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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: Shalom Israel
"... You believe in their fundamental right to pass laws ..."
.

Yup - sure do. Why don't you try reading the US Constitution sometime???

381 posted on 04/08/2006 4:01:00 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: wgflyer

You8've got it absolutely right!! good for you!


382 posted on 04/08/2006 4:02:54 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: pigdog
Likewise the NRST contains a "prebate" which will make people like Kellis's sister not notice the tax that much anyway. And I agree with others who've pointed out that there will be constant political pressure to increase it.
383 posted on 04/08/2006 4:05:19 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: Always Right

Not taxing education is not an "exemption" Rightie. It is considered an nvestment and therefore not taxed.

And the FairTax rate is not increased automatically. In fact, if anything it may go down as the tax base greatly expands.


384 posted on 04/08/2006 4:07:21 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: GSlob

Silly you. You're taxed the second time anyway. Better without the IRS. Bye.


385 posted on 04/08/2006 5:08:26 PM PDT by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
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To: eskimo
"No one I know believes that either."

If you're suggesting that we FairTaxers believe in some form of benevolence ever coming out of the crooks we call congress, well, far from it. The point, I suppose, is to try and neuter them. When people actually understand the FairTax it is hard not to approve of it. I call it a raising of standards...a step toward freedom of the citizen from big government.

You can use the argument that "it'll never happen", or "you'll never get the government monkey off your back", and you might be right. But, to me, the FairTax is a lofty goal to have. You could say, "We'll never eradicate murder, or corruption, or illegal aliens, ad infinitum", but to stop trying is to give up and consign oneself to a lowered standard of living, a lowered quality of life and, really, the end of the great experiment that was America. My goals include a 100 percent crime free homeland, a 100 percent small government homeland, a 100 percent illegal alien free homeland, wealth, prosperity and a great quality of life. While I may never achieve these things, to have a goal of less is to accept much, much less. Whatever sins government might visit upon us after enactment of the FairTax will be visited upon us with the current system, in spades. You must remember that the FairTax doesn't eradicate corruption. We must do that ourselves. Whatever system you choose, good luck to you. I choose the FairTax.
386 posted on 04/08/2006 5:19:58 PM PDT by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
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To: pigdog

Thank you, sir.


387 posted on 04/08/2006 5:25:59 PM PDT by wgflyer (Liberalism is to society what HIV is to the immune system.)
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To: Badray
More willful blindness.

Not at all I still see fine and I've enough experience to trust that when I do not like what I see that there is definitely something wrong.

388 posted on 04/08/2006 5:32:06 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: wgflyer
When people actually understand the FairTax it is hard not to approve of it.

Sorry, I have not found that to be so.

389 posted on 04/08/2006 5:35:23 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: pigdog
if anything it may go down as the tax base greatly expands.
The Fairtax tax base already taxes everything new, what's it going to expand to, taxing everything used, taxing income?
390 posted on 04/08/2006 5:42:32 PM PDT by lewislynn (Fairtax = lies, hope, wishful thinking, conjecture and lies. (no it's not a mistake)
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To: pigdog
Nothing that could be devised under the FairTax in the way of some black market goods operation - NOTHING!!! - would even come close under the FairTax.

I'm not certain that makes sense to me but I think my reply would be that I do not believe what I think you are trying to say is at all accurate.

391 posted on 04/08/2006 5:46:50 PM PDT by eskimo (Political groupies - rabid defenders of the indefensible.)
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To: lewislynn

pigdog: And the FairTax rate is not increased automatically. In fact, if anything it may go down as the tax base greatly expands.384

The Fairtax tax base already taxes everything new, what's it going to expand to, taxing everything used, taxing income?

The tax base is people and you know that. It figures you'd deceptively switch the tax base -- people --  into new/used products being the tax base. Lewislynn, you're dishonest to the bone.

392 posted on 04/08/2006 6:04:33 PM PDT by Zon (Honesty outlives the lie, spin and deception -- It always has -- It always will.)
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To: Zon
The tax base is people and you know that.
LOL!

No it isn't. Tax base is WHAT is taxed not WHO is taxed.

393 posted on 04/08/2006 6:10:57 PM PDT by lewislynn (Fairtax = lies, hope, wishful thinking, conjecture and lies. (no it's not a mistake)
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To: lewislynn

You certainly know better than that Looey, having been set straight on it several times.


394 posted on 04/08/2006 6:13:21 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: pigdog

Bingo.


395 posted on 04/08/2006 6:13:35 PM PDT by Badray
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To: eskimo

IOW, you think that in view of the 25% the IRS views as taxes not collected (not illegal income or evasion) and with over 21 million illegal aliens paying no income tax that there is some scheme under the FairTax that would exceed that total amount???? What might it be pray tell???


396 posted on 04/08/2006 6:15:48 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: pigdog
having been set straight on it several times.
Set me straight again. What is the income tax base, income, or taxpayers?
397 posted on 04/08/2006 6:19:04 PM PDT by lewislynn (Fairtax = lies, hope, wishful thinking, conjecture and lies. (no it's not a mistake)
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To: Shalom Israel

The argument is not whether various spending programs and whether or not the are copnstitutional. It would probably surp[rise you to know that many who support the FairTax also believe that spending is out of control and must be reduced.

Bringing the FairTax into play as our tax system is just a start.

But you still haven't identified who your "pay no taxes" guru might be. John Kotmair perhaps??? Bob Schulz??


398 posted on 04/08/2006 6:22:18 PM PDT by pigdog
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To: eskimo

Ignorance -- not understanding -- is causing your blindness.


399 posted on 04/08/2006 6:24:46 PM PDT by Badray
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To: Shalom Israel

Well, no,. actually you might as well just zip your lip since most of the stuff you post is right out of the Tax Protesters Handbook.

It makes no sense in the real world.


400 posted on 04/08/2006 6:25:32 PM PDT by pigdog
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