Posted on 09/02/2005 11:01:09 AM PDT by pigdog
Comment: 50 Reasons I Support the FairTax (How many reasons can you give for supporting the present IRS tax system?)
Those Who Know the Facts Love the Fair Tax www.fairtax.org
FairTax and Individuals and Families (Family-friendly tax reform)
1. It allows workers to keep 100% of their pay, with nothing withheld the IRS or for Social Security and Medicare payments.
2. It is revenue neutral with the present income tax system, funding the federal budget at current levels.
3. It shifts the tax to consumption. Records show that consumption is more stable than income, therefore the tax revenue stream is likely to be a more stable and predictable amount.
4. It is progressive, a “prebate” of the tax amount up to the poverty level is given to everyone. This means that those spending below the poverty level have a net gain because the “prebate” exceeds the amount paid in taxes. (Under the present system the working poor pay the payroll tax even if they get a full refund of income tax withheld.)
5. It doesn’t tax pre-owned items – clothes, cars, homes. Only new items are taxed when sold by a business to an individual.
6. It is expected to remove an average of 22% of the cost of American made goods by removing the built-in payroll tax (the other 7.65% of earnings that employers pay), corporate income tax, and other business taxes that are now passed to consumers as an “embedded" tax of approximately 22% due to the cascading of income and payroll taxes paid by U.S. employers, at every step of production, to the U.S. Treasury. Competition will cause prices to fall by approximately that amount, on average.
7. It allows families to save more for home ownership, education, and retirement. An average family making $50,000 will have $7,500 more spendable income.
8. It removes the need for formal accounts of the 401(k), IRA, HSA, etc., varieties. Anyone, rich or poor, will be able to set up any kind of savings or investment account without regard to taxes or the government. No special knowledge of tax law is necessary.
9. It makes educational tuition a tax-free expenditure of tax-free income.
10. It eliminates the income tax and the IRS. Members of Congress and the public overwhelmingly agree that the current internal revenue code is cumbersome, intrusive, coercive, and inefficient.
11. It eliminates 90% of the cost of compliance. American families and American businesses waste an estimated $250 – $600 billion per year (and countless hours of time) doing the paperwork necessary to comply with the current tax code. That is roughly $1,000 – $2,000 annually for every man, woman and child in the U.S. (Businesses typically pass their tax bills and compliance costs on to the consumer, i.e., individuals and families.)
12. It’s simple, unambiguous, and certain, the opposite of the current tax code, 60,044 pages and counting.
13. It assures that no American will find, at the end of the year, a need to get a loan to pay taxes as an alternative to penalties, interest, or cheating.
14. The broader tax base comprises everyone spending money in the U.S., including the ten percent of our economy (an estimated $1 trillion) that today is underground or under the table. Under the FairTax, the illegal drug dealer will pay his tax just like the rest of us when he buys his sunglasses, BMW, and other items, as will those who work for cash and undocumented immigrants, all of whom receive government and societal benefits.
15. It encourages work by letting workers keep 100% of their earnings and giving a rebate, in addition, making the notion that “the more you work, the more money you have”, a reality, unlike the current system where welfare is lost when you go to work, so the first dollars earned after taxes just offset what a welfare recipient is currently receiving in assistance, so working is perceived as disadvantageous.
16. It allows more of the lower income families to become home owners by allowing a second job income above their current income (all tax free) to be applied to a mortgage. Money for down payments for homes is also saved totally tax free, causing it to accumulate faster.
17. It has the result that all lending in America will be at the equivalent of today’s tax exempt interest rates, which are 25%-30% less than today’s taxable home mortgage interest rates. This will create a huge boom in housing purchases and allow existing homeowners to refinance and reduce their cost of homeownership substantially.
18. It allows families to retain farms and businesses in the hands of those who built them through the elimination of the death tax.
19. It allows families to give tax-free assistance to one another by eliminating the gift tax.
20. It gives individuals (and businesses) the right to donate as much as they want to in a given year to charitable causes, without concern for exceeding an allowed limit on giving.
21. It encourages individuals to self-insure, making the health system more direct-pay (no 3rd party pay), thus bringing costs down.
22. It puts an end to the anxiety for honest taxpayers that begins soon after January 1 for most of use, culminating in wondering whether we’ve claimed everything we legally could and nothing we shouldn’t, all without raising questions at the IRS. It makes April 15 just another day. (Perhaps it will be a holiday after the FairTax is enacted!) FairTax and Social Security and Medicare
23. It eliminates the regressive payroll tax that hurts the poor. Currently, every one of us is taxed a minimum of 7.65% on our first-dollar of wages up to $90,000 (the cap for FICA, not Medicare), if we earn that much. It provides funding for Social Security and Medicare at a level equal to or greater than the present.
