Voters Voice Amendment (VVA)

We all desire to have our taxes applied in ways that match our worldview. The U.S. Federal budget is comprised of many spending categories.

What if our IRS tax filing included a way for each of us to express what percentage of our taxes we would apply to each spending category, not to exceed 100%? It would just be a survey; the taxes would not actually be applied as one believes they should be applied. If one doesn’t specify any percentages or specifies under 100%, the difference is applied as the percentage of each category as it is funded in the current year budget.

Then have the IRS calculate the total amounts across all tax returns and calculate the combined percentage for each spending category. Lastly, post this information on IRS.GOV, the overall taxpayer category percentage alongside each actual spending category percentage.

This would allow all of us to see how closely the combined taxpayers’ overall spending priorities map to the actual spending for each category.

For example, if one taxpayer wants all their taxes applied to defense, and another person would have their taxes all go to education, so be it. Each would indicate 100% on that category and 0% for all other categories. Most likely, their individual total dollar amounts would not match. However, it would be interesting to see how closely the overall budget percentages fit the overall desires of all the taxpayers combined. If they do come close overall, then we should all be satisfied that the Government is focusing on the needs of “We the People”. If they don’t align, this might be a call for the Voters Voice Amendment (VVA.US) .

Purpose above Politics & Power