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Just how fair is the 'FairTax'?
Money.cnn ^ | 9/7/05 | Pat Regnier

Posted on 09/07/2005 5:15:28 PM PDT by Man50D

NEW YORK (Money magazine) - If you don't care much for talk radio, or you don't live in the South, the name Neal Boortz might not ring a bell.

But pay attention: Around 4 million people nationwide catch his radio show. It's No. 1 in Boortz's home market of Atlanta and ranks first or second in numerous smaller cities in red states.

His 180-page polemic for radical tax reform, The FairTax Book, made its debut at No. 1 on the New York Times' bestseller list in August.

When Boortz came to Jacksonville for a book signing at a downtown hotel on a sticky, sweltering Thursday night last month, close to 1,000 people turned out for a chance to meet him -- and to bask in his rage at the Internal Revenue Service.

"How many of you want the federal government out of your paycheck?" asks Boortz from the hotel's ballroom stage. Wooo-hooo! roars the crowd. Boortz's wife Donna, standing at the back of the room, looks on in amazement.

"This is for taxes," she says. "This is not sex and violence we're talking about."

No kidding. Everybody likes a tax cut, but fundamental tax reform is one of those issues that's generally as boring as it is important. Who wants to waste an evening thinking about marginal rates? But the plan Boortz is selling is disarmingly simple: Just eliminate most federal taxes -- income tax, Social Security tax, corporate tax, what's left of the estate tax -- and replace them with a big, fat national sales tax.

(Excerpt) Read more at money.cnn.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: bogus; boortz; conartists; confusion; dupe; fairtax; flattax; flimflam; hr25; liar; linder; nrst; retraction; scam; scientology; somethingfornothing; swindle; taxes; taxfraud; taxreform
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To: konaice
Your argument makes no sense.
Actually it's your argument plan that makes no sense.

For your 20% price reduction plan to work, employee's withholding would have to be sacrificed to the employer in hopes of them lowering their prices accordingly...hence the lower wages...BUT, if the products aren't domestic (most aren't) then no amount of domestic wage reduction would help prices.

101 posted on 09/07/2005 9:26:30 PM PDT by lewislynn (Status quo today is the result of eliminating the previous status quo. Be careful what you wish for)
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To: SolarisRocks
When I pay 8.25 % in sales tax on a 100.00 item the tax in 8.25.

What is the fairtax due on a 100.00 purchase?

I assume your 8.25% tax is a local tax?

Under the current system, about 23% percent of the price of that 100 dollar item is tax collected throughout the production chain. So you really purchased a $77 dollar item and 23 dollars of Hidden tax, plus your local 8.25 tax for a total tax of $31.25.

Under FairTax, the price of the product would come down to about $77, because there would be no hidden tax. (Some would argue it wouldn't come down all the way, and they see this a a MAJOR flaw, when it is in fact a quibble).

So you would pay 23 dollars in tax on your $77 item, plus your 8.25 cent for $31.25

102 posted on 09/07/2005 9:32:26 PM PDT by konaice
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To: lewislynn
For your 20% price reduction plan to work, employee's withholding would have to be sacrificed to the employer in hopes of them lowering their prices accordingly..

Prove it. There is no evidence of this. There is enough OTHER hiddn tax in manufactured goods and services to ammount to %20.

103 posted on 09/07/2005 9:36:19 PM PDT by konaice
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To: lewislynn
BUT, if the products aren't domestic (most aren't) then no amount of domestic wage reduction would help prices.

RIGHT! Now you are starting to see the light. American companies become competitive again. Both at home and abroad.

Besides, as I've tried to tell you, the price reduction does NOT depend on ANY wage reduction.

104 posted on 09/07/2005 9:40:13 PM PDT by konaice
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To: lewislynn
For your 20% price reduction plan to work, employee's withholding would have to be sacrificed to the employer in hopes of them lowering their prices accordingly...hence the lower wages

The employee's cost to the employer is the gross cost, not the employee's net take-home pay. The gross cost under a NST sales tax would equal take-home pay. You might lower hourly wages but net take-home pay remains the same. .

105 posted on 09/07/2005 9:46:00 PM PDT by woodbeez (There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure(W. Durant))
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To: konaice
Besides, as I've tried to tell you, the price reduction does NOT depend on ANY wage reduction.
You forgot to tell me/us exactly how because without the wage sacrifice there won't be 20% reductions...
RIGHT! Now you are starting to see the light. American companies become competitive again.
LOL! Yea, when the wage gets to $3.00 a day.
106 posted on 09/07/2005 9:49:03 PM PDT by lewislynn (Status quo today is the result of eliminating the previous status quo. Be careful what you wish for)
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To: woodbeez
You might lower hourly wages but net take-home pay remains the same. .
My NOW net takehome becomes my NEW 100% paycheck with no withholding...got it.

Is that supposed to excite me when I'm facing being ripped off by a new 23% tax on what I have left after being ripped off by my employer?...This is what you're trying to sell as good?

I'm sure no one will be upset when they learn their hourly rate is being reduced..BTW, how does that fit into all that Fairtax "contract wage" talk?

Oh the tangled web you weave when you practice to deceive (or something like that).

