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What is the FairTax?
Economic Freedom Coalition . Org ^ | current | Herman Cain

Posted on 04/04/2006 2:17:28 PM PDT by Eaglewatcher

The FairTax (HR 25 in the US House and S 25 in the US Senate) is a federal retail sales tax that replaces the entire federal income and Social Security tax systems, including personal, gift, estate, capital gains, alternative minimum, Social Security/Medicare, self-employment, and corporate taxes. The FairTax allows Americans to keep 100 percent of their paychecks (minus any state income taxes), ends corporate taxes and compliance costs hidden in the retail cost of goods and services, and fully funds the federal government while fulfilling the promise of Social Security and Medicare.

More FairTax benefits:

No tax on used goods. No tax on business inputs. With the FairTax, if you choose to buy any new good or service, the sales tax is charged just as state sales taxes are computed today. If you choose to buy used goods - used car, used home, used appliances - you do not pay the FairTax. If, as a business owner or farmer, you buy something for strictly business purposes (not for personal consumption), you pay no FairTax. So, in deciding what to buy, you get to choose whether or not you pay the FairTax.

No federal sales tax up to the poverty level means progressivity like today's tax system. Furthermore, to ensure that no American pays tax on necessities, the FairTax plan provides a prepaid, monthly rebate for every registered household to cover the consumption tax spent on necessities up to the federal poverty level. This, along with several other features, is how the FairTax completely untaxes the poor, lowers the tax burden on most, while making the overall rate progressive. However, the FairTax is progressive based on lifestyle/spending choices, rather than simply punishing those taxpayers who are successful. Do you see how much freer life is with the FairTax instead of the income tax?

All Americans take home their whole paychecks. Not only do more Americans have jobs, but they also take home 100 percent of their paychecks (except where state income taxes apply). No federal income taxes or payroll taxes are withheld from paychecks, pensions, or Social Security checks. Retail prices no longer hide corporate taxes or their compliance costs, which drive up costs for those who can least afford to pay. Did you know that hidden income taxes and the cost of complying with them currently make up 20 to 30 percent of all retail prices? It's true. According to Dr. Dale Jorgenson of Harvard University, hidden income taxes are passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices - from 20 to 30 percent higher than they would otherwise be - for everything you buy.

Tax criminals - don't make criminals out of honest taxpayers. Today, the IRS admits to 25 percent non-compliance with the code. However, this does not take into account the criminal/drug/porn economy, which conservative estimates put at one trillion dollars of untaxed activity. The FairTax taxes those engaged in the underground economy capturing their income at the cash register. The substantial decrease in points of compliance - from every wage earner, investor, and retiree, down to only retailers - also allows enforcement to concentrate on following the money to criminal activity, rather than making potential criminals out of every taxpayer struggling to decipher the code.

The income tax exports our jobs, rather than our products. The FairTax brings jobs home. Most importantly, U.S. exports are not burdened by the FairTax, as they are with the current income tax. So the FairTax allows U.S. exports to sell overseas for prices 22 percent lower, on average, than they do now, with similar profit margins. Lower prices sharply increase demand for U.S. exports, thereby increasing job creation in U.S. manufacturing sectors. At home, foreign imports are subject to the same FairTax rate as domestically produced goods. Not only does the FairTax put U.S. products sold here on the same tax footing as foreign imports, but the dramatic lowering of compliance costs in comparison to other countries' value-added taxes also gives U.S. products a definitive pricing advantage which foreign tax systems cannot match.

YOU are in charge! The FairTax moves us from a system that taxes what we earn to a system that taxes what we spend. Under the FairTax, you control your tax liability, not the government. The FairTax puts "we the people" in charge of our money, and puts us all on the path to economic freedom!

To enact the FairTax and unleash the full economic potential of the U.S., we must apply Vocal and Persistent pressure on Congress each week.

