Posted on 04/09/2006 7:42:37 AM PDT by Eaglewatcher
FairTax legislation would shift taxation from production to consumption!
We have advanced the idea there should be a Boston Tea Party-type revolt against our federal tax system. It is unfair, complex beyond comprehension, burdensome, oppressive, invades constitutional rights and is harmful to economic growth and prosperity.
Sound off on the important issues at The revolt advocated was not to stop paying your income taxes but to join in a national effort to replace a system which has been totally corrupted. Steve Forbes is correct when he says "the existing income tax system is beyond repair and the only solution is to repeal the laws which govern it, dissolve the IRS and replace it with a system which is simple, fair and transparent."
Is there such a plan? Yes, and bills have been introduced in the U.S. House and Senate. House Bill 25 was introduced in 2003 by Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., and Rep. Collin Peterson, D-Minn. Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, is one of 50 co-sponsors in the House. Sens. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., and Tom Coburn, R-Okla., are co-sponsors of Senate Bill 25. The proposed legislation is patterned after a plan researched and authored by Americans for Fair Taxation known as the "FairTax." Former Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., remarked that the FairTax is "the most well-researched tax proposal to come before Congress ... a decade and more than $22 million in research."
The FairTax bills would shift the focus of taxation from production to consumption. It would abolish all federal personal, gifts, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security, Medicare, self-employment and corporate taxes and replace them with a federal retail sales tax. Everyone would get all of their pay each payday minus state and local deductions. Your gross pay becomes your net pay.
Studies from Harvard University identified that most Americans are not aware they are paying an average 22 percent tax embedded in every new purchase. With these embedded costs 90 percent removed, retail prices would drop, and the initial sales tax rate of 23 percent added to new goods and services, would leave retail costs roughly unchanged. The Fairtax will raise the same revenue as today. Business-to-business transactions are exempt. Social Security and Medicare are funded from the sales tax revenue.
All US Social Security cardholders would receive a rebate equivalent to the sales tax expected to be paid on essential goods and services called poverty level expenditures. The size of the rebate is determined by the Department of Health and Human Services' poverty level multiplied by the tax rate. It is called a "prebate" since it precedes the tax and requires no record keeping. The prebate eliminates the "regressive" argument that a national sales tax would penalize low-income families.
Low-income families would actually benefit because they would not have the combined Federal Insurance Contributions Act-Federal Unemployment Tax Act withheld (15.3 percent) and like everyone else would receive the prebate. Almost all Americans see a significant net gain.
Respected economists calculate the efficiency and incentive gains of the FairTax will also drive our economy to unprecedented new heights.
Economists estimate that reducing tax-compliance cost will cause real investment to grow by 76 percent, exports to jump by 26 percent, and interest rates to drop 20 to 30 percent. Billions more will be collected from the underground economy which is missed today.
The long-term effect on our trade-deficit will be dramatic. U.S. products will compete in foreign markets free of the approximately 22 percent current tax burden. With the FairTax, U.S. and international companies will re-locate to the United States because we will be a tax haven. High-worth Americans are moving their citizenship and much of their spending to other countries because of the 55 percent U.S. estate tax. The FairTax would bring these people and their associated jobs back home.
To learn more about the FairTax plan, visit FairTax's Web site online. For the FairTax to become a reality there must be a groundswell of demand at the grassroots level. Let's make April 15 just another nice spring day.
• Wiley Brooks is the Alaska director of Americans for Fair Taxation in Anchorage, and Donald N. Anderson is an Anchorage businessman.
Consume wisely! -- Save and invest what you can.Mind your own business, I'll do what I want with my money, thank you.
After I save and invest what do I do with it?...Look at it, count it or... consume!...
(paraphrasing your own words) What do YOU want to tax to make less of/destroy... "consumption"
If the FairTax is such a great idea, why do its proponents have to misrepresent it in order to try to gain supporters?
And why do they have to demonize those who honestly disagree with their plan, and make incorrect statements alleging that these opponents are acting for some terrible secret reason?
Personally having just sent in my final gigantic payment to the IRS for my 2005 taxes, I would pay less under the FairTax at the outset. But I happen to believe that the plan would do serious damage to our economy and likely cause the end of whatever political party is stupid enough to make such as rash modification.
This FairTax pipe dream has zero chance of passing.
It's only exaggeration to those like you, blind to the economic reality of taxing income..
Mind your own business, I'll do what I want with my money, thank you.
Gladly; -- an income tax minds your business, while a fairtax would let you do what you want with ALL of your money..
After I save and invest what do I do with it?...Look at it, count it or... consume!... (paraphrasing your own words) What do YOU want to tax to make less of/destroy... "consumption"
Tax consumption as little as possible, but fairly. -- No exceptions.
Could it be that they all have some sort of vested interest in business as usual, and don't care if this Republic is on the road to serfdom?
