[socialismisinsidious]

The point is: federal taxes are not as obvious or as transparent as you make them out to be and that is purposeful. Look are your math and tell me that the average Joe really bothers to figure those numbers.....and the IRS/bureaucrappers want to keep it that way b/c withholding allows them to take stealthily. Read about the history of withholding and tell me that it was done out of the goodness of their hearts. sure. If everyone got a bill at the end of the year from the IRS (as use to happen) then people would scream about the amount of their taxes, but take a little at a time and people hardly notice. smart, hardly obvious. purposeful

As far as the amount being insignificant; my AMT whack was hardly that.

[RobFromGa]

If everyone got a bill at the end of the year from the IRS (as use to happen) then people would scream about the amount of their taxes

And the FairTax would spread the bill out into even more and smaller amounts than we have currently with the income tax, even harder to add up. What is your point?

[Dimples]

...tell me that the average Joe really bothers to figure those numbers....

Are you suggesting that the "average Joe" is going to keep ALL his receipts and ADD UP all the little bits of FairTax he pays throughout the year, then subtract the monthly prebate amounts from that total, and divide the result by his total income (from all sources) to determine his FairTax burden? Get real! "Average Joe is far LESS likely to do that than decipher his own W-2 or 1040 forms.

You appear to live in Pennsylvania (I was born and raised in Western PA). Pennsylvania has state and local sales taxes. The tax rate and tax amounts are annotated on every recipt. Do you have any idea how much sales tax you paid last year? It's all 100% in plain sight ... it's just not very easy to figure it out.

For comparison, go look at your 1040 form last year. Can you tell how much Federal Income Tax you paid last year? Go look at your W-2 form. Can you tell how much Social Insurance tax you paid last year? Multiply that number by two if you're interested in how much was contributed to your benefit ... or just look at your annual Social Security statement.

Consider the total of your FIT and SI taxes(both halves) to be 80% of all Federal tax you paid directly and indirectly. Divide the total FIT + SI by .8 and you have a very good estimate for your total Federal Tax Burden.

The problem with a sales tax is that there is no summary accounting. You'll never know how much you paid unless you are willing and able to track every transaction ... and if you miss a year, or a month, or a week,... you'll never be able to recover the data. For all it's warts, at least the current system gives me enough information to figure out what my actual tax burden is.

As for withholding, I would agree that the best way to put the average Joe in touch with his tax burden is to make him write a check periodically. Burying his tax burden onto a receipt that he'll more than likely throw away will not accomplish your desire.