Email, call or fax your members of Congress today. Send them this simple message: "Please support replacing the federal income tax code and become a co-sponsor of HR 25 or S 25, the FairTax."


TOPICS: Heated Discussion
KEYWORDS: economy; fair; fairtax; tax
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To: Kellis91789
That is an example of a dodge easily countered.

Of course--but it can only be countered by means of new legislation. Each "dodge" will provoke new legislation. The result will be the same sort of complicated mess that we have today with income tax--and we'll still have income tax, to boot.

we can flag that business to be audited.

An audit will find nothing: the law doesn't say that a good's "new" price must be greater than its "used" price. A new law will be required to effect that.

181 posted on 04/05/2006 6:44:12 PM PDT by Shalom Israel (I don't WANNA be like Canada, thanks.)
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To: socialismisinsidious
Out of all the asinine, absurdly funny things you have written that one is the icing....those who know me are rolling. You are a hoot.

Statists on the right never think they have anything in common with statists on the left. You favor a plan that continues to rape the American people of trillions yearly, through taxation, inflation and the sale of government debt.

No, but I do think that the armed services are necessary and I want for them to have all of the latest gadgets--that requires money.

The plan you are advocating doesn't just pay for guns. It also pays trillions for butter. Bush's latest "prescription butter benefit" being the worst example in history.

Maybe you believe, as the liberals do, that we don't need our armed forces...

You're working hard to convert me into a liberal. It won't work: it's you who favors big government, just like your pals on the left.

182 posted on 04/05/2006 6:46:52 PM PDT by Shalom Israel (I don't WANNA be like Canada, thanks.)
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To: Kellis91789
And yet, California has a sales tax of 7.25%. If she's not aware of that tax, what will make her aware of the existence of the tax under consideration?
183 posted on 04/05/2006 6:47:22 PM PDT by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: Zon
The black market will be no worse then than it is now.

Well that settles that. I don't believe you and if this nonsense ever comes anywhere near a national debate, politicians will consider it a source of embarassment and anyone with a modicum of common sense will laugh and wonder how in hell it ever got that far.

184 posted on 04/05/2006 6:52:29 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: Always Right

Well, at least it seems that I've taught you a new word. And remember, if you use it 3 times, it's yours.

In case you didn't know, the tax base -- meaning those who will be paying the tax is greatly expanding, so the average person will not be paying the same.

Now c'mon. Tell me the real reason that you like the present system. Do you benefit from it that much that you subject your children and theirs and the rest of the country to this abominable system that we have now?


185 posted on 04/05/2006 6:52:50 PM PDT by Badray
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To: eskimo

Then you and he both are hopelessly lost.


186 posted on 04/05/2006 6:55:07 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Badray
Do you benefit from it that much that you subject your children and theirs and the rest of the country to this abominable system that we have now?

Now there's a way to win people over to your side.

187 posted on 04/05/2006 6:55:12 PM PDT by inquest (If you favor any legal status for illegal aliens, then do not claim to be in favor of secure borders)
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To: Shalom Israel

Thanks for revealing how little you know about this plan.


188 posted on 04/05/2006 7:15:45 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Badray
Thanks for revealing how little you know about this plan.

Thank you for proving the politicians right: people are ignorant suckers. Their control over we their slaves is secure.

189 posted on 04/05/2006 7:19:40 PM PDT by Shalom Israel (I don't WANNA be like Canada, thanks.)
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To: goldstategop
You have to subtract all the other taxes that are no longer there to get a true figure.

I am 100% aware of what taxes are eliminated and how much money will be saved. Thanks anyways. It does not add up.

190 posted on 04/05/2006 7:24:39 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: Kellis91789
What gets me is that with 60,000+ pages of tax code is it any wonder that when a person calls the IRS help line with a question 35% of the time the answer is wrong; 

In a 2005 test of the system by the Treasury Inspector General, 35% of answers were incorrect. The Treasury Inspector General tested the system again to measure the quality of the taxpayer assistance during the 2005 filing season.

