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I think that because FairTax.org has done such a find job of spelling out their program, and the EU has done such a botch job of implementing a VAT, that everyone is down on the Vat and up on the NRST without enough analysis of either.

FACT: No modern industrialized nation has ever been funded solely by a NRST.

FACT: Many many nations use some form of VAT.

Therefore we have ample opportunity to fine tune a VAT by taking the best of the best and eliminating the worst of the worst elements found in the world.

But With a NRST we have to get it right the first time, because when problems crop up, the pressure will be to revert immediately to the Income Tax.

Those people who rail against a VAT always do so by saying "I lived with one in Britain and it was horrible" without a single shred of detail, without any balancing arguments about personal income taxes, and without any well documented plan for an American VAT. All objections are based on one or two miserable VATS with total disregard to where it works well.

Similarly the NRST is put forth with total disregard to entire segments of the economy that will be sent into a tail spin laying off millions (new housing) and with no real plans to deal with the black markets that will grow like wild fire, and no real way to prevent creeping exemptions from ruining it for all.

So pick apart the VAT if you will, but have the guts to do it with fact and figures and the integrity to look for those parts of that really make sense. None of the this "A one dollar item end up costing 10 dollars" nonsense.

And in the gleeful rush to a NRST, at least have the guts to admit there will be massive fraud, and don't look the other way saying "market forces -- yadda yadda".

We all want to get rid of the IRS, but remember all those former IRS agents will (under either a VAT or a NRST) be focused on a much smaller number of businesses. They will, if left unchecked force prices just as high as they are under an Income Tax, by nit picking regulation and paper work. They will make small business impossible.

They will make small business impossible.

That's ridiculous.

First of all, over 80% of sales taxes are collected by large corporate retail businesses. All that will be required for them to implement the FairTax will be to reprogram their cash registers. That's it.

Secondly, as a former small retail businessman, I assure you that the sales tax is by far the simplest tax to collect and pay. A couple of lines in the form: Gross sales. Percentage collected and owed. Bam. Finished.

The idea that somehow the enforcement mechanism for enforcing this tax would in any way come anywhere close to the invasiveness of the income tax is a total crock.

And under the FairTax, the individual would have exactly 0% obligation at all to do or show anything.

Under a NRST there will be no need for ALL THOSE IRS agents. And NO NEED FOR ALL those Tax Lawyers and accountants. Which will save in excess of 600 BILLION-thats right BILLION dollars a year which it cost to administer and collect under the present system.

A VAT under the other hand will add a percentage at each stage of the products transfer to the buyer. A one dollar item could end up costing as much as 10 dollars by the time it is sold. VAT is hell in disguise and a boon to the socialists governments in the EU. Yet they are still broke..I wonder why-NOT.