Rob:
-- If the FairTax is such a great idea, why do its proponents have to misrepresent it in order to try to gain supporters?
You ~imagine~ it's being 'misrepresented', because you have an interest in doing so.
And why do they have to demonize those who honestly disagree with their plan, and make incorrect statements alleging that these opponents are acting for some terrible secret reason?
Get real, no one is "demonizing" you. I'm sure you have a perfectly normal reason for your opposition, -- Probably like making a living.
Personally having just sent in my final gigantic payment to the IRS for my 2005 taxes, I would pay less under the FairTax at the outset. But I happen to believe that the plan would do serious damage to our economy
[unsupported 'belief']
and likely cause the end of whatever political party is stupid enough to make such as rash modification.
Irrational. If it passed, the party responsible would be the hero's.
This FairTax pipe dream has zero chance of passing.
So said the beer barons, just before 1919.
Wake up and quit smelling your own farts, tpaine. The rest of the world is going FLAT TAX and it is working, so why risk the entire US economy on an idea that hasn't even undergone peer review by economists?
It's only exaggeration to those like you, blind to the economic reality of taxing income..Sorta makes you wonder how we got to be what we are....Oh that's right in your words we're a toilet.
It's not the income tax that put you in an economic toilet it's your wages and benefits.
Personally having just sent in my final gigantic payment to the IRS for my 2005 taxes, I would pay less under the FairTax at the outset.Interesting, since the Fairtax is revenue neutral and more money would be paid out in negative taxes either the Fairtax rate isn't adequate for revenue neutrality or someone else will be paying more.
A comment worthy of a Fairtax supporter: fallacious premise, fallacious interpretation, fallacious conclusion, in short, another pack of lies.
I (we) have explained numerous time why we dislike the FairTax:
- It is marketed using a misrepresentations and outright lies.For these reasons (and more) I do not support the FairTax. If you're going to attempt to represent my position, do it accurately or do not do it at all.- It's supporters immediately descend to name-calling and character assassination with anyone who dares point out the flaws of the FairTax.
- It will likely sink the economy into a deep recession before any of the anticipated economic benefits can begin to take hold.
- It will penalize fixed income consumers as prices rise but their incomes do not.
- As advertised, it will raise insufficient revenue to replace the current tax system necessitating a substantial rate increase, or substantial deficit spending (anyone who thinks spending will be cut the first few years is delusional.)
- It will necessitate substantial increases in State and Local taxes so they can pay their share of FairTax revenue.
- It will flow substantially more money through the hands of the Federal Government than today's system increasing waste, lowering the velocity of money, and creating a massive magnet for political favoritism (the prebate)
- It relies on decade old simulations that do not properly model the economy and didn't accurately predict the behavior of the economy over the decade since publication.
A comment worthy of a Fairtax supporter: fallacious premise, fallacious interpretation, fallacious conclusion, in short, another pack of lies.
Sheer hype. -- You prove it by not explaining why you like our income tax system; -- instead you attack the FairTax.
I (we) have explained numerous time why we dislike the FairTax: - It is marketed using a misrepresentations and outright lies. - It's supporters immediately descend to name-calling and character assassination with anyone who dares point out the flaws of the FairTax. - It will likely sink the economy into a deep recession before any of the anticipated economic benefits can begin to take hold. - It will penalize fixed income consumers as prices rise but their incomes do not. - As advertised, it will raise insufficient revenue to replace the current tax system necessitating a substantial rate increase, or substantial deficit spending (anyone who thinks spending will be cut the first few years is delusional.) - It will necessitate substantial increases in State and Local taxes so they can pay their share of FairTax revenue. - It will flow substantially more money through the hands of the Federal Government than today's system increasing waste, lowering the velocity of money, and creating a massive magnet for political favoritism (the prebate) - It relies on decade old simulations that do not properly model the economy and didn't accurately predict the behavior of the economy over the decade since publication.
For these reasons (and more) I do not support the FairTax. If you're going to attempt to represent my position, do it accurately or do not do it at all.
I made a comment about you income tax devotees, and so far none of you has even addressed that issue.
Put down the crack pipe, tpaine. Most of us are *FOR* the Flat Tax - a simple idea that has the merit of working everywhere it's been tried.
You must have a 'crack pipe' up yours.
Where has it been tried?
Are you sh*tting me? Are you really that uninformed?
-- Make your point, if you have one.
I think I just did.
Dream on.. The only 'point' you've made proves up my initial comment.
Your ignorance of the issue speaks for itself.
My comments stands, unrefuted:
--- None of the above 'pro income tax' people can explain ~why~ they want our present insane system to continue.
Could it be that they all have some sort of vested interest in business as usual, and don't care if this Republic is on the road to serfdom?
--Bet on it.
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