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."
The Mastromarco/Burton explanation on the subject is quite clear and I think you'd understand it also, Looey.
Does this response mean that you didn't understand it?
Are you boasting about your own veracity, Rightie??? Or just attacking someone else?
Here.
'Course it's old, 2001. And there is no reason to think any other year would be significantly different.
Earn or not, folks consume. So while there will be those who some months receive more in prebate than they spend, the aggregate picture is that there will be very, very few in that situation long-term - contrary to what we have now in our income tax.
Yet another point on which the nrst is better than the existing system.
Your comments seem to indicate that you have or had a copy of it so presumable you'll put it up for viewing.I had one at some point. I'll have to find it.
Actually most of us would believe them rather than you if it comes to that Nightie. Their track record for veracity is much better than yours.*cough* jorgenson *cough*
Besides, the question you're pounding your chest with is irrelevant. It doesn't make a lick of difference to me whether gov't purchases, wages, etc are taxed we've talked about why it makes sense numerous times. As long as withholding is eliminated, payroll tax is eliminated, income taxes (personal and business) are eliminated, and the disadvatage to US exporters is eliminated I'm happy.
THe other wrangling you're doing is just a bunch of nothingness for you to pound your chest with.
THat's not what this data say: Data
So irrespective of reported earnings, folks spend. So, you're wrong.
Beyond that, what does it say that so many are underreporting earnings? That perhaps the nrst will indeed capture more taxes from the cash economy?
Got any other data to analyze? If so, post it.
After all, why pick and choose sentences here and there from Jorgenson's words to attempt to construe an assertion rather than just getting the whole thing from Jorgenson?
Yes, the former chairman of Economics at harvard, the guy with the letters behind his name indicating that he is an expert - he far, far, far outweighs anyone on this forum, no matter how skilled at misrepresentation.
You apparently do.
Iow, yes there would be an additional 30% (not 23%) tax ON "any government" employee's wages, salaries and benefits....Gee, that shouldn't amount to much. < /sarcasm >
How so? THe nrst only has business as filers - no individuals are filers. So how will it be worse if no individuals are tax filers? Besides, doesn't today's system already create cover for creating more gov't for tax enforcement? Hence your argument is not against any particular tax method, but is against gov't getting larger to enforce taxes. But since only business will face enforcment, not individuals, how will it be worse? Seems to me that by reducing the nuber of filers so drastically will make enforcement easier, not harder. Beyond that, no individuals will file - only business.
...every American who does not desire to be taxed excessively will be forced to beg an offsetting sum of money from government, they could simply manipulate prices when they wanted more money, etc.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. Can you clarify?
Did you read this part?
Yes, the former chairman of Economics at harvard, the guy with the letters behind his name indicating that he is an expert - he far, far, far outweighs anyone on this forum, no matter how skilled at misrepresentation.I wasn't commenting on Jorgenson's believability, I was commenting on the AFT's. They are the ones who have (and continue to) misrepresent Jorgenson's work.
Or this?
My mistake.
I read it and most of the rebuttal, including this part, makes no sense. How, exactly does the income tax or Flat Tax tax government output?So today, both the income tax and the flat tax tax government output.Did you read this part?
While the government pays its employees a gross amount and then withholds the income tax from their paychecks,...
Seems pretty straight forward to me.
LOL! Words.
What (words) indicates to you it wouldn't
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.