24. It provides that all 290 million Americans and 51 million visiting tourists fund Social Security and Medicare with their purchases. Today only 110 million workers fund these programs via deductions from their paychecks.
25. It assures that the wealthiest Americans will be voluntarily helping to fund social security with every last dollar they spend above the poverty level. Today, earnings are subject to FICA taxes only up to $90,000. The wealthiest Americans therefore do not pay into the system above that amount. If their earnings are from investments, no earnings fund the Social Security system.
FairTax and the Economy
26. It increases investment in business by eliminating the capital gains tax.
27. It allows for better planning by businesses, because they no longer have to consider tax implications for everything they do.
28. It makes higher employment or better compensation possible in the small business sector, where today it costs approximately three dollars in compliance costs to pay one dollar in payroll and income taxes.
29. It makes American products more competitive overseas by removing the embedded tax from them, thus lowering the prices of our exports, which compensates for low foreign wages.
30. By making our exports more competitive overseas, it lowers our balance of trade deficit and increases employment at home.
31. By removing the embedded tax from them, it makes American products more competitive with imports here, compensating for the low cost of imported products from which taxes have been removed before exportation to the U.S.
32. It encourages investment in companies located in the U.S., thus providing a home for money already in the U.S. and attracting more. The U.S. will be the most attractive tax-free haven in the world for doing business.
33. It encourages repatriation to the U.S. of money held by U.S. individuals and companies now in foreign countries, with no tax consequence. American companies will return from offshore and overseas.
34. It results in a windfall profit, likely to be invested in job-making businesses, for many of those holding taxable corporate high interest bonds at the time of passage of FairTax, since the bonds will not be taxed under FairTax. (Currently, a higher interest rate is usually paid to entice investors to buy the corporate bonds rather than go with the lower interest, but tax free, municipal bonds.)
35. It results in Federal Reserve rates being based on current consumption, which is rather stable, instead of future earnings, which are less predictable, resulting in surer inflation prevention.
36. It reduces production costs for farmers and other subsidized businesses, leading to a reduction in subsidies, thus reducing the federal budget.
37. It moves many individuals now providing tax advice (return preparation, advice, accounting, planning, and records maintenance) into an expansive economy where they will be producing goods and services. There they can add to the standard of living of all Americans and likely earn more than they do currently, instead of shuffling paper for the government (and not contributing anything economically to society).
FairTax and Churches and Non-profit Organizations
38. It frees churches and other non-profit organizations from the expense of filing tax returns and paying their half of Social Security and Medicare payments for employees. There will no longer be any 501(c) (3), 501(c) (4), etc., non-profit tax status, because there will be no more tax to be exempt from.
39. It restores to churches and non-profit organizations the 1st Amendment right to engage in free speech, without fear of losing their tax-free status. FairTax and Rights and Freedoms
40. It restores the 4th Amendment, protecting against unreasonable searches and seizures, from which the IRS presently is exempt.
41. It restores the 5th Amendment, which guarantees the right to due process. Under current systems the IRS has their own courts with their own set of rules not included in the 5th.
42. It restores individual privacy. The government no longer needs to know where you work, what you are earning, and what you are doing with it.
43. It relieves citizens of the risk of facing the shift in burden of proof that is so common with the current system, i.e., the taxpayer is guilty unless innocence can be proved, but even the IRS staff sometimes gives conflicting interpretations.
44. It eliminates the need to have a "marriage" clarification declaring who you live with, as that no longer has any bearing at all on a state or federal sales tax.
45. It eliminates the need for courts to decide which divorced parent gets to take the tax deduction for children.
46. Without FICA to pay, most states, counties, municipalities, and school districts will see a large increase in their state budget revenues, additionally lowering the overall tax burden (State & Federal) for most Americans.
47. It eliminates the administrative costs incurred by states in collection of state sales taxes because states will piggyback the state tax collection onto the national tax collection, for which they are compensated by the FairTax ¼% administrative cost give-back. (Retailers receive an equal amount for collecting the FairTax.)
FairTax and Politics<\b>
48. It cleans up a major flaw in campaign financing, eliminating campaign donations for "tax favors".
49. It eliminates wrangling in Congress over tax cuts, the tax code, and who is or is not paying a fair share of the tax bill, providing more time for debate on more productive issues.
FairTax and the Environment
50. It’s good for the environment. Reportedly, the IRS sends out 8 billion pages of forms and instructions each year. Laid end to end, they would stretch 28 times around the earth. Nearly 300,000 trees are cut down yearly to produce the paper for all the IRS forms and instructions. Also, since it taxes only new items, it would encourage buying tax-free pre-owned cars, clothes, furniture, houses, etc. Reuse is good for the environment, too.
Kenneth J. Van Dellen (with help from friends)
Exactly.
I agree, nice post.
Of course you know they are wrong on at least one of these points (#15). Why are you so opposed to honestly representing your plan?
