If YOU were in charge, how would you structure the taxing systems to be fair to everyone?

[EdmondDantes_]

18. Not trying to be snarky, but what's fair?

Is home mortgage interest fair given it's a benefit to those of us who own homes, but not to renters?

We use the tax code to promote various things. Student loan interest, medical expenses, etc.

I can only give a broad outline of what I would want to fix.

Raise the top tax brackets, take off the social security cap. Address the ability of ceos and such to get paid via stock options that encourage them to avoid taxes and the taking a loan on stuff to avoid having income. Perhaps a minimum tax or taxing on the "unrealized" gains but that would have to be done carefully to not hit everyone, maybe a minimum amount say 5 million in stock holdings. Changes to the estate tax. Take away the stock buyback option. Include pet medical expenses as a tax deductible option. Some sort of trade or other non-college school tax break to go with the student loan break because all jobs have value and we need more people in the trades and other jobs that don't require college so that it becomes more fair than student loans which primarily benefit those already likely to make more money.

Increase tax incentives for starting small businesses especially around health insurance because that's an impediment as long as we tie insurance to employment.

I'm sure I could come up with more. But I think it's a really complicated area and like so many other things the impact of lobbying favors the wealthy or business who can afford to stay interested year after year in advocating, so I think you'd also need to address that aspect.