OK. so enlighten me: has anything changed?
I suspect the ratios are pretty much the same.
Try not paying your taxes or maybe you'll be audited and then you will meet the monster too.
Try not paying your FairTax ... see what happens. What's your point. If you are going to engage in illegal activity, then yes, you meet with an unpleasant endgame.
Besides, the monster to which I refer is an analogy for all those "hidden taxes" you keep suggesting are making it impossible for you to know anything, not the "enforcer." You're seeing things that aren't as big or as numerous as you fear.
Yes b/c I save all of my receipts so I do know what I pay in Sales Taxes... the best part about them: they weren't taken at gun point I willingly handed those taxes over. The answer, btw, is none of your business.
No need to get snippy. You obviously are a truly are unique individual. I'm surprised that someone so diligent and informed about their spending is so clueless about their income situation. I'm pretty savy about my tax situation, and, interestingly enough, I also save most of my receipts. But, I've never had the discipline to go through every one ... thousands of them every year ... and ferret out the sales tax ... even though I could benefit from the exercise in potential tax savings. And besides that, I can't keep the rest of my family disciplined enough to even SAVE most of their receipts.
I never asked you to tell me how much you paid; I only asked if you really know. Whether you truly know or not is between you and you maker. I'm sure there a others who might see this thread who will say: "Hmmmm... I don't save receipts, and I really don't know how much I pay in sales taxes. Dimples has a good point. But, as we now know, that won't be you ... you add up the tax on all your receipts.
Income tax - I choose to work and therefore pay taxes. FairTax - I choose to spend and therefore pay taxes.
Try buying something and announcing at the register that you will not pay the sales tax. If you insist the checker ring up your items, sans tax, I predict you will be confronted by someone in a uniform, probably with a gun.
Taxes taken at the point of a gun is hyperbole. In each instance I have the choice to engage in the activity that results in taxation or not. That is the only freedom I have, to choose to participate in legal economic activity that is taxed or not. Beyond that, I must pay the tax or suffer the consequences.