Thanks for the links, It'll take me quite some time to get through all the comments ;)
just read the open letter to Boortz and then the second letter to Boortz and you'll have a good understanding of the problem with the FairTax plan as represented.
"We" certainly know nothing of the sort ... that's just YOUR vanity post effort and YOUR opinion.
I've told you several times Robbie, that you'd be much wiser to hold your fire.
Go have a beer and cool off - you're both misinformed AND misinterpreting things!
No, you won't have anything but a biased view - one from Robbie boy and like-minded pals. That's what their vanity posts are all about - boosting their own self-importance.
Their interpretations are biased in the extreme. What the economist said related to his calculations of the model he used and is in no way a representation of what would happen with wages and prices since an economist's simplifying assumptions do not control wage contracts tham many, many employees have - which are based on gross wages. The economist just assumed those sorts of things away to make his study. It doesn't at all mean that's the way if will happen.
Pretending it does mean that is merely another of the studies in misinformation and disinformation and distortion that the Status Quo Lovers so like to do. The study also make no assessment of the amount of cascaded embedded taxes or compliance costs that are in prices presently. Nor does it take into account the direct and rapid benefits of the expanding economy that will result from the FairTax.
I was just thinking about him last week, telling my son about him. I miss him too. We all have been hoping the Fairtax would get into the headlines someday and it has. Boortz talked last week about what if the men who saw us cutting ties to England had given up because they just never believed it would happen. Maybe not in my lifetime but I do believe the younger generation--25-45 do think it will happen. I hate negative people.
Garbage in, garbage out. You can't change the fact that Boortz/Linder and the Fairtax.org website rely on this study for their calculations. If the study is flawed, the Plan is flawed. You need an accurate study before you can discuss your Plan.
You'll find quite a few of them on this thread ... we call them Status Quo Lovers (or SQLers - or Squirrels). They have no actual real tax plan for the country but apparently only live to attack the FairTax.
It's no doubt safe to believe that most (or even all of them) have a "good thing going" with the present tax system and are terrified of losing it. Little else can explain their biased attitudes - "honesty" pretenses notwithstanding (that went by the wayside many threads ago from the latest such pretender).
As I think you probably know, Robbie, the authors of the book had a lot more information than just one economic study to look at.
For example, the 75 economists who joined in urging each Congresman and the President to support and pass the FairTax ALL stated that workers would receive their entre gross pay:
http://www.fairtax.org/pdfs/Open_Letter_President.pdf
And the economist Jorgenson clearly recognizes the great benefits to be obtained from the FairTaxfor the country when he says "... substitution of a National Retail Sales Tax for the existing income tax would result in gains that would accrue to workers and investors due to greater economic efficiency ..." - THAT's the real message of his economic studies (but one the Squirrels would like to have you not realize).
Why is it you support the present system???
I am not saying that Boortz and Linder lied, they may not have understood that the study made this assumption. They have now been made aware of this fact.
You have also been made aware of this FACT, yet you continue to insist it is my opinion which is also a lie. You just lie about everything, that has been my experience dealing with you.
The FairTax repeals the income tax and removes and defunds the IRS and requires that income tax records be destroyed and calls for the repeal of the 16th amendment.
The 16th cannot be repealed so long as we have any income-based tax system since that would remove any legal way for the government to raise revenue.
A flat tax has a number of serious disadvantage:
It retains the payroll/withholding system as at present.
It cannot help reduce export prices by border-adjustable taxes from prices.
It does not address the issue of raising more tax funds from the illegal economy - just like the present system.
Its great for me. I can retire overseas and pay zero taxes on my US investment income.
As opposed to "pigdog" who apparently only lives to mos-represent the FairTax. How can you debate a tax plan with someone who won't even describe it accurately and insists on the fantasy that everyone will keep 100% of their current pay and all prices with the Fairtax included will stay the same on average. It has been explained so that it is easy to understand, and it has been checked with the Harvard Chief Economist who did the study that the FairTaxers are relying on and he agrees that wages were assumed to go down to current take-home pay levels.
pigdog, I don't know how much further one could go to convince you to drop at least this one mis-representation. To continue to try and reel in new supporters with this outright error is just stupid and will eventually hurt your cause when you have to tell the truth.
Dear RobFromGa,
Of course, there is also the other falsehood, that a repeal amendment ridding of us the 16th amendment couldn't be passed until a sales tax is in place.
As has been stated many times, the repeal amendment could set a transition period of several years to phase out the income tax, or the actual NRST legislation could include a clause that it would not take effect until the repeal of the 16th amendment.
Although this has been pointed out many times, and never effectively disputed, the falsehood is still told.
sitetest
I'm aware of that, it comes across as pie in the sky, I know how hard and almost impossible it is to pass an amendment to the constitution (or repeal one).
