Sure...if I was a senior who paid taxes on the money I saved for retirement, I'd sure be straining at the leash to be taxed a second time
I'm a senior and I don't have a problem with it at all. My assets get taxed again under the current system through embedded taxes in the price of all goods and services, what the heck they get hit the by same amount in spending under the NRST.
The factors that change is that family business doesn't have problems passing to the next generations. Gift/Estate taxes will be dead and gone, My capital gains on that price inflated stock I own is not going to get hit with capital gains tax nor any other asset I sell or turnover into different investements for that matter.
The growth potential of my assets arising in the incentives to save and invest taxfree over spending with a very visible tax in place is tremendous easily making up any NRST I might have to payout in consumption from proceeds of my investments.
Most important, I can hand my daughter a tax law that gives her the advantage, incentives and choice of investing toward here own future and retirement independantly of whatever they do to the SS system. With the incetives to invest over spend, those youngsters coming up have a good shot at making the SS system a dead issue that can be killed outright as it ought to be.
I can hand my daughter a life free of the IRS and its minions looking over her financial life hiding around every corner.
For me I see a great advance in quality of life under the NRST inspite of paying 23% at the register, especially knowing that amount will be less the FCA demogrant that all legal residents receive to offset taxes paid up to the povertylevel of expenditure. Certainly easier to swallow than the annual April 15 headache of trying to get my money back out of the IRS.
-- and at 23% minimum -- when I use that same money!
Nah 23% maximum, for that does not account for the Family Consumption Allowence offseting the NRST paid upto the povertyline of expenditure:
Under HR25, all legal residents applying for it, receive a monthly demogrant called the Family Consumption Allowence(FCA) equivalent to the FairTax paid on essential goods and services, also known as the poverty level expenditures. The FCA is paid in advance, in equal installments each month. The size of the monthly FCA will be determined by the government's Poverty Level for a particular family size, multiplied by the tax rate, and paid to all households regardless of income or actual expenditure. The HHS poverty llevel is a well-accepted, long-used poverty-level calculation that includes food, clothing, shelter, transportation, medical care, etc. See chart in Figure 1 below.
| Figure 1: 2004 FCA calculation | |||||||
| Family size |
HHS annual poverty level |
FairTax annual consumption allowance (single person) |
Annual rebate (single person) |
Monthly rebate (single person) |
FairTax annual consumption allowance |
Annual rebate (married couple) |
Monthly rebate (married couple) |
|
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 |
$9,310 $12,490 $15,670 $18,850 $22,030 $25,210 $28,390 $31,570 |
$9,310 $12,490 $15,670 $18,850 $22,030 $25,210 $28,390 $31,570 |
$2,141 $2,873 $3,604 $4,336 $5,067 $5,798 $6,530 $7,261 |
$178 $239 $300 $361 $422 $483 $544 $605 |
N/A $18,620 $21,800 $24,980 $28,160 $31,340 $34,520 $37,700 |
N/A $4,283 $5,014 $5,745 $6,477 $7,208 $7,940 $8,671 |
N/A $357 $418 $479 $540 $601 $662 $723 |
[ The monthly FCA for each adult is .23 * (HSS poverty level for a single person)/12 to assure no marriage penalty due to the manner in which the poverty level is dependant on family size. The monthly FCA for each child is .23 * (the incremental increase of HSS poverty level for a family with one child over no child) ] A. Geezer
A family of four, for example, could spend $24,980 per year free of tax because they will have received over the course of the year a demogrant totaling $5,745. $5,745 is the amount of sales tax paid on $24,980 in expenditures. That family spending double the "poverty level" or $49,960per year will effectively pay tax on only half of their spending and, therefore, have an effective tax rate of 11 ½ percent or half the FairTax rate.
The beauty of the FairTax is that you can control how much you pay in taxes. If you happen to save, invest or spend a portion on used [previously taxed] items, you can get your effective tax rate below 9%.
To illustrate examine the tax burden that a family of four will have at various annual expenditure levels as compared to that same family under the current tax law, (2004 income plus FICA/MC):
Just as importantly as the tax rates of current law go down and are made permanent, so will the proposed NRST rate which was establish prior to the tax rate decreases under Bush.
from Tax Freedom Day 2004 PDF http://www.taxfoundation.org/sr129.pdf
|
Total Effective Tax Rates by Level of Government |
|||
| Year | Federal | State | Total |
| 1998 | 22.4% | 10.4% | 32.8% |
| 1999 | 22.5% | 10.4% | 32.9% |
| 2000 | 23.1% | 10.4% | 33.5% |
| 2001 | 22.2% | 10.5% | 32.7% |
| 2002 1 | 19.7% | 10.2% | 29.2% |
| 2003 2 | 18.5% | 10.1% | 28.6% |
| 2004 3 | 17.9% | 10.0% | 27.9% |
| Notes: Leap day is omitted to make dates comparable over time. Positive and negative percentages in parentheses after legislation indicate the first-year fiscal impact of the bill,measured as a percentage of NNP. Since depreciation is not available to pay taxes, GDP is an overstatement of spendable income for the purpose of measuring tax burdens. Depreciation is netted out of NNP. 1 Economic Growth and Tax Reform Reconciliation Act of 2001 Sources: Office of Management and Budget; Internal Revenue Service; Congressional Research Service; National Bureau of Economic Research; Treasury Department; and Tax Foundation calculations. |
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Your claim of 23% minimum tax on consumption simply holds no water whatever.