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House Majority Leader Signs On To Linder’s Bill Abolishing the IRS
United States Congressman - John Linder ^ | April 3rd, 2003 | Congressman John Linder (R-Georgia)

Posted on 04/13/2003 12:23:25 PM PDT by Remedy

FAIRTAX BUILDS MOMENTUM
House Majority Leader Signs On To Linder’s Bill Abolishing the IRS Washington, D.C. - Congressman John Linder (R-Georgia) is pleased to announce that he has added more than 20 co-sponsors – including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) – to his innovative tax reform legislation, the FairTax. Linder’s bill, H.R. 25, would abolish all federal income taxes, death taxes, capital gains taxes, and payroll taxes, and replace them with a national retail sales tax.

"The momentum behind the FairTax continues to build, and Majority Leader DeLay’s co-sponsorship is just the latest signal that support for the FairTax is growing," said Linder. "The bill now has 21 co-sponsors – more than any other fundamental tax reform legislation in the House – and they represent a bipartisan coalition of members from across the nation. Not only do my colleagues recognize the harm done to the American people by the overly intrusive and burdensome income tax code, their constituents recognize it every April 15th," continued Linder.

The addition of DeLay and 14 other co-sponsors in the last month alone is just the latest positive news regarding the FairTax. In February, the annual report of the White House Council of Economic Advisers stated for the first time that elimination and replacement of the complex and arcane federal income tax code with a consumption tax would increase efficiency in the tax system and promote investment and growth. The report stated that a consumption tax, like the FairTax, could very well be the most suitable replacement for the income tax system.

The FairTax

I am the primary sponsor of The FairTax. The FairTax is one of the most exciting proposals to ever reach the American people. It offers long-needed tax relief – in the form of lower prices, nearly nonexistent compliance costs, and the ability to choose how much to spend in taxes – to all Americans, while eliminating the income tax and allowing Americans to keep 100 percent of their paycheck. The FairTax will dramatically reduce prices, protect and ensure funding of Social Security and Medicare, empower the low-income earners, and put choice and control back into the hands of every American. All the crucial elements are in place: a public that is eager and ready for a fairer tax system, and a Congress willing to seriously consider genuine tax reform. To be competitive in the next century and to renew the American dream, we must change the way we fund our national government.

The FairTax Act:

• Repeals the all corporate and individual income taxes, payroll taxes, self-employment taxes, capital gains taxes, estate taxes and gift taxes.

• Imposes a revenue-neutral national sales tax on all new goods and services at the point of final purchase for consumption. Business-to-business transactions and used products (which have already been taxed) are not subject to the sales tax.

• Rebates the sales tax on all spending up to the poverty level.

Results of the FairTax:

• Dramatically reduce the costs of goods and services by 20 to 30 percent.

• Allow you to keep 100 percent of your paycheck, pension, and Social Security payments.

• Gross Domestic Product will increase by almost 10.5 percent in the first year after enactment.

• Compliance costs would decrease by 90 percent.

• Real investment would initially increase by 76 percent relative to the investment that would be made under present law. While this increase would gradually decline, it remains 15 percent higher than under the existing tax structure.

• Exports would increase by 26 percent initially and would remain more than 13 percent above the level under the current tax system.

• Real wages will increase.

• Increases incentives to work by as much as 20 percent in many households, leading to higher economic growth and efficiency.

• Interest rates will fall 25 to 35 percent.

If you would like view the new FairTax PowerPoint slide presentation or consider the significant benefits of the FairTax in greater detail, please take some time to visit the "FairTax" section of my website located in the "Resource Headquarters."

Which of the following tax systems do you prefer?

Current system is fine.:4%

IRS and a flat income tax:13%

A national sales tax.: 78%

None of the above.: 4%

760 total votes


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: axixofevil; fairtax; johnlinder; taxreform; tomdelay
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National Taxpayers Union

March 31, 2003

The Honorable John Linder
1727 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Dear Representative Linder:

On behalf of the 335,000-member National Taxpayers Union (NTU), I write to offer our endorsement of H.R. 25, the FairTax, and to urge all Members of Congress to join as cosponsors. Should H.R. 25 come before the House for a vote, it will be heavily weighted in our annual Rating of Congress.