The bad news, according to a Nov. 15 Government Accountability Office report: The accuracy rate for responding to tax law questions was basically unchanged from 2004.

Since 1988, Money magazine has conducted an annual study where 50 tax professionals, including attorneys and certified public accountants, have been asked to complete a tax return for a hypothetical family.

The results have been unnerving. The professional preparers come up with different results each year -- with spreads of as much as $1,000.

The bad news is that IRS advice is not binding -- whether given in person or in print. You also can't rely on IRS publications, even the famed Publication 17, Your Federal Income Tax. If there's a mistake in print -- tough! MSN Money - Can you turn to the IRS for tax help

One famous demonstration of excessive complexity comes from Money magazine’s annual test of tax experts, who are asked to compute taxes for a hypothetical family. In 1998, the 46 experts surveyed came up with 46 different answers; their calculations of taxes owed ranged from $34,240 to $68,912.IPI Publication Quick Study- IPI Policy Report - # 168

 60,000+ pages of tax code is an invitation to cheat and very easy to make mistakes. Plus, the IRS uses the code and it's power to abuse taxpayers. See IRS Abuse Reports.

Any business that had an operations manual that's as convoluted as the federal tax code would never survive let alone get off the ground in the first place. Not, IBM, not Exxon/Mobile, not Wal*Mart, not General Electric, not Microsoft, not Citibank and certainly not any medium or small business.

The tax code is huge. It's an ocean of accidents waiting to happen. It's everywhere and nowhere. Understanding and accurately applying the tax code is like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. And they call it law. It's not objective law -- it's chaos.

191 posted on 04/05/2006 7:25:23 PM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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To: Badray
Now c'mon. Tell me the real reason that you like the present system.

Read this thread, I already have as I have in hundreds of other fairtax threads.

192 posted on 04/05/2006 7:26:18 PM PDT by Always Right
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To: inquest

The other poster and I have a history and I dare say, an emnity towards each other. I've long since stopped trying to convert him and now love to taunt and ridicule him.


193 posted on 04/05/2006 7:28:01 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Shalom Israel

I did prove the pols right. You are ignorant of the facts and are willing to endure the income tax rather than a plan that is clearly better.


194 posted on 04/05/2006 7:29:46 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Badray
Then you and he both are hopelessly lost.

I would bet everyone who disagrees with you is "hoplessly lost".

195 posted on 04/05/2006 7:29:48 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: eskimo

No, just the ones who are willfully blind.


196 posted on 04/05/2006 7:31:54 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Badray
No, just the ones who are willfully blind.

Okay, then I would bet that nearly everyone who disagrees is also "willfully blind".

197 posted on 04/05/2006 7:34:34 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: Badray
I did prove the pols right. You are ignorant of the facts and are willing to endure the income tax rather than a plan that is clearly better.

On the contrary, the fact that you're willing to keep playing the politicians' game is exactly what empowers them.

198 posted on 04/05/2006 7:45:43 PM PDT by Shalom Israel (I don't WANNA be like Canada, thanks.)
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To: eskimo

I don't believe you and if this nonsense ever comes anywhere near a national debate, politicians will consider it a source of embarassment and anyone with a modicum of common sense will laugh and wonder how in hell it ever got that far.

55 members of congress have already signed on to support the FairTax (H.R.25). Perhaps of greater importance is that 80% of people that educate themselves on the FairTax or attend a FairTax presentation support it. The cat's out of the bag.

fairtax.org
search: "national sales tax" OR "national retail sales tax" OR "fairtax"

199 posted on 04/05/2006 7:46:56 PM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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To: Always Right
Badray: Now c'mon. Tell me the real reason that you like the present system.185

Always Right: Read this thread, I already have as I have in hundreds of other fairtax threads.192

That's a keeper. You're a squirrel through and through.

200 posted on 04/05/2006 8:30:20 PM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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