Could you subtract $23.00 from $100.00 to see what the seller had left???Sure. By my count he had $2.00 for profit and overhead after remitting 23% of his gross to the fairtax collectors.
By your numbers the seller/dealer had - "a good margin of 25% on sales or $25 on the drug dealer's $100" - meaning his costs were $75.00.
Using your choice, math or arithematic, the sellers "good margin" has disappeared after remitting $23.00 of the $25.00 "good margin" to the fairtax collectors.
How much of the "good margin" was profit again?
Under the current system______
Under the Fairtax________
No, Looey - wrong again.
THe $23.00 tax receipt for the FairTax is not from the seller's profit. It is an amount paid by the buyer and held in trust by the seller for forwarding to the state at the end of the month. The seller's margin is whatever it might be of the $77.00 ($100.00 minus $23.00) cost.
In fact, chances are the seller's margin might even be higher than under the IT since his incoming costs on the thing sold would be lower after the removal of embedded tax costs.
You are taking two different circumstances and trying to pretend they are one and apply Looey-rithmetic to both as though they were one. They are different and the seller's margin on the FairTax side is not reduced by the taxes paid - that's a separate sum from profit margin and is tax revenue and not "margin" as you try to make it.
You should consider it.