You should be ashamed of your static analyis. Implicitly in this statement, you are saying that changes to a sales tax would not affect consumer behavior. You are wrong. No jurisdiction in the world has a 30% sales tax because at that rate evasion would be rife.
No jurisdiction in the world has a 30% sales tax because at that rate evasion would be rife.
The current income/payroll system is worse with a greater the 15-20% evasion rate under the income payroll tax system with its higher 66% tax exclusive marginal rates.
For it is best appropriate to compare the highest marginal tax exclusive rate of the income/payroll tax systems with your quotation of the NRST highest marginal tax exclusive rate of 30% so we know we are comparing apples with apples here.
So it is with good reason that the NRST is only a maximum marginal 23%(tax inclusive) rate on gross purchases, where the tax burden that a family of four will have a much lower rate of taxation with regard to their gross expenditures:
instead of an average 24.2% on gross income then isn't it?
Effective Total Federal Tax Rate (Percent of gross income) | |||||||||||
Income Category | 1977 | 1979 | 1981 | 1983 | 1985 | 1987 | 1989 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | Projected 1999 |
All Families | 22.8 | 23.4 | 23.5 | 21.4 | 21.8 | 22.6 | 22.5 | 22.6 | 23.5 | 24.7 | 24.2 |
Data from IRS collections statistics and The Bureau of Economic Analysis as compiled in tabular form by the Congressional Budget Office.
http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=1545&from=4&sequence=0
Geezer, there is a reason no jurisdiction in the world has a 30% sales tax. That reason is massive evasion when sales tax rates get that high.
Precisely, that is the whole point, the NRST is not supposed to be liked, and it is supposed to empower the citizen with contol over his own life and finances.
Yes avoidance will occur and should occur. And the NRST provides ample opportunities to do so and in totally lawfull manners.
We have a tax system that far too many people "like" for it low tax rate on them. Where 60% perceive little to no "Individual Income Tax" burden,(in many cases even a handout); Where 40% experience marginal effective sales tax rates as high as 66% taken out of their income and where the Intent of the tax system is for political and social control not revenue collection.
I discussed the importance of abolishing the income tax because of its tendency to form a habit of servility in the souls of a people that accepts it. Servility of soul is bad not only in itself, it is also an open door through which will soon walk the abuses of ambitious government power. Leaders who find themselves with governmental power over a servile people will be quick to conclude that such a people exist to serve them.
Alan Keyes 1999
Effective Individual Federal Income Tax Rate (Percent of gross income) | |||||||||||
Income Category | 1977 | 1979 | 1981 | 1983 | 1985 | 1987 | 1989 | 1991 | 1993 | 1995 | Projected 1999 |
Lowest Quintile | -0.6 | -0.8 | -0.2 | -0.5 | -0.2 | -1.3 | -1.9 | -2.9 | -3.4 | -5.6 | -6.8 |
Second Quintile | 3.6 | 3.9 | 4.6 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 2.7 | 1.8 | 1.8 | 0.9 |
Middle Quintile | 7.1 | 7.5 | 8.3 | 6.8 | 6.8 | 6.1 | 6.5 | 6.3 | 5.9 | 6.1 | 5.4 |
and 70% of the voting public clamor for more from government looking for the top 40% of income earners/producers to foot the bill.
Walter Williams, World Net Daily, 10-25-2000
- So many Americans paying little or no federal taxes makes for a natural spending constituency. It's like me in the restaurant: What do I care about extravagance if you're footing the bill?
The Honorable James DeMint (R-SC)
United States House of Representatives
THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 2001
- "There has been a shift in the relationship between individuals and government, he argues, such that fewer and fewer are paying taxes at the same time that more and more are receiving increasingly generous benefits. If it becomes the case that most voters do not bear a financial burden for this largess, then there will be little to restrain--and significant political incentives to encourage--the continued growth of government.
That is a situation that must end with the repeal of the income tax from the statutes, and the prohibition of its use by Constitutional amendment that future generations will not face the same manner of manipulation and interference in their lives.
The NRST is supposed to assure incentive to the electorate to push and limit government, and to take control of their own resources:
"It is a signal advantage of taxes on articles of consumption
that they contain in their own nature a security against excess.They prescribe their own limit, which cannot be exceeded without
defeating the end proposed - that is, an extension of the revenue.
Federal tax rates are high and government grows ever larger because a majority of the electorate do not perceive the burden their demand for largesse imposes on the minority of citizens.
The siren call for representation without taxation is the formula that got us where we are at today. The ability to hide or disguise taxation from the view of large sectors of the electorate allows the Congress to get away with the creation of the evergrowing monster that it fosters.
Liberty and freedom have a price, responsibility. If that price is avoided there are no brakes on the growth of government, the ultimate result is the end of freedom through creeping socialism.