As a small business i now collect sales tax for the state and it is so simple to fill out the report and pay it quarterly it only takes about a 1/2 hour. I would be happy to to do the same for the federal government. I hate the income tax and the government would collect much more with the sales tax and it would expose the underground economy.
Even if there were NO taxes at all, liberals would still be faced by the "inequity" of a simple fact: a rich man and a poor man must still pay the SAME PRICE for the same good; so a poor man must pay a greater percentage of his income to buy, for example, a quart of milk than a rich man does. If libs don't find this simple fact of economic life unfair, why do they gripe over the idea of a national sales tax of X% added on to that quart of milk? The rich man and the poor man are still paying exactly the same price.
Get rid of the IRS and the income tax.
Reinstitute a gold standard.
Finally, get rid of the practice of fractional-reserve banking; that will end the boom/bust cycles in our economy.
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John Linder in the House & Saxby Chambliss Senate, offer a comprehensive bill to kill all income and payroll taxes outright, and provide a IRS free replacement in the form of a retail sales tax:
H.R.25, S.1493
A bill to promote freedom, fairness, and economic opportunity by repealing the income tax and other taxes, abolishing the Internal Revenue Service, and enacting a national retail sales tax to be administered primarily by the States.Refer for additional information: http://www.fairtax.org & http://www.salestax.org
I'm for making the Federal Government ask the states for it's revenue, if not gathered from tarrifs (ie, no direct federal taxation). But abolishing the IRS and replacing it with a sales tax is a step in the right direction.
We have the mandate to do it now. This is our chance. It has to be pushed now.
Everyone I speak to, who understands the FAIR TAX is in favor of it. My daughter called from SC and wanted to know about it because Jim Demint was running on it as an issue. It is going to grow now that Bush has won. We need to make it happen.
Cut the spending and the IRS's reason for being is diminished.
Tell your representatives to change the tax laws, they are the ones who created them.
Include a Sales tax and we can even the tax burden and eliminate the loopholes.
A national sales tax would mean more IRS enforcement agents not less. The amount of cheating in a system like would be immense.
DON'T LOOK TO 2008!!
We have work to do now. Just because the GOP won big, our work is not over. It has just started. We know this administration did not do much of what they promised to do in the last 4 years.
We must press our reps for immigration reform, limited government and remember, both the Speaker and Bush talked of eliminated the IRS (I would be happy with just getting rid of the income tax in favor of a sales tax).
We also should hold him to tort reform - his promise.
Don't look too far ahead. Politicians will be politicians if we still idly by.
I'd prefer a flat tax of 12.4 percent--the same amount Teresa Heinz-Kerry pays on her billions.
There are several republican senators who have been espousing this for over a decade now including Sen Luger, McCain,etc - and On the face of it, it sounds steep - but it's really not. It's less out of pocket than what they take now for income taxes. AND the rich have no loopholes...in addition, since they buy the higher ticket things - THEY pay more into the system. But necessities aren't taxed... With this system, YOU get to decide how you spend your money - and because the rich pay the same %, but buy more, pay more - more money actually goes to Washington.
In addition, Washington saves billions a year in NOT having to run the IRS AND the IRS is not used a weapon, rather like the old KGB, should you be on the wrong side of the fence politically (audits ring a bell?)...As an added incentive, we could finally rid ourselves of the IRS...
http://www.fairtax.org/
http://www.cdharris.net/text/taxreform.html
In short, I agree with Denny Hastert's comments on the subject (MTP, August 2004)
"...We don't lose jobs in this country because our salaries are higher, because our salaries are commensurate with the Italians, with the Germans and the Japanese and the Dutch or whoever. This problem is because with litigation costs, taxation costs and regulation costs.
A big part that of is taxation costs. We can be a more vibrant country. I'm looking into the future, the next 10 or 15 years. We can double our economy. If we double our economy, all the deficits we have today, all those mountains become molehills."
That's the spirit! Why not dare to dream how fast this economy can grow under such circumstances? That's the kind of thinking that first tuned me in to Jack Kemp, the second Republican (after Reagan) to really capture my heart, so to speak.
Why settle for, say, 3% GNP growth in this country being classified as "healthy"? Why not 6? Why not more?
The time, the political will...all the pieces are in place to make a real, serious, honest effort at overhauling the tax system in this country.
Can't wait to get to work on this.
(PS-A little sports-politics did ya know: One reason why the Houston Texans are my favorite NFL team, asides from being my hometown's team, is owner Bob McNair. Bob's also a founder of Americans for Fair Taxation (FR thread on topic here) )
I want either a flat tax or a NST, but I want something done right away about the tax burden we shoulder. It's well beyond anything the Founders had to contend with with the Brits and their tea and stamp taxes.
Don't expect a national sales tax to be applied equally to all persons buying the same merchandise. That isn't what the lefty politicians have in mind. The national sales tax won't do away with social security, medicare and other similar taxes. That will still be taken from your paycheck on an ever upward spiral.
So what he is saying is that everyone dreads April 15th and everyone hate H&R Block.
If what he says is true, then we already have April 15th every day and we already are paying at the stores....we just aren't aware of it because the Socialist Communists in this country have cleverly disguised the income tax so not many people realize how much they are paying.
I say make April 15th tax day... and pay with one check that you write. Then have the election on April 16th.
I guaratee that people will then make the changes needed to get rid of the IRS and the parasites that live off the tax system.
It is foolish to discuss implementation of a national sales tax without a concommitant repeal of the 16th Amendment. While I support the idea of a national sales tax, I do so only if the 16th Amendment is done away with. Otherwise, we will be taxed at a higher rate, not a lower one.
This is a LONG thread, and I have not read all of the comments, so this may be a repeat (sorry)
If I can buy a product cheaper on the internet or by mail from a company in another country without paying sales tax, then that sale is lost to US companies.
This disparity would have to be addressed -- maybe through the use of tariffs. This all sounds vaguely "colonial" to me.
If the libs were really into the Tax the rich...they would be all for it...except John Kerry only had to pay 12% on his income...while the rest of us foots most of the bill. If it's a sales tax, the rich will pay more because they consumer more and as I understand it basic commodities like milk and food will not be taxed.
If Americans get all of their money they earn and then can make decisions on what they buy, then they decide how much tax they are willing to pay. I think more americans would like this idea if they realized how much money they were actually sending to the government and reign in spending at every turn.