America's present Tax Code is extremely punitive and complicated, taking more from taxpayers than ever before. The current Tax Code is clearly not what the nation envisioned when it ratified the 16th Amendment nearly 100 years ago.

Initially, rates were extremely low. In fact, the tax rate on the first $20,000 of income was a mere one percent, while the highest rate was still a fairly reasonable seven percent on all income above $500,000. In 2001 dollars, that would equate to a one percent income tax on all income up to $300,270 while the seven percent rate would apply only to income earned above 7.2 million dollars. In fact, as late as 1939 only five percent of the population was required to file income tax returns.

Today, the federal income tax is extremely "progressive" in the worst possible sense of the word. Dangerously burdensome on both the taxpayer and the economy - and maddening in its complexity - it has become a detriment to America's economy.

While progressive income taxes are inherently unfair and unquestionably slow our economy, the regressive nature of our current payroll taxes certainly hurts those who can least afford to pay them. As you are aware, the poor in America do not pay excessive income taxes, but they do pay excessive payroll taxes.

Because your FairTax would replace both the income and payroll taxes with a simple, fair, 23 percent sales tax with monthly rebates, it would greatly benefit all Americans and our national economy.

As the federal income tax deadline approaches, Americans are vividly reminded that the burden of filing taxes can be nearly as bad as the burden of paying taxes. We salute you for your effort to reform both problems and urge your fellow Members of Congress to join you in this effort by working to pass H.R. 25.

Sincerely,

Paul J. Gessing
Director of Government Affairs

 

FairTax Facts! Americans For Fair Taxation (AFFT) is a non-partisan organization of grassroots volunteers who are working diligently to get H.R. 25, The Fair Tax Act of 2003 enacted. They currently number some 420,000+ members and are growing daily.

The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF!) supports the FairTax. The State Farm Bureaus membership totals over five million members.

Scrap The Tax Code! An excellent FairTax and NRST website!

FairTax Volunteer - Get Smart

Ten Worst Tax Laws

 6. Progressivity of Income Tax Rates

7. Income Tax Withholding

 

The Tax Man Cometh As Cato Institute President Ed Crane has said, "Taxes are actually the price we pay for our failure to create a civil society."

He’s right. In a genuinely "civil society" where Americans depended more on private institutions, families, charities, and private enterprise to solve society’s problems, and were dependent less on government, we wouldn’t need an IRS that collects $2 trillion in taxes (more than the entire GDP of most countries) each year. We might not need an income tax system at all.

This is useful food for thought as tax filing season is upon us. Today, when combining federal, state and local taxes, many middle-income Americans work as large a share of the day to pay the government’s bills as their own, according to a new report by the Texas-based Institute for Policy Innovation.

It wasn’t always like this. In fact, Justice Holmes can be excused for his enthusiasm for paying taxes because during his lifetime taxes were less than one-third what they are today. In fact, for the first 100 years of the nation, taxes were reasonably non-oppressive. In colonial times opposition to high taxes was deeply ingrained in the American spirit (the Revolutionary War was, after all, the first American tax revolt) and this hostility lasted throughout the 19th Century.

But even more encouraging is the rising tide of voter support for the FAIR Tax. This proposal would replace the entire income tax structure with a national retail sales tax. Rep. Jon Linder (R.-Ga.) is spearheading the crusade for this repeal of the income tax. Linder says that abolition of the income tax and implementation of a national sales tax would create thunderous rates of growth for the economy, which would be liberated from the shackles of high tax rates on work and income.

The FAIR Tax plan would also get the IRS out of our lives and out of our pocketbooks, Linder adds. It would no longer be the government’s business how much money you made.

