls, and go door-to-door urging supporters to cast a ballot.
The most desirable voter of all? Someone who’s never before set foot in a polling place. I can save the pols, profs, and their supporters considerable time and money in finding more voters. It starts with acknowledging that, for our representative republic to survive, every American must have skin in the game. Right now, they don’t. Make two key changes, and I’ll guarantee you an increase in the number of people who vote.
First, it’s time to ensure that every American pays federal tax — even if it is a small amount. Life experience and common sense tell us that people who contribute to paying for what they receive value it more than when they’re given something outright. We accept this as truth in daily life, but in tax policy, we foolishly ignore human nature.
As the Tax Foundation reported last month, IRS data from 2008 shows that 51.6 million tax returns were filed by people who ended up paying no federal tax. None. That’s 36.3 percent of returns filed. What’s more, the percentage of nonpayers has been growing steadily — up 59 percent since 2000, when 32.6 million returns filed paid no tax.
“Nonpaying status used to be a sure sign of poverty, but thanks to increased use of the tax code to deliver social benefits, incentivize behaviors, and funnel money to targeted groups, middle-class families have now been pulled into the growing pool of nonpayers,” wrote Tax Foundation President Scott Hodge. “We’re now in a situation where a record number of tax filers are completely disconnected from the cost of government.”
When people connect only to benefits — not to the costs of those benefits — they have no reason to become informed, to weigh pros and cons, and to appreciate those who pay the freight. They simply accept the status quo, and complacency is the enemy of a representative republic.
Second, it’s time to jettison our passive, behind-the-scenes method of collecting income tax — in which employers withhold money the worker never sees — and instead require Americans to pay income taxes directly each quarter.
This system already works for the self-employed — me, for example. Very soon I will mail checks to the United States Treasury and the North Carolina Department of Revenue for first-quarter estimated taxes. This system also works for those who pay taxes owed when they file their annual return.
When tax is withheld from wages behind the scenes, many workers fail to see a connection between what they’ve earned for their labor and what they put in their bank account. Direct deposit has severed the connection even further. Honestly, how many folks actually look at the pay slip — sans the actual check — that’s tossed onto their desk or mailed to their home?
There’s no reason a large-scale change to the way we pay federal tax can’t work. But there is a reason this idea faces an uphill climb. Placing the burden of payment on taxpayers would focus attention on the tax burden. More attention means more questions, more assessment of costs versus benefits. As we’ve seen in this past year’s debate over health insurance reform, an electorate that asks questions creates headaches for the powerful.