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U.S. Tax Code May Be Facing a Full Rewrite
LA Times ^ | Nov. 7, 2004 | Warren Vieth

Posted on 11/07/2004 2:07:53 AM PST by FairOpinion

An official says all provisions will be examined by a reform panel. Many experts think Bush will favor a piecemeal approach.

As the White House prepares to name a blue-ribbon panel on tax reform, the labyrinthine U.S. revenue code could face the first top-to-bottom rewrite since President Reagan closed loopholes and slashed income tax rates on a historic scale in 1986.

"This is a fundamental look at the entire code, every component of the code," a senior administration official said late last week. "Nothing is off the table."

"Simplification would be the goal," Bush said Thursday during his first postelection news conference. "The main thing is that it would be viewed as fair … that it wouldn't be complicated."

"They'll be looking at the whole thing with three principles in mind: The fundamental reform should be more fair, more simple and more growth-oriented," the official said. "That's their marching orders."

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bushvictory; domesticagenda; fairtax; incometax; taxcode; taxes; taxreform
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The time for "fairtax" -- retail sales tax, instead of income tax has come.

Scrap the entire income tax code, abolish the IRS.

1 posted on 11/07/2004 2:07:53 AM PST by FairOpinion
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To: ancient_geezer

PING


2 posted on 11/07/2004 2:08:38 AM PST by FairOpinion (Thank you Swifties, POWs & Vets. We couldn't have done it without you.)
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To: FairOpinion

one can hope... and pester one's congresscritters


3 posted on 11/07/2004 2:10:38 AM PST by King Prout (tagline under reconstruction)
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To: FairOpinion
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I hope this isn't just pretend like so many Republicans in office do......

I believe Bush, but who's going to be on the panel?? Specter?

4 posted on 11/07/2004 2:12:39 AM PST by GeronL (Congratulations Bush on your re-election VICTORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)
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To: FairOpinion

Is this the secret strategery kicking in? Act like FDR and LBJ in your first term, but act like Reagan in your second. I hope so.


5 posted on 11/07/2004 2:13:29 AM PST by Moonman62 (Federal Creed: If it moves tax it. If it keeps moving regulate it. If it stops moving subsidize it.)
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To: King Prout

Related article:


Bush poised to wage an economic revolution
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1273377/posts


6 posted on 11/07/2004 2:16:05 AM PST by FairOpinion (Thank you Swifties, POWs & Vets. We couldn't have done it without you.)
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To: FairOpinion
Simplicity and fairness should be the order of the day for Government and Civil Service operations. No-one likes excess paperwork and cumbersome rules and regulations.
7 posted on 11/07/2004 2:16:20 AM PST by Bandaneira (The Third Temple/House for All Nations/World Peace Centre...Coming Soon...)
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To: All
All sales taxes are regressive taxes. It only serves to make the middle class pay a higher portion of their wages in taxes than all other groups. It'll never fly.

The only fair tax system is a flat tax. No more loopholes. No more credits. Just list what you made, take 15% of that, and that's your tax.

8 posted on 11/07/2004 2:16:43 AM PST by Prime Choice (The Democrats vowed 'no surrender.' It's time to make them wish they had.)
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To: FairOpinion


I'm afraid the IRS is here to stay.
I don't know the solution, but I am
hopeful Bush will prevail.


9 posted on 11/07/2004 2:18:26 AM PST by onyx (John "F" Kerry is now the final casualty of the Vietnam War!)
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To: FairOpinion


I'm afraid the IRS is here to stay.
I don't know the solution, but I am
hopeful Bush will prevail.


10 posted on 11/07/2004 2:18:28 AM PST by onyx (John "F" Kerry is now the final casualty of the Vietnam War!)
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To: Prime Choice

"All sales taxes are regressive taxes. It only serves to make the middle class pay a higher portion of their wages in taxes than all other groups"


No they are not. You spend less, you pay less taxes. You have a choice, unlike with the income taxes.


11 posted on 11/07/2004 2:18:32 AM PST by FairOpinion (Thank you Swifties, POWs & Vets. We couldn't have done it without you.)
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To: FairOpinion

A national retail won't happen for the following reasons.