And perhaps best of all, the FAIR Tax would make April 15th just another warm Spring day again, rather than a day that we approach with dread and trepidation. The average American now spends 15 to 20 hours on tax preparation and half of us wait till the last week to do our taxes. With the Iraq war winding down in victory, here’s hoping that our next major triumph in America is in the war against tax tyranny.

1 posted on 04/13/2003 12:23:25 PM PDT by Remedy
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2 posted on 04/13/2003 12:25:02 PM PDT by Support Free Republic (Your support keeps Free Republic going strong!)
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To: Remedy
I'm very afraid of the Fair Tax. It will be a lot easier for Congress to hike it to feed their spending binges, because people won't notice the money gone from their paycheck. Just look at the gas taxes and tobacco taxes the government collects--state govts make more on each pack of cigarettes and each gallon of gas than the tobacco/oil companies do.
3 posted on 04/13/2003 12:26:53 PM PDT by The Old Hoosier (Support our troops: Bring them home.)
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To: Taxman
ping
4 posted on 04/13/2003 12:29:19 PM PDT by Remedy
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To: The Old Hoosier
Look at it this way, if we could at least eliminate the bureaucracy and paper-work, that would be half the problem solved right there. Also this would also make lowering taxes a lot easier.

Personally, I think Hell just cooled down a few degrees.

5 posted on 04/13/2003 12:31:46 PM PDT by Paul C. Jesup
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To: Remedy
This could be a killer for people with large families. Folding Social Security into it is dangerous, too, because the social security commitment is openended, and after decades of abortion there will be a huge bulge of retirees as the boomers grow older.

I would prefer gradual tax modification rather than sweeping reform all at once.
6 posted on 04/13/2003 12:32:27 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: The Old Hoosier
Top Ten Civil Liberties Abuses of the Income Tax
7 posted on 04/13/2003 12:32:29 PM PDT by Remedy
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To: Remedy
What sales will be taxed?

Wholesale sales?
Retail sales?
Stocks and bonds?
Services?

This is just as corruptable as what we have now.

What we really need is a new system of law. There are too many laws to be applied fairly.

Proposal: For every new word of law created, two words of law must be destroyed, and for every word of law changed, one must be destroyed. The eventual result? No need for lawyers!
8 posted on 04/13/2003 12:35:25 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
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To: The Old Hoosier
I'm very afraid of the Fair Tax.

As your should well be.

The NRST is an inherently regressive form of taxation that is truly despotic. Long term, it would result in a two-tiered socio-economic stratification of our society. It is not disimilar to a 21st Century eco-feudal system where the corporate aristocracy invest and expand their property holdings completely tax-free, while the serfs are overburdened with the excessive taxation on consumption and persuaded that it's supposedly "fair" because the consumption taxes are redistributed through the formal social welfare system.

Posing as "tax reform", the NRST (HR 2525) also represents a "land grab" where business interests are favored over individuals purchasing for their own use:

This a significant inequity between individuals trying to buy their own new homes and landord/investors looking to buy the same single family dwelling as a rental investment. This disparity has long term implications affecting the distribution of private property. The American tradition favoring individual property rights is reversed. The NRST would discourage individual "consumption" of real property.

"... legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property, only taking care to let their subdivisions go hand in hand with the natural affections of the human mind. The descent of property of every kind therefore to all the children,...

But it is not too soon to provide by every possible means that as few as possible shall be without a little portion of land. The small landholders are the most precious part of a state."

-- Thomas Jefferson to James Madison, Oct. 28, 1785 -- PROPERTY AND NATURAL RIGHT


9 posted on 04/13/2003 12:36:30 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: Remedy
Finally a proposal that taxes both the rich and the poor according to their means and abilities.

California legislators will finally get their diaper tax and their cartridge tax.

SUV owners will pay disproportionally more taxes than will Yugo owners.

The elite will pay taxes on visits to their shrinks and the poor will pay less for their alcohol.

The ironies are amazing.

