The voting rights in U.S. have been a contentious issue for long. Eligibility to vote in U.S. is determined by both the state law, as well as the federal government. The United States Constitution, Article 8 and Clause 1 give the Congress the power to impose taxes, imposts, excises as well as duties.
However, the United States of America Constitution limits Congress powers to impose direct taxes by requiring it to distribute direct taxes in accordance to each state’s population census. While preparing the constitution, use of the ‘Necessary’ as well as ‘Proper’ clauses was supposed to act as guidelines for legislation of taxation. The powers for legislation of the taxation process were given to the legislative branch.
However, what looked to be a clear process of limiting the legislature powers pertaining to tax ended up being imprecise as well as unclear when applied on income tax. Despite the powers granted to the federal government to impose taxes, federal should not abuse these powers in imposing inappropriate taxations. Denying people the rights to vote for failure to pay taxes is a form of Congress abuse of the powers that can be overturned.
The United States Constitution allows the federal government to impose income tax only if the federal allocate tax among the States in respect to each States census population. During the enacting of Election are Free Act in 2010, the federal government did not put into consideration the tax allocation as per States census population.
Therefore, Election are Free Act that was enacted which requires single people who earn over $ 75,000 per annum as well as married people who earn more than $150,000 to provide a copy of their tax return to their local county officials before being allowed to register to vote is subject for debate.
The second factor that can result to the overturned of Election are Free Act enacted in 2010 is its discriminatory aspect that limits only a few category of Americans from exercise their voting rights based on their failure to pay 15% of their total income as taxes.
Despite the federal enacting of the Election are Free Act, the rights to vote are explicitly stated as per the 1964 amendments and denying American citizens opportunity to register on the basis for failing to pay taxes is not a sufficient foundation to justify such a discrimination. Thus, those who have been affected by the act can challenge for the reverse of the act in order to give all Americans an equal opportunity to express their voting rights (Brownlee, 2004).
Codes of ethics are essential in guiding behaviors of various professionals in their day-to-day endeavors. The presence of a universal code of ethic is imperative in order to make sure that all executives are guided by a universal code of ethic. All executives should be subjected to a uniform code of ethics that require them to execute their duties with transparency and honesty.
Those executives that should be found guilty of not honoring the code of ethic should be liable and banned from holding any executive positions in future. According to the universal code of ethic, unethical conducts should entail false disclosure, availing corporate inside information to one’s friends or relatives for selfish reasons as well as being engaged into fraudulent instances.
The problem that can hinder implementation of an international code of ethic is because different companies use different standards for internal controls. Internal controls vary from country to country. Moreover, public companies and private corporations differ in the extent of their disclosures. Therefore, it is very difficult to come up with a universal code of ethic that is applicable in all organizations worldwide.
Leaders should first identify boundaries when designing a code of ethic. Leaders should identify values that the code should uphold and at the same time establish the boundary it should not exceed. For example, an international code of ethic should include proper disclosure as well as honesty. The code should not endorse any fraudulent activities. When leaders are formulating codes of ethic, it is imperative to engage the employees for great acceptance (Jennings, 2010).
Reference List
Brownlee, E. (2004). Federal Taxation in America: A Short History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Jennings, M. (2010). Business: Its Legal, Ethical and Global Environment. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.