107 posted on 09/07/2005 10:03:31 PM PDT by lewislynn (Status quo today is the result of eliminating the previous status quo. Be careful what you wish for)
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To: shuckmaster

Suckmaster, how about reading the book or going to fairtax.org and LEARN THE DETAILS of the proposal before so GROSSLY MISREPRESENTING what it will do and what it will NOT do. And harming the poor is one of the things it WILL NOT do!


108 posted on 09/07/2005 10:13:53 PM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: shuckmaster

Suckmaster wrote:
"I researched enough to see that Boortz is trying to sell a book to fools."

This means you'll be buying one, right?


109 posted on 09/07/2005 10:21:01 PM PDT by Dick Bachert
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To: Crolis

I can see myself in a Flat Tax future counting every hour at work, and for two hours of every day I'll employing Uncle Sam. But at least I'll be able to say how many of my working hours were spent paying the piper.

The primary thing I really dislike about the Fair Tax system is that at the end of the day, we have no idea how much we paid in taxes. I really don't like that. I think citizens should be able to look at a piece of paper and say exactly how much they paid in taxes. I think that is an essential part of our democracy to know that information.

There are people who think of the income tax as a tax on productivity. I don't see a problem with that since the environment that we surround ourselves in, and the stability we rely on for our productivity is supported by the government. I would gladly pay a portion of my productivity to see that those conditions continue.


110 posted on 09/08/2005 2:47:51 AM PDT by coconutt2000 (NO MORE PEACE FOR OIL!!! DOWN WITH TYRANTS, TERRORISTS, AND TIMIDCRATS!!!! (3-T's For World Peace))
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To: konaice
Lets take Always Right's assertion that wages everywhere would drop (inspite of the fact that there's not a shred of evidence to this), and lets work with that....

Do you make a habit of misrepresenting everything I said. I never said wages would fall. I merely pointed out that was the assumption YOUR MODELER used when he said prices would fall 22%. You guys can't be honest about anything.

111 posted on 09/08/2005 4:44:18 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: Dick Bachert
Suckmaster, how about reading the book or going to fairtax.org and LEARN THE DETAILS of the proposal before so GROSSLY MISREPRESENTING what it will do and what it will NOT do.

How about reading this article which conclusive shows Boortz and Fairtax is selling snake oil.

112 posted on 09/08/2005 4:45:48 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: shuckmaster
The less money you make, the bigger percentage of your income you spend on sales taxable items. Boortz wants to jack the sales tax up through the roof thus driving up the cost of living for poor and middle class people. Rich people who don't worry about making ends meet say that's just fine with them.

I see no justifiable reason that low-income people shouldn't be paying their fair share as well as rich. It isn't Bill Gates' kids in the local schools, but yet everybody expects him to pay for them. We've got about 50% of the population that pay no federal income tax at all - and some deadbeats that get the so-called "earned income credit" which is a fancy name for welfare.

I'm not sure that the fair tax is the best answer, but anything that uses the earnings from one group to buy votes from another (like today's variable tax rate scheme does) should be eliminated.

113 posted on 09/08/2005 4:54:45 AM PDT by meyer (Eastern Tennessee)
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To: PeteB570
Well he was doing fairly well until he got to the "You earn $80,000 cause your boss keeps $20,000 in taxes" part.

Obviously you did not comprehend what he was saying. What he said was in order for prices to fall 20%, wages would have to be cut. That is how the fair taxers came up with their numbers. It was not the authors doing, it was the fair taxers research.

114 posted on 09/08/2005 4:54:57 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: woodbeez
ancient geezer got it right in post post 64

That was not ancient_geezer, that was Your_Nightmare. acient_geezer is still in denial that that is the case.

115 posted on 09/08/2005 5:02:01 AM PDT by Always Right
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To: lewislynn

It's called the nose on your face.


116 posted on 09/08/2005 5:05:51 AM PDT by groanup (shred for Ian)
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To: ancient_geezer

I have a question about the fair tax. How would it affect physicians and insurance payments? Would doctors be expected to take a 30% cut in revenue, assuming that Medicare and private insurance would keep reimbursement rates the same?


117 posted on 09/08/2005 8:05:14 PM PDT by MedNole
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To: MedNole

How would it affect physicians and insurance payments? Would doctors be expected to take a 30% cut in revenue, assuming that Medicare and private insurance would keep reimbursement rates the same?

The tax is collected from the purchaser of an insurance for a final consumer in the premium charged and remitted by the insurer.

When payments are rendered by insurers to a physician, for example, since the tax has already been paid by the insured, the physician receives a tax credit to the amount of tax that he would otherwise have to collect and remit with regard to payment from a client. The credit cancels out the requirement for what would otherwise be collected in the gross payment to the physician.

See Section 206 of the bill for details on how insurance credits are actually applied, it works the same for payments paid out under health, casualty & loss, fire, flood, liability, accident, disability, etc. insurance as well.

118 posted on 09/08/2005 10:06:10 PM PDT by ancient_geezer (Don't reform it, Replace it!!)
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To: ancient_geezer

Wow, that's good to hear. I read the fair tax book but I didn't remember if that issue was addressed. Thanks a lot!


119 posted on 09/09/2005 4:27:41 AM PDT by MedNole
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To: Always Right

Thank you for correction. It was Your Nightmare who said that. Either way, it wouldn't change the point I was making.


120 posted on 09/09/2005 6:53:46 PM PDT by woodbeez (There is nothing in socialism that a little age or a little money will not cure(W. Durant))
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