Free Republic

Here’s the pitch: The FairTax — a plan to replace the federal income tax and payroll tax with a national sales tax — will get rid of the IRS forever. It will let workers keep their entire paychecks and retirees keep their entire pensions. It will raise just as much money as the current tax code. It will promote economic growth. It won’t hurt the middle class, and it won’t cause prices to rise. It will even end our illegal-immigration problem. These claims are drawn from the leading proponents of the plan: a group called Americans for Fair Taxation, former...

We are speeding toward an economic cliff because our government can't practice restraint. We spend so much more than we take in because politicians at every level use the public treasury to win elections. The public mostly accepts lavish promises of more and more federal spending because the cost of government has been so effectively divorced from what actually comes out of our paychecks. Ask almost anyone how they did on their taxes and you're likely to hear a happy exclamation that the taxpayer got a little money back! But ask the same person how much they paid the government...

Some people are fighting for a fair tax, replacing our income tax structure with a VAT, a Value Added Tax(country wide sales tax). Others argue for a Flat tax, one tax rate on income for everybody, no deductions etc. Both sides are fighting for the same basic concept. simplify the way the federal government collects taxes. America's Tax Structure is just so complicated and is getting more complicated every day. The best proof for this argument was made by IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman on C-Span (video at bottom of post).

SHANGHAI — China has overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest market for automobiles, the first time any other country has bought more vehicles than the nation that produced Henry Ford, the Cadillac and the minivan. Now that the Chinese buy more cars and trucks than Americans, the shift could produce ripples for the environment, gas prices and even the kinds of cars automakers design. More than 12.7 million cars and trucks will be sold in China this year, up 44 percent from the previous year and surpassing the 10.3 million forecast in the U.S., according to J.D. Power and...

Tolerance is the mother who softens the harshness of father’s strict adherence to the rules. Since nobody’s perfect, lawmakers and judges should guard against legal surprises never anticipated by lawmakers. This isn’t rewriting the decrees but interpretation in the highest sense of the word so the law can accomplish its original intent. “Who can say “I have purified my heart, I am free of sin? There is no man on earth so righteous that he never sins!” Proverbs 20:9 Below are some suggestions for lawmakers and judges to bring about a more just country: Intolerance-Justice should be based on each...

The Tax Preparation Industry Allie Winegar Duzett, October 15, 2009 Can you believe that it can cost you more to pay your taxes than you actually pay in taxes? “Last year, Americans spent more than $250 billion on tax preparation,” Ed Morrissey of HotAir.com told the audience at the Americans for Prosperity (AFP) summit on Defending the American Dream, held on October 3, 2009. “It costs us twice as much to comply with the tax code as it costs us in taxes, total,” Morrissey asserted, illustrating his point that our current tax system is “ridiculous.” “Ironically, what prompted our Founding...

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30TH, 2009 AT 5:59 AM Streaming at 12:30: PERAB Meeting on Tax Reform Posted by Austan Goolsbee Today, the tax subgroup of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB) will hold a meeting to gather ideas on tax reform. It will be the first of several such meetings. The meeting will center on tax simplification and will be live streamed at www.whitehouse.gov/live. I wanted to take the opportunity to explain why we assembled this subgroup, what areas the PERAB tax reform subgroup will focus on...

RUSH: You want to hear the table of contents in the Max Baucus bill? This is the one everybody's all excited about now, Gang of Six in there, three Republicans, three Democrats. Remember, now, Baucus announced yesterday part of his plan is a fine of up to 3,800 bucks on citizens via the IRS if you don't have health insurance. It's going to be mandatory just like automobile insurance is. ... "Section I: Health systems savings." There are four chapters. "Ensuring appropriate payment. Capturing productivity gains. Reducing geographic variation in spending, and modifying beneficiary contributions." "Section II: Options for Modifying...

Mansfield North Central Ohio Take Back America! Tea Party Saturday, July 4, 2009, NOON-2:00 PM Central Park GAZEBO, Downtown Mansfield Corner of Main Street & Park Avenue Join patriots in our area and across the country who will be participating inTea Party rallies in front of their city halls.Featured Speakers: Lt. Col. Gene Berger, USAF Retired, Combat Pilot, Vietnam Thom Collier, Former State Rep. Dist. 93 & 90, State Senate Candidate Dist. 19 Maureen Collins, Concerned Citizen Dr. Patricia Lydy, D.C., Lydy Chiropractic Clinic Dennis Oleksa, USAF Veteran Pastor Brian Phillips, Cornerstone Freewill Baptist Church Dean Shoup, Shoup’s Plumbing and...