The 16th amendment leagalizes an income on taxes, if that was repealed first, and then replaced with a fair tax, fine, but I fear we would start with the fair tax, the 16th would not be repealed, and then we would wind up with both.
I would rather replace a flat tax with a fair tax, but, and this is key, I don't think we can get the fair tax in now without also winding up keeping a income tax, if they can dump the 16th, I'll be on board (despite the fact that I live in NYC).
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Justice White interpreted it, unfortunatly, taking it literally, that amendment, taken literally, would be at odds with White.
And with the full paycheck going to workers, your ASSUMPTION that prices would only fall 8-10% (and also cost 30% more according to you) is nothing but that ... an ASSUMPTION of yours and since we know you strenuously oppose the FairTax on the pretext that it is "dishonest", etc. it seems reasonable that we can take that little fact of your bias into account.
Guess you didn't read the letter from the 75 economists ... it is THEY who ALL say that the worker will get their full check. But, of course, you are much better informed than they are no doubt.
And stop your pretense - you've clearly been trying to pin the FairTax book authors with lying (as well as anyone who supports the FairTax).
And the interpretation you spin out on your four vanity posts is, indeed, your OPINION ... and that's no lie.
And just in case you haven't seen the opinions of those 75 economists, here it is:
===================================
An Open Letter to the President, the Congress, and the American people
• Allow states the option of collecting the national retail sales tax, in return for a fee, along with their state and local sales taxes,
• Collect federal sales tax from every retail consumer in the country, whether citizen or undocumented alien, which will enlarge the federal tax base,
• Collect federal sales tax on all consumption spending on new final goods and services, whether the dollars used to finance the spending are generated legally, illegally, or in the huge “underground economy,”
• Dramatically reduce federal tax compliance costs paid by businesses, which are now embedded and hidden in retail prices, placing U.S. businesses at a disadvantage in world markets,
• Bring greater accountability and visibility to federal tax collection,
• Attract foreign equity investment to the United States, as well as encourage U.S. firms to locate new capital projects in the United States that might otherwise go abroad, and
• Not tax spending for education, since H.R. 25 and S. 25 define expenditure on education to be investment, not consumption, which will make education about half as expensive for American families as it is now.
The current U.S. income tax code is widely regarded by just about everyone as unfair, complex, wasteful, confusing, and costly. Businesses and other organizations spend more than six billion hours each year complying with the federal tax code. Estimated compliance costs conservatively top $225 billion annually – costs that are ultimately embedded in retail prices paid by consumers.
The Internal Revenue Code cannot simply be “fixed,” which is amply demonstrated by more than 35 years of attempted tax code reform, each round resulting in yet more complexity and unrelenting, page-after-page, mind-numbing verbiage (now exceeding 54,000 pages containing more than 2.8 million words).
Our nation’s current income tax alters business decisions in ways that limit growth in productivity. The federal income tax also alters saving and investment decisions of households, which dramatically reduces the economy’s potential for growth and job creation.
Payroll withholding taxes are regressive, hitting hardest those least able to pay. Simply stated, the complexity and frequently changing rules of the federal income tax code make our country less competitive in the global economy and rob the nation of its full potential for growth and job creation.
In summary, the economic benefits of the FairTax Plan are compelling. The FairTax Plan eliminates the tax bias against work, saving, and investment, which would lead to higher rates of economic growth, faster growth in productivity, more jobs, lower interest rates, and a higher standard of living for the American people.
The America proposed by the FairTax Plan would feature:
• no federal income taxes,
• no payroll taxes,
• no self-employment taxes,
• no capital gains taxes,
• no gift or estate taxes,
• no alternative minimum taxes,
• no corporate taxes,
• no payroll withholding,
• no taxes on Social Security benefits or pension benefits,
• no personal tax forms,
• no personal or business income tax record keeping, and
• no personal income tax filing whatsoever.
No Internal Revenue Service; no April 15th; all gone, forever.
We believe that many Americans will favor the FairTax Plan proposed by H.R. 25 and S. 25, although some may say, “it simply can’t be done.” Many said the same thing to the grassroots progressives who won women the right to vote, to those who made collective bargaining a reality for union members, and to the Freedom Riders who made civil rights a reality in America.
We urge Congress not to abandon the FairTax Plan simply because it will be difficult to face the objections of entrenched special interest groups – groups who now benefit from the complexity and tax preferences of the status quo. The comparative advantage and benefits offered by the FairTax Plan to the vast majority of Americans is simply too high a cost to pay.
Therefore, we the undersigned professional and university economists, endorse a progressive national retail sales tax plan, as provided by the FairTax Plan. We urge Congress to make H.R. 25 and S. 25 federal law, and then to work swiftly to repeal the 16th Amendment.
Respectfully,"
(signed by 75 recognized economists and sent to all members of Congress and President Bush)
=================================
Sounds good to most people I think.
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