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Why Seniors Support the FairTax
Americans for Fair Taxation ^ | October 2004 | Americans for Fair Taxation

Posted on 12/19/2004 1:40:29 PM PST by Remember_Salamis

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To: socialismisinsidious
What the hell is the matter with you folks. If you have a budget short coming at home you cut spending.

I had a deal but Johnson and the boys stole our sacred funds and put them into the pork barrel. All those following him did the same.

Anything that increases the burden on seniors is cutting into their fixed income and that robbing their SS.

CUT SPENDING

41 posted on 12/19/2004 2:45:59 PM PST by sandviper
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To: nj26
The reason why we have a SS "crisis" is because we have too little revenue, and too many obligations.

The imminent crisis is due to a lot of things- but most acutely that the number of payers is decreasing while the number of recipients and the amount of payouts are increasing.

The nrst hr25 makes the number of payers waaaay huger. So instead of taking 15% of the first 85k or so from wage earners, they take about 1.9% on each purchase from everybody.

And of course SS needs to be reformed - but it is the case that the nrst would stabilize it.

42 posted on 12/19/2004 2:46:17 PM PST by Principled
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To: Remember_Salamis
You only pay the Fair Tax when you spend money. You pay income tax on the money in your tax-sheltered (401k, etc.) retirement savings plan whenever you take it out of savings, no matter what you do with. You must commit to a fixed schedule of withdrawals. With Fair Tax, you draw it out as you see fit.

To save money on the Fair Tax, only buy used stuff, as far as you can. Even the apparent big hit that I see from the the Fair Tax is on food at the grocery store, which is offset by the Fair Tax refund on the poverty-level income that everyone gets. The big advantage is that any tax increase is felt immediately by everyone. The income tax has a delayed effect, since many people opt to make an interest-free loan to Uncle Sam (i.e., get a refund from the IRS).
43 posted on 12/19/2004 2:46:33 PM PST by Woodworker
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To: lewislynn

It might excite you. The purpose of providing information is to inform.... not to excite.


44 posted on 12/19/2004 2:47:46 PM PST by Principled
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To: robertpaulsen

I didn't write this article.


45 posted on 12/19/2004 2:48:14 PM PST by Principled
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To: teletech

The only reason I asked is because your mortgage wouldn't be taxed. In fact, only the money spend in NEW goods and services are taxed. These high rates you're seeing are misleading. Take a look at what you would pay under the FairTax.

If your son is under the age of 18, your poverty level is $21,800. If your son is over 18, your poverty level is $27,930. Let's assume that your son is under 18. We'll also assume that your family brings in $60,000 a year, or $5,000 a month. I'm also assuming that all of your current income is taxed.

Step 1: Subtract poverty exemption from income:

$60,000 - $21,800 = $38,200 ($3,183 per month of taxable income at this point)

At this point, if you spend every dollar you have on new goods and services (excluding education), you would pay a 14.64% tax.

Step 2: Let's assume that you spend 10% of your income on a used car payment. That's $6,000 per year. That is also untaxed. Let's also assume that you save 10% of your income to send your kid to college, another $6,000 per year.

That leaves you with $26,200 in taxable income. This would equate to a 10% tax rate on your $60,000 income.

This leaves you with $2,185 in taxable income per month. This doesn't include your car payment, and it doesn't include the 10% you stash away for your kid's college. This is $2,185 to be spend on food, utilities, insurance, and leisure. If you spend any of this money on untaxable goods or services, your tax rate will drop below 10%.

Oh, on your question related to state sales taxes. It's likely that states will conform to the FairTax to make collection more efficient. That means that the state income tax would be put under the sales tax, the sales tax would be expanded to cover ALL goods and services, and a state prebate may be instituted.


46 posted on 12/19/2004 2:52:02 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: lewislynn
Is a 25% sales tax rate supposed to excite us?

