[Principled]

Um, I said "savings will be taxed when spent". Is that avoiding the issue?

I also said that there are mitigating factors. For example, if you have any pretax savings (401k, 403B, etc), they will get a big gain. Why are you avoiding this issue?

Also, any cap gains you'd have to pay on sale of homes, stock, or other cap assets will be gone. Why do you avoid this issue? Also, you will be able to pass on your fortunes to your heirs without an estate tax. Why do you avoid this issue?

[GregoryFul]

I brought up the issue - you bring up many more issues - blowing smoke I presume. My issue is the immediate reduction in value of after tax savings to the holders of that class of savings. Sure, I have other classes of savings, accumulations of before tax savings are quite limited by government rules though. Cashing in some classes of savings will see a possible reduction of tax liability, depending on my income tax bracket, but it seems more likely that these classes will have a greater tax liability under the Fair Tax. For instance, long term capital gains will be taxed at a much higher rate (when spent of course).

It is nonsense to say that before tax savings will get a big gain, instead of paying the income tax on it as it is withdrawn, one would be paying the NRST, probably a greater tax liability - particularly in retirement years.

Personally, I see this scheme as a way for the "going broke fast" government to exploit the retirement savings of the baby boomers, who will be spending their lifetime of savings, and get marginal benefit from the elimination of income tax.

Should something like the NRST be at risk of becoming law, I'll cashier my savings and invest in housing, or other protected classes of "savings". So will many other investors - what havoc would that create? Eh? (That is a new issue)