If the mortgage tax deduction is repealed, any 2006 congressional challenger will get a huge issue to use against the incumbent.

If the mortgage deduction is retained, we'll still have pieces of the old income tax system, which is unacceptable to a major block of potential NRST supporters.

To push through a national sales tax, advocates need to repeal the 16th amendment, while simultaneously convincing reluctant Congressmen that imposing a tax of about 20% on almost everything and scrapping the mortgage deduction won't cost them their seats.

It'll never happen.


12 posted on 11/07/2004 2:18:47 AM PST by IStillBelieve (G.W. Bush '04: Biggest popular vote victory in history!)
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To: FairOpinion

Kinda off topic......

Fair paper work act???

For who......

Sorry red tape ticks me off to no end.


13 posted on 11/07/2004 2:20:25 AM PST by fivekid ( STOP THE WORLD!!!!! I wanna get off.........)
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To: FairOpinion

Quote: "The time for "fairtax" -- retail sales tax, instead of income tax has come."

---
I tend to agree, but I can hear it now...

Oh, but thats so "Regressive" (/sob)

The modification of a sales tax which passes the "liberal" test (mostly because it confuses them) is the VAT, where a little bit of tax is added all along the way from raw material to purchased product.

It has some detractors too, because you end up taxing tax in all but the first step of the process. The upside of that is it makes it hard to cheat - buy all your goods thru some bogus business who's only purpose is to get you tax free goods supposidly for "resale".

But either a Vat or a Sales tax does away with the IRS as far as Joe Citizen is concerned.

Businesses have to keep better books, and pay more taxes but they do this all by computer these days and already do it for city and state sales tax. Its not an insurmountable problem.


14 posted on 11/07/2004 2:22:10 AM PST by konaice
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To: FairOpinion

Sorry about the double post...
a combination of a borrowed laptop and long fingernails. :)


15 posted on 11/07/2004 2:22:11 AM PST by onyx (John "F" Kerry is now the final casualty of the Vietnam War!)
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To: FairOpinion
No they are not.

If you make $200,000 and buy only $20,000 in goods, then only 10% of your earnings are taxed. If another guy makes $20,000 and spends $20,000, 100% of his earnings are taxed.

Please oh please tell me how that is NOT regressive.

You spend less, you pay less taxes.

Wonderful way to run the economy into the ground, friend. Give consumers disincentives to make purchases. Which Einstein thought that economic plan up, hm?

And let's not forget the loopholes in which select groups form co-ops and skirt their share of the tax entirely?

Sorry...I ain't buying it. A flat tax on income is the only way to go.

16 posted on 11/07/2004 2:22:29 AM PST by Prime Choice (The Democrats vowed 'no surrender.' It's time to make them wish they had.)
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To: IStillBelieve

If you pay not tax on your income, there is no point in having a mortgage tax deduction.

People have to change their whole way of thinking.

E.g. someone makes $60,000, with a mortgage interest of $20,000. Now that person pays taxes on $40,000 of their income.

Under the national sales tax, you get the entire $60,000 in hand, pay your $20,000 mortgage and you ONLY Pay taxes on the $40,000, IF you spend it all. Even then you are not paying any more taxes. And if you don't spend the $40K, you are ahead.

They will have to figure out what the appropriate sales tax rate is, but I don't see it as hurting people who own their homes and are paying interest.


17 posted on 11/07/2004 2:24:57 AM PST by FairOpinion (Thank you Swifties, POWs & Vets. We couldn't have done it without you.)
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To: FairOpinion

They're (IRS) will be fighting tooth and nail to save their jobs. The beast has a life of it's own.


18 posted on 11/07/2004 2:26:08 AM PST by dljordan
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To: FairOpinion

Just to be clear, I support scrapping the income tax.

My post was an analysis of the political landscape relating to such a change, not of the change itself.


19 posted on 11/07/2004 2:27:18 AM PST by IStillBelieve (G.W. Bush '04: Biggest popular vote victory in history!)
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To: FairOpinion

My take exactly. Get rid of the IRS, get rid of the income tax and tax only consumption. Its the way to go to make America the world's economic engine in the 21st Century.


20 posted on 11/07/2004 2:29:21 AM PST by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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