10 posted on 04/13/2003 12:37:23 PM PDT by Amerigomag
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To: Born to Conserve
COMPARE! FairTax vs Income Tax vs Flat Tax.
11 posted on 04/13/2003 12:38:31 PM PDT by Remedy
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To: Willie Green
HOME BUYER! The FairTax is GOOD NEWS for home buyers.
12 posted on 04/13/2003 12:41:57 PM PDT by Remedy
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To: Willie Green
new goods and services

Willie I didn't see real property mentioned in the presentation.

Please clarify your proposition which on the surface appears to have merit if this sales tax is indeed applied to real property.

13 posted on 04/13/2003 12:42:14 PM PDT by Amerigomag
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To: Remedy
I hope something can be put into law also, that's fair. The present system of confiscating people's hard earned wages is obscene and repressive.
14 posted on 04/13/2003 12:42:20 PM PDT by Enterprise
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To: Remedy
Idiotic responses from other NRST flying monkeys:

"A home is NOT an investment, W/G, but merely a place to live."

Posted on 03/26/2001 16:27:50 PST by pigdog

To: pigdog, Willie Green

It's amazing how many people view a home as an "asset," as well. It's a frickin' LIABILITY.

90 Posted on 06/29/2001 09:45:01 PDT by Poohbah


15 posted on 04/13/2003 12:43:44 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Pat Go!!!)
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To: Timocrat; HighWheeler; Zavien Doombringer; Henchman
ping
16 posted on 04/13/2003 12:49:20 PM PDT by Remedy
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To: The Old Hoosier
It will be a lot easier for Congress to hike it to feed their spending binges

Not quite. Tax collection will be tied to the health of the economy. No spending, no tax revenue. There will be major incentive for government to provide the healthiest most productive environment possible for the success of all.

To even talk about IRS Abolition is something I thought I would never witness in my lifetime.

As with all things it can be abused, but it is a tiny incremental step toward smaller,more Constitutional Government.

Best regards,

17 posted on 04/13/2003 12:55:14 PM PDT by Copernicus (A Constitutional Republic revolves around Sovereign Citizens, not citizens around government.)
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To: Willie Green
Keep trying to push your agenda by distorting the facts, bottom line is people will have a better standard of living with NRST along with more freedom.........

http://www.salestax.org/salestax.htm

while there are differences in rates between the two plans the end result is similar to this study:

http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-272es.html


"Conclusion

This study examines the nuts and bolts of a comprehensive national sales tax replacement of the federal income tax. Many--though not all--of the features of the hypothetical NST constructed here closely correspond to the elements of H.R. 3039.

The 15 percent NST plan would have a highly beneficial impact on the U.S. economy and raise the standard of living of the American public. The tax compliance costs borne by our economy would fall sharply. And the degree of intrusiveness of the tax system in our lives would decline greatly. Once set free from the burdens of compliance with the current system and the punitive tax rates imposed on work, savings, and investment, the United States will become a more productive and more prosperous republic. A national sales tax is more compatible with the principles of a free society than any other alternative tax system. "

18 posted on 04/13/2003 12:58:34 PM PDT by rolling_stone
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To: Willie Green
This means that of the $200,000 paid, $154,000 goes to the seller, and the Gov't receives $46,000 in tax.

It will be a ONE TIME FEE. As compared to the constant annual assessment on the fictitious entity known as "income".

Over time with the boost in productivity and wealth gained from the release of unproductive capital currently locked up in the tax code people will learn "government governs best that governs least"

Best regards,

19 posted on 04/13/2003 1:01:55 PM PDT by Copernicus (A Constitutional Republic revolves around Sovereign Citizens, not citizens around government.)
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To: Remedy
Business-to-business transactions... ...are not subject to the sales tax.

I wonder if this includes farms?

Most states now have a sales tax exemption for anything used in farming.

20 posted on 04/13/2003 1:02:36 PM PDT by Ford Fairlane
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