-- LL, you know damn well that the prebate makes it progressive. Even a family of four making $100,000 a year would only pay 17.25%. And that's if they consumed 100% of their income. The same family making $50,000 pays an 11.5% tax under the same circumstances.

47 posted on 12/19/2004 2:56:52 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: socialismisinsidious
Folks, you all are overlooking the refund that everyone gets under the FairTax:

"How does the rebate work? All valid Social Security cardholders who are U.S. residents receive a monthly rebate equivalent to the FairTax paid on essential goods and services, also known as the poverty level expenditures. The rebate is paid in advance, in equal installments each month. The size of the rebate is determined by the Department of Health & Human Services’ poverty level multiplied by the tax rate. This is a well-accepted, long-used poverty-level calculation that includes food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc. See chart in Figure 1 below. "

To see the chart, use this link, already provided in another post: http://www.fairtaxvolunteer.org/smart/faq-main.html#3

So, your state & local sales taxes are rebated on the poverty level income, reducing the rate on necessities to the state+local rate only!

48 posted on 12/19/2004 2:59:04 PM PST by Woodworker
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To: sandviper
Cut spending; a great idea. No one seems to be listening though. Isn't it ridiculous that those who get to spend the money are not held accountable and on top of that they get to decide how much more to tax you!? What a conflict of interest the system is....
anyway, I digress:
"....the FairTax plan makes sure that the Social Security benefits indexing formula will be adjusted so that benefits will increase to the extent, if any, that the consumption tax results in higher tax-inclusive prices."

Impact of the FairTax(SM) on Seniors:
http://www.fairtaxvolunteer.org/smart/seniors.html
49 posted on 12/19/2004 3:04:42 PM PST by socialismisinsidious ("A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.")
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To: teletech

The people who designed the fairTax went to the trouble of putting together state/local tax options under the FairTax:

State/Local Revenue Options under the FairTax:

-- Combined Totals for all State and Local Governments Amount

-- General Sales Taxes - 222,986,687,000

-- Income Taxes (individual & corporate) - 231,009,996,000

-- Taxes to be replaced - 453,996,683,000

-- Total FairTax Base - 8,264,000,000,000

-- Total FairTax Base (after rebate) - 6,517,900,000,000

-- Aggregate state FairTax Rate to replace income taxes - 5.49%

-- Aggregate state FairTax Rate to replace income taxes and provide rebate - 6.97%



50 posted on 12/19/2004 3:07:21 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: Remember_Salamis
Your mortgage wouldn't be taxed, kid stuff  make it sound attractive to the young and get the old.

You can be sure red or blue they all want in your pocket.

Unless you are a socialist you should understand we earned it we want and don't mess with us.

What is so hard to understand about.

Cut the dam budget...

51 posted on 12/19/2004 3:08:02 PM PST by sandviper
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To: Remember_Salamis
"A family that spent four times the poverty level ($99,920) would pay an average tax rate of 17 1/2 percent."

That's over twice what they're paying today.

A couple earning $99,920 and spending all of it (a family of four surely would) would pay $17,486 in taxes (@ your 17.5%).

Today, that family of four would get to deduct mortgage payments (say $24,000), property tax (say $8,000), charity (say $2000), four exemptions (12,200), for a taxable income of $53,720.

Going to my 2003 tax tables, they owe $7359.

Bend over, family of four.

52 posted on 12/19/2004 3:17:52 PM PST by robertpaulsen
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To: sandviper

So ensure every future generation is screwed too?

The FairTax taxes consumption: the best measure of one’s ability to pay.

Taxes paid as a function of some concept of annual taxable income or adjusted gross income or net income is the way in which the Democratic staff would prefer to look at the distribution of taxes. However, it is a flawed way.

