While I think the national sales tax is a viable substitue for the income tax, the procedure in the above sentence seems like trouble. If you send every low-income wage earner a bonus check, you're instituting a parallel income assessment scheme, with all of the complexity and likelihood for cheating we've come to know so well. Better to exempt food, rent to a certain level, clothes to a certain indexed level, and simply collect the tax than to collect and redistribute.
Imagine the taxes TRex would have to pay to buy the Fly Squirrel II. :)
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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 & http://www.geocities.com/cmcofer/ftax.html
I'm all in favor of NRST .. and absolutely against a flat tax... it sounded like the people at the GOPAC meeting in DC Monday want to push a flat tax; they seem to think it would be too difficult to administer a NRST... and they didn't take into consideration the benefits of a NRST which would basically lower the cost of goods and almost offset the cost of the sales tax.
ping to read later
I'd support the NRST over the other alternatives. It only requries one arbitrary calculation (percent of the sale) as opposed to the FTA which appears to be derived from several calculations that require an accountant to explain. I also think that the NRST is better than the flat tax because in effect, you only pay taxes when you can afford to. The down side of NRST for some will be the exemptions, and there will be exemptions if there's going to be any chance of getting it passed in Congress. If I were a politician, I'd lobby for the NRST and use exemptions as my bargaining chip to get others into my camp.
So we'll have a national sales tax, a state income tax, a state property tax, and a state sales tax, not to mention all the state use taxes.
So what will my effective tax rate be now? 50%?
Yeah, this will be a great step forward.
This whole national sales tax thing is silly. As much as I'd support it if it TOTALLY REPLACED the income tax, it just won't fly, and here's why:
If you tax a thing, you reduce it. It works with income to a degree, but people make money because they watch tv and have seriously nurtured an adiction to "stuff."
People would be somewhat more motivated to save their money rather than spend it, especially with a combined sales tax (in states with sales tax) that could easily approach 50%.
Television induced "Stuff Aquisition Syndrome" is what drives our economy. But massive tax at the till would curtail enough of it to create an economic catastrophy chain reaction.
If you tax consumer spending, but not income, you will get less spending. And less spending does not improve sales. Which would lead to layoffs and, ultimately, a complete implosion of our consumer driven economy.
The only way we will see a federal sales tax is if they keep all, or most, of the other taxes TOO.
In other words, it becomes a NEW tax.
No thanks...
Come on baby I'm tired of talking
Grab your coat and let's start walking
Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Come on, come on
Don't procrastinate, don't articulate
Girl it's getting late, gettin' upset waitin' around
A little less conversation, a little more action please
All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me
A little more bite and a little less bark
A little less fight and a little more spark
Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me
Satisfy me baby
Thank ya, thankyaverrrymuch.
Who does he think is paying for them and the fed gov now?
>>>...there's talk of a revolutionary overhaul that could end taxes on the poor...<<<
Huh? How much do the poor pay in taxes now? Maybe he meant the middle-class....?
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The best thing about a national retail sales tax is that you can retire overseas tax free.
They had better have exemptions (medicine and services) AND think this out very very very well. Remember the luxury tax just about KILLED the private boat business.
national sales tax = bigger federal government = bad idea.