In today’s Washington Post, the White House floats a really scary trial balloon—a new national Value-Added Tax (VAT) to pay for out-of-control spending and a Washington take over of health care. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad appears to be on board. So does Ezekiel Emanuel, brother of White House chief-of-staff Rahm Emanuel, who has been hired by the White House budget office to help design the health care plan and whose book on health care uses a VAT to fund the new government program. Obama economic adviser Paul Volcker is also on-board the VAT-train. ————— "We need to draw...

WASHINGTON – Social Security and Medicare are fading even faster under the weight of the recession, heading for insolvency years sooner than previously expected, the government warned Tuesday. Social Security will start paying out more in benefits than it collects in taxes in 2016, a year sooner than projected last year, and the giant trust fund will be depleted by 2037, four years sooner, trustees reported. Medicare is in even worse shape.

JUST as the econ omy begins show ing glimmers of a turnaround, here comes President Obama with a "tax-reform" effort that's sure to sock the stock prices and after-tax profits of many of the biggest US employers. Obama's $190 billion business-tax hike will hit Americans whose jobs and pensions depend on these companies doing well, and will increase pressure on already struggling colleges and hospitals. Why? Because millions of individual investors hold the companies' stocks in their portfolios, mutual funds and pension funds, as do many colleges, hospitals, museums and other institutions in their endowments. Among the important employers in...

Do you know what the word "income" means? My large Webster's dictionary is able to provide a clear and comprehensive definition in a mere 52 words. The shortest definition the Internal Revenue Service could provide in response to my request for its definition was 140 words - but the word income was included 10 times, missing the point that you do not include the word to be defined as part of the definition. You may have read that President Obama has just appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul A. Volcker to head a panel to make recommendations for tax reform....

A ny American who's fretted through filling out his or her income tax returns, churned through the confusing TurboTax online maze or plopped their shoe boxes of receipts down on their H&R Block representatives' desk has to be mumbling today, "There's got to be a better way." A predicted half million frustrated taxpayers will hit the streets nationwide today - the day that tax returns are due - to vent about increasing tax rates, wasteful spending, trillion dollar bailouts and debt being thrust onto our kids and grandkids. But after all the spouting, will anything change in the way we...

Our current income tax system, inaugurated in 1913 with the adoption of the 16th Amendment, began with a 1 percent tax on taxable income above $3,000 ($4,000 for married couples). A series of surcharges of up to 6 percent were applied to higher incomes, with the maximum rate being 7 percent on taxable income over $500,000. Less than 0.5 percent of the population ended up paying income tax. From these humble beginnings, the income tax soon blossomed, thanks to World War I, into a tax with a minimum rate that doubled and a maximum rate that reached 77 percent on...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One of the people named this week to President Obama's new Task Force on Tax Reform is a member of the AIG board of directors. Martin Feldstein, a professor of economics at Harvard University, has been on the board of American International Group since 1988. He also was a prominent economic adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Asked about the AIG connection, a senior administration official said Friday that the White House declined to comment on the story. Like the others named to the tax reform task force, Feldstein also serves on Obama's Economic...

Iowa Congressman Steve King hosted a "Special Order" on the House floor on March 17 to discuss the FairTax. For an hour, Members of Congress discussed how our legislation can save the U.S. economy. Several H.R. 25 co-sponsors spoke about the FairTax during this historic session. Watch The Video Learn More

SEC. 401. ELIMINATION OF SALES TAX IF SIXTEENTH AMENDMENT NOT REPEALED. If the Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is not repealed before the end of the 7-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this Act, then all provisions of, and amendments made by, this Act shall not apply to any use or consumption in any year beginning after December 31 of the calendar year in which or with which such period ends, except that the Sales Tax Bureau of the Department of the Treasury shall not be terminated until 6 months after such...

WASHINGTON -- The No. 1 problem facing U.S. taxpayers? A tax code so complex that Americans spend $193 billion per year just trying to figure out how much they owe, said Nina Olson, the National Taxpayer Advocate, in her annual report to Congress on Wednesday. That amounts to 14% of all income taxes collected, according to Ms. Olson. Tax-code changes have averaged one per day over the past eight years -- with 500 changes in 2008 alone, she said.

“The opaque earmarking process paired with a series of examples of corruption and self-aggrandizement has left taxpayers frustrated.”