Often wealth – which itself may or may not be a fairer determination of one’s ability to pay – is not even captured in the income tax. Individuals rich in personal wealth may have very little income. That is because wealth is defined in assets that they hold – their homes, properties, securities, collectibles, and other items – which may or may not have been earned by them and which may or may not generate income. These wealthy individuals can often choose whether or not to create taxable income, since they can restructure their affairs to avoid receiving current taxable income. Far more than the poor or the middle class, the wealthy have the ability to control income flows (as we legally define it) appreciation vs. consumption. It is one of the reasons why Mrs. Kerry paid at a tax rate that is less than a college student on a summer job.

How much income someone happens to make in any given period is, at best, an incomplete measure of one’s ability to pay? In individual cases it is not even roughly accurate. Proponents of a consumption tax propose that there is no greater measurement of the equity of a tax system than what one individual consumes for their own personal well-being over the course of their lifetime. When you think about it, why would we ever tax income in the first place? Why punish what we need – work, savings, production, and self-sufficiency? If, instead of consuming his income, a rich person gives his money to charity or builds a job-producing factory, why should we punish that choice by taxing it? We should tax what people take out of the economy for their own personal use, not what people produce for society. That's exactly what the FairTax does.

If income is not consumed, then it is either saved or invested or provided to charitable causes (or government) to fund the consumption of others. The return on savings and investment will either be used to fund future consumption or reinvested to increase productivity and output. If it is saved or invested and is not profitable, it has at least been available to the economy. If we tax income and savings, we have simply taxed deferred consumption. And those that are deferring consumption are doing so because they elect not to consume it for themselves immediately, but to make the resource available for others.


53 posted on 12/19/2004 3:18:21 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: robertpaulsen

That 17.5% figue includes ALL PAYROLL TAXES IN ADDITION TO INCOME TAXES!!!

PAYROLL TAXES ARE 15.3%. This family gets a MASSIVE TAX CUT!


54 posted on 12/19/2004 3:19:19 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: sandviper; Remember_Salamis
"understand we earned it we want"

one small problem: It isn't there! gone; it was never there in the first place. that is the reality. the system is fundamentally flawed and it has caught up with us... cut the budget; ain't gonna happen. we live in a pork world.

the fair tax is visible and it doesn't force people to work for the feds. 5-6 months out of the year. it is a tax that people will see, straight up/not hidden
55 posted on 12/19/2004 3:19:24 PM PST by socialismisinsidious ("A government that is big enough to give you all you want is big enough to take it all away.")
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To: robertpaulsen
Today, that family of four would get to deduct mortgage payments

Mortgage payments are made with after payroll tax and after income tax dollars. Only mortgage interest is paid with pretax dollars.

Under the fair tax, mortgage interest is still paid with pretax dollars - but the principal payments get to be paid with pretax dollars too - along with everything else.

56 posted on 12/19/2004 3:25:14 PM PST by Principled
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To: Principled

Car payments too!

And state/local taxes (no taxation upon taxation)!

And Education expenses!

And all Savings!

And much more!


57 posted on 12/19/2004 3:27:46 PM PST by Remember_Salamis (Freedom is Not Free)
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To: Remember_Salamis
Beat me to it. R_S.

The 17% plus 15% is 32%.

And under the nrst, there is a rebate excepting necessity level spending. And with the nrst, consumption of previously taxed (used) goods is not taxed - any any savings or investments are not taxed...sending the effective rate for the fair tax lower still.

58 posted on 12/19/2004 3:29:31 PM PST by Principled
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To: All
I don't want to hear all the bennies for the young who want my money and I'm no stinking socialist so I don't want you to redistribute my wealth.

I pay over $800.00 a month for health insurance to cover two of us, the house is paid for, I've worked over 56 years including a war all in good faith and still want my benefits.

CUT THE SPENDING....WHEW.....

59 posted on 12/19/2004 3:34:28 PM PST by sandviper
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To: sandviper
I pay over $800.00 a month for health insurance to cover two of us,

any you have to earn a lot more than $800 to make $800 available to spend.

60 posted on 12/19/2004 3:40:20 PM PST by Principled
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